Hi Willie, like many others I really enjoyed this video, so more of the same please. One of the things that made it particularly enjoyable was you sounding so relaxed compared to a few days ago, talking about online abuse etc. An ex RAF chap in Gt. Yarmouth set up a volunteer group that cleans & restores graves of former military personnel, guided by the help of a professional who comes all the way from Kent, if memory serves. A wonderful way to honour those, to whom we owe so much. It's fascinating to think that because of WWI, a vast majority of our families share the same History. One of these days I'll do the war cemeteries tour of France. Merry Christmas 🎅
Special Operations Executive Willy. A lot of them were trained at Coleshill Nr Highworth which is about 4 miles from where I live. Lots of them were in reserved occupations. I also find churches and cemeteries interesting. You can find out a lot from inscriptions on tombs. I found the grave of a local miller who died 160 years ago, the inscription led onto me understanding more about the town where I live, making a video and learning a lot about local history.
Great Story! I love hearing about all that kind of stuff.. Yes that's exactly where he trained, he was in the Royal Sussex Regiment and was dropped in the Italian hills with instructions to cause mayhem! 😀
Some servicemen/women may have taken along time to die of their injuries. Even more, like my great Uncle lived on with disfigurement and life changing injuries receiving no benefit from the Government. My Great Uncle was an unskilled labourer who was no longer able to pick up a shovel. He lived in poverty for most of his life and died aged 72 in the early sixties. It is right that the dead are honoured but it's their dependants and the injured that needed the support. Instead they got the great and the good weeping crocodile tears every November the 11th. I think it is a disgrace that charities are left to look after those who we as a nation owe most to.
I too love cemetries, every gravestone has a story to tell and the settings are peaceful. 2nd world war airbases here in East Anglia are also powerful places to visit and there are plenty of them around here with a strong feeling of history in the air. Keep up the good work Willie. JD
Willie, after watching your videos and listening to your thoughts , I’m finally convinced and picked up a almost new z900 rs on Saturday. Still learning but I’m excited.
Diablo black with a fine red and silver stripe. It’s absolutely beautiful. So far it’s supreme but I’ve a long way to go to get used to it. The throttle seems pretty smooth but time will tell. Wife bought me a new bonneville in 2003, Yes I’m that lucky and this time Santa has come a few days early.
All wars are bankers wars ,the people will always want peace,my grandad was at the Somme he went over the top and got shot in his legs he survived and died in 1955 he’s always in my heart ❤️ thanks willi
I love graveyards too. Everyone of those stones represents a life that was lived. The fact of the matter is we draw strength and identity from our past like a tree draws nutrients from the soil. Great places to reflect upon life and to find repose and balance. I'm in Glasgow, Scotland but plan on riding to St Gregorys in Kirdale Yorkshire where they have an actual Anglo Saxon sundial and an inscription to Tostig, Earl of Northumberland (1055), brother of Harold Godwinson, the last Saxon King. Imagine that! and there it is in the Church, how exciting!
My Great Uncles were in the LRDG Long Range Desert Group fore runner to the S.A.S.They were in Greece & Crete earlier in War then when in North Africa joined the LRDG.They both were captured on different missions & 1 of them was shipped to Italy to P.O.W camp & escaped & survived in caves & hills of Italy with help from locals for ages till American Forces took nearby village.
Lot's of History there Willie. Who cares about views or subs down go down that Rabbit hole. Do videos you like 👍. The Trench warfare was shocking & all those Pals Regiments decimated in first few years which made Top Brass change how they placed people in Units like not putting brothers together or people from same village like in the beginning to spread them out across army. Those early years had towns & villages with all the men of fighting age killed cause they kept them all together hence them spreading them out later.
I did a video a few days commerating the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Bulge. While stationed in Belgium I got to visit a few military cemeteries, seeing the rows and rows of white crosses is sobering.
