98 years ago, on this day, at this time, one of the stupidest and most pointless events in human history ended.

The First World War didn't need to happen. It wasn't a war against people who wanted to destroy a way of life - it was a fight between empires who had no obvious differences other than geography.

It plucked the flower of a generation from across Europe, and crushed it in the mud beneath the steel tripod of a machine gun, in an effort to achieve victory for victory's sake alone.

It was unutterably, unforgivably wasteful and stupid, and on this day I wear a poppy to say: I remember, and this must never happen again.

Here dead we lie
Because we did not choose
To live and shame the land
From which we sprung.

Life, to be sure,
Is nothing much to lose,
But young men think it is,
And we were young.
-A. E. Houseman

hS