On a more serious note, this year I particularly call to mind those who fell in the battles of the Somme and Verdun which happened 90 years ago: two terrible battles with examples of human courage, extreme folly and, in the case of Verdun, human evil.

Verdun

Somme

As regards Verdun, those fools who call the French "cheese eating surrender monkeys" should wait until their own lands have fought a battle with 1/2 a million casualties. Anyone reading of their grit and courage in defending the line through those months would refrain from such comments in future.