The eleventh day of the eleventh month on the eleventh hour

[Ian]

When I was in Holland I made a point of visiting Arhem, site of one of the second world wars most valiant military blunders. The famous 'Bridge too far'. Afterwards I made the half hour journey to the tiny village of Oosterbeek where many of those killed were buried in the Allied war cemetary. There were several holders of the Victoria Cross (Great Britains Highest military decoration) among the dead and in my several hours there I managed to figure out the average age of those men was around twenty six. All except two graves. The men in those graves were in their eighties. They're last wishes had been to be buried alongside their friends and comrades who had died so many years before them. I feel no shame at all in admitting that the sight of those two graves made me cry. Thinking of them now still does.

"We few, we valiant few... we band of Brothers"