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I agree "Lessons of #GreatWar still relevant"... but did we learn anything?: image via Green Fields Beyond @GFB1914, 19 December 2014
After the dread tales and red yarns of the Line
Anything might have come to us; but the divine
Afterglow brought us up to a Welsh colony
Hiding in sandbag ditches. Then we were taken in
To low huts candle-lit, shaded close by slitten
Oilsheets, and there but boys gave us kind welcome,
So that we looked out as from the edge of home.
Sang us Welsh things, and changed all former notions
To human hopeful things. And the next day's guns
Nor any Line-pangs ever quite could blot out
That strangely beautiful entry to War's rout;
Candles they gave us, precious and shared over-rations --
Ulysses found little more in his wanderings without doubt.
'David of the White Rock', the 'Slumber Song' so soft, and that
Beautiful tune to which roguish words by Welsh pit boys
Are sung -- but never more beautiful than here under the guns' noise.
Ivor Gurney (b. Gloucester 28 August 1890 d. London 26 December 1937): First Time In, written between 1920 and 1922, first published 2000
Soldiers of the English infantry in France during the first world war: photo by Fototeca Storica Nazionale via The Guardian, 16 December 2014
#GreatWar October 1916 Members of the #RoyalGarrisonArtillery: image via David Doughty @DavidWDoughty, 17 January 2015 Melbourne, Australia
Firing trench line at Passchendaele: photo by The Discovery Channel via The Guardian, 8 November 2014
Highland Territorials in trench with mascot dog: photo by The Discovery Channel via The Guardian, 8 November 2014
Officers of the 9th Rifle Brigade enjoy themselves in August 1916 after a torrid time in the Somme trenches. Of the eight officers in the picture, five were killed and two wounded during the war: photo by Richard van Emden via The Guardian, 8 November 2014
from Battle of the Somme by Geoffrey Malins and John McDowell, 1916: film still courtesy Imperial War Museum via the Guardian, 25 February 2014
March 1917: Members of a Royal Garrison Artillery working party carry duck-boards across the frozen Somme canal at Frise, France. The village was on the front line of the 1916 Battle of the Somme, in which more than 1,000,000 men were wounded or killed: photo by Lt J W Brooke/Imperial War Museum via The Guardian, 6 May 2014
Trees line the Somme canal at Frise where outlines of trenches can still be seen today: photo by Peter Macdiarmid via The Guardian, 6 May 2014
A section of the Verdun battlefield seen today #GreatWar: image via Brian Altobello @since1775, 19 November 2014
Wales' Chris Coleman and the squad visit the Welsh war memorial at Flanders Field #GreatWar: image via FA Wales @FAWales, 17 November 2014