In Flanders Fields

[Kootenanny]

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

[Orson]

while riding thru a small village in Northern England, I passed a small monument in honor of the twenty or so men who had sacrificed their lives in the Great War.

It struck me that for a village of that size, twenty men must have meant an entire generation of menfolk had been lost to the war. A sobering thought.

[birdrunner]

While watching a clip on the "British Unknown Soldier" being returned to England, I saw a part about a Woman who lost her husband and all 5 sons in "The Great War".

For the record,  Canada lost

66,000 men  (of a population of 8 mill.) in WWI
     
    vs.

47, 000 (of a population of 11.2 mill.) in WWII

WWI  was a bloodbath.



This summer I visited Ypres and Vimy Ridge.     Very sobering.
           

[Oxblood]

Within a couple of years I hope to get to France to visit Normandy (Juno Beach), Dieppe, and then to Belgium to visit Paschendaele, and then to the Schorn Estuary in Holland. I will be doing so because I had the honour to have met men who were at these major battles when the storm was brewing. After that, will be a trip to Italy to visit Ortona, where again I have had the honour of meeting men who were there when the bullets were flying. I will make those trips to commemorate their scarifices.

In the meantime, in vein with Kootenanny's post, here is one of the most powerful songs commemorating the First World War, Eric Bogle's Green Fields of France as played by the Dropkick Murphy's.

http://[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrQnnZJ68Xo[/url]

[coucours grad]

Suggestion...

While in Normandy visit all of the beach's....See all of the graveyards.....


Take a good close look at what LEFT of the German defense's...

   Get the whole experience.

    There were so many different sides of that war you really need to forget where you came from to really appreciate the sacrifices made by SO MANY.

   
 
   

[Oxblood]

Suggestion...

While in Normandy visit all of the beach's....See all of the graveyards.....


Take a good close look at what LEFT of the German defense's...

   Get the whole experience.

    There were so many different sides of that war you really need to forget where you came from to really appreciate the sacrifices made by SO MANY.

    
 
  

Time allowing, I will. But I plan on Juno primarily, as I know men who waded ashore there, and have a cousin who flew over head providing much needed air support on The Day. The other parts of my tour will be to commemorate men and officers of my former Regiment that I had the fortune to meet, and who were at those battles, two of whom won the VC. Even if I have to take a leave of absence from work to do it, I will. It is a small thing to do to honour those that sacrificed so much.

[Skee]