Article

2007-03-03 -Lurid Crime Tales-

Remains of First World War Soldier Identified

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Posted by Atomic Conspiracy 2007-03-03 04:10|| || Front Page|| [2 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Thanks you private Peterson. You were not forgotten. I hope his mate is identified very soon.

Posted by Besoeker 2007-03-03 05:44|| 2007-03-03 05:44|| Front Page Top

#2 Well how do you do Private William McBride,
Do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside?
And rest for awhile beneath the warm summer sun,
I've been walking all day and now I'm nearly done
I see by your gravestone you were only nineteen
When you joined the glorious fallen in 1916;
Well I hope you died quick and I hope you died clean,
Or, young Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene?

Refrain:
Did they beat the drum slowly,
Did they play the fife lowly?
Did they sound the Death March
As they lowered you down?
Did the band play
"The Last Post And Chorus?"
Did the pipes play
"The Flowers Of The Forest?"

Did you leave 'ere a wife or a sweetheart behind?
In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined?
And although you died back in 1916,
In that faithful heart are you forever nineteen?
Or are you a stranger without even a name,
Enclosed forever behind a glass pane,
In an old photograph, torn, and battered and stained,
And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame?

Ah the sun now it shines on these green fields of France,
The warm summer breeze makes the red poppies dance,
And look how the sun shines from under the clouds;
There's no gas, no barbed wire, there's no guns firing now.
But here in this graveyard is still No Man's Land,
The countless white crosses in mute witness stand
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man,
To a whole generation that was butchered and damned.

Ah, young Willie McBride, I can't help wonder why,
Did all those who lay here really know why they died?
And did they believe when they answered the call,
Did they really believe that this war would end war?
For the sorrow, the suffering, the glory, the pain,
The killing and dying were all done in vain,
For, young Willie McBride, it all happened again,
And again and again and again and again.

Mike

Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2007-03-03 07:09|| 2007-03-03 07:09|| Front Page Top

#3 Ya beat me to it, Mike! First heard that song in 1982 or so in Ireland.

Posted by Alaska Paul">Alaska Paul 2007-03-03 12:52|| 2007-03-03 12:52|| Front Page Top

#4 AP-

That's about the same time I heard it, and done live by the Irish Rovers. Still makes me stop and think...

Mike

Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2007-03-03 16:58|| 2007-03-03 16:58|| Front Page Top

#5 The Fureys and Davey Arthur. A lot of Irishmen, Scots, Welsh, and English young men went over and never came back, and don't forget the Anzacs. What a meat grinder.

Posted by Alaska Paul">Alaska Paul 2007-03-03 17:23|| 2007-03-03 17:23|| Front Page Top

#6 Battle of the Somme

British casualties for 1 July 1916:

Officers killed: 993

Other Ranks killed: 18,247

Total killed: 19,240

Total casualties (killed wounded and missing): 57,470

"In popular imagination the title 'Battle of the Somme' has become a byword for military disaster which in part stems from the cultural impact of its calamitous opening 24 hours in which the British Army suffered its highest number of casualties in a single day. The loss of great numbers of men from the same communities had a profound social impact on the home front."

Posted by Atomic Conspiracy 2007-03-03 18:42|| 2007-03-03 18:42|| Front Page Top

23:59 Eric Jablow
23:55 RD
23:53 Shipman
23:43 Shipman
23:38 Shipman
23:37 Jehadi
23:17 Chiper Threreger8956
23:16 DMFD
23:11 Chiper Threreger8956
22:53 Anonymoose
22:52 tu3031
22:49 Nimble Spemble
22:41 Nimble Spemble
22:38 USN, ret.
22:36 whatadeal
22:35 Zhang Fei
22:34 Nimble Spemble
22:32 Zhang Fei
22:31 USN, ret.
22:29 Nimble Spemble
22:28 Frank G
22:26 whatadeal
22:23 whatadeal
22:15 trailing wife