Berliners

Suddenly the Brits have got good at marking historical events. The display of poppies at the Tower of London in 2014 was a tremendous piece of art. Then there was the re-burial of Richard III, widely credited with helping Leicester City win the Premier League. And now the celebration of the hundredth anniversary of the Battle of the Somme. The "live art" piece with the silent soldiers was eerie and striking; intentionally like ghosts, I understand.

Even now, historians disagree on the analysis of the Battle of the Somme: what the purpose, objectives and strategy were and whether the outcome represented any degree of success. But we do know the cost: 420,000 British casualties with similar German losses. 57,470 British casualties on the first day, of which 19,240 were killed. The Newfoundland Regiment went over the top with 780 men: only 68 appeared at roll call the next morning.

"At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them" wrote Laurence Binyon in his famous contemporaneous poem.

Except that, fascinatingly, the poem was written in September 1914, when very few indeed of the fallen had actually fell. The poet was anticipating events and the act of memorial.

Roy Harper used Binyon's words in his 1990 track "Berliners" on the album "Once". The song title stems from the First World War Tommies sometimes being called Berliners, because that's where they were trying to get to. Harper was commemorating their sacrifice, his grandfather having fought in France in WWI. Many of the combatants were very young adults and Harper bridged to the role of young people in the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989.

It's not one of my favourite Harper songs but the lyric is powerful:
"The world you died for, was all but a pack of lies
It had to fall down, and keep on falling
You gave us the world they promised you
And in the morning
We are the flowering
We are the flowering youth
Berliners"

You can hear the track, along with some relevant still pictures, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EU6qKcLQAM. Be patient: the song does take half a minute to get going, starting with a memorial service excerpt.

But even more poignant is the inscription on a wooden cross at a cemetery near Mansell Copse on the Somme, where 161 members of the Devonshire Regiment were laid to rest by their colleagues, 3 days after the battle began: "The Devonshires held this trench. The Devonshires hold it still"