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Thread: Remembrance Day
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.
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.
Lest We Forget
Amen to that
Gah! I can't believe I forgot about Armistice Day. 
My respects to all the brave young men who made this a day worth remembering.
My respects to all the brave young men who made this a day worth remembering. Especially for Maniac:
French president Mitterand holding hands with German chancellor Kohl. In the coffin, an unknown soldier beneath a combined French-German flag. His nationality? Nobody knows, and it doesn't matter.
French president Mitterand holding hands with German chancellor Kohl. In the coffin, an unknown soldier beneath a combined French-German flag. His nationality? Nobody knows, and it doesn't matter.
Cool picture Louis, when was it taken ?
All my respect to those brave young men who died serving thier country's....
All my respect to those brave young men who died serving thier country's....
Every evening, since 1928, the Last Post has been sounded under the Menin Gate in Ieper (Ypres) as a salute to those who fought and died in Flanders Field between 1914-1918.
Lest we forget.
Lest we forget.
Indeed.
They fought so that we may have freedom.
As an aside, do other nations have the poppy as the symbol of rememberance?
They fought so that we may have freedom.
As an aside, do other nations have the poppy as the symbol of rememberance?
Thanks for posting the pic, Louis
It is gestures like these (or Willy Brandt's kneeling down in Warzaw, or the donations of British people for rebuilding the Frauenkirche in Dresden) that show what progress we made in Europe witn regard to putting past hostilities behind us.
May they rest in peace, and may we never forget -- nor stop trying to better the world they helped create with -- their sacrifice.
Originally Posted by Eric Bogel:
The Green Fields of France (Wille McBride)
Well, how do you do, young Willie McBride?
Do you mind if I sit here down by your grave side
And rest for a while 'neath the warm summer sun
I've been working all day and I'm nearly done
I see by your grave stone you were only nineteen
When you joined the great fallen in nineteen sixteen
I hope you died well and I hope you died clean
Or, young Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene?
Chorus:
Did they beat the drum slowly, did they play the fife lowly
Did they sound the dead march as they lowered you down
Did the band play the Last Post and Chorus?
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?
Did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind
In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined
Although you died back in nineteen sixteen
In that faithful heart are you always nineteen
Or are you a stranger without even a name
Enclosed and forever behind the glass frame
In an old photograph, torn and battered and stained
And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame.
Chorus
The sun now it shines on the green fields of France
There's a warm summer breeze that makes the red poppies dance
And look how the sun shines from under the clouds
There's no gas, no barbed wire, there's no guns firing now
But here in this graveyard it's still no man's land
The countless white crosses stand mute in the sand
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man
To a whole generation who were butchered and damned.
Chorus
Now young Willie McBride I can't help but wonder why
Do all those who lie here know why they died
And did they believe when they answered the cause
Did they really believe that this war would end wars
Well, the sorrows, the suffering, the glory, the pain
The killing and dying was all done in vain
For young Willie McBride it all happened again
And again, and again, and again, and again.
Chorus
The Green Fields of France (Wille McBride)
Well, how do you do, young Willie McBride?
Do you mind if I sit here down by your grave side
And rest for a while 'neath the warm summer sun
I've been working all day and I'm nearly done
I see by your grave stone you were only nineteen
When you joined the great fallen in nineteen sixteen
I hope you died well and I hope you died clean
Or, young Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene?
Chorus:
Did they beat the drum slowly, did they play the fife lowly
Did they sound the dead march as they lowered you down
Did the band play the Last Post and Chorus?
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?
Did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind
In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined
Although you died back in nineteen sixteen
In that faithful heart are you always nineteen
Or are you a stranger without even a name
Enclosed and forever behind the glass frame
In an old photograph, torn and battered and stained
And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame.
Chorus
The sun now it shines on the green fields of France
There's a warm summer breeze that makes the red poppies dance
And look how the sun shines from under the clouds
There's no gas, no barbed wire, there's no guns firing now
But here in this graveyard it's still no man's land
The countless white crosses stand mute in the sand
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man
To a whole generation who were butchered and damned.
Chorus
Now young Willie McBride I can't help but wonder why
Do all those who lie here know why they died
And did they believe when they answered the cause
Did they really believe that this war would end wars
Well, the sorrows, the suffering, the glory, the pain
The killing and dying was all done in vain
For young Willie McBride it all happened again
And again, and again, and again, and again.
Chorus
At least this day has some positive factor to it for me, it's my dog's birthday.
Thank You to the Brave troops
May we never have such devasatating wars again... (In other news, during today's special assembly commemorating the old pupils who died in the world wars, 7 people from my school fainted
)Lest we forget.
I salute all those fallen, and pray that such a senseless war may never happen again.
Originally Posted by Louis VI the Fat:
Especially for Maniac:
French president Mitterand holding hands with German chancellor Kohl. In the coffin, an unknown soldier beneath a combined French-German flag. His nationality? Nobody knows, and it doesn't matter.
That image remains a potent symbol of our past and our future. It is good to see our past hostilities behind us. Especially for Maniac:
French president Mitterand holding hands with German chancellor Kohl. In the coffin, an unknown soldier beneath a combined French-German flag. His nationality? Nobody knows, and it doesn't matter.
WW1 is possibly the most tragic, devastating and at the same time most influential event in modern history. For all the fallen:
There's something far more holy about Armistice Day than the American Veteran's Day. Therefore I disregard its existence and assume that Veteran's Day is a mere clerical error, and we should all be observing Armistice Day instead.Lest we forget.
Originally Posted by Reverend Joe:
There's something far more holy about Armistice Day than the American Veteran's Day.
Probably because the 11th of November is remembered by far more in far more places. There's something far more holy about Armistice Day than the American Veteran's Day. Originally Posted by LittleGrizzly:
Cool picture Louis, when was it taken ?
On September 25, 1984, 70 years after the start of the First World War, French president François Mitterrand and federal chancellor Helmut Kohl participated in a memorial service for fallen soldiers at Verdun. The Battle of Verdun (February-December 1916) had claimed the lives of more than 700,000 soldiers and came to symbolize the horror of war for both the Germans and the French. A catafalque with French and German flags was laid out in front of Douaumont Ossuary, which contains the remains of 130,000 fallen soldiers. As the national anthems of both countries played, Mitterand and Kohl joined hands – a gesture of friendship symbolizing the lessons learned from a frightful past. Cool picture Louis, when was it taken ?
It is a very iconic image.
A lot can be said of Franco-Germanic relations, or of Mitterand and Kohl* - none of which I'll go into here - but for all of that, the gesture remains a potent symbol of Europe's twentieth century.
Of all the continents, Europe is the most dramatic, the most hauntingly beautiful.
Verdun is the central place of remembrance for France. The place of myth, honour, sacrifice. Of madness and of reconcilliation. Unlike the Somme or Ypres, Verdun was never really cleared after WWI. The devastated villages were not restored, the fields were not recovered for farmland. Rather, trees were planted. It is a big forest nowadays. The soil, which received about a thousand shells per meter over the course of the war, remians very instable. Being in the north, it is also very wet. The forest is always cold and misty. To this day, lots of remains are uncovered each year, or come simply floating to the surface. The forest is haunted, souls dwell there that know no peace.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
It is impossible to tell most of the time whether uncovered remains belong to a German or Frenchman. They are put in the ossuary of Douaumont. 130.000 men lie there alone. This ossuary is what both men are looking at.
*For example, as a fun fact: before Russia bought German chancellors, France used to do so. Mitterand secretly paid Kohl 15 million euros for his election campaigns.
A haunting image indeed, Louis. 
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