Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: macleod01 on February 17, 2011, 04:40:46 PM
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Dear Ladies and Gentlemen. I have many friends in this game on these boards. And now I need your help.
On June 16th 1815, a large scale battle was fought between the Arthur Wellesly, the Duke of Wellington and Marchal Michel Nay of the French Empire. It has a hard fought battle with the French breaking through the british lines with the cavelry at one point, but unable to consolodate their breakthrough. This battle was fought at a small crossroads called Quatre Bras. Unfortunatly the battle was overshadowed by a much greater event, the Battle of Waterloo.
Here we stand in 2011, only 4 years away fomr the 200th Anniversery of the battle and again Quatre Bras is the site of a battle. I enclose an email I have recieved. The farmhouse, which is the only building ledt that that saw the battle has been proposed for demolishing. This will be a disgrace to the men who fought and died there of all nationalities, British, French and Belgian if this goes ahead. I ask for your help now friends in stopping this. This is the email.
Dear Friends of military History
"Already in September 2008, we appealed to many of you in order to save the historic Quatre-Bras farm, maybe the last witness of the famous battle of 16 June 1815 (two day before Waterloo), from destruction. It is located at the crossroads of the roads from Namur to Nivelles and from Brussels to Charleroi, and also served as a hospital after the battle.
Our appeal met a great success and thanks to your massive response, the project was rejected and the authorization to destroy the historic farm turned down.
Now, two years later, the owner, a property developer, has introduced a new request to destroy the farm buildings in order to build new houses and offices.
Again, we have to stand up against this project and express our disapproval of it. We already had some important support from the French side, but we desperately need British and Dutch (and other) support too! If some British and Dutch (Napoleonic or military) associations and museums would care to send a letter to the " Administration Communale " of both towns, we are sure this could have some impact!
The farm being located at the border of two districts, the e-mails and/or letters of rejection have to be addressed to both municipalities:
- at Genappe: by e-mail at: info@genappe.be
and/or by mail at:
Au Collège Communal,
Espace 2000, 3,
B-1470 Genappe
Belgium
- at Villers-la-Ville: by e-mail at olivier.vantielen@publilink.be and valerie.damanet@publilink.be , the two local officials in charge of the town planning at Villers-la-Ville. (If one of these addresses gives an error message, please try again, their mailbox has already been saturated once.)
BEFORE 22 FEBRUARY 2011 (after that date, it's too late).
You can write in English or get some inspiration here, from our press release in French: http://napoleon-monuments.eu/MONUMENTSE ... e-Bras.doc
Only a few weeks after the theft of the Christ at the Hougoumont farm (http://napoleon-monuments.eu/Napoleon1e ... ont_EN.htm) and of the commemorative stone on the south wall of the Quatre-Bras farm (http://napoleon-monuments.eu/MONUMENTSE ... .htm#Stone), we can not allow the new act of - what some of you very eloquently called – historical barbarism to happen!
Thank you to inform us of any action or letter at dominique.timmermans@skynet.be, so that I can keep you informed of any development.
Many thanks in advance.
Yours sincerely.
Dominique Timmermans
Maj (R)
In French: http://napoleon-monuments.eu/
In English: http://napoleon-monuments.eu/Napoleon1er/index_EN.htm
Latest developments here: http://napoleon-monuments.eu/MONUMENTSE ... ras_EN.htm
(Coverage in the Belgian press on our page in French: http://napoleon-monuments.eu/MONUMENTSE ... lgique.htm)"
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No offense, but you might get more traction posting this on a European forum. It is akin to us posting on a Euro based forum asking you to help save the McLean House in Appomattox.
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This is a global forum
The world is larger than just the USA
Thankfully this game reflects this in the main
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Yeah I'd say I see quite a few European members posting in this forum.
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I'll send an email tonight, mac.
:aok
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Even if there were only 2 or 3 Euro guys here, they could help. Hope things work out Mac! Hate to see history BECOME history.
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No offense, but you might get more traction posting this on a European forum. It is akin to us posting on a Euro based forum asking you to help save the McLean House in Appomattox.
