Hey - did you know if you click on the title of a thread it will take you to the first unread post since you last visited that thread?
but were afraid to ask: 
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Pretty Please - add it to our Events forum(s) and add to the calendar! >> 
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Nice page... the famous poem and a little history behind its composition:
https://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/flanders.htm
https://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/flanders.htm
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Flanders Field
- Thread starter Boink
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apbos
Jedi Knight
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JP
This is for you and my father a veteran of the Netherlands army.
Vlaanderens hart bloedt in zijn kollebloemen open,
tussen de kruisjes door, die, rij naast rij geplant,
het simpel teeken zijn, waaronder wij steeds hoopen,
dat onze milde dood de vree werd voor dit land.
Bij rooden dagerad volgden wij in het blauwe
den zoeten leeuwerik, wiens jubel werd gestoord
door schroot en vloek en klacht. Tot men ons kwam houwen
en op dit Vlaamsche veld ons streven werd gesmoord.
Gij, die nu na ons leeft, wij reiken u de toortsen,
verheft ze naar het licht, elk roepe een nieuwen held:
verbreekt gij onze trouw, dan wordt in wreedste koortsen
ons 't heilig verbod te slapen in dit veld:
in elken kollebloem zouden wij blijvend bloeden!
This is for you and my father a veteran of the Netherlands army.
Vlaanderens hart bloedt in zijn kollebloemen open,
tussen de kruisjes door, die, rij naast rij geplant,
het simpel teeken zijn, waaronder wij steeds hoopen,
dat onze milde dood de vree werd voor dit land.
Bij rooden dagerad volgden wij in het blauwe
den zoeten leeuwerik, wiens jubel werd gestoord
door schroot en vloek en klacht. Tot men ons kwam houwen
en op dit Vlaamsche veld ons streven werd gesmoord.
Gij, die nu na ons leeft, wij reiken u de toortsen,
verheft ze naar het licht, elk roepe een nieuwen held:
verbreekt gij onze trouw, dan wordt in wreedste koortsen
ons 't heilig verbod te slapen in dit veld:
in elken kollebloem zouden wij blijvend bloeden!
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I visited the spot where he wrote that poem.... Beside one of main roads out of Ypres, the concrete bunkers of the dressing station are still there. Windowless, dank and cramped this must have been a miserable place to live and work. The graveyard that is next to the dressing station is sandwiched between the road and the canal which run parallel to each other for a while. It is tended to meticulously, and contains the grave of the youngest soldier to die in that war together with at one Victoria Cross holder.
OP
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Would love to see that site. I've visited Verdun and the great bunkers of that battlefield (which isn't that far from Flanders, bur closer to the Ardenne forest). Stunning.
VERY few trenches left as what was a lifeless terrain has since been completely covered by trees (and undergrowth). There are a few "communicating" trenches left (from one area of trenches to another). Very stirring stuff.
VERY few trenches left as what was a lifeless terrain has since been completely covered by trees (and undergrowth). There are a few "communicating" trenches left (from one area of trenches to another). Very stirring stuff.