two minute silence at 11am this morning in memory of the armed forces who served dur

[Lord Bracknell]

f*** off you little ****, that is not funny. That is f***ing horrible. People from Italy died you little cretin scum bag more than you can say about yourself. My great grandad did not die in WWI leaving 3 small children behind for nothing. Some people are unbelieveable. Prick.

600,000 Italians died in WW1, with 950,000 wounded. Fighting on the same side at Britain.

And, if you are looking at WW2, you can't ignore the anti-fascist resistance, brave men and women who made what I can only imagine were incredibly difficult decisions to take up arms:-
Approximately 44,700 Italian partisans killed
Approximately 21,200 Italian partisans wounded or disabled
Approximately 15,000 Italian civilians killed in retaliations
Approximately 40,000 former Italian soldiers died in concentration camps

Having said that ... I have no problem with "remembering" the enemy soldiers who died. A conscript army is largely made up of people who had no choice in the matter.

 

[HampshireSeagulls]

Phil Stant (remember him?) was a soldier in 1982 on the Falklands, and he has been back since. He campaigned to get the memorials brought back to a decent state as they were looking like shit.

The Argentine memorials, that is - they had fallen into disrepair because they lost - they abandoned their soldiers when they came back. No matter what people say, you don't have too much contempt after the event for the person on the other side, they are doing the same job you are, they are as human as you are, and they stand to lose as much as you, sometimes more. Remembrance is about remembering all of them, not just the winners.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

An Italian client's response to us telling him that we were observing a 2 minute's silence was...."ok, but what's it for....."

Not the unreasonable question you imagine. What is known as "Remembrance Day" in Italy is 27 January - and is specifically "for" the remembrance of Italians (Jews and non-Jews) who died in the holocaust.

The wording in the law that proclaimed this day is:- "to reflect upon what happened to the Jewish people, the Italian soldiers and politicians deported to the Nazi camps so that we preserve in the future of Italy the memory of a tragic, dark period in the history of our Country and in Europe".

 

[User removed 4]

That is peculiar, surely the Italians should have a 4 minutes silence, 2 for when they were on the Germans side and 2 for when they joined in with us when the Germans started losing.

Honouring the fallen Italians would be diffent too as they probably incurred more injuries like ankle sprains and pulled shoulders from running away with their hands up than they did actually fighting.

haha yeah, did you hear about the italian kamikaze pilot ? He flew 50 missions !! Did you know the story about the red and green strips on the italian flag ? They're held on with velcro in case they need to be removed in a hurry hahaha ! I bought an italian army rifle on ebay today , never fired, only dropped once !!

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

Not the unreasonable question you imagine. What is known as "Remembrance Day" in Italy is 27 January - and is specifically "for" the remembrance of Italians (Jews and non-Jews) who died in the holocaust.

The wording in the law that proclaimed this day is:- "to reflect upon what happened to the Jewish people, the Italian soldiers and politicians deported to the Nazi camps so that we preserve in the future of Italy the memory of a tragic, dark period in the history of our Country and in Europe".

January 27th is also known as Holocaust Memorial Day in other countries. Israel have their own Memorial Day , Yom HaShoah , which next year is on April 11th.