In Flanders Fields

[reddogge]

This poem by Rudyard Kipling written in 1915 upon learning of the death of his only son Jack in the war is one of the saddest WW1 poems I've ever read. I don't mean to hijack the thread but it's another great WW1 poem.

My Boy Jack


"Have you news of my boy Jack?"
Not this tide.
"When d'you think that he'll come back?"
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.

"Has any one else had word of him?"
Not this tide.
For what is sunk will hardly swim,
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.

"Oh, dear, what comfort can I find?"
None this tide,
Nor any tide,
Except he did not shame his kind —
Not even with that wind blowing, and that tide.

Then hold your head up all the more,
This tide,
And every tide;
Because he was the son you bore,
And gave to that wind blowing and that tide!

 

[islandguy]

On the first day of the Somme offensive, the British Empire incurred 57,000 casualties. FIFTY-SEVEN THOUSAND. Of those, 20,000 were killed in action. It is said that 10,000 men died before breakfast. There is nothing further I can say that does not sound like a trivial cliché. Bill S

The Royal Newfoundland Regiment had a hard day of it. So far as can be ascertained, 22 officers and 758 other ranks were directly involved in the advance. Of these, ALL the officers and slightly under 658 other ranks became casualties. Of the 780 men who went forward only about 110 survived unscathed, of whom only 68 were available for roll call the following day. For all intents and purposes the Newfoundland Regiment had been wiped out, the unit as a whole having suffered a casualty rate of approximately 80%. The only unit to suffer greater casualties during the attack was the 10th Battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment, attacking west of Fricourt village. RIP you brave volunteers.

 

[HOUSTON RICK]

In Flander's fields..

 

[SteveA]

My grandfather and a number of great uncles served in the AEF, grandfather in the 42nd Rainbow Division under MacArthur. Grandfather died in '33 so I never knew him. Had a number of WWI vets on my paper route in the late '70s who were wonderful guys. In '82 my Dad took us kids to Britain to see family and I met a cousin who was badly wounded and paralyzed on the first day of the Somme, July 1, 1916. He'd been in a wheelchair since. Wonderful man to talk to, but growing up with a WWII vet father, I didn't directly ask him about the war. He volunteered some things, but nothing about that battle or day.

 

[Jack Flash]

Casualties were enormous in that war.


In The Guns of August, Barbara Tuchman says that many French high schools had memorial plaques for their young graduates who died in the war. Some of these plaques said only "The Class of 1912", "The Class of 1914", ...


Every man in the entire class was killed in the war.

 

[Alk8944]

I'm glad someone else recalls calling it Armistice Day.

Not only do I remember Armistice Day, to me it still is and ever shall be! My Grandfather was a WW I Veteran, a Lieutenant in the Army Signal Corps, Balloon Corps. He died in 1970 when I was 26 years old. I possess his FAI Balloon pilots license.

Every "Decoration Day" my Grandfather and I would make the tour of the local cemeteries and put flowers on the graves of family and others who had meant something to him. One had been his Butler for years and had died during WWII. I wish I had paid more attention in one cemetery, I have no idea who was buried there but we always went.

As with Armistice Day May 30 will forever be Decoration Day to me as that is how my Grandfather always referred to it, even though it has officially been Memorial Day since before I was born! And it is really on May 30, no matter if officially it is the last Monday in May to give a long weekend. Emotionally to me it is a Sunday too! It always felt like one when we were visiting the graves at several cemeteries!

 

[Onomea]

My paternal grandfather was a chaplain, with a rank of captain in the artillery, in WWI. I have inherited his communion set, and his ID bracelet, from that war.

(And to think a mere 20-25 years later, we were back at it again... Man's folly is truly unfathomable...)