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From HorseBack UK
Usually, on Remembrance Sunday, we give you a line of poetry - one of the great poems of remembrance that everyone knows so well, one whose lines might be going through our heads as we stand silent at 11 am.
But this time we’ve found something a little different. It is a piece of writing of such passion, unflinching truth and heartbreak, perhaps with a little fury in it too, and we could not think of anything more moving or apposite.
It is by David Mace, and it was written in 2008.
Some Corner of a Foreign Field
We read the books, we watch the movies; read newspapers... maybe write a line or so, of poetry; or watch on TV, any night something, somewhere, of some War... the Media Circus, we all know; but, to see the cost; then to the North of England, you should go.
For you can pick up any map, choose any town or village there, and should you travel to that place, then you are quickly made aware of what War really is about... for each place has its own Stone Cross...The War Memorial; all closely carved with the Communal loss of a Generation... all the young men from close-cobbled lanes, who volunteered to fight for King and Country... few came home again.
Grandfather said Recruiting Sergeants travelled round the local pubs, patriotic fervour... whipping up, in Alehouses and Clubs.
Perhaps, in tow... some floozy from some Music Hall, who danced and sang, drawing in the young men, with the... “Come on boys, prove you’re a Man. Come and take the King’s Shilling... sign upon the dotted line. All your pals are joining up. Don’t be scared, you’ll be just fine!“
And “Pals,“ then, was the fateful word... some fool in Whitehall hatched a plan to keep the men from each place, all together in a close-knit band; called “The Pals Battalions,“ who would fight together... side by side; not for comradeship... more fear of shaming in each others eyes.
And the young men flooded in; perhaps, to escape drudgery of Dark, Satanic Mills, Pin Factories or Blistering Iron Foundries.
“By Christmas, it will all be over“... but, so little, did they know, and, in their hundreds, they signed up, a’soldiering in France, to go.
But, as they marched out of their villages and towns, to cheering crowds, with flags and bunting gaily waving... old men turned, and said out loud to each other, shaking heads... no good at all, would come of this; for in a charge, the Boche could wipe the village out... they could not miss. And, it was not for nothing, they decried this Military travesty, for these old men had fought the Boers, and quelled the Indian Mutiny. Knowing then, what modern weaponry could do to flesh and bone; knowing that the General Staff were so remote, and quite alone in their belief that Flanders could be fought, the same as Waterloo; “Lions led by Donkeys“ is the phrase Historians use... how true.
The truth is this... forget TV, and what is on the Silver Screen; forget the faded photographs, for none of this is what it seems.
Forget the grainy film of “No Mans’ Land,“ and “Going over the Top“...all filmed at home, on Salisbury Plain... a truthless, propaganda sop fed to the public in the Picture Palaces, to boost morale, coercing them to buy War Bonds... concealing truth about “The Pals.“
For, “Going over the Top“ was very close to orderly suicide... bayonets fixed, all waiting for the whistle, standing side by side.
Then, the scramble from the trench... and walking forwards, steadily into “No Mans’ Land“... the tangled barbed wire... and Eternity. Shoulder then, to shoulder; trudging on towards the German wire, and, shoulder then, to shoulder; swift, mown down, by vicious, withering fire from machine guns, well dug in, all along the parapet of the German Front line trench... how could they run that lead gauntlet?
July, the first, 1916... the bloody first day of the Somme.
The Accrington Pals, strength seven hundred; close, six hundred dead and gone.
So, too; the Leeds Pals, strength nine hundred... above three quarters cut to shreds, repeated all along the Front... The Big Push... in which, it is said The Flower of English youth was sacrificed that day, for an ideal; innocence had died that day... traditional tactics proved unreal.
The cost?... the whistles shrilled at half-past seven on that sunny morn; by 10 o’clock... the British losses... fifty-two thousand men were gone. Most of those within the first hour, whole platoons of Pals cut down; killed or wounded, out in No Man’s Land... for a few yards of ground.
And, at the closing of the day, the Pals Battalions, all, were gone; sixty thousand men were lost, that bloody First day on the Somme.
And, through the Northern towns and villages, the church bells tolled forlorn, for days...in Accrington and Barnsley, Bradford, Leeds... they all were gone. Brothers, cousins, workmates, friends, in the same factories, pits, or mills, who often lived in the same street, had gone to the same school, and still had courted the same sweethearts, or by marriage, were related too; the Pals, the Chums... so thickly then, their corpses, Flanders Fields, bestrew.
Scarce a household left untouched... scarce a house, no curtains drawn; smoky, cobbled streets all shrouded, silent... grief, so bravely borne. All together, tied by bonds of local pride, they marched away, all together, bonded now, in Death... in Flanders Field, they lay.
The Great War, called “The War to end all Wars“... the facile arrogance of Politicians, who saw nothing of the carnage there, in France and Belgium...and, there have been many conflicts since, more bloody war, have we not learned a thing, these years?
Is it not time we cried, “No More?“ For if the Politicians had to fight... then, would there still be Wars? Somehow, l don’t think so... for them, the cure would be worse, than the cause.
lf you ever chance to visit Northern England, just seek out the Local War Memorial; count the family names... if you should doubt. See there, the Flower of a Generation squandered, out of hand...sometimes, still... the echoes ripple through this green, and pleasant land.
Every family in the North was touched by that day, it is said, in some way or another... someone missing, someone maimed... or dead. For every nine sent out in No Man’s Land, five casualties went down, and of those five, a third were killed... or nothing of them, ever found. A Husband, Son, or Brother; Cousin, Friend, or Lover, lost that day; no-one imagined this, as they stood, cheering them upon their way, back then, down the same cobbled streets; with curtains drawn now, silently; all round the smoky, terraced houses, grief now hanging, heavily.
A loss that almost robbed a Nation of its future... such a debt yet owed to those who still sleep, lost in Flanders Field...
Lest We Forget.
David Mace, 2008
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