Remembrance Day

This weekend marks the one hundredth anniversary of the beginning of The Great War. For those of us in the USA, that would be World War I.

I think Americans are largely emotionally removed from this war. We see reminders of it every once in a while doing genealogy research; we think, "how great to have these World War 1 Draft cards with so much wonderful info on them." And it is wonderful, but those cards come at a heavy cost.

In Britain especially, France and Belgium, Remembrance Day is exceptionally poignant and deep felt, even 100 years later. The total number of casualties during World War 1 was over 37 million, including 10 million military men perishing and 7 million civilians. In Britain alone, 1 million men in their prime were killed, and another 1 million so gravely wounded that they were never able to again function in society. That is 2% of their population at the time.

Classics such as All Quiet on the Western Front, document the horrific fighting conditions of this Great War. This book particularly is perhaps the seminal work of the century, bringing to life the heavy cost of freedom. It ought to be required reading for every high schooler studying the modern day period, or world history. The film by the same name starring Lew Ayres, ought to be compulsory viewing on November 11, since every one "has the day off" anyway. In fact, now that I've thought about it, there's an independent film theater near me. I think I will suggest it.

Charles Todd wrote a series of fiction novels starring Inspector Ian Rutledge, the first of which is entitled "A Test of Wills: the First Ian Rutledge Mysteries." Inspector Rutledge is an up and coming detective when he is sent to fight on the western front in WW1. The series picks up as he has come home with shell shock. WW1 gave us this term which resulted from men fighting in vertical trenches, dug 5-6 feet deep and only about 2 feet wide: "just barely big enough" as the saying went, "for a man to die in." Mortars would explode in and around fighting men with no where to really go for cover, they'd just have to "deal with it," hence the name. Charles Todd does an exemplary job of describing the difficulties British men and women had not only reintegrating into society, but the terrible toll on the men's families and society as a whole. The series is a great read and I recommend all of them.

Here in California, there are numerous Veterans organizations selling red poppies for Remembrance Day in front of grocery stores, with proceeds going to help veteran's causes. Most people pass by without much of a thought. I wonder if many actually know how the red poppy became a symbol of the sacrifice made by so many?

In the fighting areas, particularly France and Belgium, the devastation caused to the landscape created a wasteland of churned up soil, smashed up woods, fields and streams. It was so severe, nothing would have grown there.

The spring of 1915 the weather in the region of Ypres, Belgian Flanders, was unusually warm. Ypres was the site of one of the worst battles in WW1. The ground had been so disturbed by the fighting that the poppy seeds were randomly disbursed over the ground. When spring arrived, volunteer poppy plants started popping up spontaneously, covering the fields with delicate, vibrant flowers- a start contrast to the horrors of war.

The flowers caught the eye of Canadian soldier John McCrae, who penned what has become the immortal words of the poem, "In Flanders Fields":

In Flanders field 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.

This poem inspired American Moina Belle Michael and Frenchwoman Anna Geurin, to encourage people to use the red poppy as a symbol of the sacrifice of so many in the Great War. In England this year, to honor the 100th anniversary, ceramic poppies have been planted near the Tower of London, one for each British, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh life lost in World War I. It is an incredible sight:

As we near the official marking of Remembrance Day here in the USA, November 11th, I hope that we will pause and reflect on the great price freedom costs.