T his weekend, the question of what, precisely, constitutes an "imagination" came up in an online forum of which I am a part. To be fair, the issue originates from further afield in a Facebook group that I am not a member of, but I weighed in with my own view. The following was in response to the question posed yesterday (Sunday) morning by an exasperated member of my own rather more gentlemanly town square, who had been met with a strident response to information he shared about his (admirable) hobby activities on said FB group. Here is, more or less, what I wrote: To my mind, the concept of imagi-nation(s) is a broad one. It can range from historical refights or what-if scenarios/battles/campaigns between armies of a particular era, to completely made up combatants operating in a quasi-historical setting, to the rather generic red and blue forces of the Prussian Kriegspiel that examine a particular tactical problem, task, or exercise. ...
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Today I remembered my Grandfather who on this day in 1914 was a Lieutenant on HMS Cornwall an Armoured Cruiser in the South Atlantic. Before the year was out he had been in the Battle of the Falklands; and in December on Christmas Day his ship was undergoing repairs as a result of the battle in Esquimalt Harbour. He survived the war having fought all the way through it.
The Kohima Epitaph from WWII says it all for me, no matter which conflict:
'When You Go Home,
Tell Them Of Us And Say,
For Their Tomorrow,
We gave Our Today'.
Best regards,
Simon
I really enjoyed all the images - cavalry especially the brigade formation. I appreciate all you did for your readers.
Respectfully,
Bill
Y'know old bean, I'll say this for the chaps of 1914. At the least they had no idea of the ordeal that lay before them.
On the other hand, we do! More than four years of solemn faces, chaps dressing up in old clothes and the unrelieved horror or documentaries, "specials" and pompous pollies waffling on.
Chin up old man, and keep on smiling!