The History behind wearing the Poppy on Remembrance Day

The tradition of wearing a poppy on Remembrance Day stems directly from the poem "In Flanders Fields" by John McCrea.
Lieutenant Colonel John McCrea was a Canadian physician, whom at the time was located at, what is now, the Common Wealth War Graves Essex Farm situated just north of Ypres (Iepre in Flemish), Belgium during the First World War

the field dressing station at Essex Farm

On the 22nd April 1915 the Germans launched the 2nd Battle of Ypres with a gas attack. This was the first time that gas had been used as a weapon.
During the battle McCrae was running a Field Dressing Station on the main road between Ieper and Boezinge. The local farm had been nicknamed Essex Farm and it was this name that was eventually to be given to the cemetery, which had grown up alongside the Dressing Station.
As the battle reached its height with the secondary attacks against the Canadian positions, the Field Dressing Station ended up even closer to the front line.
On the 3rd May 1915 McCrae composed one of the most famous and popular poems to come from the war, in response to the death of his friend the day before.

'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.

Essex Farm Cemetery monument to John McCrea

John McCrea died suddenly on January 28th 1918 in France in a British Field Army Hospital from a self-diagnosed case of pneumonia, brought on from chronic asthma and the lingering effects of the German gas attack. He is buried in the Wimereux Communal Cemetery, just south of Calais on the coast of France

In 1918 Moina Michael, an American war secretary with the YMCA, was deeply moved by McCrae's work and it was she who first wore a poppy as act of keeping the faith. Others that she had bought she sold to friends, giving the money to Servicemen in need.
In 1920 Madame Guerin from the French YMCA, inspired by this idea, suggested that artificial poppies should be made and sold to help ex-Servicemen and their dependants.
The idea of mass producing poppies and selling them as a charity was put to Field Marshal Earl Haig in 1921 and he agreed with the idea. Thus the Royal British Legion's annual Poppy Day was brought into being and so too for the veterans groups throughout the Commonwealth.

Canadian National Vimy Memorial, National Historic Sites of Canada, Vimy Ridge, France - An Easy Day Trip from Paris

the approach to the Vimy Ridge Memorial

Early in 1917, the Allies launched another massive offensive, ever determined to achieve the elusive breakthrough. This time the plans called for a French offensive in the south between Reims and Soissons, combined with British diversionary attacks about Arras. The Germans, meanwhile, quietly withdrew to strong new defences, the Hindenburg Line. In so doing they exchanged a long, bulging line for a well-situated shorter one, which they fortified with powerful modern devices.

The Canadian share of the British assault was the seizure of Vimy Ridge. The task was formidable. For the Germans it was a vital key in their defence system and they had fortified it well. The slopes, which were in the Germans favour, were interlaced with an elaborate system of trenches, dugouts and tunnels heavily protected by barbed wire and machine guns, and defended from a distance by German artillery. They had even installed electric lights, a telephone exchange, and a light railway to maintain supplies of ammunition. All previous attempts to take the Ridge had failed.

Canadian commanders, however, had learned well the bitter lessons of assault by vulnerable infantry, such as those that had occurred the previous year at the Somme. This time the preparation was elaborate and the planning thorough. Engineers dug great tunnels into the Ridge; roads and light railways were built; signals and supplies were ready. The operation was to be supported by a large concentration of heavy guns and howitzers, and full artillery. The men too were fully prepared. The area was simulated behind the lines and troops practised their roles until every man was familiar with the ground and the tactics expected of him.

Preliminary bombardment, designed to conceal the exact time and extent of the attack, began on March 20. It was intensified from April 2 with such crushing blows that the enemy called the period "the week of suffering". On the night of April 8 all was ready and the infantry moved to the prepared forward positions.

The attack began at dawn on Easter Monday, April 9. All four divisions of the Canadian Corps - moving forward together for the first time - swept up the Ridge in the midst of driving wind, snow and sleet. Preceded by a perfectly timed artillery barrage the Canadians advanced. By mid-afternoon the Canadian Divisions were in command of the whole crest of the Ridge with the exception of two features known as Hill 145 and the Pimple. Three days later these too were taken.

