11th HOUR, 11th DAY, 11th MONTH

As the years pass more and more of our war veterans die and with them the personal stories of the world’s most tragic events. Lest we forget.

A brief history lesson supersedes:

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, Canadians are asked to stop and give thought to the thousands of war veterans, peacekeepers and civilians who sacrificed their lives fighting for freedom. The significance of the date is to highlight the end of WWI, November 11, 1918. (Imaginably, at a time when the collective commonwealth believed that this would be our first and only World War.)

On this day Canadians are also commemorating the 60th anniversary of D-Day and the Battle of Normandy, where Canadian troops suffered 18,444 casualties. Among them, 5021 were killed. Of all the divisions which formed part of the 21 Army Group, none suffered more casualties than the 3rd and 2nd Canadian.

It was a huge sacrifice – and a huge factor in turning the tide of the war against Hitler's Germany.

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.

- John McCrae, 1915

The poppies bloomed across some of the worst battlefields of Flanders in World War I. Canadian Lt.-Col. John McCrae was driven to pen the poem In Flanders Fields on sighting the poppies growing beside a grave of a close friend who had died in battle.

Today, I will be thinking of the soldiers who fought and all the Canadians continuing peacekeeping missions throughout the world.

Let us not forget their past sacrifices. Peace.