8 thoughts on “The Extinction Of A Generation”

1. “In Flanders Fields” may be sung to the tune “O Tannenbaum”, or, in its English version, “O Christmas Tree”.

   Try it:

   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.

   —

   If you find yourself infected with the O Christmas Tree earworm, please consider it payback for inflicting Iron Maiden on me!

2. “In Flanders Fields” may be sung to the tune “O Tannenbaum”,

   Perhaps in theory, but it creates a travesty.

3. If you omit certain parts, it works better – for example, only two “O Christmas tree’s” and not the four often sung by children. I can’t argue that it isn’t a travesty when you try it, but if it sounds like a musical automobile accident, you’re not doing it right – I believe a fairly moving and respectful version is possible. You just have work with it a bit first. If nothing else, I bet Harry Patch would have preferred it to heavy metal. 🙂

4. If nothing else, I bet Harry Patch would have preferred it to heavy metal.

   I don’t know, I think that heavy metal is better music to represent war…

5. And Iron Maiden best of all.

   Their lead Bruce Dickenson is a History major.

   Check out their songs on the battle of Britan, on the Charge of the Light Brigade, on the storming of the Eagles Nest in WWII, being a Tail Gunner in a WWII Bomber and on life in a WWII Submarine.
   (Aces High, The Trooper, Where Eagles Dare, Tailgunner, Run Silent Run Deep respectively)

   Not to mention an 11 minute opus based on the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner of the same name.

   They are the thinking mans metal band and I have every studio album they have ever released.

6. I note that the video is a superb accompaniment to the song. I haven’t seen the remake of “All Quiet on the Western Front”, although I HAVE seen the 1930’s version (Thank you, Netflix!).

   The attack, repulse, retreat, counterattack, repulse, retreat cycle is a remarkable encapsulation of the utter hopelessness with which a soldier in that phase of the Great War might have felt. No movement, just death in vast heaps.

7. Al Stewart’s album Past, Present, and Future — a sort of musical tour of the Twentieth Century through the 70s — is particularly good on World War Two. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Past,_Present_and_Future)

   Roads to Moscow captures the entire Eastern front in a few verses — ending with the fate of Russian soldiers who were captured by the Germans, no matter how briefly.

8. My Grandfather was at Gallipoli, with the 10th Battalion, Sherwood Foresters. He was a sniper, tasked with going out into no-man’s land, and taking out high-value targets. Officers, and other snipers mainly.
   He was in the first wave in to keep the enemy’s heads down, and the last wave out.

   From there he went to the Western Front, and was at the battle of the Somme, at Theipval, where the commonwealth war cemetery is now.

   He told me when I was young about some of his experiences. His worst memory was when he was in a shell crater, and some Red Albatross fighters came over – and started strafing. He was completely exposed.

   When he got back to the trenches, he found his entire platoon had been wiped out by them.

   He too was at Paschendale, where he finally got so badly wounded, gassed, half his right arm missing, chest full of shrapnel, that he was sent back home instead of back into the line. He was still recovering in hospital many months later, when the war ended.

   Thanks Grandpa.

   In memoriam, Cpl David Brain, 10th Sherwood Foresters.

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