With the death of Harry Patch (aged 111) earlier in the year, November 11th 2009 was the first Armistice Day in the UK that did not have a member of the forces from World War I. Harry fought at the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917, where 70,000 British troops were killed.
In all, World War I saw the death of 16 million with a further 21 million wounded. But it was World War II that took the title of deadliest military conflict in history with more than 60 million dead.
While the overwhelming majority of soldiers were non-Muslim, there were a number of Muslim soldiers enlisted in the allied armies. For example (*), at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle in WWI, Indian Muslim soldiers held one third of the lines. It had also been reported that Muslim soldiers celebrated their Eid Prayers (the two largest celebrations in the Islamic calendar) in the trenches with some 1,500 soldiers in attendance.
(*) Wed 2 Sep 2009 @ 23:25 on BBC1
The military section of the Brookwood Cemetery – the largest cemetery in Britain if not Europe – show the graves of Christian, Muslim and Jewish soldiers who together fought for the freedoms many of us take for granted today.
A short tribute to remember the fallen, including photos of some of the Muslim and Jewish gravestones can be seen here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqRcyhmpvtA
