Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.
Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
By World War II, the British Indian Army had grown significantly to 2.5 million. Of this approximately 1 million were Muslims.
Muslims mainly from India and African countries fought on three continents and played a decisive role in Britain’s first major land victory against Nazi Germany in North Africa.
They also fought valiantly in Somalia, Abyssinia and Madagascar.
The greatest Muslim contribution, as part of the British Indian Army, was fighting the Japanese in the Far East Campaign.
9,000 – 12,000 Palestinians fought for Britain in WW2 in Egypt and Mesopotamia as did 1,500 soldiers from the Arab Legion (Jordan).
The exact number of Muslim casualties are not known, but 87, 000 Indian servicemen died, 34, 354 were wounded and 67,340 became prisoners of war.
Somewhere Lawrence Fox is having an aneurysm
over this.
The poppy and Remembrance Sunday are for all fallen soldiers no matter what war or country they fought in or for
One of the reasons why Southall is full of Sikhs is lord Havelock had a factory there and wanted to employ them after they showed exemplary service under his command during ww2.
…and it wasn’t just Spitfire pilots. The Indian army fought in both wars, along with many other armies of the British Empire
1.4 Million Indians voluntarily fought in WWI, on the side of Britain and the entente. More than any other country on Earth.
Just being the party-pooper here. Poppies refer to WW-I. No nazies, no spitfires at that time…
But your right poppies for all soldiers, even the German ones who fought in Flanders fields. They are all somebodies son, brother, father, mother, sister or daughter.
Poles, Czechs, Canadians, South Africans, Australians, New Zealanders, etc. too.
Along with Czechoslovaks, Poles, Belgians, Frenchies, Canadians, Irish, Aussies, South Africans, Americans, a Jamaican and a Bajun
This was refreshing, amongst all the noise. Glad you posted it.
Legends everyone of them 🫡
I wonder if they were ever given names
Not touted enough, I believe 20% of all Battle of Britain pilots were not British including I believe one Jamaican hero.
Damn right!!
Don’t forget the immense contributions from Africa, the Caribbean and Indigenous communities who fought and sacrificed just as much. The Black Poppy Rose [campaign](https://www.blackpoppyrose.org).
Many different faiths, communities, cultures made the sacrifices and showed immense bravery during the era of colonialism and rampant racism. We cannot erase that either, but recognise that the wars had a global dimension and ones we could not win without them.
I didn’t think we forgot the Sikh soldiers or the other soldiers from around the British Empire, the poppy signifies all lost soldiers.
Was anyone actually disputing this? (And as in anyone, I mean people more important than the quiz host at your local pub)
Same shit I see on Facebook every year and yet I’ve never seen anyone say otherwise anyway
well said. indeed the people from the common wealth countries including Africa and India fought for the Empire.
When it comes to remembrance the only color is the red of the poppy.
Forever in their debt.
Who said it isn’t?
Gatekeeping showing respect 😎
Hard agree with this. Big respect to all communities who fought under our flag. Especially to the Sikhs, the soldiers that the Germans famously feared facing the most. So many of our best soldiers were Sikhs (not to say that Muslims and Hindus weren’t brave and decent themselves).
Not everyone overlooks the sacrifices made by non -British personel during wars.
Plymouth Naval Memorial commemorates 7,251 sailors of the First World War and 15,933 of the Second World War. Iirc there are approx 40 countries represented from the Commonwealth and beyond (minus a few that chose their own national memorial).
This is just the largest. Several of the plaques and memorials cross the city are for non-British including non-commonwealth. https://www.plymouth.gov.uk/war-memorials
In addition, modern remembrance events are centred around All the lives lost, not just ‘our’ forces.
The absolute reality is that Britain would never have won WW2 without people like these. The empire was more than just what we knew at home. Many people from parts of India send the Caribbean fought alongside us to end the rise of Nazism and Fascism. I think many people need to remember this when they start ranting about immigration.
One year I saw someone wearing a rainbow poppy because “gay people fought in the war too”… to this day I don’t understand what part of the standard red poppy excludes them 🤷♂️ rainbow one absolutely excludes all of the heterosexual soldiers though does it not?
Reform UK be like: thank you for your service, take the poppy and get the fuck out of my country
The photograph is of the No.2 Squadron, ROYAL INDIAN AIR FORCE, equipped with Hurricanes and deployed to the Burma theater. Shown Fg Offr OD Agnihotri with fellow pilots of No.2 Sqn after advanced training at the Operational Training Unit at Risalpur, just before their posting to Kohat.
Yup, they definitely should be remembered and honoured as well.
Great grandad fought for this war, he was a Sikh and moved to Birmingham after
It seems like there’s a bit of confusion over poppies – some people are commenting saying they’re only for WW1 fallen soldiers and arguing that this post is wrong as spitfire wasn’t invented until WW2. They are for all soldiers.
Poppies did came about after WW1 (around 1921), but its primary aim was to raise money for veterans and families who’d lost their dad/husband.
It continues to raise funds for veterans and soldiers and their families today, and they are also for remembrance but that’s for ALL soldiers up to the current day – not just WW1.
