In Flanders Fields

In Flanders Fields
By John McCrae 

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.

Today we visited three very moving and poignant memorials to the many soldiers who lost their lives fighting in Belgium during World War I.  We drove to Ypres where we visited the Tyne Cot Cemetery, the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing, and Essex Farm Cemetery.

So many, many beautiful young lives lost.  So heartbreaking, and so frustrating that we NEVER LEARN. 

The headstone shown at the top left of this collage is the only one of over one thousand at Tyne Cot Cemetery to denounce the war:  "Sacrificed to the fallacy that war can end war."  Second Lieutenant Arthur Conway Young was only 27 years old.  The headstone on the top right of the collage broke my heart -- Valentine J. Strudwick, born on St. Valentine's Day, was struck down at the shockingly tender age of just 15, and was buried at Essex Farm Cemetery. 

The British Lion at the top of the Menin Gate (top center of the collage) faces the battle front, and the arch upon which it rests contains the names of 54,000 men and officers of the armies of the British Empire whose graves are not known.

A very sad day, but I'm glad we went and paid our respects to those brave men.