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.
— John McCrae (1872-1918)
The poem “Flanders Fields” was written in 1915 by John McCrae, a Canadian doctor, the day after the funeral of a friend and former student, Alexis Helmer. McCrae fought on the Western Front in 1914, but was reassigned to a French hospital. His asthma exacerbated by poison gas exposure, he died of pneumonia and meningitis while on active duty in 1918.
I see we’re thinking the same today…
I still think WW1 is now the forgotten war, even more than Korea. With very few men surviving from it today, it’s only a matter of time before it completely falls off the radar in the US.
Europe, on the other hand, will never forget.
Well, heck, for us, 11/11 is “Veterans Day” (as opposed to the separate Memorial Day holiday) and isn’t a holiday for most folks.
On the other hand, the war basically gutted a generation of European men. It’s not surprising that they still remember. The impact there was much greater — and far more negative — than it was on the US.