And this is why I love the Dutch! (Look how beautiful a gesture this is!)

[grizz]

Indeed your boys stood shoulder to shoulder...and fell...with our ANZACs.

Shoulder to shoulder, in the dark-chill of Dawn Service, we silently weep for them as yer' man's poem's recited.

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)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCrae

[Silk]

Indeed your boys stood shoulder to shoulder...and fell...with our ANZACs.

Shoulder to shoulder, in the dark-chill of Dawn Service, we silently weep for them as yer' man's poem's recited.

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)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCrae

You probably know this already Grizz but that poem is memorized by every child in Canada in their grade school years. I haven't met a person yet here who could not recite at least a few lines of it. And of course my very favourite Canadian war memorial (the Vimy Ridge Memorial in France) has a statue of "passing the torch" in reference to this poem.

And this little bit on Wikipedia is a nice background to his reason for writing that poem:

"At the age of 41, McCrae enrolled with the Canadian Expeditionary Force following the outbreak of the First World War. He had the option of joining the medical corps due to his training and age, but volunteered instead to join a fighting unit as a gunner and medical officer.^[4] It was his second tour of duty in the Canadian military. He previously fought with a volunteer force in the Second Boer War.^[5] He considered himself a soldier first; his father was a military leader in Guelph and McCrae grew up believing in the duty of fighting for his country and empire.^[6]

McCrae fought in the second battle of Ypres in the Flanders region of Belgium where the German army launched one of the first chemical attacks in the history of war. They attacked the Canadian position with chlorine gas on April 22, 1915, but were unable to break through the Canadian line which held for over two weeks. In a letter written to his mother, McCrae described the battle as a "nightmare": "For seventeen days and seventeen nights none of us have had our clothes off, nor our boots even, except occasionally. In all that time while I was awake, gunfire and rifle fire never ceased for sixty seconds ..... And behind it all was the constant background of the sights of the dead, the wounded, the maimed, and a terrible anxiety lest the line should give way."^[7]Alexis Helmer, a close friend, was killed during the battle on May 2. McCrae performed the burial service himself, at which time he noted how poppies quickly grew around the graves of those who died at Ypres. The next day, he composed the poem while sitting in the back of an ambulance.^["8]



Anyone who has a relative who fought at Ypres should be proud (and even if you don't!) What those men had to do to hold that line for the Allies until help could arrive was nothing short of remarkable.

Silk

P.S. The Australians were with us in the 3rd Battle of Ypres I know!