My grandfather and 6 of his friends were assigned the task of cutting and clearing a pathway to the Argon Forrest. Covers in lice and maggots they coursed through bodies mud and mines . Once there in the Argon the 6 of them were attacked by hundreds of German infantry and artillery. They ran out of food water and ammunition. They fixed bayonets and fought for 2 days . Only he and a friend survived. Grandfather carried the small tank shell in his leg to the grave . He gave me his helmet and the tank crews gear . SALUTE TO ALL THROWN INTO WAR 🎯❣️🙏
Keep them coming fella, fascinating. Did you notice F. Cook was on that memorial at the bottom & a F.c Cook? Mid way down? I wonder if they we're brother's.
Nice vid Willie 👍 I thought it was just me that found it interesting wandering around church yards. I just find them so peaceful and love reading the inscriptions and trying to imagine what these people’s lives and times were like….
I too, enjoy visits to old graveyards but it has been years since I visited some of the old graveyard of the Colonial period of America. The history of the past is often far more interesting and significant than much of the hysteria of more modern times. SS in the USA.
@@2wheeledwillie395 I think its Borley priory thats haunted I went there as a teenager on halloween but didn't see any ghosts, volcanic brown went there in one of his videos, interesting bit of history, don't meet many people that were in SOE
Mark me down as one that enjoys these looks into history when you do them. We are all indebted to those servicemen and women that gave the ultimate sacrifice. If only the 'war to end all wars' had been the last :( Where I live in NY is near Olde Rhinbeck Aerodrome, which is a living musem of WW1 history, particularly the aircraft. Dozens WW1 aircraft on display and many take to the skies each weekend in the summer months during their airshow season. They have a number of vintage bikes, cars, and armored vehicles as well. Nice to be able to see Sopwiths and Fokkers still flying, the smell of castor oil hanging in the air. Much like you I suppose, when ever I am out riding and happen on a small town cemetary I will often stop and have a look around, I find these places tell the history of a village in an unique way. Happy Christmas to you and yours!
Hi Willie,I like spending time at a cemetery in trowse norwich,where my grandparents and mum are buried,I've told my three children that's where I would like to be buried hopefully a few years away yet,it's such a lovely peaceful place to spend time.keep posting the cemetery videos I like them.
I'm always amazed at the comparison with Cemeteries that you find in France and the UK.Here in France many are immaculate and well kept as is the war cemeteries,i do like investigating them,we have some still to this day who remember the many soldiers of UK.Special Forces died and are buried with honours in their villages.
Most likely died of wounds, although he could have died in the flu epidemic. My dad, grandad and father in law all served in the Far East during WW2. Dad with the DLI aged only 18, then in 1946 he was a guard at the Changi war crimes trials in Singapore. My grandad (RA) was a Chindit (at the ripe old age of 43) having already served in the Norwegian campaign and in the Middle East at the first siege of Tobruk. My wife's dad served in the 14th Frontier Force Rifles-an Indian regiment of some repute-he saw a good deal of active service in Burma. Interestingly, my grandad left his home ( and wife and five kids) in the Isle of Man on 4th September 1939 and didn't return for nearly five years!! Different times for sure.
Your point about the people who died in the hours before the armistice took effect prompts two questions that always stay with me. 1. Why did they have to be killed in the last hours when, presumably, the warring nations knew they were about to stop? 2. But then, why did all the killing during the war need to happen when it could have been avoided or stopped if all the leaders were as peace-loving as they claimed to be? Worthwhile doing this video, well done.
Will your comments are EXACTLY what was going through my head as I wandered round.. what kind of species are we that we destroy Millions and millions but never seem to learn 😒
Hi Willie & Willie - it’s Big Rodders in Ireland. Firstly, the headstone is not the standard pattern Portland stone design so there’s another back story there. Also, it was only an Armistice and both sides wanted to grab as much land as possible before the ceasefire as it could give either side an edge in final negotiations. All impossible for us in 2024 to understand the carnage.
