M
Mineguy
Guest
Hi Guys,
We Canadians and other Commonwealth Pers here in Basra area Demining/EOD observed our day at a recently located Long lost and forgotten British Monument out in the desert with thousands of names and many Regts on it from the Iraq Campiagn 1914-21. It was refurbished recently by the RE and was an intresting look into the past. Saddam at least left this one alone! There is a cemetary as well on the banks of the River in Basra. A few pics. Lucky we were well protected by our security (both expat cdn and Iraqi) as a certain known party drove past, these being the guys who are out to snatch anyone British they can get at the present moment for some reason, oh well thats iraq. On the cards were names of Places at the time belonging to the Commonwealth, Canada, Rhodesia, Britian, NZ and Austrailia, Newfoundland, South Africa etc "at" that time period and the Flanders fields poem by JM which was read aloud. After a short ceremony and observing the 2 mins silence we proceeded for the usual Nov 11 Drinks and talk.This was probably the first ceremony here to remember these guys (and all wars) unless the RE had one here recently since many a moon! This was quite the impressive size monument, a U shape with wings , about 70 meters of names both in the U as pictured and on the wings. And some panels had such writtings as "LTcol DSO...., capt MMM.... etc and 474 other soldiers, 200 other soldiers" etc...
Regiments/Countries etc represented on lower of cards laid in ref to pers on ceremony:
SAS and Rhodesian Selous Scouts (UK and Rhodesia) x 1 pers
RCR (Canada) x 2 pers
PPCLI (Canada) x 2 pers
Loyal Edmonton Regt (Canada) x 1 pers
RE, CME and R Nfld Regt (Canada and UK at the time) x 5 pers
*Pics of pers withheld due to security situation.
*Sorry some of the pics are not the clearest due to posting restrictions.
We Canadians and other Commonwealth Pers here in Basra area Demining/EOD observed our day at a recently located Long lost and forgotten British Monument out in the desert with thousands of names and many Regts on it from the Iraq Campiagn 1914-21. It was refurbished recently by the RE and was an intresting look into the past. Saddam at least left this one alone! There is a cemetary as well on the banks of the River in Basra. A few pics. Lucky we were well protected by our security (both expat cdn and Iraqi) as a certain known party drove past, these being the guys who are out to snatch anyone British they can get at the present moment for some reason, oh well thats iraq. On the cards were names of Places at the time belonging to the Commonwealth, Canada, Rhodesia, Britian, NZ and Austrailia, Newfoundland, South Africa etc "at" that time period and the Flanders fields poem by JM which was read aloud. After a short ceremony and observing the 2 mins silence we proceeded for the usual Nov 11 Drinks and talk.This was probably the first ceremony here to remember these guys (and all wars) unless the RE had one here recently since many a moon! This was quite the impressive size monument, a U shape with wings , about 70 meters of names both in the U as pictured and on the wings. And some panels had such writtings as "LTcol DSO...., capt MMM.... etc and 474 other soldiers, 200 other soldiers" etc...
Regiments/Countries etc represented on lower of cards laid in ref to pers on ceremony:
SAS and Rhodesian Selous Scouts (UK and Rhodesia) x 1 pers
RCR (Canada) x 2 pers
PPCLI (Canada) x 2 pers
Loyal Edmonton Regt (Canada) x 1 pers
RE, CME and R Nfld Regt (Canada and UK at the time) x 5 pers
*Pics of pers withheld due to security situation.
*Sorry some of the pics are not the clearest due to posting restrictions.
