Remembrance Day

Usually there are a few days separating Remembrance Day and Veteran's Day. This year they fall on the same day.  Whether you are in the USA celebrating Veteran's Day or in Canada, UK, Australia of other parts of the world where they celebrate Remembrance Day, just do not forget the price others have paid for your freedom.

John McCrae, a Canadian doctor trying to save life in the middle of this Hell, lost a good friend.  His grief prompted him to write "In Flanders Fields."

In Flanders Fields

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.

 

Many of the deadliest battles of World War I were in northern France and southwest Belgium, also known as Flanders and Picardy. The British were determined to hold the Germans and to keep them from Flanders and the Ypres river valley, thus from reaching the port of Calais.

The destruction from the battles in this area reached beyond the battlefield to the towns and roads of the area, and led to the demolition of buildings, roads, and all plant life, leaving only mud.  Into this sea of mud, the fallen soldiers were interred.  In the spring of 1915, red poppies flourished in the fields of the Ypres, covering the newly dug graves.

Remembrance Day - A Reason I Blog for Peace - Dona Nobis Pacem