It's quite life-affirming, Willie. I remember so chillingly my newly-married wife insisting we peruse the many thousands of photos on display at Tuol Sleng, the KR torture chambers in Phnom Penh, which is only 700 meters from our home. You see, her father had been taken in 1976 and she was hoping she'd find some closure in the wander [she didn't] However, hundreds of tourists feel the need to go there each day; as do younger Cambodians.
Excellent Cemetery, with a Memorial to the fallen soldiers. I like the atmosphere that the overgrown area gave to the cemetery as well. One of our best memories from our trip was the cemetery in Sighisoara Transylvania. ( The birthplace of Vlad the Impaler, aka Dracula) I think you'd have loved it as well. I spent half the day playing with the new DJI action cam and mic. Hopefully I can put together a video before the end of the year. 🤣 Have an awesome day Willie!
It’s a shame we never learn from history. In the American civil war they found out that walking into machine gun fire was not a good idea. Then we did it in the First World War. War memorials were started for people whose relatives had no known graves.
I’ve visited the cemetery in Mons, it’s very small and quite unlike most of the Commonwealth Cemeteries in the area. It contains both the first and the last British soldiers killed during WW1. ‘The proximity of the graves of Private John Parr, killed 17 days after Britain declared war, and Private George Ellison, who died 90 minutes before the armistice, is said to be a coincidence - when they were buried, their "first" and "last" status was unknown - making it somewhat all the more poignant.’
Willie. Have you spoken to a professional about your obsession with the dead? .......... Just kidding. It is important for us all to remember. You need to include a shot of you motorcycle in these videos as proof that you actually do ride it. Ha Ha. I do enjoy the tours of the architecture of the old churches and the history lessons that come from the cemeteries. Cheers BJ
@@2wheeledwillie395 Just making sure your not just washing and waxing it. Unfortunately riding season is over here in Canada. We don't usually get riding weather in the winter time. Cheers BJ
Might be something to do with Simon of Sudbury, archbishop of Canterbury, executed during the Peasants' Revolt and whose head is kept in the church there.
Ahh, Willie, this IS my thing and I’m happy that you share it with us!
Hi Willie, like many others I really enjoyed this video, so more of the same please.
One of the things that made it particularly enjoyable was you sounding so relaxed compared to a few days ago, talking about online abuse etc.
An ex RAF chap in Gt. Yarmouth set up a volunteer group that cleans & restores graves of former military personnel, guided by the help of a professional who comes all the way from Kent, if memory serves.
A wonderful way to honour those, to whom we owe so much. It's fascinating to think that because of WWI, a vast majority of our families share the same History.
One of these days I'll do the war cemeteries tour of France.
Merry Christmas 🎅
Great comments Philip 🙏👍
Hi Willie ,brought a tear to my eye watching this and thinking of all those young men that died, incredibly sad.
It did me as well Barry 🙏
Always been interested in walking around old cemeteries. Gives one pause for thought and we need that from time to time.
Totally agree Jack..its good for the soul 👍
Special Operations Executive Willy. A lot of them were trained at Coleshill Nr Highworth which is about 4 miles from where I live. Lots of them were in reserved occupations.
I also find churches and cemeteries interesting. You can find out a lot from inscriptions on tombs. I found the grave of a local miller who died 160 years ago, the inscription led onto me understanding more about the town where I live, making a video and learning a lot about local history.
Great Story! I love hearing about all that kind of stuff.. Yes that's exactly where he trained, he was in the Royal Sussex Regiment and was dropped in the Italian hills with instructions to cause mayhem! 😀
Some servicemen/women may have taken along time to die of their injuries. Even more, like my great Uncle lived on with disfigurement and life changing injuries receiving no benefit from the Government. My Great Uncle was an unskilled labourer who was no longer able to pick up a shovel. He lived in poverty for most of his life and died aged 72 in the early sixties. It is right that the dead are honoured but it's their dependants and the injured that needed the support. Instead they got the great and the good weeping crocodile tears every November the 11th. I think it is a disgrace that charities are left to look after those who we as a nation owe most to.
Thanks Dave, valid points 👍
I agree with all of this. Well said.
