'Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red' — the Tower of London poppies — each of the 888,246 ceramic poppies representing one serviceman of the British Empire killed in World War I. The installation was a collaboration of artist Paul Cummins and stage designer Tom Piper. Since November, 2014 the poppies have been installed in other sites in the United Kingdom. Photographed October 3, 2014. © 2014 by John M. Shea
"On 12 June [1917], I was told to take a troop of twenty men and invest an outpost on the company front. It was late when we left the trench and headed along a footpath winding through the hilly countryside, into the pleasant evening. Dusk was so far advanced that the poppies in the abandoned field seemed to merge with the bright-green grass. In the declining light, I saw more and more of my favorite colour, that red which shades into black that is at once somber and stimulating."
German Lieutenant Ernst Jünger was in the front lines near Joncourt, France, in front of the St-Quentin Canal on June 12, 1917. After leading his men to their outpost, he joined a night patrol, an outing he found 'stimulating.' Resting after the patrol's return, he was alerted to a line of 70 British soldiers advancing from a wood on the German position. In the night, the soldiers are unsure of their opponent, and some think the seeming attackers may be speaking German. But they not respond to passwords, and a battle continues through the night. As morning broke on the 13th, Jünger and his men captured some wounded opponents, and find they are Indian troops.
Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger, page 144, copyright © 1920, 1961, Translation © Michael Hoffman, 2003, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: 2003
1917-06-12, 1917, June, patrol, night patrol, nature, Tower of London poppies
