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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wojtek_(bear)[^]
Whilst reflecting on the day and all that it represents, I was link hopping around wikipedia and found the above link....long story short - Polish army adopt an orphaned brown bear, put him to work moving ammunition at Monte Cassino, fed him beer and fags, teach him to salute and event draft him as an official private so he could board a British transport ship....
C# has already designed away most of the tedium of C++.
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King Neptune[^]
A pig, born the same year. Raised over $200 million (in today's money) to build battleships.
I don't really understand how that works, but it seems they kept auctioning off bits of him, but nobody ever got the bit they bought.
An officer in the US Navy he was buried with full military honours.
Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them.
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The Colonel-inchief of the Norwegian Royal Guard is stationed in Edinburgh[^].
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I'm an optoholic - my glass is always half full of vodka.
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The worrying bit is:
"He is the first penguin to receive such an honour in the Norwegian army"
It's the "...in the Norwegian army" bit - it implies that Norway is in the habit of knighting penguins. 
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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Now tell me that the uniform[^] doesn't make you look like a penguin. 
Oh, before you start claiming I should respect people in uniform etc, I once wore it myself...
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"Penguin" isn't the first word that spring to mind, no...
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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No self-respecting penguin would wear that hat, but the dress is quite fetching.
Will Rogers never met me.
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Well, it cept you warm but thats about it. On cold days, the hat was a nightmare. And I think I must be in several hundred different photo albums around the world.
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Or they penguin in the army? 
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Busy Much?
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Obscurum per obscurius.
Ad astra per alas porci.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur .
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It's your fault for the remembrance post.
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I am oft seen criticizing our cousins who live in the Colonies.
But not today.
Whilst I remember and thank all those who took part in the D Day Landings, I am thankful for the bravest and most worthy of them all.
The young American soldiers who landed on Omaha Beach had the worst of it.
This is not 'Saving Private Ryan', this was 8 hours of hell.
If any deserve a salute for sheer bravery under fire it was they.
1500 dead, 3000 injured, 2000 missing.
It was hell, and still they fought and won.
To those still alive I say thank you, to those that died that day, your life was not lost in vain.
Victory was assured and the war was turned by the actions of those scared young men on that lonely beach.
I do not often dwell on such things, but this was a time when courage was plentiful and despite the fear and the stench of death, the job was done.
One can only hope that such a thing is never going to be necessary ever again.
---------------------------------
Obscurum per obscurius.
Ad astra per alas porci.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur .
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Quote: This is not 'Saving Private Ryan', this was 8 hours of hell.
And some of the participants had a lifetime of hell afterwards, nightmares, injuries etc.
Quote: One can only hope that such a thing is never going to be necessary ever again.
Amen to that.
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I believe the actor Audie Murphy (the most decorated solider by the US) slept with a loaded gun under his pillow,
a friend of my Dad's a Lancaster navigator kept the map table from his Lanc and slept on that as the only way to cure insomnia...really I think it's good today such things as PTSD are recognised...
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PTSD Would have resulted in a firing squad in the First World War.
The Generals forget the horrors of battle and sometimes the human mind cannot deal with them.
At least we recognize it today and can treat it, somewhat, and help the poor bastards move on.
---------------------------------
Obscurum per obscurius.
Ad astra per alas porci.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur .
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Hmm, makes you think. My Dad had many friends who were involved who are now no longer with us, one his of friends Fred, was 6 months (my Dad was stuck in a Maths exam on June 6 1944) ahead of him and got called up, hit sword beach, got three mile inland got invalided back to UK due to an accident (not moving his arm fast enough!). His views on modern day politics were an eye opener. Particularly on how the middle east were our fault, why didn't we listen to T.E. Lawrence...
Really quite odd. What do you make of the view the invasion was more to stop the Russians marching over Europe,
as the Nazi's (Germans, Hungarians etc.) were beaten after the battle of Kursk ?
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It was necessary for several reasons.
However it was definitely in the minds of Churchill and Truman that the Russians would need to be stopped from over running Europe.
It was also previously agreed that the Satellites of the USSR would be held under Soviet Control.
The Cold War was a scam perpetrated on the world to ensure peace.
And it did.
It was only after the USSR collapsed that we have seen wars and terrorism in the West.
---------------------------------
Obscurum per obscurius.
Ad astra per alas porci.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur .
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Well that's really what I though. The mess in Yugoslavia is evidence... really a good thing
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Dalek Dave wrote: It was only after the USSR collapsed that we have seen wars and terrorism in the West.
You're kidding right?
The troubles.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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To quote my Mum "The IRA were our terrorist, you knew where you were, they build the bomb, set the bomb and run away"...
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Dalek Dave wrote: One can only hope that such a thing is never going to be necessary ever again.
Well.[^]
Sure, you don't have 30000 casualties in 8 hours, but you'd easily reach that amount if you count all these conflicts together. Who lives in a country which is presently not involved in a war somewhere on the globe ? (Marco, do not answer or you'll ruin my point).
~RaGE();
I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus
Entropy isn't what it used to.
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Oh I completely agree and understand.
But there are differences between small scale civil wars or series of skirmishes between neighbouring states and the utter madness of WW1 and WW2.
The one's quoted in your link all have one thing in common though.
Religion, and specifically one religion.
My view, as an ex-soldier, is that war should always be the last resort as it is an awful thing.
However, I dare anyone to say that Britain should NOT have fought in the second world war.
It was an honourable war for us to fight, and one in which we would have held our heads in shame had we not.
And of course we won. Just. Eventually.
---------------------------------
Obscurum per obscurius.
Ad astra per alas porci.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur .
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Perhaps it would have been more honorable to treat Germany with respect after WWI, and then WWII wouldn't have been necessary?
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Don't think soldiers in WWI found the reason for being there[^] (or here) either.
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