Texasbanjo - Posted - 05/28/2023:  04:56:50

I post this poem every year just to remind people that lives were lost so we could keep our freedom. This time there's an answer to the original poem.

I thank all our veterans for their service to our country.

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders Fields the poppies grow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place. While in the Sky
The larks still bravely singing, fly
Unheard, amid the guns below.
We are the dead, Short days ago
We lived, felt dawns, saw sunsets glow;
Loved and were loved – but now we lie
In Flanders Field

Take up our quarrel with the foe!
To you from falling hands we throw
The torch, Be yours to bear it high!
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep tho’ poppies blow
In Flanders Field.

The Answer –

In Flanders Field the cannon boom
And fitful flashes light the gloom;
While up above, like Eagles, fly
The fierce destroyers of the sky;
With stains the earth wherein you lie
Is redder than the poppy bloom
In Flanders Field.

Sleep on ye brave! The shrieking shell,
The quaking trench, the startling yell,
The fury of the battle hell
Shall wake you not; for all is well.

Sleep peacefully, for all is well.
Your flaming torch aloft we bear,
With burning heart an oath we swear
To keep the faith to fight it through
To crush the foe, or sleep with you
In Flanders Field

paulac7 - Posted - 05/28/2023:  06:58:02

Thank you, Sherry.

BanjoLink - Posted - 05/28/2023:  08:32:20

Thanks Sherry ..... always moving ........ dedicated to those that made the ultimate sacrifice.

STUD figmo Al - Posted - 05/28/2023:  11:29:10

Allways like this yearly post..thankyou..

monstertone - Posted - 05/28/2023:  13:26:31

Too many forget, too many don't even know.
Thank you Sherry,

From Greylock to Bean Blossom - Posted - 05/28/2023:  15:00:05

Sherry,
What a wonderful post you made. I will be at services tomorrow morn. My niece and nephew will be with me as they have been for years. They know about the sacrifices made. I wear a red poppy in my wide brimmed sun hat year round when I work.
I did not serve or fight, but thanks to them for what they gave to me/us and God Bless them.
May we all "keep the faith"

Thanks,
Ken

mike gregory - Posted - 05/28/2023:  15:24:50

The original poem was written shortly after World War ONE.

The answer, decades later.

Reminds me of a TWILIGHT ZONE episode, with Barry Sullivan and Carroll O'Conner as aliens, studying us.

Dialogue went something like

"Earthlings are so perpetually violent as to need to NUMBER their global conflicts, to tell them apart."

bubbalouie - Posted - 05/28/2023:  17:33:43

I  recognize the lives of young men from my country too! 

chuckv97 - Posted - 05/28/2023:  19:02:41

Black and First Nations Canadian soldiers

Edited by - chuckv97 on 05/28/2023 19:08:45

chuckv97 - Posted - 05/28/2023:  19:06:58

My Dad sitting, far left, circa 1924

 

deVisee - Posted - 05/29/2023:  00:51:32

I live in Flanders, the poppies and WWI are still here. In the western part of Flanders (where I come from and where the WWI was fought) we call WWI the 'Great War'. It is still remembered actively, in fact it is still part of people's life here. More than 100 years later, there's still a daily bugle call at the Menenpoort in Ypres to honor all the lives lost.



If you ever visit Europe and are interested in WWI's history you MUST visit the Westhoek and Ypres, the cemeteries, the trenches (some of them are still there...). The thousands of Canadians, Australians, Indians, British, German buried here... and war is still fought on the continent, some things just never improve. 



A childhood memory for me is visiting a German cemetery in Vladslo, where a statue of a mourning mother & father by Käthe Kollwitz commemorates her son Peter who was killed there in WWI.

Edited by - deVisee on 05/29/2023 00:52:03

banjofingers89 - Posted - 05/29/2023:  03:28:56

As a 19 year old student I visited the vast cemetery and ossuary at the site of the Verdun slaughter of a generation of French and German boys.



That memory will stay with me the rest of my life.



My family lost members in WW1 on the Somme. My late aunt grew up never knowing her father. My grandmother was torn apart by grief and herself died in her 50’s. And there were also family members who returned from trenches and submarines but were never the same.

Edited by - banjofingers89 on 05/29/2023 03:31:00

Texasbanjo - Posted - 05/29/2023:  04:52:13

I post this every year in memory of my step dad who was overseas during WWII and came back a changed man. The only time he'd talk about what he saw over there was when he'd had too much to drink. I also post it to remember my next door neighbor who was in a helicopter in Viet Nam trying to retrieve wounded soldiers when the 'copter was shot down and, of course, for all the men and women who served our country: those who came back and those who gave their lives.

