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#792271 11/11/12 08:20 AM
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"...on the 11th hour on the 11th day in the 11th month..."

How many times have you heard that as an introduction to any memoriam to this great event of a war ending?

Have you ever wondered how world history may have changed had this Great War not happened? I have tried but find it difficult, I just don't know enough.

I was reminded this morning of that terrifying Battle of the Somme.

The Battle took just one week.

The English advanced just one mile.

The English lost 600 000 men.

The Germans lost 650 000 men.

Please take a personal minute sometime today to remember the fallen in any war, but especially this one.

Consider growing a container of red poppies - the symbol of all that was lost to the world forever.

Below is probably the most graphic poem of this evil I know.
Don't read it of you don't want to. I post it though in memoriam of all who died in France, God bless us all.


DULCE ET DECORUM EST PRO PATRIA MORI
- Wilfred Owen 1893 - 1918

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! -- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime . . .
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under I green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, --
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old lie:
Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori

Last edited by Lestie - ContainerGardens; 11/11/12 08:26 AM.

Lestie Mulholland - Container Gardening Editor

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"Things GARDENING are great ... they are my daily smiles on toast!" - Jennifer St John-Rose, formerly black thumb recently turned green.
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Thanks Lestie, I hadn't seen that poem before and it really is heart breaking.

Made our two minute silence this morning, one minute for the fallen and one minute for those they had left behind, and yes red poppies grow wild throughout Europe, so are seen often during the season but that doesn't stop one thinking of the symbolism each time.

My grandfather was one of the thousands at the Battle of the Somme, just a teenager, but he was also one of the lucky ones, he came out damaged, was in hospital for months, but alive. He would never speak about it apparently, which probably was something many who lived through it decided to do.

What was it "they" called it at the time "The War To End All Wars".

Well hopefully one day we will live by Jimmy Carter's quote "We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children".




Francine A. McKenna - German Culture Editor

German Culture Site - German Culture Facebook

Avatar: HOHENZOLLERNBRÃœCKE Cologne with CATHEDRAL and LUDWIG MUSEUM. The Bridge a symbol of how Germany was rebuilt after WWII, it was left in ruins, the Cathedral with roots in the 13th century represents the country's history, Museum of Modern Art the present day.

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Hi Francine and all,

What was it that the Jesuits were supposed to have said - something like "Give me a child until they are 7 years old and I will give you a Catholic for life."

Of course if I am wrong, or I misquote please correct me. All I want to do though is say perhaps we should be brave and intelligent enough and teach peace in our homes and schools and teach the children about the horrors of war so that we will have peacemakers for life.

Of course the story has to be the same. Just cold hard scenes and facts without some skewed interpretation by any one side who sees the 'beauty of it all' from an opposite standpoint. This last sentence is not possible, of course not, so ... ah well, there is so much I want to say about it all that I am speechless.

Lest we forget? That's a joke. We have and we do and we will and we won't. Perhaps I have to accept that it is in the nature of humanity's genes - this need for war, death and destruction.

I guess we will also continue to glorify it too.

Sic gloria transit mundi.

Sombre greetings for this post ... am off to sit in my garden and light a candle.


Lestie Mulholland - Container Gardening Editor

Container Gardening Site

Container Gardening Forum

"Things GARDENING are great ... they are my daily smiles on toast!" - Jennifer St John-Rose, formerly black thumb recently turned green.

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