Although July 1 is Canada Day celebrating the 144th Ann. of confederation ,here in Nfld. and Lab. it is a day of solemn rememberance.At 7 AM on July 1st 1916 over 700 young soldiers from Nfld.&Lab left their trenches to attack a German stronghold over 500yds. of noman's land.A huge explosive device that was hidden under the German artillary bunker failed to detonate yet the British officers in charge(we were a British colony then) sent them out in the open knowing full well that doing so would result in many casualties.They were mowed down like blades of grass and the next morning at role call only 68 of the 700+ were left to answer the role.All the rest were killed or severely injured.The final death toll was well over 400 and yet the officers were never taken to task for sending all these men to almost certain death.So while the rest of Canada celebrates we remember all those brave men who laid down their lives in the name of freedom on the fields of Beaumont-Hamel all those years ago.BTW I'm getting my daughter to do a tattoo on my arm with a cross and the battle date as a constant reminder and in honor of these brave souls and in 2016 we're going to Beaumont-Hamel,France for the !100th anniversary.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

Hey guitslinger, those men were the bravest one could ever know. Am I right to assume that members of your family were amongst them? Have you seen the Stanley Kubrick's movie "Paths of glory"? Similar twisted story happened in all countries I think. Let's not forget them.
Claude.

None of my close family like great uncles or grandfathers were in it but just about every family had some relative killed in the battle.There were cousins of my forebears killed in the action.There was hardly a community that didn't lose someone.I haven't seen the movie but I have it written down on my must watch list now,thanks for letting me know about it.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

Kirk Douglas said to Kubrick "We'll never make money with this movie but we have to do it". After this movie, Kubrick filmed Dr Strangelove, another story of information control and cold blood murder of innocents. But the first movie talks about true events. See ya.
Claude.

Eternal thanks, glory and honour to all who fought for freedom and right, anywhere, anytime.