Remembrance Day – Veterans Day – 2012

Posted on Sun 11/11/2012 by TonyfromOz

As the Great War (World War 1) was drawing to a close, on the 5th October 1918, the German High Command asked for an immediate Armistice and an end to all hostilities.

Word of this had to be sent down to all the many areas where fighting was still taking place.

The time settled upon for the ceasefire and the ending of hostilities was set for 11AM on the 11th day of the 11th Month, November, of that same year, 1918.

That time on that day was then forever set in stone as Remembrance Day, or Armistice Day, or, as it is called in the U.S. Veterans Day.

From that day on, this time on that date is set down so that we can be reminded never to let anything of this scale happen ever again.

This day is a day when we remember the meaning of what this special day signifies, as well as remembering all those men who paid the ultimate sacrifice in the service of their Country in every conflict.

On this day, we also give special thanks to those men and women currently serving in all branches of the Military Armed Services in or own Countries.

The poppy flower is traditionally used to remember this special day in some Countries across the World, Australia, my Country, being one of those. That flower, the Poppy, is the flower that grew prolifically in those terrible fields of battle during that Great War, all along the Somme River, in the area known as Flanders. That flower was most poignantly referred to in the following poem.

IN FLANDERS FIELDS – John McCrae

During the Second Battle of Ypres a Canadian artillery officer, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, was killed on 2 May, 1915 by an exploding shell. He was a friend of the Canadian military doctor Major John McCrae. (Later Lieutenant Colonel)

John was asked to conduct the burial service owing to the chaplain being called away on duty elsewhere. It is believed that later that evening John began the draft for his famous poem ‘In Flanders Fields’.

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.

In my Country Australia, as well as in the U.S. and many other Countries, on this day we take time to ponder on the futility of all conflict, and we pause to remember the many men it took away from us all.

Lest We Forget.

In the following earlier Post from Remembrance Day in 2009, I wrote of the significance of an Australian in that Great War.

Remembrance Day And The Importance Of Australia’s General Sir John Monash