Author Topic: Armistice Day...  (Read 1486 times)

Offline St. George

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Armistice Day...
« on: November 11, 2013, 09:59:04 AM »
 St. George's Notes - Armistice Day...


Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae was assigned as the Surgeon to the Canadian First Field Artillery Brigade.

He had served during the Boer War, and was no stranger to hardship and carnage, but the fighting in the Ypres Salient was so horrendous, that it caused him to write this as a sort of release, after he'd just buried a friend.

It was penned at the Dressing Station on the banks of the Canal de l'Yser.

Dissatisfied with it, McCrae tossed the poem away, but a fellow officer retrieved it and sent it to
newspapers in England.

'The Spectator', in London, rejected it, but 'Punch' published it on 8 December 1915.

He died while on active service on the 28 day of January, 1918.

Before his death, he wrote:

'In Flanders fields the poppies grow
Between the crosses, row on row.
That mark our place; and in the sky,
The larks, still bravely singing, fly,
Scarce heard amidst 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 lift it high.
If ye break faith with those who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies blow
In Flanders fields.

After the Great War, this poem was read at Armistice Day gatherings, celebrating the end of the 'War to End All Wars', on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

Like Decoration Day - it was a time for reflection and for cleaning the gravestones of loved ones.

Then - some bright soul decided that - since folks were generally all off work - that they could also use their time to buy things - and they could buy even 'more' things and go places to spend money if they combined a couple of days set aside by a grateful Nation to honor their war dead, and re-named them to call them 'Veteran's Day' - and thus - the four-day weekend was born.

Go - buy stuff, and enjoy yourself - but in between trips to the mall - swing by the cemetary and take just a couple of minutes to tell someone 'Thanks'.

They'll appreciate the gesture.

Vaya,

Scouts Out!
"It Wasn't Cowboys and Ponies - It Was Horses and Men.
It Wasn't Schoolboys and Ladies - It Was Cowtowns and Sin..."

Offline PJ Hardtack

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Re: Armistice Day...
« Reply #1 on: November 11, 2013, 10:24:04 AM »
Well said, St. George.

McCrae's poem is often erroneously thought of as a paean of peace, but it is really a call to battle, urging us to carry the fight forward.

There is another poem that reminds us that it is the veteran we owe for our freedoms, not the politicians, statesmen and diplomats that failed in their duties to avert war.

I'm going to read some Kipling today and later go out hunting or shooting. I've been on all the Remembrance Day parades I can abide, standing by hypocritical politicians that have cut back on veteran's benefits while paying lip service to their devotion and sacrifice.

This evening I'm going to watch "Passchendaele", arguably one of the best war movies ever. It's the story of the victory of the Canadian Corps in WWI that cost 5.000 lives.  The following spring the Germans retook it in a week long battle. This battle, along with Vimy Ridge (deemed impregnable by the British High Command), established Canada as a nation on it's own, it's Army no longer part of the British Army.
"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, I won't be laid a hand on.
I don't do these things to others and I require the same from them."  John Wayne

Offline Garand

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Re: Armistice Day...
« Reply #2 on: November 22, 2013, 04:32:31 PM »
Frankly I thought it was one of the worst Canadian made war movie ever, and I work with some of the actors and was at the Premiere. They are Reg Force. It was either a good war movie, or it was a great love story, but combining them made a s**t movie. "The Somme"(2005) or "The Trench"(1999) with Daniel Craig far better represented the reality of the WW1 Commonwealth soldier.
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Re: Armistice Day...
« Reply #3 on: Today at 12:36:02 PM »

Offline PJ Hardtack

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Re: Armistice Day...
« Reply #3 on: November 22, 2013, 06:15:01 PM »
As a war movie, it had it's faults; as a love story in a war setting, it was great. It did a good representation of life in the trenches, crawling in the mud, and the shocking waste of good men. No one else was likely to do a movie on a Canadian battle honour.

Following our graduation parade from PPCLI Depot, the CO gave this short speech - "Welcome to the brotherhood of the Canadian Army and the world of the universal Infantryman; the dirtiest, most thankless job in the world.
Don't do anyone any dirt as your reputation will precede you; they'll just have to get used to your face. Parade - DISMISSED!"

That was about the best advice I ever got.
"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, I won't be laid a hand on.
I don't do these things to others and I require the same from them."  John Wayne

 

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