Our family didn’t go to war. My Father was an  electrician and therefore essential services. Both my Brother’s escaped conscription in the seventies as their numbers didn’t come up and they were in uni which may have saved their bacon. Lots of other people weren’t so lucky. Like an evil lotto, their birthday was drawn from the bowl and off they went, unless they wanted to go to jail. My Father’s friend wound up in the guts of a bomber, stuck there with no way to bail out if the plane went down. He learnt Morse code and had to keep his mind focused  to send and receive messages as all hell was going on around him. He returned from WWII, but as a frail nervous wreck for the rest of his life.

My Father the tradesman was sent out with a mate on an American warship to fit some fans in the mess hall. The US soldiers were not used to the tropical heat. The ship went out on exercises in Moreton Bay while the work was being done. As the ship walls were metal, the fans were welded on. Then the on-board guns were fired, modern day cannons and the fans fell off the walls, such was the force. Not to be outdone, they then welded the fans onto the walls so that metal of the fans’ cases and the mess wall flowed freely together, industrial strength. More explosions but the fans stayed put. They explained to the Officer in Charge that not only would the fans not last long with all that vibration, but whoever had to replace them would have a hard job removing them. “No problem,” was the reply.

Clearly the best possible outcome would be the elusive “world peace” as perennially spouted by beauty competition contestants, but humans fight for territory and resources… they even fight for peace, which is ironic.

Because of war there are today millions less people than there would otherwise have been. People who weren’t born because their potential parents were shot, gassed, bombed and tortured. Countless lives were ruined by disability both mental and physical. Perfectly healthy people with all their lives ahead of them, wasted. Looking for justification or meaning for all this is futile but of course, today is the opportunity to pause for thought, for solemn contemplation to honour those who collectively changed the course of history…. as they say, “Lest we forget”.