In 1922, the French Government granted "freely, and for all time, to the Government of Canada the free use of the land exempt from all taxes" 100 hectares of land at Vimy Ridge. A Canadian architect and sculptor, the late Walter Seymour Allward, designed the Canadian National Vimy Monument. His design was selected from 160 others submitted by Canadians who participated in a competition held in the early 1920s. Work began on the monument in 1925 and eleven years later, on July 26, 1936 it was unveiled by King Edward VIII.

 

Canadian Line Sniper Positions

Like Beaumont-Hamel much of the site has been left “insitu” with shell holes pock-marking the landscape from the artillery bombardments. On average there were 5 shells per square foot over the 14kms front, as a result much of the park is closed to visitors because of still unexploded munitions, as a result the grass in these areas are not cut by machine but by grazing sheep. Sections of German and Canadian trenches have been preserved with concrete sandbags, the “Grange Subway” has also been preserved, one of the numerous underground tunnels, used for bringing up supplies and as protection for the troops, so visitors can picture the enormity of the tasks facing the forces on both sides of the war.

the landscape of Vimy Ridge

The monument is located on the highest elevation of the ridge, overlooking the Douai Plains. It is a massive17,000 tonnes of concrete and limestone. Upon it is carved the names of 11,285 Canadian soldiers who were killed in France and whose final resting place remains unknown. The memorial also contains numerous carved features and statues, which symbolize peace and sacrifice.



The front wall, normally mistaken for the rear, as the monument is approached from the rear, contains at the base of the steps on each side of the front wall the ‘Defenders’; The ‘Breaking of the Sword’ is located at the left of the front wall while ‘Sympathy for the Helpless’ is located at the right corner. Above each there is a cannon barrel draped in laurel and olive branches carved into the wall, to symbolize peace.

The Front of the Vimy Ridge Memorial

The figure of a cloaked young female stands on top of the front wall and overlooks the Douai Plains where over 7,000 Canadians are buried in 30 war cemeteries within a 16 km radius of the Vimy Memorial. The woman has her head bowed, her eyes cast down, and her chin resting in one hand. The saddened figure represents Canada – young nation mourning her dead. The statue is the largest in the monument and is a single 30 tonne piece of limestone. Below her, at ground level, is a sarcophagus, bearing a helmet, a sword and draped in laurel branches.

The twin white pylons rise to a height 30 metres above the memorial's stone platform. One bears the maple leaf for Canada and the other the fleur-de-lis for France, which symbolize the unity and sacrifice of both countries. At the top are figures representing Justice and Peace. Peace stands with a torch upraised. The figures of Truth, Knowledge, Gallantry and Sympathy are below them. Around these figures are shields of Canada, Britain and France. Large crosses adorn the outside of each pylon. In the center, at the base of the pylons, is the ‘Spirit of Sacrifice’ a young dying soldier throws his torch to a comrade who holds it aloft behind him.

The remaining two figures are: The Mourning Parents, one male and one female figure, they are reclining in sorrow on either side of the stairs on the reverse side of the monument.

Including Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial and the Canadian National Vimy Memorial the National Historic Parks of Canada and Veterans Affairs Canada oversees close to 80% of conserved First World War Battlefields

The Park is located 8kms north of Arras, France outside the town of Vimy
The Canadian National Vimy Memorial is open to the public all year from sunrise to sunset and is free of charge
Between April 1st and November 30th there are a number of Canadian students, through Veterans Affairs Canada, on the site who provide guided tours and explanations of the battlefield daily from 10:00 to 18:00 hours
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Getting there and away
There are numerous daily direct train from Paris Gare du Nord to Arras where one can take a taxi to the site

Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial, National Historic Sites of Canada, France - An Easy Day Trip from Paris

In Beaumont-Hamel Memorial Park, officially opened by Earl Haig on June 7, 1925, stands the monument of the great bronze caribou, emblem of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment. At the base of the statue, three tablets of bronze carry the names of 814 members of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, the Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve, and the Mercantile Marine who gave their lives in the First World War and have no known grave. It was at Beaumont-Hamel on July 1, 1916, the opening day of the great Allied offensive known as the Battle of the Somme, that the Newfoundland Regiment fought its first engagement in France – and its costliest of the whole war. The Regiment was one of four battalions of the 29th Division's 88th Brigade. The assault was an unmitigated disaster.

