{"id":30240,"date":"2017-11-11T04:08:15","date_gmt":"2017-11-11T12:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=30240"},"modified":"2017-11-11T12:22:31","modified_gmt":"2017-11-11T20:22:31","slug":"in-remembrance-in-flanders-fields","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2017\/11\/11\/in-remembrance-in-flanders-fields\/","title":{"rendered":"In Remembrance — In Flanders Fields"},"content":{"rendered":"

“At the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the Great War ends. At 5 a.m. that morning, Germany, bereft of manpower and supplies and faced with imminent invasion, signed an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car outside Compi\u00e9gne, France. The First World War left nine million soldiers dead and 21 million wounded, with Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, France, and Great Britain each losing nearly a million or more lives. In addition, at least five million civilians died from disease, starvation, or exposure.” — History.com<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

In Canada, Remembrance Day was originally know as Armistice Day but it was changed as the “war to end all wars” was not the last.\u00a0 . . .\u00a0 WWII, the Korean conflict (there was actually no declaration of war\u00a0\u2014 North Korea invaded South Korea and then on 25 June 1950, the United Nations Security Council unanimously condemned the North’s invasion of the South, with United Nations Security Council Resolution 82 and the UN then provided support to South Korea in their civil war with the North), Afghanistan, peacekeeping in Cyprus, Rwanda, the Balkans, and other places.\u00a0 The Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA)\u00a0has said\u00a0that Remembrance Day is now\u00a0a day of “remembrance for the men and women who have served, and continue to serve our country during times of war, conflict, and peace.”<\/strong><\/em><\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\n We ask our soldiers to do the most horrendous thing \u2014 kill another human being \u2014 but not just once, but over and over again.\u00a0 Yet when they return home, there isn’t enough support, whether it be medical, financial especially in this economy, or moral support in dealing with all the trauma and then trying to fit in a civilian life where rules are not always so clear cut.<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\n Whether a veteran returns in a body bag, or walks off that troop carrier seemingly whole, we OWE all veterans a<\/span> debt of gratitude and support.<\/span><\/p>\n

I originally posted this in 2015.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"flanders<\/p>\n

Wild poppies grow on the verge of a Flanders field near Passchendaele as dawn breaks on the centenary of the Great War. \u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
\nBetween the crosses, row on row,
\nThat mark our place; and in the sky
\nThe larks, still bravely singing, fly
\nScarce heard amid the guns below.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

We are the Dead. Short days ago
\nWe lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
\nLoved and were loved, and now we lie
\nIn Flanders fields.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
\nTo you from failing hands we throw
\nThe torch; be yours to hold it high.
\nIf ye break faith with us who die
\nWe shall not sleep, though poppies grow
\nIn Flanders fields.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Lieutenant-Colonel<\/a>\u00a0John McCrae<\/a>,\u00a0Canadian physician<\/p>\n

\"flanders<\/p>\n

The setting sun creates long shadows at Sanctuary Wood Military Cemetery in Ypres. \u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

\"flanders<\/p>\n

The morning sun falls on the fortified Advanced Dressing Station, near Essex Farm Cemetery in Ypres, where Canadian doctor Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae treated the wounded and is believed to have composed his famous poem ‘In Flanders Fields’ after burying his friend, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, on 3 May 1915. \u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

\"ypres<\/p>\n

A preserved WWI trench system is pictured in Sanctuary Wood in Ypres. Getty<\/p>\n

\"ypres<\/p>\n

Bomb craters scar the woodland floor in the preserved Sanctuary Wood. \u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

\"ypres\"<\/p>\n

A surviving tree, damaged in the Great War, is covered in tributes. \u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Ypres was the centre of five battles between German and Allied forces from 1914 to 1918. The deadliest of these was the Third Battle of Ypres or the Battle of Passchendaele, between July and November 1917.
\nCasualty numbers are disputed, but it is thought that around 325,000 Allied and 260,000 German troops lost their lives.<\/p>\n

\"1917<\/p>\n

5 January 1917: Soldiers march past the ruins of St Martins Church and Cloth Hall in Ypres. \u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

\"1917<\/p>\n

5 October 1917: Australian troops march towards the front line to relieve their comrades, who had won Broodseinde Ridge the previous day, during the Battle of Passchendaele. \u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

\"1917<\/p>\n

11 November 1917: Soldiers pose for a photo near the ramparts at Ypres the day after British, Canadian, ANZAC, and French forces finally recaptured the Passchendaele Ridge east of Ypres. Getty<\/p>\n

\"1918<\/p>\n

19 April 1918: Soldiers lie dead in the mud on a battlefield during the Lys Offensive, also known as the Fourth Battle of Ypres. \u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

With respect for those who fought & died in Two World Wars<\/p>\n

For all the victims, and for the victims of all wars past & present<\/p>\n

Remembering the human cost of war, not the financial or political cost of warfare.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Remembering every animal not given a choice, each one\u00a0a tragic victim<\/p>\n

\u00a0of wars past and present<\/p>\n

Lest we forget<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A big thank you to Wendy Kelly, Coventry, UK, a Care2 member who sent me most of the pictures and captions<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“At the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the Great War ends. At 5 a.m. that morning, Germany, bereft of manpower and supplies and faced with imminent invasion, signed an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car outside Compi\u00e9gne, France. The First World War left nine million […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[145,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-holiday","category-politics","category-145-id","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30240\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}