Lest we forget - Remembrance

Wargaming is a fun hobby.  It is as the title suggests ultimately a game. When we roll a 4+ for damage that miniature that is removed represents in some respects a historic causality and it is important to remember the sacrifices of those men and women (on all sides) over the years who have given their lives for their country - they are all somebody's son or daughter that will never come home again. 

This Sunday is the 11th day of the 11th month at 11am the guns of the Great War fell silent as the armistice effectively brought a close to the bloodshed. Once the conflict was over the poppy was one of the only plants to grow on the otherwise barren battlefields. The significance of the poppy as a lasting memorial symbol to the fallen was realised by the Canadian surgeon John McCrae in his poem 'In Flanders Fields':

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

Scare 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"

- Lieutenant Colonel Jon McCrae

Remembrance Day is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth of Nations member states since the end of the First World War to remember the members of their armed forces who have died in the line of duty. I don't want to get into any debate over this and each is entitled to their opinion - in my view remembrance has nothing to do with the glorification of war or imperialism rather simply remembering those who have died in the face of conflict and will never return home.

"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them"

Lest we forget