Donations go to the Royal British Legion and their sister companies, poppies are also sold abroad and money raised there stays within that country. (Usually common wealth countries, also France, I think. It don’t quote me on that)
Back to where the poppy appeal originated…
Veterans often returned to poverty after the WW1 and families who lost someone were sometimes left without a sole provider and were also left in poverty.
People started by selling things like matches, and veterans and organisations asked people for donations. Some of the old envelopes they used, to ask for donations, are in the Imperial War Museum in London.
The poppies have evolved over the years. The first poppies were made from cloth rather than paper. The first poppy in 1921 so quite some time after the war.
But yes, it is also used to remember those we lost, but the primary reason the appeal was created was to raise money.
Examples of the original poppies are also in the IWM London, you can see the story of where it started and how it functions today.
If anyone is near to London or visiting London, it’s a very interesting place to visit, it doesn’t celebrate war, it talks of the horrors but remembers the people and upstairs on the top floor there is a gallery of some soldiers who lost their lives, along with photos and their stories.
There’s also an IWM in Manchester but apparently it’s a lot smaller, my family live in Manchester, I live in London and they came to the one here and were very shocked at the size. You do need a whole afternoon there.
OP – sorry to turn this into a history lesson, some of the comments were so off base, so I wanted to pop this in and then I went on a bit of a tangent 😆.
Thanks for sharing this ❤️ refreshing post.
I always like the tales of American soldiers trying to enforce segregation on black British soldiers and getting promptly told to fuck off with that shit
Soldiers were once Veterans, now they are victims.
Excellent and profound prose, I know.
Back then you died to defend Europe or your nation against a mechanical horde of mass-murdering, kleptomaniac, philandering weirdo losers who would be happy or indifferent to see you dead (I am a proud descendent of somebody who crushed nazi and fascist jaws beneath treads and boots.)
Now you die for the US/Israel’s middle eastern peacekeeping plan, or to ensure wealthoid parasites can keep exploiting your fellow countrymen. You come back to no respect except a misunderstanding pat on the back and a beer shoved under your chin.
That’s the Indian air force. They’re in India.
It’s not poppy season already is it?
No one said it wasn’t.
So did Polish pilots. Britain, to reward them for their bravery and dedication, sent them home at the end of the war to a certain death based on perceived public opinion.
42 comments
It certainly is very brave men
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.
Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
By World War II, the British Indian Army had grown significantly to 2.5 million. Of this approximately 1 million were Muslims.
Muslims mainly from India and African countries fought on three continents and played a decisive role in Britain’s first major land victory against Nazi Germany in North Africa.
They also fought valiantly in Somalia, Abyssinia and Madagascar.
The greatest Muslim contribution, as part of the British Indian Army, was fighting the Japanese in the Far East Campaign.
9,000 – 12,000 Palestinians fought for Britain in WW2 in Egypt and Mesopotamia as did 1,500 soldiers from the Arab Legion (Jordan).
The exact number of Muslim casualties are not known, but 87, 000 Indian servicemen died, 34, 354 were wounded and 67,340 became prisoners of war.
Somewhere Lawrence Fox is having an aneurysm
over this.
The poppy and Remembrance Sunday are for all fallen soldiers no matter what war or country they fought in or for
One of the reasons why Southall is full of Sikhs is lord Havelock had a factory there and wanted to employ them after they showed exemplary service under his command during ww2.
…and it wasn’t just Spitfire pilots. The Indian army fought in both wars, along with many other armies of the British Empire
1.4 Million Indians voluntarily fought in WWI, on the side of Britain and the entente. More than any other country on Earth.
Just being the party-pooper here. Poppies refer to WW-I. No nazies, no spitfires at that time…
But your right poppies for all soldiers, even the German ones who fought in Flanders fields. They are all somebodies son, brother, father, mother, sister or daughter.
Poles, Czechs, Canadians, South Africans, Australians, New Zealanders, etc. too.
Along with Czechoslovaks, Poles, Belgians, Frenchies, Canadians, Irish, Aussies, South Africans, Americans, a Jamaican and a Bajun
This was refreshing, amongst all the noise. Glad you posted it.
Legends everyone of them 🫡
I wonder if they were ever given names
Not touted enough, I believe 20% of all Battle of Britain pilots were not British including I believe one Jamaican hero.
Damn right!!
Don’t forget the immense contributions from Africa, the Caribbean and Indigenous communities who fought and sacrificed just as much. The Black Poppy Rose [campaign](https://www.blackpoppyrose.org).
There was also the Chinese Labour Corps in WW1 – who are even more less known still for their contributions [(from 2014)](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/14/first-world-war-forgotten-chinese-labour-corps-memorial).
Many different faiths, communities, cultures made the sacrifices and showed immense bravery during the era of colonialism and rampant racism. We cannot erase that either, but recognise that the wars had a global dimension and ones we could not win without them.
[This song explains ](https://youtu.be/GLUyEXO-jI0?si=gHz3J14xDaQQpx-g)
I didn’t think we forgot the Sikh soldiers or the other soldiers from around the British Empire, the poppy signifies all lost soldiers.
