Dear LO,
'Weeper' was a trench soldier in the British Army during the First World
War. Weeper said, All that a says is, if a man's dead it don't matter no
more to 'im, 'oo wins the bloody war, we're 'ere, there's no getting away
from that corporal. 'ere we are, an since we're 'ere, we're just fightin'
for ourselves; just fightin' for ourselves, an for each other.' (Somme
1916)
These words are from 1929 by the author of the words above in a prefatory
note; " War is waged by men; not by beasts, or by gods. It is a peculiarly
human activity. To call it a crime against humanity is to miss at least
half its significance; it is also the punishment of a crime. That raises a
moral question, the kind of problem with which the present age is
disinclined to deal. Perhaps some future atempt to provide a solution for
it may prove to be even more astonishing than the last."
In 1916, very possibly one hundred metres away from 'Weeper' was a little,
thoughtful slightly artistically inclined German infantryman called, Adolf
Hitler. Had a stray bullet blown his head off ---ahhhhh!
"By my troth, I care not; a man can die but once; we owe God a death...and
let it go which way it will, that he dies this year is quit for the next."
William Shakespeare
(For Percy and Arthur 'mates' and 'mentors' who I knew at sixteen and were
at Ypres and other places of slaughter, as boys of sixteen.)
Andrew Campbell
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