Please Wear A Poppy..

[maimie]

I know that this may be the wrong forum for posting this but I feel that it is really important that we remember those who have given and continue to give their lives for us - regardless of our personal feelings of right and wrong of the situation.

Take a wee moment just to read this poem - it's really moving..

"Please wear a poppy," the lady said

And held one forth, but I shook my head.

Then I stopped and watched as she offered them there,

And her face was old and lined with care;

But beneath the scars the years had made

There remained a smile that refused to fade.

A boy came whistling down the street,

Bouncing along on care-free feet.

His smile was full of joy and fun,

"Lady," said he, "may I have one?"

When she's pinned in on he turned to say,

"Why do we wear a poppy today?"

The lady smiled in her wistful way

And answered, "This is Remembrance Day,

And the poppy there is the symbol for

The gallant men who died in war.

And because they did, you and I are free -

That's why we wear a poppy, you see.

"I had a boy about your size,

With golden hair and big blue eyes.

He loved to play and jump and shout,

Free as a bird he would race about.

As the years went by he learned and grew

and became a man - as you will, too.

"He was fine and strong, with a boyish smile,

But he'd seemed with us such a little while

When war broke out and he went away.

I still remember his face that day

When he smiled at me and said, Goodbye,

I'll be back soon, Mom, so please don't cry.

"But the war went on and he had to stay,

And all I could do was wait and pray.

His letters told of the awful fight,

(I can see it still in my dreams at night),

With the tanks and guns and cruel barbed wire,

And the mines and bullets, the bombs and fire.

"Till at last, at last, the war was won -

And that's why we wear a poppy son."

The small boy turned as if to go,

Then said, "Thanks, lady, I'm glad to know.

That sure did sound like an awful fight,

But your son - did he come back all right?"

A tear rolled down each faded check;

She shook her head, but didn't speak.

I slunk away in a sort of shame,

And if you were me you'd have done the same;

For our thanks, in giving, if oft delayed,

Thought our freedom was bought - and thousands paid!

And so when we see a poppy worn,

Let us reflect on the burden borne,

By those who gave their very all

When asked to answer their country's call

That we at home in peace might live.

Then wear a poppy! Remember - and give.

[Heilandee]

:025:

[Guest eriboll]

:025:

[+Gringo]

Wow! Gulp!...  :025:

This too

[maimie]

And the famous one...

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.

[maimie]

Well how do you do, Private William McBride

Do you mind if I sit here down by your grave side?

And I'll rest for awhile in the warm summer sun,

I've been walking all day and I'm nearly done.

I see by your gravestone you were only 19

When you joined the glorious fallen in 1916.

Well I hope you died quick and I hope you died clean

Or, Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene?

Chorus:

Did they beat the drum slowly?

Did they sound the fife lowly?

Did the rifles fire o'er ye as they lowered you down?

Did the bugles sing 'The Last Post' in chorus?

Did the pipes play 'The Flowers o' the Forest'?

And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind?

In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined

And though you died back in 1916

To that loyal heart are you always 19?

Or are you a stranger without even a name

Forever enshrined behind some glass-pane

In an old photograph torn and tattered and stained

And fading to yellow in a brown leather frame?

Chorus

Well the sun's shining now on these green fields of France,

The warm wind blows gently and the red poppies dance.

The trenches are vanished long under the plough

No gas, and no barbed wire, no guns firing now.

But here in this graveyard it's still No Man's Land

The countless white crosses in mute witness stand.

To man's blind indifference to his fellow man

And a whole generation who were butchered and damned.

Chorus

And I can't help but wonder now Willie McBride

Do all those who lie here know why they died?

Did you really believe them when they told you the cause?

You really believed that this war would end war?

But the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame -

The killing and dying - it was all done in vain.

For Willie McBride, it's all happened again

And again, and again, and again, and again.

[maimie]

[Harry Chibber]

Got a couple of poppies for me and the mrs today.. My Grampa was held as a POW during ww2 and never spoke a word of it when he came back, can't imagine what he went through!  Ah well worthy cause :025:

[maimie]

We Shall Keep the Faith

Oh! you who sleep in Flanders Fields,

Sleep sweet - to rise anew!

We caught the torch you threw

And holding high, we keep the Faith

With All who died.

We cherish, too, the poppy red

That grows on fields where valor led;

It seems to signal to the skies

That blood of heroes never dies,

But lends a lustre to the red

Of the flower that blooms above the dead

In Flanders Fields.

And now the Torch and Poppy Red

We wear in honor of our dead.

Fear not that ye have died for naught;

We'll teach the lesson that ye wrought

In Flanders Fields.

[maimie]

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?

Only the monstrous anger of the guns.

Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle

Can patter out their hasty orisons.

No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;

Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, –

The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;

And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?

Not in the hands of boys but in their eyes

Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.

The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;

Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,

And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

Wilfred Owen (March 18, 1893 – November 4, 1918)

[Dmacca]

Maimie

Well done for bringing this subject to our attention, a few years ago me Mrs Dmacca and the kids camped in Martragny near Bayeax, we visited the beeches and the cemetries museums Pegasus Bridge ETC, i would defy anyone to stand in some of those places and not feel pride for what those guys did for us some not much older than school kids, the other feeling was of immence sadness at the slaughter of so many, i have to say on both sides.

Now i dont want to start  a whole new debate that has no place on this forum but you look at Great Britain as a whole today and IMHO i wonder what those guys would think of this island that they gave their lives for.....

