On This Day 108 Years Ago...

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a young 18 year old boy was killed in the basement of a house in France by an artillery shell. That boy was my Great Uncle George and I've only recently learnt his story. It's a sad one, but it has some lovely bits too.

That's him in France, likely near Villers Bretonneux.

He was known as the Baby of The Battalion, so once I read that little titbit I had to know why and learn his story. I've been researching him for the past month or so and I've written down some of it here if you're keen
https://yelpar.blogspot.com/2026...

"War is started by old men, fought by the young, and paid for by the innocent"

4 weeks ago

samh

4 weeks ago

Thanks for sharing this.

thelonius 4 weeks ago

I'd like to find out more about my grandfather's WW1 service - my brother said that he was in the calvalry, but I don't know where he learned that from.

Argie

4 weeks ago

@samh thanks for taking the time to read it 😊

Argie

4 weeks ago

@thelonius I'm not sure which country you are in but most have an online war record search service, so if you have the full name and dates of service you should be able to search for their military records

thelonius 4 weeks ago

@Argie right - in usa - will try

Argie

4 weeks ago

@thelonius I think this could be a good place to start https://www.archives.gov/veterans
Best of luck

thelonius 4 weeks ago

@Argie I think I can find enough information to do that search, although it seems that a fire in 1973 destroyed a lot of material.......it would be interesting to at least know if my grandfather was in combat, or not, in WW1. In WW2, he was on Gen. MacArthur's staff, analyzing photos and making maps and training crews to do that sort of work. In the rear, with the gear! They were planning the terrible island invasions that younger men had to carry out.

Argie

3 weeks ago

@thelonius hope you can find his record, sounds like it'd be really interesting

thelonius 3 weeks ago

@Argie thanks, and I appreciated the sad story of your ancestor. What a horrible waste that war was.

On This Day 108 Years Ago...

Argie

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