Well tomorrow is Memorial Day, so I sent in this piece I wrote about WW1 to the local paper The Daily New, letters to the editor. And as they do from time to time, they did a little editing, which is ok, but this is the original with out the editing. THE UNINVITED A landscape once lush with fields of crops, grass laden hills with wild flowers as blankets of color. Small islands of trees and bushes dot the country side, with small quaint villages tucked away down old country roads. The sweet smell of fresh air bathed in the warm sun light of a soft spring day, where song bird calls, fill the air. Such was the land before the great war, the war to end all wars. The war came, it came uninvited, and it came for an extended stay. The once dark rich brown dirt was now black from all the blood shed that soaked into the ground till it seemed it couldnt adsorb anymore. Grass and flowers grow no more, long ago stomped down by a million soldiers feet, trees that once stood proud, now nothing but twisted splintered shapes devoid of limbs, almost unrecognizable as trees anymore. A haze now covered the sky filtering out the sun, and the stench of war fills your nostrils with the smells of death, and the only birds seen are vultures circling over head. Between the trenches of the apposing armies is no mans land, and the only man to walk there unafraid is the grim reaper himself. Over the top, and out of the trenches the opposing army advances into no mans land. Now the silence is broken, and the sounds of war erupt, explosions and the sounds of bullets, noise so loud you can almost not hear the death screams of the man next to you. A short time later all falls silent, and the thousand yards between trenches is once again littered with the dead and wounded. When the war started on the 28 of June 1914 they said theyd be home for Christmas, they just didnt tell them what year that would be. 65 million soldiers from 6 major countries would fight in this war, 10 million would never come home, and 10 million civilians would also die from war, starvation and disease. Nothing last forever, and so it is with war, on the 11th day, of the 11th month, at the 11th hour 1919 the war came to and end. The land will return to its former beauty, and the soldiers will try to forget all the sights and sounds and smells of war. The war was won, but the peace was lost. In 1939 a mere 20 years it would begin again. Now playing at your favorite battlefield, WW2, THE SEQUEL.
Posted on: Sun, 25 May 2014 20:21:33 +0000
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