Green Fields of France
The song The Green Fields of France is originally called No Man's Land and is also known as Willie McBride . It was written in 1976 by the Scottish-Australian singer-songwriter Eric Bogle and has been covered frequently . It describes thoughts about a young man who in the First World War fell. The chorus alludes to the two songs The Last Post and The Flowers of the Forest .
“This is a song written about the military cemeteries in Flanders and Northern France. In 1976 my wife and I visited three or four of these cemeteries and saw all the fallen young soldiers there. "
According to the song, Soldier Willie McBride was 19 years old when he fell in 1916. According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, there were eight soldiers named William McBride and six others named W. McBride. However, none of them died in 1916 at the age of 19.
According to Piet Chielens, the coordinator of the In Flanders Fields War Museum in Ypres (Belgium), there was a William McBride to whom these dates apply. He is buried in the British cemetery in Authuille, where the Inniskilling Fusiliers were stationed as part of the 29th Division .
But it is not certain whether this corresponds to Willy McBride from the song or whether this is a fictional person.
Hannes Wader recorded a German version of the song under the title " Es ist an der Zeit ". He translated the text relatively freely and changed the refrain to an accusation: “Yes, they have lied to you too, just as they still do to us today. And you gave them everything, your strength, your youth, your life. ”His version became a hymn of the peace movement in the eighties.
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/parton/2/noman.html ( Memento of October 12, 1999 in the Internet Archive ) No Man's Land (The Green Fields of France)