Remembrance Day 2010

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.

by John McCrae, May 1915

It is thought that doctor John McCrae (30^th November 1872 — 28^th January 1918) began the draft for his famous poem ‘In Flanders Fields’ on the evening of the 2^nd May, 1915 in the second week of fighting during the Second Battle of Ypres. It is believed that the death of his friend, Alexis Helmer, was the inspiration for McCrae's poem ‘In Flanders Fields’. The exact details of when the first draft was written may never be known because there are various accounts by those who were with McCrae at that time.

OTHER READINGS -

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

Little Albert Kropp; Muller, who still carries his schoolbook; Leer, with an eye for the girls; and Pual Baumer, missed by his sick mother - these are four classmates who have volunteered for the German army in 1914, with youthful optimism. This is the story of their First World War - theirs and millions like them. We read for carnage and shell-shock, but also of small comforts and joke, tricks to get extra rations, stretches of boredom and banality. No novel has portrayed more universally what Owen, writing of the same period, called 'the pity of war'.

Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo

Like many other English soldiers in WWI, 'Tommo' Peaceful is too young to fight, however he lies about his age.  The passing time, and subsequently the chapters, is marked by a watch given to Tommo by his older brother Charlie who is also at the front. Tommo looks back, while out on the front, to his childhood with Charlie, big Joe, his simple brother and the girl he loves: Molly. As the time progresses he begins to recount the events on the front; the mutual loathing he shares with Sergeant 'horrible' Hanley and the death of some of his comrades. We learn that Charlie, Tommo's guardian and protector at the front, has disobeyed a direct order from Hanley to stay with Tommo while he is injured on No-man's-land, while fully aware of the dire consequences of his actions.

The Esccape by Robert Muchamore

Summer, 1940.

Hitler’s army is advancing towards Paris, and millions of French civilians are on the run. Amidst the chaos, two British children are being hunted by German agents. British spy Charles Henderson tries to reach them first, but he can only do it with the help of a twelve-year-old French orphan. The British secret service is about to discover that kids working undercover will help to win the war.

For official purposes, these children do not exist.