German riflemen and machine-gunners, protected from allied shelling, emerged from their deep dugouts and shelters and opened fire on the advancing troops. At the same time, a number of German heavy guns, which had escaped the British counter-battery fire, began shelling the 29th Division's positions catching the follow-up companies as they climbed out of their trenches into the open. From their starting position in the British support trench known as St. John's Road, the Newfoundlanders had to cross some 230 metres of fire-swept ground before they reached even their own front line. As they made their way through zigzag lanes previously cut in the British wire, casualties came with increasing frequency. Those of the leading companies who finally emerged into No Man's Land could look down an incline to see for the first time the barrier of the German wire more than 550 metres away. Nevertheless, holding the parade-ground formations prescribed for assaulting infantry by the General Staff as best they could, the thinning ranks plodded steadily forward.

In less than a half-hour, it was all over. The Commanding Officer, who from a support trench had watched the destruction of his Regiment, reported to Brigade Headquarters that the attack had failed. Afterwards the Divisional Commander was to write of the Newfoundland effort: "It was a magnificent display of trained and disciplined valour, and its assault failed of success because dead men can advance no further."

The casualties sustained on the opening day of the Battle of the Somme totaled 57,470, of which 19,240 were fatal. No unit suffered heavier losses than the Newfoundland Regiment, which had gone into action 801 strong. When the roll call of the unwounded was taken next day, only 68 answered their names. The final figures that revealed the virtual annihilation of the Battalion gave a grim count of 255 killed or dead of wounds, 386 wounded, and 91 missing. Every officer who went forward in the Newfoundland attack was either killed or wounded.

It is for this reason that the government of Newfoundland choose the hill south-west of the village, where the front line trenches ran at the time of the battle, close to the headquarters dugout of the 88th Brigade, of which the 1st Battalion of Newfoundland was apart, as the site of their memorial to the soldiers, and sailors of Newfoundland.

It is one of the few WWI battlefields where the visitor can see much of how it was. The actual trenches and shell holes are still there evoking the reality of the terrible problems of advancing over such terrain by the soldier.

On a mound, surrounded by rock and shrubs native to Newfoundland and transplanted to France, there stands a great bronze caribou, the emblem of the Newfoundland Regiment, facing north, raising its head in defiance, towards the German lines and the ground over which the Regiment advanced at such a heavy cost.

In 1921 the Government of the Dominion of Newfoundland, as Newfoundland was not apart of Canada until confederation in 1949, purchased the land from local landowners and began construction. Included in the design was the “Danger Tree” a lone shattered tree in the middle of no man’s land which was used as a visual landmark by both German and Allied artillery observers, as a result it was there that was the largest concentration of casualties.

In 2001 a Visitors Center was added explaining the historical and social circumstances of Newfoundland at the beginning of the 20th century and the history of the Regiments from its formation in 1914 to the end of the Great War.

Including Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial and the Canadian National Vimy Memorial the National Historic Parks of Canada and Veterans Affairs Canada oversees close to 80% of conserved First World War Battlefields

The Park is located 9kms north from Albert, France outside the hamlet of Beaumont-Hamel.
The Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial is open to the public all year from sunrise to sunset and is free of charge
Between April 1st and November 30th there are a number of Canadian students, through Veterans Affairs Canada, on the site who provide guided tours and explanations of the battlefield daily from 10:00 to 18:00 hours

Getting there and away:
From Paris there are direct trains from Gare du Nord to Amiens and then transfer trains from Amiens to Albert where one can take a taxi to the site.