Categories: FolkloreThe Hardmen

In Flanders Fields

You don’t have to be in Flanders very long before you start to breathe in the history of the area. Horrible things have happened in the fields across Northern France and Belgium, like the Battle of Waterloo and the Battle of the Bulge. These are the kinds of things that hang in the air for centuries; they seep into your blood.

There is a famous poem written by John McCrae that is worth reading. Its also been put to music by my favorite band, Big Head Todd and the Monsters.

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

Take a moment to remember the fallen with us.

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

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Dan_R says:

Apr 2 2012 at 10:45 am

Hhhmmm, I wonder if the term "tour of Afghanistan" will ever mean anything positive.... No joking aside, those are some crappy roads!

I think Bicycling did an article a few years ago on the Kabul Cycling Club adn I remember the guys wearing a lot of donated club gear from Edmonton.
Dan_R says:

Apr 2 2012 at 10:46 am

@Louutah
Yeah, a great song. Definately not within the main-stream image of Motorhead.
wiscot says:

Apr 2 2012 at 11:38 am

One of the best books I've ever read on the Great War. Really brings home the experience of the common soldier. The last chapters about post war attitudes are heartbreaking. General Sir Douglas Haig got a bonus of over one million pounds (in 1919 money!) Maybe it was based on how many lives he wasted . . .

http://www.amazon.com/Deaths-Men-Soldiers-Penguin-History/dp/0140168222/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1333391550&sr=1-1

From a personal point of view, my paternal grandfather lost half an arm in WWI. In perspective, he was lucky. Everywhere you go in Scotland, from big city to village, there's a war memorial and the number of names listed for both world wars, particularly the First, is shocking.
eightzero says:

Apr 2 2012 at 1:05 pm

In America, 100 years is a long time, and in Europe, 100 miles a long distance.
ChrisO says:

Apr 2 2012 at 1:12 pm

Just for the historical record Frank, the Battle of the Bulge was much further south, in the Ardennes region.

Where we were was prime WW1 trench warfare and some of the most notorious battlegrounds. Ypres was constantly fought over and Passchendaele in 1917 is where something like 500,000 men died or were seriously injured.

One of the major WW1 memorials (to British and Commonwealth soldiers), the Menin Gate, is in Ieper (Ypres) just a few miles away, where the last post has been played every evening for 90 years (apart from when it was occupied in WW2).

It is a truly sobering place, and just passing along the highway looking at signs is a constant reminder of the history and the horror.

For me the very best thing to read on WW1 is All Quiet On The Western Front - it's a relatively short and very human account of one (German) soldier. It's fictional and will tell you nothing about the war, but a lot about war. A classic.
wiscot says:

Apr 2 2012 at 1:17 pm

Here's one of the most brilliant and poignant bits of comedy writing ever. The whole Series 4 of Blackadder was superb and bittersweet: funny as hell about a subject that was/is quite the oposite.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IglUmgYGxLM
Buck Rogers says:

Apr 2 2012 at 1:37 pm

@ChrisO
@frank

By "here", I mean the general area, I'm not intending to state the battles happened in Flanders themselves. The point is there have been some horrible, horrible things that have happened in the area, and the people who died in those battles, wherever they were, were often from Vlaanderen and so forth.

It touches you in your very spirit. But thanks for the clarification on the specific geographic areas. That stuff is taken understandably seriously around here. The borders between Waloonia and Vlaanderen are more carefully observed than those between Belgium and France!

Don't worry Fronk, i will cover this one!
Ron says:

Apr 2 2012 at 3:29 pm

@eightzero

In America, 100 years is a long time, and in Europe, 100 miles a long distance.

I like this! Thanks for posting it!
sgt says:

Apr 2 2012 at 3:50 pm

@ChrisO
The Great War has left monuments all across the world... We have a flag pole along my club's Sunday route commemorating the war dead from Santa Barbara... hardly anyone even notices it anymore.

Remember...

Looks like you guys are making the most of things.
il ciclista medio says:

Apr 2 2012 at 4:00 pm

@Oli

Exactly, I believe respect is what was intentioned.