I too love cemetries, every gravestone has a story to tell and the settings are peaceful. 2nd world war airbases here in East Anglia are also powerful places to visit and there are plenty of them around here with a strong feeling of history in the air. Keep up the good work Willie. JD
Thanks John,that's a great idea!! 👍 I'm definitely going to do that buddy 👍👍👍
Willie, after watching your videos and listening to your thoughts , I’m finally convinced and picked up a almost new z900 rs on Saturday. Still learning but I’m excited.
Amazing Paul! What colour did you get? Interested to hear your initial thoughts 🤔👍👍👍👍
Diablo black with a fine red and silver stripe. It’s absolutely beautiful. So far it’s supreme but I’ve a long way to go to get used to it. The throttle seems pretty smooth but time will tell. Wife bought me a new bonneville in 2003,
Yes I’m that lucky and this time Santa has come a few days early.
@@Paul-kp1tulove the Diablo Black colour Paul 😍🖤 they are incredible bikes, enjoy!! 👍
Take TAYM with you to the haunted church.
I like all your videos ❤😊
Haha! Thanks mate 👍🙏
Find this very interesting
Thanks for sharing 👍🏻
Thanks so much Jim 🙏
Very interesting video all history is fascinating sad events everyone hopes will never repeated
Me too buddy 🙏
👏 enjoyed that Willie
Thanks Pete! 👍
Well done, thank you Willie, quite touching.
Thanks Rich 🙏
Excellent video.
History is fascinating.
Merry Christmas.
Thanks Joe 👍 you're so right,it really is!
Keep them up! Great videos.
Thanks so much buddy 👍
All wars are bankers wars ,the people will always want peace,my grandad was at the Somme he went over the top and got shot in his legs he survived and died in 1955 he’s always in my heart ❤️ thanks willi
Thanks Taz 👍 Amazing story about your grandad 🙏
I love graveyards too. Everyone of those stones represents a life that was lived.
The fact of the matter is we draw strength and identity from our past like a tree draws nutrients from the soil. Great places to reflect upon life and to find repose and balance.
I'm in Glasgow, Scotland but plan on riding to St Gregorys in Kirdale Yorkshire where they have an actual Anglo Saxon sundial and an inscription to Tostig, Earl of Northumberland (1055), brother of Harold Godwinson, the last Saxon King. Imagine that! and there it is in the Church, how exciting!
Great comments Robbie! Your trip sounds AMAZING! LOVE that kind of thing buddy 👍👍👍👍
My Great Uncles were in the LRDG Long Range Desert Group fore runner to the S.A.S.They were in Greece & Crete earlier in War then when in North Africa joined the LRDG.They both were captured on different missions & 1 of them was shipped to Italy to P.O.W camp & escaped & survived in caves & hills of Italy with help from locals for ages till American Forces took nearby village.
Lot's of History there Willie.
Who cares about views or subs down go down that Rabbit hole.
Do videos you like 👍. The Trench warfare was shocking & all those Pals Regiments decimated in first few years which made Top Brass change how they placed people in Units like not putting brothers together or people from same village like in the beginning to spread them out across army.
Those early years had towns & villages with all the men of fighting age killed cause they kept them all together hence them spreading them out later.
I was thinking just that-someone needs to get some garden tools and tidy up around there. Merry Christmas!
I'm going to ask at the church if they'd let me 👍 it's literally 5 minutes walk from my house.. Thanks Guy
I did a video a few days commerating the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Bulge. While stationed in Belgium I got to visit a few military cemeteries, seeing the rows and rows of white crosses is sobering.
I'll check it out 👍 thanks for the comment 🙏
There were 2 F cook s in the war memorial stone
Yes I didn't notice that until after I'd done the video!
My grandfather and 6 of his friends were assigned the task of cutting and clearing a pathway to the Argon Forrest. Covers in lice and maggots they coursed through bodies mud and mines . Once there in the Argon the 6 of them were attacked by hundreds of German infantry and artillery. They ran out of food water and ammunition. They fixed bayonets and fought for 2 days . Only he and a friend survived. Grandfather carried the small tank shell in his leg to the grave . He gave me his helmet and the tank crews gear . SALUTE TO ALL THROWN INTO WAR 🎯❣️🙏
Mate that was an amazing comment 👏 👍
Keep them coming fella, fascinating.
