Lest We Forget

Today is Remembrance Day.

In 1918, at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month the guns on the Western Front fell silent, and the "War to end all Wars" was over.

Like the people from many other countries, today is the 87th year that Australians have paused to remember the fallen and the broken from all conflicts where Australian servicemen and women have seen active service.

For me it is a time to relect on the enormous sacrifice that was made by an entire generation of young men, and in particular my Grandfather Raymond. He spent four hellish years in the mud and the filth that was the Western Front, before returning to Australia a changed man, deeply effected by his experience.

A quick Google found some statistics here and here.

The short summary is that close to half the men of age in Australia volunteered to fight for king and country, and 65% of them became casualties. These percentages were mirrored by most countries involved.

To put this in a contemporary perspective I've done some very basic (and statistically flawed) extrapolations using 2005 populations. Please don't give me a hard time about the maths, or my assumptions, it's back of the envelope sort of stuff. The numbers are staggering.

It's roughly the equivalent of 2,000,000 Australians volunteering to join the military and go to Iraq. 750,000 would be wounded and 320,000 killed.

For America, it would be 30,000,000 volunteers, 12,000,000 wounded and 4,600,000 killed.

Lest We Forget