The Battle of The Somme

Take a vacation your friends will envy and hire a tour guide to show you around Belgium and to show you the vivid red field poppies known as the Flower of Remembrance and also the 'Memorial Flower'. The association comes from the poppies that were flowering in the spring of 1915 on the battlefields of Belgium, France and Gallipoli. The soil that was overturned during the battle allowed the poppy seeds to be covered which allowed them to grow and forever serve as a reminder of those that fought and died.

The internationally recognized flower symbolizes the great loss of life in war.

A tour guide can also explain how the Flower of Remembrance poppy movement was inspired by the poem 'In Flanders Fields' written by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae of the Canadian forces in 1915 before the United States entered World War 1. He wrote the poem on May, 3, 1915, after presiding over the funeral of fellow soldier and friend, Alexis Helmer, who died during the Second Battle of Ypres.

The poem is one of the most popular and most quoted from the war. Due to its popularity, it was used in appeals to recruit soldiers and to raise money selling war bonds. The poems references of the red poppies that grew on the graves of the fallen soldiers resulted in the remembrance flower becoming a prominent Remembrance Day symbol.

The Flower of Remembrance and fields of red poppies are something a tour guide would be happy to show you.