Britain Remembers War Dead On Armistice Day

Millions of people across the UK have fallen silent for two minutes to remember the nation's war dead on Armistice Day.

In a ceremony at 11am at the Cenotaph in London, the Last Post was sounded by a bugler from the Coldstream Guards before wreaths were laid at the monument.

The National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire hosted a Service of Remembrance within the walls of the striking Armed Forces Memorial.

The memorial is designed so that at 11am on November 11 a shaft of sunlight passes though a slot in its inner and outer walls and hits a central bronze wreath sculpture.

And thousands of people lined the streets in Plymouth for a Remembrance Parade and march to mark the homecoming of 1,000 3 Commando Brigade Royal Marines from Afghanistan.

War memorials in towns and cities became the focal point for remembrance at the "11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month" - the time the peace agreement between Germany and the Allies took effect in 1918 after four years of fighting.

A recorded message from Prime Minister David Cameron was played at a Royal British Legion event in Trafalgar Square.

He said: "We stand together to honour the incredible courage and sacrifice of generations of British servicemen and women who have given their lives to protect the freedoms that we enjoy today.

"From the trenches of the First World War to the desert of Afghanistan, our Armed Forces have proved time and again that they are the bravest of the brave and the very best of what it means to be British.

"We can never fully repay the debt we owe them."

The Soldiers, a group of serving servicemen, performed I've Gotta Get A Message To You - this year's official Poppy Appeal song.

The song, which features Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees, marks the first time in the appeal's history that serving members of the Armed Forces have recorded a track.

Earlier, new Defence Secretary Philip Hammond joined around 3,500 British troops at a vigil site at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan for a special Armistice Parade on the 93rd anniversary of the end of the First World War.

The commemoration comes just two days after the latest death of a British soldier in Helmand Province.

Territorial Army Private Matthew Thornton, 28, from the 4th Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment, was killed by an IED while on patrol in Babaji on Wednesday.

His death takes the number of UK personnel who have died since operations began in Afghanistan in 2001 to 385.

Speaking ahead of the parade, Mr Hammond said: "I regard it as critically important that we're here to show how important it is to us the sacrifice that is continuing to be made.

"So the ceremonies that we will have across Britain on Remembrance Sunday are not just about the war dead from the First and Second World Wars or even conflicts we've had since but this is about an ongoing sacrifice that people here are making on a daily, weekly basis that they all live with every day.

"They get up and go out with the possibility that they may be killed or injured in a combat situation and I think that makes this ceremony here especially poignant.

"It is now the only place in the world where British troops are in active daily danger and lives are being lost and I think it's a way of showing the value that we at home place on the sacrifice and the dedication and the commitment that these people are showing."

Troops on the front line in Nad e-Ali also held a vigil for those who have died in action.

Thirty-nine British soldiers have lost their lives in the area and a multi-faith and nationality vigil was held at Forward Operating Base (FOB) in Shawqat.