Hier
Liggen hun
Lijken als
Zaden
In 't zand

Hoop Op
Den Oogst
O, Vlaanderen


HERE
THEIR BODY'S
LAY AS SEEDS
IN THE SAND

HOPING
FOR HARVEST
O, FLANDERS



From the first print of the magazine VRIJ VLAANDEREN, january 1919.

There are dozens of epitaphs here, Fabrice. Im[possibl to pick a favourite. But I like the ones with messages from Children.

http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/i...?showtopic=2521

"Retreat? Hell! We just got here!"


Attributed to several World War I Marine
Corps officers, Battle of Belleau Wood, France June 1918

Paul

Hello

bet you wouldnt be allowed to put that on a memorial now - in case it "upset" some one

Ian

favourite saying?
"If you know of a better 'ole...go to it!"

Hold yer hand out you naughty boy----I always think that my grandad etc may have whistled or sung that while in the trenches cause i cant get the bloody thing out of my head

The memorial at Anzac Cove quoting Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk)

Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives...
You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country.
Therefore rest in peace.
There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side now here in this country of ours... you, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace.
After having lost their lives on this land. They have become our sons as well.

Tim L.
Or maybe Frank Hurley who was overheard to say "no one will notice"

"It'll be over by Christmas"

I've always enjoyed irony

John

"Gentlemen, I don't know whether we are going to make history tomorrow, but at any rate we shall change geography."



The night before the start of the Battle of Messines Ridge, when the mines were to be blown in the morning

The war to end all wars.

The lamps are going out all over Europe. We may not see them lit again in our lifetime.

'We're here because
We're here because
We're here because we're here;
We're here because
We're here because
We're here because we're here'

I often feel just like them and I have no better explanation!

Regards
Carninyj

Robertson to Smith-Dorrien

" 'orace, you're for 'ome "

Robertson when not in agreement

" I've 'eard different "


Best wishes Roy

...the last entry in my great uncle's diary: "News good, not to be here long (Oct. 14, 1918)"
Unfortunately he died of shrapnel wounds on Oct. 16, 1918.

Ann

The ones that always move me are

"....you cannot fight machine guns with the breasts of gallant men"

Also

The Devonshires held this this trench.....the Devonshires hold it still"

When they ask us why we died, tell them "because our Fathers lied"

Rudyard Kipling

"Excuse me, is this a private trench, or may anyone fire out of it?"

Kipling's verse probably had something to do with him "pulling strings" to get his son in to the Irish Guards after he had been turned down on account of poor eyesight and was later killed.

His other verse, "My son was killed while laughing at some jest. I wish I knew what it were that it might serve me in times when jests are few" also relates to the way in which it was reported to him how his son had died.

Yes that one does it for me too !!!!


Cheers

Tim.

Favourite

Captain Edmund Blackadder
" Who ever'd notice another madman around here?!!"

Most touching, which we seem to be straying into

" A Soldier of the Great War - Known unto God"

and (hope the spelling is correct apologies if not)

"Gerfallen fur Deutschland"

SG

As far as I know none of these appear on headstones, but I think they speak volumes on the war.

Dolce Et Decorum Est
Pro Patria Mori
--W.Owen

I died in Hell. They called it Passchendaele.
--S.Sassoon

"Good God, did we really send men to fight in that?"
--Chief of Staff, Sir Lancelot Kiggell

Nigel,

If your Grandad was singing "Hold Your Hand Out, Naughty Boy", he might have known these words as well:

Keep your head down Alleyman.
Keep your head down Alleyman.
Last night in the pale moonlight we saw you, we saw you.
You were mending broken wire.
When we opened raid fire.
If you want to see your mother in the Fatherland
Keep your head down Alleyman.

My choice for tragic irony is the hebrew inscription on the headstones of Jewish soldiers in the German cemeteries. In a few short years, their contribution was to be denied.

From Mena Camp Egypt, 1915
Sentry: Halt. Who goes there?
Voice: Demak Patel, 614, Corporal, Ceylon Rifles
Sentry: Pass friend.
Sentry: Halt. Who goes there?
Voice: Johnson, Otago Mounted Rifles, New Zealand Expeditionary Force.
Sentry: Pass friend.
Sentry: Halt. Who goes there?
Voice: What the F*** has it got to do with you?
Sentry: Pass, Australian.
(From the Digger History site)

Not a serious one, but I like it
Cheers
Kim

I`ll be tickled to death to go (Napoo, Toodleoo, Good Byee) Phil B

Steadfast until death - just the men that Australians at home know them to be. Into the place with a joke; a dry, cynical Australian joke as often as not, holding fast through anything that man can imagine. They’re not heroes. They do not intend to be thought or spoken of as heroes. They’re just ordinary Australians, doing their particular work as their country would wish them to do it. And pray God, Australians in days to come will be worthy of them.
- C. E. W. Bean

It begs the question, Are we worthy of them?