Did you notice F. Cook was on that memorial at the bottom & a F.c Cook? Mid way down? I wonder if they we're brother's.
Thanks buddy, I only noticed that after id done the video, yes maybe they were brothers 👍
Nice vid Willie 👍 I thought it was just me that found it interesting wandering around church yards. I just find them so peaceful and love reading the inscriptions and trying to imagine what these people’s lives and times were like….
Thanks mate 👍 yes it's great isn't it? 👍
I too, enjoy visits to old graveyards but it has been years since I visited some of the old graveyard of the Colonial period of America. The history of the past is often far more interesting and significant than much of the hysteria of more modern times.
SS in the USA.
Yes totally agree mate! Well said 👍
Love these vids Bud, maybe a New channel beckons ‘bikes and bones’? Lol
Lol! So are you up for a haunted church visit in the spring mate?? 😂
@@2wheeledwillie395 I think its Borley priory thats haunted I went there as a teenager on halloween but didn't see any ghosts, volcanic brown went there in one of his videos, interesting bit of history, don't meet many people that were in SOE
If you get scared I'm not going to have to hold willie am i 😂😂@2wheeledwillie395
The idea was for a Christmas ghost story vid Bud!!
@kennyboy1215 lol! Mate it's too cold!!!
Mark me down as one that enjoys these looks into history when you do them. We are all indebted to those servicemen and women that gave the ultimate sacrifice. If only the 'war to end all wars' had been the last :(
Where I live in NY is near Olde Rhinbeck Aerodrome, which is a living musem of WW1 history, particularly the aircraft. Dozens WW1 aircraft on display and many take to the skies each weekend in the summer months during their airshow season. They have a number of vintage bikes, cars, and armored vehicles as well. Nice to be able to see Sopwiths and Fokkers still flying, the smell of castor oil hanging in the air.
Much like you I suppose, when ever I am out riding and happen on a small town cemetary I will often stop and have a look around, I find these places tell the history of a village in an unique way.
Happy Christmas to you and yours!
Great comments Scott 👌 have a great Christmas buddy 🎄
Loved this video dude...really interesting, don't worry if it doesn't get the views, there are many of us that really enjoy your cemetery chats! 👍
Ah thanks mate! 🙏
Hi Willie,I like spending time at a cemetery in trowse norwich,where my grandparents and mum are buried,I've told my three children that's where I would like to be buried hopefully a few years away yet,it's such a lovely peaceful place to spend time.keep posting the cemetery videos I like them.
Thanks Brian 👍great comments!
You might like this if you have not already watched it? SAS rogue heroes 😉👍🏻
Cheers buddy I will definitely check it out 👍
@ bbc iplayer
I'm always amazed at the comparison with Cemeteries that you find in France and the UK.Here in France many are immaculate and well kept as is the war cemeteries,i do like investigating them,we have some still to this day who remember the many soldiers of UK.Special Forces died and are buried with honours in their villages.
Yes I've seen many photos of the war cemeteries in France and you're right they always look immaculate! 🇫🇷
Most likely died of wounds, although he could have died in the flu epidemic. My dad, grandad and father in law all served in the Far East during WW2. Dad with the DLI aged only 18, then in 1946 he was a guard at the Changi war crimes trials in Singapore. My grandad (RA) was a Chindit (at the ripe old age of 43) having already served in the Norwegian campaign and in the Middle East at the first siege of Tobruk. My wife's dad served in the 14th Frontier Force Rifles-an Indian regiment of some repute-he saw a good deal of active service in Burma. Interestingly, my grandad left his home ( and wife and five kids) in the Isle of Man on 4th September 1939 and didn't return for nearly five years!! Different times for sure.
