Are you automatically a Hero if you fought in a War?

[the_bob_delusion]

Discuss.

[bluecat*dancing]

My grandfather fought in WW1 and was invalided out after being shot three times during the same battle. He used to show us his war wounds but said nothing of the war. He recieved a number of medals but I don't know what happened to them and I never saw them. I've been going through his record and the level of sickness was pretty horrible. What they went through would not be tolerated these days.

While doing some family history, I discovered that I had uncles, who I never knew about, who fought during WW1. One of them spent a lot of time being awol while another ended up being court marshalled, sent to hard labour, released a few months later and sent back to the war. He was a naughty boy! lol.

[icyfroth]

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@lionrose.7 wrote:

Icy thank you for mentioning Kiwi's 🙂

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We have the ANZAC Bridge here in Sydney, Lion. I travel over it at least once a week. I love the approach at night , it shows tthe lights of the city, Centrepoint Tower and the Harbour Bridge. Not to mention James Packer's Barangaroo.

To the approach from the West there are two bronze statues of soldiers either side, standing solemnley, heads down.

On the lett, the Aussie Digger faces inward, towards his country.

On the right,  the Kiwi faces east, over the Tasman, towards New Zealand.

It gets me every time.

[lionrose.7]

That brings Tears to my eyes

[***super_nova***]

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@icyfroth wrote:

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Actually, I think the young men who signed up for that war had no idea what they were getting themselves into.

They thought they were going off for an incredible adventure with their mates and a free trip around the world at the goverment's expense.

The fact that they stepped up to the plate once they realised, and took on the responsibility for their being there, and laid their beautiful young selves down to die, makes them heroes.

And that is what makes the ANZAC commemoration in the psyche of  Aussies and Kiwis so special IMO.

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What was their alternative?

[the_great_she_elephant]

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@***super_nova*** wrote:

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@icyfroth wrote:

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Actually, I think the young men who signed up for that war had no idea what they were getting themselves into.

They thought they were going off for an incredible adventure with their mates and a free trip around the world at the goverment's expense.

The fact that they stepped up to the plate once they realised, and took on the responsibility for their being there, and laid their beautiful young selves down to die, makes them heroes.

And that is what makes the ANZAC commemoration in the psyche of  Aussies and Kiwis so special IMO.

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What was their alternative?

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Exactly.; and lets not forget the "signing up" only applied to Australia and to WWI. In other counties and in other wars young men were not  afforded that luxury -  they were conscripted and forced in military service whether they wanted to go or not.

[this-one-time-at-bandcamp]

Does anybody here actually know what the whole war was about? 

In a nutshell, it was about alliances........Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, Russia had a treaty with Serbia, so they went to war........Germany had a treaty with A-H, so they went to war.......and due to a secret treaty, dragged the Turks in.  Britain and France had treaty obligations, France with Russia, Britain with France, and both guaranteed Belgian neutrality, so both of them ended up at war with the Central Powers............things escalated from there.

There were other reasons, Germany envied Britain it's far-flung empire, and was jealous of it's naval strength.

[icyfroth]

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@this-one-time-at-bandcamp wrote:

Does anybody here actually know what the whole war was about? 

In a nutshell, it was about alliances........Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, Russia had a treaty with Serbia, so they went to war........Germany had a treaty with A-H, so they went to war.......and due to a secret treaty, dragged the Turks in.  Britain and France had treaty obligations, France with Russia, Britain with France, and both guaranteed Belgian neutrality, so both of them ended up at war with the Central Powers............things escalated from there.

There were other reasons, Germany envied Britain it's far-flung empire, and was jealous of it's naval strength.

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I think it was the other way round:

"World War I was the British Empire’s reaction to Germany’s American-inspired late-19th-century explosion of economic growth and its collaboration with Eurasian nations through railway corridors such as the Berlin-to-Baghdad Railway and Russia’s Trans-Siberian Railway, both of which had been modelled upon Lincoln’s Transcontinental Railroad. These railways, and the intercontinental trade and economic growth they engendered, threatened to make Britain’s monopoly on maritime transport obsolete, thus ending its Imperial power."

https://www.facebook.com/cecaustralia/posts/851679464903704

http://www.larouchepub.com/eiw/public/1996/eirv23n17-19960419/eirv23n17-19960419_042-the_triple_ente...

If you're pre

[the_bob_delusion]

We have to also assume soldiers are not just defending themselves or country. They're train killers.  Some have killed hundreds. Are they heros for what they've done?

[bright.ton42]

In war ....a  fierce battle ....  isn't it kill or be killed?  I don't think it's so much a question of heroism generally but survival. 

Even so there were many acts of sheer heroism, many of which we'll never know abut.

[cherry*135]

Are you automatically a Hero if you fought in a War?

No. What about people who were conscripted (mandatory service/national service)  and who didn't even want to be in the Army or go to fight in wars?