Me and my kids will have Poppies(and not white ones either)

Macca

[Charles Bannerman]

Dmacca... I had a similar experience to your own. My father, who survived the war, went ashore on Sword Beach with the Highland Division on June 8th 1944 (D+2) and while in France I took the opportunity to visit the British cemetery at Ranville which was a tremendously emotional eperience. We then walked down the hill to Benouville and Pegasus Bridge beside the Cafe Gondree, the first building in occupied Europe to be liberated. I had just been reading an account of the Pegasus Bridge operation and it was fascinating to see it unfold on the ground, down to the points where the gliders landed. Then my daughter and I jogged along the Caen Canal to Ouistreham at the eastern extremity of Sword beach, the reverse of the route Lord Lovat's Commandos took to relieve the Paras at the Orne bridges. The whole day was an incredibly memorable experience.

[Dmacca]

Charles was the book you read pegasus bridge D-Day; The Daring British Airbourne Raid By Stephen E. Ambrose? Its a great read especially if youve been to the Bridge and surrounding area, i personally had the feeling whilst there that you could almost be part of the event, dont know how to put it except that if it was a video you could rewind it and watch it again.

Dmacca...Dar

[Charles Bannerman]

That was the very same book. It was so vital that the Allied bridgehead remained intact from the East and in particular they had to prevent Panzers reinforcing German troops from there. The American 82nd Airborne performed a similar function at the West end of the invasion zone where (according to the Longest Day (1961)) John Wayne, despite being wheeled about Northern France with a knackered ankle, of course did the business single handedly.

When I visited Pegasus Bridge I had the book in my bag. The run down the Caen Canal over Lovat's reverse route was one of thwese things you remember for years to come.

[Charles Bannerman]

Strange, isn't it, that when Armistice Day comes around there's this preoccupation with the First World War while WW2 and other conflicts seem almost to be ignored. TV keeps churning out reruns of the Battle of the Somme, the poetry of Owen, Brook and Sassoon is wall to wall and of course there are the lines from Binyon (they shall grow not old....)

I suppose that for the first 20 years or so WW1 had the field to itself and observing Flanders etc became something of a tradition ...and indeed military casualties there were huge. We also continue to observe Armistice Day in November rather than May or August. In terms of British lives, there were about 3/4 of a million dead in 14/18 and around 400,000 if you include civilians in 39/45. But globally far more people died in WW2 compared with WW1.... 50 million as opposed to around 10.

One thing that does annoy me when there's talk of WW1 at this time of year.. people keep saying that these soldiers died in the trenches "so that we might be free". That's just simply not true. There was never the remotest chance of Britain being occupied by the Germans in 1914-18. Britain went to war in 1914 to preserve the integrity of Belgium in accordance with the Treaty of London. WW1 was essentially a continental war which almost happened by accident after massive rearmament and which Britain could have avoided, but which morally it was obliged to join. WW2 is completely different. The freedom of the nation most definitely was at stake there although once again the war was entered in support of the territorial integrity of another country, Poland.

I hope this doesn't sound like a history lesson, but I always have mixed feelings about November 11th.

[Dmacca]

I find the subject very interesting, and probably as with most people have links to it through relatives, my grandad was a member of the Highland Light Infantry he arrived in France a few days after D-Day and was promptly shot in the foot which forced his evacuation back to Britain, my other grandad took part in D_Day as part of the Royal Air Force. Of course i suppose this sounds abit cheesey now(its often rattled out but never the less true) but if it were not for the efforts made in WW2 we may now not be free to comment on this forum about our footy team or anything else that we now take for granted.

[DJS]

Normandy is indeed well worth a visit.  I've been there a couple of times as my uncle was killed on June 26th 1944 while fighting with the Seaforths in an action called Operation Epsom just to the west of Caen.  Such was the level of carnage for a number of Scottish regiments, the area of the fighting is still known as the Scottish Corridor.

[Charles Bannerman]

David ...was it the 5th Seaforths? That was who my father was with, although he was actually at HD 152 Brigade HQ, but he was right through the whole thing, including the battle for Caen which we also visited while over there. I have to say that by far the most emotional moment was the visit to the Ranville cemetery and the inevitable thought that had one man's war gone just a little differently, I would not have existed to have that experience.

I also couldn't help but muse over the amount of money the Gondree family have made in their cafe over the last 60 years, just because they were the first family in Europe to be liberated......

[DJS]

No, it was the 7th Seaforths - part of the 15th Scottish Division.  My uncle is buried at St Manvieu War Cemetery.  I really had no idea about the circumstances surrounding his death but got all the information I needed when a bit of research led me to the young officer he served as batman.  We still keep in touch.

[gordyfromsneck]

Charles,

You raise a few good points there. WW1 was, rather unsurprisingly, the first "popular" war which, as you say set mould from other European conflict. Not only were the numbers of troops involved many times greater than previous wars, but recruitment had the edge of public responsibility to it absent from other conflicts. It was everyones civic responsibility to participate. This pervaded all strata of society. The causes are still up for debate, and like all history are subject to the vagaries of selection and emphasis. Save to say, that it had an edge of inevitability, as part of the military build up brewing for several decades between the UK and Germany - they were just waiting for an excuse. Princeps action provided it and brought down the whole house of cards.

However, WW1 was the first for air raids, non-military deaths in the UK, genocide, industrial grade slaughter, propoganda, PTSD, ant-war protest, veteran anger...the list goes on. It is as much to do with the subscription funding of the war memorials, that have reshaped our landscape as anything else that WW1 has created the lead for public remembrance. Also the evocative, 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month was as memorable a shiboleth as 9/11 for our era.

As for poets, howsabout this local boy...Ewart A. MacIntosh of the Seaforth Highlanders who is only now getting some of the attention he deserves.