Was anyone actually disputing this? (And as in anyone, I mean people more important than the quiz host at your local pub)
Same shit I see on Facebook every year and yet I’ve never seen anyone say otherwise anyway
well said. indeed the people from the common wealth countries including Africa and India fought for the Empire.
When it comes to remembrance the only color is the red of the poppy.
Forever in their debt.
Who said it isn’t?
Gatekeeping showing respect 😎
Hard agree with this. Big respect to all communities who fought under our flag. Especially to the Sikhs, the soldiers that the Germans famously feared facing the most. So many of our best soldiers were Sikhs (not to say that Muslims and Hindus weren’t brave and decent themselves).
Not everyone overlooks the sacrifices made by non -British personel during wars.
Plymouth Naval Memorial commemorates 7,251 sailors of the First World War and 15,933 of the Second World War. Iirc there are approx 40 countries represented from the Commonwealth and beyond (minus a few that chose their own national memorial).
This is just the largest. Several of the plaques and memorials cross the city are for non-British including non-commonwealth.
https://www.plymouth.gov.uk/war-memorials
In addition, modern remembrance events are centred around All the lives lost, not just ‘our’ forces.
The absolute reality is that Britain would never have won WW2 without people like these. The empire was more than just what we knew at home. Many people from parts of India send the Caribbean fought alongside us to end the rise of Nazism and Fascism. I think many people need to remember this when they start ranting about immigration.
One year I saw someone wearing a rainbow poppy because “gay people fought in the war too”… to this day I don’t understand what part of the standard red poppy excludes them 🤷♂️ rainbow one absolutely excludes all of the heterosexual soldiers though does it not?
Reform UK be like: thank you for your service, take the poppy and get the fuck out of my country
The photograph is of the No.2 Squadron, ROYAL INDIAN AIR FORCE, equipped with Hurricanes and deployed to the Burma theater. Shown Fg Offr OD Agnihotri with fellow pilots of No.2 Sqn after advanced training at the Operational Training Unit at Risalpur, just before their posting to Kohat.
Yup, they definitely should be remembered and honoured as well.
Great grandad fought for this war, he was a Sikh and moved to Birmingham after
It seems like there’s a bit of confusion over poppies – some people are commenting saying they’re only for WW1 fallen soldiers and arguing that this post is wrong as spitfire wasn’t invented until WW2. They are for all soldiers.
Poppies did came about after WW1 (around 1921), but its primary aim was to raise money for veterans and families who’d lost their dad/husband.
It continues to raise funds for veterans and soldiers and their families today, and they are also for remembrance but that’s for ALL soldiers up to the current day – not just WW1.
Donations go to the Royal British Legion and their sister companies, poppies are also sold abroad and money raised there stays within that country. (Usually common wealth countries, also France, I think. It don’t quote me on that)
Back to where the poppy appeal originated…
Veterans often returned to poverty after the WW1 and families who lost someone were sometimes left without a sole provider and were also left in poverty.
People started by selling things like matches, and veterans and organisations asked people for donations. Some of the old envelopes they used, to ask for donations, are in the Imperial War Museum in London.
The poppies have evolved over the years. The first poppies were made from cloth rather than paper. The first poppy in 1921 so quite some time after the war.
But yes, it is also used to remember those we lost, but the primary reason the appeal was created was to raise money.
Examples of the original poppies are also in the IWM London, you can see the story of where it started and how it functions today.
If anyone is near to London or visiting London, it’s a very interesting place to visit, it doesn’t celebrate war, it talks of the horrors but remembers the people and upstairs on the top floor there is a gallery of some soldiers who lost their lives, along with photos and their stories.
There’s also an IWM in Manchester but apparently it’s a lot smaller, my family live in Manchester, I live in London and they came to the one here and were very shocked at the size. You do need a whole afternoon there.
OP – sorry to turn this into a history lesson, some of the comments were so off base, so I wanted to pop this in and then I went on a bit of a tangent 😆.
Thanks for sharing this ❤️ refreshing post.
I always like the tales of American soldiers trying to enforce segregation on black British soldiers and getting promptly told to fuck off with that shit
Soldiers were once Veterans, now they are victims.
Excellent and profound prose, I know.
Back then you died to defend Europe or your nation against a mechanical horde of mass-murdering, kleptomaniac, philandering weirdo losers who would be happy or indifferent to see you dead (I am a proud descendent of somebody who crushed nazi and fascist jaws beneath treads and boots.)
Now you die for the US/Israel’s middle eastern peacekeeping plan, or to ensure wealthoid parasites can keep exploiting your fellow countrymen. You come back to no respect except a misunderstanding pat on the back and a beer shoved under your chin.
That’s the Indian air force. They’re in India.
It’s not poppy season already is it?
No one said it wasn’t.
So did Polish pilots. Britain, to reward them for their bravery and dedication, sent them home at the end of the war to a certain death based on perceived public opinion.
Don’t think anyone has said it isn’t
Comments are closed.