Deliirium,
This is why I posted it. If you came onto a Euro forum like Livinghistory.co.uk, which I frequent, and asked us to help save Mclean House, I would write the letter there and then. It is history, regardless of wither it is in the Us or in Europe. The position shouldn't matter. Quatre Bras was the first major battle in the Hundred Days Way. Would you stand back and let that be bulldozed simply because it's not in your country?
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Letter sent Mac. Thanks for sharing and unlike some of the others here; history to me in all forms around the world is an amazing thing that we should try to preserve for as long as possible in its various forms.
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Would you stand back and let that be bulldozed simply because it's not in your country?
It wasn't my intent to come off as a jerk, I'm certain that letters from the US will carry almost no weight, the same as Euro letters about the McLean house would.
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It wasn't my intent to come off as a jerk, I'm certain that letters from the US will carry almost no weight, the same as Euro letters about the McLean house would.
My apologie if it came across that I was annoyed. I was simply stating that, as Mclean House is part of history, I would do anything in my power to save it. US letters may not carry a lot of weight, but every little helps, and the more letters that are recieved rejecting the proposal, the better. Would you not agree?
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Planning on working on this tomorrow when I'm doing my weekend paperwork routine :aok
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Working on the letter and will send this to my reenactment friends. I am sure they will send to letter too. :salute
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Really, the farm house does not belong to you or the people that fought. Therefore, it would not be a disgrace to them if the farm house was demolished. The two are not related in any way what so ever. Further more, it is a disgrace to use the death of those soldiers to push your agenda. The farm house belongs to its owner. Leave him alone to do as he wishes with it.
Honestly, find a hobby or a job and stop making other peoples life difficult. Using the death of others to push your agenda does not make you or your agenda right.
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Dedalos,
Those men fought for that farmhouse, as it was key part of the stratagy for both sides. The French needed it to create a hold point, The Allies needed it as part of their defense line. It is now the only building left at Quatre Bras that saw the fighting, making it a key part of history, to me, thats very important.
Ground Zero saw the deaths of many innocent people, so lets go and build a casino there! Why not, the people building it and the 9/11 attacks were not connected! Try and get away with that one, you wont.
As for your last point. It is my hobby that is making me so concerned about this. I am a reenactor for the 1/95th Rifles. This may not mean anything to you, but it was the first British raised regiment to use a Rifle. It modernised the way wars were fought in the same way the Jet engine modernised the way air combat was fought. As a reenactor, I go to these battlefields, and see what, to a small extent, these men had to go through. Your hobby is a WW2 flight game, so if a call went out to scrap all WW2 planes, would you say 'Hey who cares, its their choice.' If you would, I think you may need to respect the sacrifice that these men made for you a bit more.
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Greetings MacLeod.
My letters (as a Canadian who is proud of her ancestor's military history) are on their way and I will be passing the request on to the members of the Royal Canadian Legion via family.
These historical places deserve honour and remain as one of the few links we have to our past. These are places our children and grandchildren need to know of so they know both the costs of war and the heroism of those who fight for our rights.
Salute :salute
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It seems as if your government has failed on this one. If the site was such an important one, perhaps it should have been purchased and preserved. It's not just a buiding but also a battlefield. When they stopped it in 2008, surely they must have known the developer was going to try again. An undeveloped piece of land to a developer is lost money and that's all they care about. Good luck with your cause.
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Wow dedalos, I don't really know what to say to that. If it was a regular homeowner I guess that would be one thing but to let some developer come in without care to what that place means is another. But anyway, if you don't agree don't send the e-mail. Otherwise, why grief someone who feels that the history of that place means something? I can't do much since I live in the states, by the way, where do you live? If it's in the states, you really have no business even making such a statement.
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Done in the most elegant prose I could come up with. I even took off the big rubber nose and floppy shoes for this one. <S>
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It seems as if your government has failed on this one. If the site was such an important one, perhaps it should have been purchased and preserved. It's not just a buiding but also a battlefield. When they stopped it in 2008, surely they must have known the developer was going to try again. An undeveloped piece of land to a developer is lost money and that's all they care about. Good luck with your cause.
Norm, unfortunatly Government funding is unavailable as it is in Belgium. I am in the UK and I have no idea what the Belgians feelings on Historical sites are. If it was in the UK then I have no doubt it would be under the Heritage's funding. However as I said this is not the case.