Regards
Kim

Four and Twenty Bombers

Tune - The ball of Kirriemuir

Oh, four and twenty bombers
Gaed out at La Boiselle
An' only ane cam back again
Remarking it was hell


Singing "Wha'll dae't the next time?
Wha'll dae it the noo?
The lads that did it last time
Cannae dae it noo"

or on a light hearted note the mythical saying that always amused me by Von Reuter at Scapa Flow

"My instructions were subtle retreat!!"

Excitement at Corps HQ when a carrier pigeon arrives.

The message reads,

"Im sick of carrying this bloody pigeon 'round France!"

This is my favourite, it must have been 1914 to early 1915, as conscription was then brought in after this date.

A soldier writes from the trenches...

Dear Mother, it's a ******,
sell the pig, and buy me out..............

(reply) Dear Son, pigs dead,
soldier on !

When this lousy war is over no more soldiering for me,
When I get my civvy clothes on, oh how happy I shall be.
No more church parades on Sunday, no more begging for a pass.
You can tell the sergeant-major to stick his passes up his a***.

When this lousy war is over no more soldiering for me,
When I get my civvy clothes on, oh how happy I shall be.
No more NCOs to curse me, no more rotten army stew.
You can tell the old cook-sergeant, to stick his stew right up his flue.

When this lousy war is over no more soldiering for me,
When I get my civvy clothes on, oh how happy I shall be.
No more sergeants bawling, 'Pick it up' and 'Put it down'
If I meet the ugly b****** I'll kick his a*** all over town

Oh, the word is 'b u g g e r' by the way

How about Robertson...'GET 'AIG!'

although the Tommie's 'franglais' still always gets me...'napoo', 'san fairy ann', etc, and those wonderful names for (to them) unpronouncable places; Whitesheet, Eat Apples, Wipers, Funky Villas, etc

General Rawlinson:This is most unsatifactory.Where are the Sherwood Foresters?Where are the East Lancashires on the right?
Brigadier-General Oxley:They are lying out in No-Man's-Land,sir,and most of them will never stand again.
9th May 1915 Battle of Aubers Ridge France in which my wife's uncle was killed.

From an Australian infantryman at Lone Pine, 5.00pm Aug 6th, 1915:

"Move along there fellas, him and me are mates, and we're going over together"

And from Charles Bean, Australia's historian:

But the Australian Imperial Force is not dead. That famous army of generous men marches still down the long lane of its countrys history, with bands playing and rifles slung, with packs on shoulders, white dust on boots, and bayonet scabbards and entrenching tools flapping on countless thighs - as the French countryfolk and the fellaheen of Egypt knew it.

What these men did nothing can alter now. The good and the bad, the greatness and smallness of their story will stand. Whatever of glory it contains nothing now can lessen. It rises, as it will always rise, above the mist of ages, a monument to great-hearted men; and for their nation, a possession forever.

"They don't like it up'um." (cold steel, that is)

Bruce

Damn the Dardenelles, they shall be our grave!
--Jackie Fisher

I don't remember the entire poem, but the line "I've a rendezvous with Death, at some disputed barricade" always sticks in my mind.

"Send more cigars"
Gottfried

"There seems to be something dreadfully wrong with our ships today."
Jellicoe at Jutland

"Steer two points closer to the enemy"

The last two are surely Beatty, not Jellicoe. He's also supposed to have added "and something wrong with our system".


Fisher is supposed to have gone even more ape than usual at the "turn two points towards" bit, as he was convinced he'd provided the Grand Fleet with ships that outranged the HSSF's, and that they should have stayed out at long range. Given the weakness in armour of the earlier BCs, that's a moot point, at best.

I thought Beatty too when I remembered the quotation.

Wasn't he attempting to get within torpedo range as the British shelling wasn't having the desired effect, either through less than precise gunnery and/or the better armour of the German ships?

Didn't Beatty get critisized for altering course after the guns were laid (or the calculations for laying them were well advanced), which meant the gunnery officers had to start again while the gap was closing?

Bruce

'Plugstreet' and we 'Got mittuns too' !

I was struck by the simple 'In Memoriam' entry of Mrs Phelps, widow of Corporal W.H.T.Phelps (Swansea Battalion), placed on the 10 July 1917 a year after her husband was killed in the attack on Mametz Wood:

In manhood's prime he nobly died
That wrong should not the right o'eride

Isn't that why they all went off to the war? And the same in 1939?

And when the stakes are high enough and the cause is just should we not all follow suit? If we have the guts to...

Bernard

What about 'It's unlucky to be killed on a Friday'? I read it in one of the accounts but I can't remember which one. (It's probably in a few.)