"Have you forgotten yet?"

'Have you forgotten yet?...
For the world's events have rumbled on since those gagged days,
Like traffic checked while at the crossing of city-ways:
And the haunted gap in your mind has filled with thoughts that flow
Like clouds in the lit heaven of life; and you're a man reprieved to go,
Taking your peaceful share of Time, with joy to spare.
But the past is just the same--and War's a bloody game...
Have you forgotten yet?...
Look down, and swear by the slain of the War that you'll never forget.'

Excerpt from Aftermath by Siegfried Sassoon

Today is the centenary of the start of the Battle of the Somme where more than a million men were killed or wounded on all sides.  This is a Royal British Legion commemorative pin. It is crafted using metal from 1916 shell fuses recovered from the Somme battlefields of France. The central red enamel contains ground earth from the Somme.  It is one of 19,240 produced, each honouring one of the fallen on 1st July 1916. So this is dedicated to Private A H Rhodes of the North Staffordshire Regiment. I also remember my grandfather who died 11 years after WW1 from the after effects of being gassed on the battlefields.

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