Ypres (Ieper), Belgium
May 29th, 2006, 07:16 AM
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Ypres (Ieper), Belgium
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.
- <i>Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD</i>
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.
- <i>Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD</i>
May 29th, 2006, 08:42 AM
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May 29th, 2006, 10:19 AM
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May 29th, 2006, 11:09 AM
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Dr. McCrae wrote In Flanders Fields after watching so many young men die including a close friend. He himself died of pneumonia in 1918 and is buried in France. On a battlefield tour, the place where the field hospital was and where he likely wrote it was pointed out to us.
Shells still explode in the area of the Vimy Memorial, too. Only sheep are allowed on that land.
Shells still explode in the area of the Vimy Memorial, too. Only sheep are allowed on that land.
May 29th, 2006, 11:16 AM
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Belgian farmers plow up shells all the time and lay them at rural crossroads. A detachment of the Belgian army picks them up regularly and takes them to out-of-the-way demolition places where they are exploded. The really dangerous ones are the old gas shells that contain tricky chemicals that still ooze from the uneploded shells. While we were on a day trip to the Ypres area a few years ago, we were shown the explosion site, near the German cemetery near Langemarck, northeast of Ypres. Sort of gives you the creeps.
May 29th, 2006, 02:15 PM
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Thank you very much Robespierre for the posting.
Last May I visited the WW1 sites at Ypres, Passchendale, Flanders. I can't recommend it enough if any visitors are in Brugge.
It was very powerful and in places upsetting. It was a visit I will never forget particularly as my grandfather had fought at Ypres.
Joe
Last May I visited the WW1 sites at Ypres, Passchendale, Flanders. I can't recommend it enough if any visitors are in Brugge.
It was very powerful and in places upsetting. It was a visit I will never forget particularly as my grandfather had fought at Ypres.
Joe
May 29th, 2006, 04:38 PM
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My husband and I were on a trip sponsored by a Belgian swine breeding stock company ten years ago. I had heard the poem but, in my stupidity, had no idea where or what it referred to. The bus trip from hog farm to hog farm pulled into Ypres on a cold, windy day, and we read the history of the town, saw the gates with the inscriptions of American and Canadian soldiers who had fought there (we even found our surname - Edge). We then went to the cemetery, and I had never witnessed such a quiet group of American farmers in my life. It was an amazing place....
