11.11.11

This week thousands of people across Britain paid tribute to those who have died in conflicts all over the world since WWI.

Either through attending a remembrance service, watching TV coverage or by simply wearing a poppy, nearly everyone in the UK marks the anniversary in their own way.

And this year was the first time services were held since the world’s last known WWI combat veteran Claude Choules died in May.

That makes my generation the last to have any real living connection with the two wars.

Many people my age will remember sitting down with their grandparents to hear tales from the front line.

A couple of years ago, working as a freelance journalist for a local paper in North London I interviewed Donald Wilson, an 89-year-old WWII veteran.

He was there during the D-Day landings and the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

I remember the interview well; he spoke proudly of his fellow troops, describing them as “good blokes” who faced head-on the fearsome tasks at hand.

Describing the scene as he arrived at the notorious death camp, he said: “We fed the prisoners because they’d been living on potato soup and they were starving.

“We had 2,000 under our control and we managed to evacuate 400 of them to Switzerland but the rest died.  It was very hard.”

The Second World War left such a gaping hole in Donald’s generation, they became defined by it.

They had experienced an unprecedented moment in history and the overwhelming need to make sure it was never repeated left its mark.

Today in 2011 war has mutated for us here in the UK. The country isn’t caught in the grip of air raids, rationing and black-outs.

The so-called war on terror is really only felt by the families of the servicemen or women fighting in Afghanistan.

It’s only Remembrance Sunday that reminds us of the loss inflicted by war.

We are detached from war – a distant reality only experienced through our TV screens.

Remembrance Day is a way for us to feel connected to today’s conflicts, and more so the events of the 20^th century.

And even when the last veterans from WWII have left us, marking the 11^th hour of the 11th day of the 11^th month will always bring home the sacrifice made by the generations before us.