Libra
Active Member
I have a review written down somewhere...:whistling:
I recently read In Flanders Fields ,poetry written from soldiers of WWI that died in the war.One of them was Wilfred Owen which took me back to Regeneration Trilogy.
Pat Barker has done such a great job with the history and the reality of WWI,I went on a journey through her words and most of all,learning about Siegfried Sassoon and his anti-war poetry was a plus.
Amazing books.I am trying to find the anti-war letter he sent to his commanding officer,I will post it as soon as I do.
Edit: Found it:
"Lt. Siegfried Sassoon.
3rd Batt: Royal Welsh Fusiliers.
July, 1917.
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I am making this statement as an act of wilful defiance of military authority because I believe that the war is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it. I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of soldiers. I believe that the war upon which I entered as a war of defence and liberation has now become a war of agression and conquest. I believe that the purposes for which I and my fellow soldiers entered upon this war should have been so clearly stated as to have made it impossible to change them and that had this been done the objects which actuated us would now be attainable by negotiation.
I have seen and endured the sufferings of the troops and I can no longer be a party to prolonging these sufferings for ends which I believe to be evil and unjust. I am not protesting against the conduct of the war, but against the political errors and insincerities for which the fighting men are being sacrificed.
On behalf of those who are suffering now, I make this protest against the deception which is being practised upon them; also I believe it may help to destroy the callous complacency with which the majority of those at home regard the continuance of agonies which they do not share and which they have not enough imagination to realise."
Finished_with_the_War:ASoldiers Declaration
I recently read In Flanders Fields ,poetry written from soldiers of WWI that died in the war.One of them was Wilfred Owen which took me back to Regeneration Trilogy.
Pat Barker has done such a great job with the history and the reality of WWI,I went on a journey through her words and most of all,learning about Siegfried Sassoon and his anti-war poetry was a plus.
Amazing books.I am trying to find the anti-war letter he sent to his commanding officer,I will post it as soon as I do.
Edit: Found it:
"Lt. Siegfried Sassoon.
3rd Batt: Royal Welsh Fusiliers.
July, 1917.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am making this statement as an act of wilful defiance of military authority because I believe that the war is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it. I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of soldiers. I believe that the war upon which I entered as a war of defence and liberation has now become a war of agression and conquest. I believe that the purposes for which I and my fellow soldiers entered upon this war should have been so clearly stated as to have made it impossible to change them and that had this been done the objects which actuated us would now be attainable by negotiation.
I have seen and endured the sufferings of the troops and I can no longer be a party to prolonging these sufferings for ends which I believe to be evil and unjust. I am not protesting against the conduct of the war, but against the political errors and insincerities for which the fighting men are being sacrificed.
On behalf of those who are suffering now, I make this protest against the deception which is being practised upon them; also I believe it may help to destroy the callous complacency with which the majority of those at home regard the continuance of agonies which they do not share and which they have not enough imagination to realise."
Finished_with_the_War:ASoldiers Declaration