Great comments mate 👍 yes different times for sure 🙏
Your point about the people who died in the hours before the armistice took effect prompts two questions that always stay with me. 1. Why did they have to be killed in the last hours when, presumably, the warring nations knew they were about to stop? 2. But then, why did all the killing during the war need to happen when it could have been avoided or stopped if all the leaders were as peace-loving as they claimed to be? Worthwhile doing this video, well done.
Will your comments are EXACTLY what was going through my head as I wandered round.. what kind of species are we that we destroy Millions and millions but never seem to learn 😒
Hi Willie & Willie - it’s Big Rodders in Ireland. Firstly, the headstone is not the standard pattern Portland stone design so there’s another back story there. Also, it was only an Armistice and both sides wanted to grab as much land as possible before the ceasefire as it could give either side an edge in final negotiations. All impossible for us in 2024 to understand the carnage.
This is why I try not to complain too much about getting old. It’s a privilege not afforded to all.
Yes it definitely makes you feel privileged for sure 🙏
It's quite life-affirming, Willie. I remember so chillingly my newly-married wife insisting we peruse the many thousands of photos on display at Tuol Sleng, the KR torture chambers in Phnom Penh, which is only 700 meters from our home. You see, her father had been taken in 1976 and she was hoping she'd find some closure in the wander [she didn't] However, hundreds of tourists feel the need to go there each day; as do younger Cambodians.
Great comments Peter.. Sobering thoughts 🙏
Excellent Cemetery, with a Memorial to the fallen soldiers. I like the atmosphere that the overgrown area gave to the cemetery as well.
One of our best memories from our trip was the cemetery in Sighisoara Transylvania. ( The birthplace of Vlad the Impaler, aka Dracula) I think you'd have loved it as well.
I spent half the day playing with the new DJI action cam and mic. Hopefully I can put together a video before the end of the year. 🤣
Have an awesome day Willie!
Thanks buddy, you always leave such great comments, id have definitely loved the sound of that place!! 🦇 Good luck with the DJI camera!!
It’s a shame we never learn from history. In the American civil war they found out that walking into machine gun fire was not a good idea. Then we did it in the First World War. War memorials were started for people whose relatives had no known graves.
It really is a shame Peter 😔
Very interesting mate. I think people forget that even today, we have people fighting for our freedom 🫡.
Yes very true Ian 👍🙏
I wonder if the sister died due to the flu epidemic?
Yes good point Dave, very possible 👍
I’ve visited the cemetery in Mons, it’s very small and quite unlike most of the Commonwealth Cemeteries in the area. It contains both the first and the last British soldiers killed during WW1. ‘The proximity of the graves of Private John Parr, killed 17 days after Britain declared war, and Private George Ellison, who died 90 minutes before the armistice, is said to be a coincidence - when they were buried, their "first" and "last" status was unknown - making it somewhat all the more poignant.’
Amazing comments Dave 👏 yes I remember reading that the 2 graves were almost opposite each other
Willie. Have you spoken to a professional about your obsession with the dead? .......... Just kidding. It is important for us all to remember.
You need to include a shot of you motorcycle in these videos as proof that you actually do ride it. Ha Ha. I do enjoy the tours of the architecture of the old churches and the history lessons that come from the cemeteries.
Cheers
BJ
😂😂😂 Thanks BJ! BTW your wish is my command...check the thumbnail 😉
@@2wheeledwillie395 Just making sure your not just washing and waxing it. Unfortunately riding season is over here in Canada. We don't usually get riding weather in the winter time.
Cheers
BJ
Might be something to do with Simon of Sudbury, archbishop of Canterbury, executed during the Peasants' Revolt and whose head is kept in the church there.
Oh! I'm definitely going to check it out! Thanks Stan 👍
Strange he hasn't got a CWGC headstone . Don't forget a lot of service men* died years after the war due to their injuries and also Spanish flu .
Yes good point 👍
He may well have died from Spanish Flu as it claimed 50 million people worldwide 🙁
Yes he very well may have buddy 👍