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Today in Australia is Remembrance Day which saw us as a small nation lose a fair bit of the then young generation in a war that saw us find our identity as a nation on the battlefield in that it fostered mateship, honour, respect and a dogged determination to get things done no matter what the situation was.
It was a war where new technology met with old battle tactics and cost millions of lives in a war that was supposed to be the war to end all wars.


According to the First World War page on the Australian War Memorial website from a population of fewer than five million, 416,809 men enlisted, of which over 60,000 were killed and 156,000 wounded, gassed, or taken prisoner. The latest figure for those killed is given as 62,000.

On the 11th hour of the 11th day on the 11th month Lest We Forget.

 

[Doug Roberts]

Poppies

Aren't poppies a symbol of Remembrance Day?

IN FLANDERS FIELDS

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.

 

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Aren't poppies a symbol of Remembrance Day?

IN FLANDERS FIELDS

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.

They certainly are. Apparently they were the 1st flowers that started to grow after all the devastation so they hold a special place in Australian and English hearts.
Each poppy represents a dead soldier.