It’s not about being patriotic or British—not that there’s necessarily anything wrong with either of those.
It’s about those who, when the time came, gave whatever they could for what they believed in. It’s about those who died; those who were captured in the Far East and returned to a world they didn’t recognize; those who manned AA emplacements or pulled bodies from bombed-out buildings or flew their crippled aeroplanes away from civilian areas; those who machined gun mounts in converted confectionary packaging factories; those who were ready to cover the withdrawal from Aden; those who spent Christmas in a flak jacket as rockets exploded close by.
Absolutely right.
Everything you said.
And, errrm, we agree. No, really.
Coincidentally, poppies conjure up a military scenario for me–but not WW1, rather my own service in the Golan Heights with the beautiful flowering of poppies, buttercups and cyclamen. Of course that was only in late winter/spring. It pained me greatly once to have to dig into a field of poppies with an artillery piece on maneuvers and watch the petals scatter in the wind.
A sensitive chap who can nevertheless handle heavy artillery, our Steve.
And you can find out just what happened to this sensitive chap (fictionally speaking, of course) as a result of military service in “Welcome Home, Sir.” Coming very soon.
Cover now ready: http://www.stevecaplan.net/8.html