On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.
In memory of The Accrington Pals (born: various. Died: July 1, 1916.) and all the others whose lives were wasted in The Great War of 1914 - 1918.
They went to war having been lied to by the great and good of religion and politics.
They came from factory, mill and mine,
from office desk and workshop bench,
were taught to shoot and march in line,
sent to defend a mud - filled trench
leaving behind sweethearts and wives,
children they would not see grow,
commanded by a voice that drives
beyond good sense to bravado.
Singing the patriotic song
they marched towards the greedy guns,
in raging minutes they were gone.
Such senseless slaughter always numbs
emotions ~ that let us grieve the loss
of a favourite horse or dog.
We never learn to count the cost
of old men’s wars in young men’s blood.
HISTORICAL NOTE: The "pals" regiments of WW1 were recruited from within small areas thus many of them had known each other since childhood. In an example of military arrogance unsurpassed either before or since, the mayor of Accrington, a former captain in the British Army pledged that he would recruit a complete regiment from the town. The "Accrington Pals," young conscripts from the same small industrial town were assigned to serve in the same battalion of the East Lancashire regiment and on July 1, 1916 were sent "over the top," charging towards German gun emplacements. In a few minutes an entire generation of the town’s male population was virtually wiped out.
Initially the authorities tried to make propaganda of the mens' pointless deaths, proclaiming them has heroes of the British cause and the "Christian" way of life (the Germans were Christians too of course) but more recently the story has become a monument to stupidity and the corrupting effect of patriotism.
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And the "spin" continues.
Elizabeth