Chris Boonzaier Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 No sarcasm intended... imagine bringing the same telegram day after day, and everyone opening the door knew what they were giving them.... Here are two families that must have had horrible weeks :-( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Boonzaier Posted January 8, 2014 Author Share Posted January 8, 2014 Above: 2 brothers killed on the same day, and the other two within a week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Boonzaier Posted January 8, 2014 Author Share Posted January 8, 2014 More sibling casaulties... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IrishGunner Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 I have one of these brother cards; however, they died two years apart. Those same day cards are tough. One has to wonder how many from the same village on the same day... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christerd Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Ohhh , I cant imagine the feelings of the poor parents, I think I´ve seen even three brothers Killed ? These small papers really make you think about the Great War .... Christer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bernhard H.Holst Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 I was able to only read the first four.. Bernhard H. Holst Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter monahan Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 The down side of 'pals battalions'! After the Somme in particular, there were streets in some English towns where half the homes got a telegram. I once spoke to a man who as a 14 year old boy delivered telegrams during WWII. Worst job in the world, he said, especially as, at least the way he remembers it, whenever he turned into a street, everyone would come to their windows to see where he'd stop. Wouldn't do that for a pension and a gold medal! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ulsterman Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Brutal. horrible job. Didn't telegraphs boys and women deliver most of these? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter monahan Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Yes, I think so. Men were at the front. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redeagleorder Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Wouldn't do that for a pension and a gold medal! You and me both... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Boonzaier Posted January 12, 2014 Author Share Posted January 12, 2014 Three times.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter monahan Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 Anybody remember the 'Fighting Sullivans'? It's an old movie - 1944 original - based on the five brothers who joined the US Navy and all died the same day on the USS Juneau, sunk in the Battle of the Solomon Islands. The five enlisted together on January 3, 1942 with the proviso that they be kept together - against Navy policy but apparently winked at - and died on or after November 13, 1942 when their ship was torpedoed by a Japanese sub. At least their family got an official visit from three USN officers with the news! The USN christened two successive destroyers as the USS The Sullivans. Both hasd the motto "We stick together". The son of one of the five served on the first of the two destroyers. R.I.P. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strapper Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 I think that a rule was made that brothers cannot serve in the same unit in the British army after WW1. Also the creation of units based on towns and geographical areas was also abolished after WW1. So the philosophy that units made up of your friends and family were stronger units, became unpopular due to family's, parishes, towns and suburbs of cities, if not whole islands taking massive casualties on one day. My grand father was in the Royal Guernsey light Infantry, a tiny british island, that saw brothers, fathers and sons and cousins, all killed in the same action. In World War Two, his three sons were split in units as far apart as you could get...Iceland, Gold Coast, and Britain. When I joined the South African Defence force the same year as my brother, we were told that it would not be possible for us to be based in the same unit. The SADF took a lot of its workings from the British army. So even in the 1980s this policy was still applied. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter monahan Posted January 14, 2014 Share Posted January 14, 2014 The Royal Newfoundland Regiment went over the top at Beaumont Hamel, July 1, 1917, 778 men strong at 9:15. By 9;45 the attack was over. 68 men answered the roll that evening, 710 were killed wounded or missing. The entire population of the island at the time was 240,000 and it is said that there was not a single adult on the island who was not a relative or neighbour of one of those men. In Newfoundland, unlike the rest of Canada, July 1st - Canada Day - is not considered a day of celebration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Johnson Posted January 14, 2014 Share Posted January 14, 2014 As an interesting sidelight to the Sullivans story, my wife (an English teacher) set a writing exercise for the class. One girl wrote the Sullivans story. I can only guess that a family member must have served in the U.S.N. (probably as a Filipino mess-boy) and passed the story down in the family. Otherwise it's a strange thing for a teenaged Filipina-Canadian girl to choosed to write about. Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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