Remembrance (1)

My mother, now 80, was born in Poperinghe and lived in Kemmel up to the end of the second world war. I remember walking with her, and her late father, through the fields, and her finding a rusted hand-grenade. Bullets could be found easily in the ploughed farmland, and shell cases, rusted and broken, were stacked against pubs. Farmers still died while ploughing. The slaughter is well-documented. Whole towns lost in the taking of a ridge, only to be lost a few days later. The young men of Adlington, Chorley, and countless towns, gone, almost to a man. In Ieper, in the Cloth Hall, I remember a display of photographs. The destruction and loss of life is almost unimaginable. A few survived the war only to die in the 'flu pandemic of 1918, exhausted men and women, demobbed, packed into trains, and boats.
In memory of the many then, and the many now, in conflict and war not of their doing.

The picture is from the blog of the music critic Alex Ross.(http://www.therestisnoise.com/2005/11/le_dieu_ravel.html). I have also seen it referenced to the Imperial War Museum. A thoughtful site is http://www.greatwar.co.uk/westfront/ypsalient/ypres.htm.