rinemb - Posted - 05/29/2023:  05:04:25

Following the tradition that my parents and grandparents kept, as did my wife parents… my wife and I have kept a red poppy on the visors of all our cars 365 days a year. On occasion I notice the poppy and think about it.
Sherry , thanks for posting the poem.
When the rain stops, I will re-post our flag-as we did yesterday as well. Brad

rinemb - Posted - 05/29/2023:  05:09:27

Keeping with family tradition, we decorated the graves on Sunday, and stood small flags in the bronze stands at the family veterans tombstones.
My brother is a bit of a writer and poet. While at our father’s (WWII USMC). My brother recited his thoughts on freedom and how it has been earned on the lives of so many others. Brad

banjofingers89 - Posted - 05/29/2023:  05:15:10

quote:

---

Originally posted by deVisee

I live in Flanders, the poppies and WWI are still here. In the western part of Flanders (where I come from and where the WWI was fought) we call WWI the 'Great War'. It is still remembered actively, in fact it is still part of people's life here. More than 100 years later, there's still a daily bugle call at the Menenpoort in Ypres to honor all the lives lost.



If you ever visit Europe and are interested in WWI's history you MUST visit the Westhoek and Ypres, the cemeteries, the trenches (some of them are still there...). The thousands of Canadians, Australians, Indians, British, German buried here... and war is still fought on the continent, some things just never improve. 



A childhood memory for me is visiting a German cemetery in Vladslo, where a statue of a mourning mother & father by Käthe Kollwitz commemorates her son Peter who was killed there in WWI.

 

 

---

War is horror. If I was to add one single site to your memorial choices it would be Thiepval.

cwgc.org/visit-us/find-cemeter...memorial/

The reasons don't need prior explanation. Bearing witness in physical proximity to the legion of the missing will shock your breath away.

Edited by - banjofingers89 on 05/29/2023 05:24:39

wizofos - Posted - 05/29/2023:  05:53:55

While you are thinking about the dead, also think about the survivors.
Sometimes we treat the dead better than the living.

Tommy written 1890
Rudyard Kipling
1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)

I went into a public-'ouse to get a pint o' beer,
The publican 'e up an' sez, "We serve no red-coats here."
The girls be'ind the bar they laughed an' giggled fit to die,
I outs into the street again an' to myself sez I:
O it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, go away";
But it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins", when the band begins to play,
The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,
O it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins", when the band begins to play.

I went into a theatre as sober as could be,
They gave a drunk civilian room, but 'adn't none for me;
They sent me to the gallery or round the music-'alls,
But when it comes to fightin', Lord! they'll shove me in the stalls!
For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, wait outside";
But it's "Special train for Atkins" when the trooper's on the tide,
The troopship's on the tide, my boys, the troopship's on the tide,
O it's "Special train for Atkins" when the trooper's on the tide.

Yes, makin' mock o' uniforms that guard you while you sleep
Is cheaper than them uniforms, an' they're starvation cheap;
An' hustlin' drunken soldiers when they're goin' large a bit
Is five times better business than paradin' in full kit.
Then it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, 'ow's yer soul?"
But it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll,
The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
O it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll.

We aren't no thin red 'eroes, nor we aren't no blackguards too,
But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;
An' if sometimes our conduck isn't all your fancy paints,
Why, single men in barricks don't grow into plaster saints;
While it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, fall be'ind",
But it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind,
There's trouble in the wind, my boys, there's trouble in the wind,
O it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind.

You talk o' better food for us, an' schools, an' fires, an' all:
We'll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.
Don't mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face
The Widow's Uniform is not the soldier-man's disgrace.
For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute!"
But it's "Saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot;
An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please;
An' Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool -- you bet that Tommy sees!

Paul R - Posted - 05/29/2023:  09:51:10

quote:

---

Originally posted by mike gregory

The original poem was written shortly after World War ONE.

---

Sorry, Mike, but In Flanders Fields was written during WWI - 1915 - by Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae, a Canadian doctor, after the funeral of a friend, in Flanders. This was just after the Second Battle of Ypres, where the Germans used chlorine gas. McCrae did not survive the war, He died of pneumonia in 1918. Canadians are very, very familiar with the poem. It's part of our heritage. McCrae came from Guelph, Ontario, west of Toronto.

I had a cousin who died before I was born, Royal Canadian Air Force pilot Charles Rae Barr ("Young Charlie", son of my Uncle Charlie), who was piloting a Halifax bomber when he was shot down by a German night fighter over the North Sea. 17 June, 1942. His body was washed ashore in Holland and he was buried by the Germans, I was told, "with full military honours".

Never forget.

Pilot Officer Charles Rae Barr, war grave, Bergen Op Zoom Canadian War Cemetery

 

BanjoLink - Posted - 05/29/2023:  10:02:46

Memorial Day, as noted here many times, is dedicated to those who lost their lives defending our and others freedom. For those of us who came back, and I do not know if I speak for all, there is a sense of guilt that we survived and that our fellow Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines did not. So we do not celebrate being a veteran on this day, but remember our friends and fellow service men and women that lost their lives. It should be a somber celebration reminding us of the sacrifice that they made. May Gold bless their souls!