Remembrance Day.

The day many nations celebrate the lives of the fallen soldiers, the people who died for their countries, striving to make the world a safer and better place. The fallen who died in World War One and those who died in World War Two while struggling to save Malta (and Europe) from falling into the evil hands of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.

Memoirs from my childhood.

When I was a little kid going to the war memorial in Floriana with my grandfather, Nannu Salvu, a war veteran, who along with many others fought during World War Two with the British army serving both in Malta and abroad. He used to go to the War Memorial in Floriana for the Remembrance day parade every year. He also used to pin some medals on my t-shirt and take me with him to the parade. Something which I grew fond of and looked forward every year.

I remember one specific medal which he used to pin on me, the ribbon had three colours, left was yellow, middle was dark green and the right part was yellow, and on the medal there was some weird bald guy, while my nannu had a long stack of medals pinned on his chest, of which he was very proud of!

Indeed he and all the veterans should’ve all beem proud of those medals, as they had saved & served this country from Fascist Italy and Nazi German of that time. My Nannu Salvu has passed away since 1997. Yet recently while in Gozo, I’ve had the opportunity to meet an old retired ex-soldier from Gozo, who was a student / cadet at Armier & Ghadira under my granddad’s command during the war, he recounted a couple of stories from those days, which I’ll share with you some other time.

While I salute the heroes who fought for our freedom, I dedicate the Nimrod with the words of Sir Winston Churchill, in remembrance of their service.

My greatest fear is that, as the war veterans die, the next generation of people seem to be indifferent to what these heroes have gone through for the sake of our freedom and democracies.

Lest we forget.