A little background information on how and why this poem was written by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD, Canadian Army:-

McCrae's "In Flanders Fields" remains to this day one of the most memorable war poems ever written. It is a lasting legacy of the terrible battle in the Ypres salient in the spring of 1915. Here is the story of the making of that poem:
Although he had been a doctor for years and had served in the South African War, it was impossible to get used to the suffering, the screams, and the blood here, and Major John McCrae had seen and heard enough in his dressing station to last him a lifetime.

As a surgeon attached to the 1st Field Artillery Brigade, Major McCrae, who had joined the McGill faculty in 1900 after graduating from the University of Toronto, had spent seventeen days treating injured men -- Canadians, British, Indians, French, and Germans -- in the Ypres salient.

It had been an ordeal that he had hardly thought possible. McCrae later wrote of it:

"I wish I could embody on paper some of the varied sensations of that seventeen days... Seventeen days of Hades! At the end of the first day if anyone had told us we had to spend seventeen days there, we would have folded our hands and said it could not have been done."

One death particularly affected McCrae. A young friend and former student, Lieut. Alexis Helmer of Ottawa, had been killed by a shell burst on 2 May 1915. Lieutenant Helmer was buried later that day in the little cemetery outside McCrae's dressing station, and McCrae had performed the funeral ceremony in the absence of the chaplain.

The next day, sitting on the back of an ambulance parked near the dressing station beside the Canal de l'Yser, just a few hundred yards north of Ypres, McCrae vented his anguish by composing a poem. The major was no stranger to writing, having authored several medical texts besides dabbling in poetry.

In the nearby cemetery, McCrae could see the wild poppies that sprang up in the ditches in that part of Europe, and he spent twenty minutes of precious rest time scribbling fifteen lines of verse in a notebook.

A young soldier watched him write it. Cyril Allinson, a twenty-two year old sergeant-major, was delivering mail that day when he spotted McCrae. The major looked up as Allinson approached, then went on writing while the sergeant-major stood there quietly. "His face was very tired but calm as we wrote," Allinson recalled. "He looked around from time to time, his eyes straying to Helmer's grave."

When McCrae finished five minutes later, he took his mail from Allinson and, without saying a word, handed his pad to the young NCO. Allinson was moved by what he read:

"The poem was exactly an exact description of the scene in front of us both. He used the word blow in that line because the poppies actually were being blown that morning by a gentle east wind. It never occurred to me at that time that it would ever be published. It seemed to me just an exact description of the scene."

In fact, it was very nearly not published. Dissatisfied with it, McCrae tossed the poem away, but a fellow officer retrieved it and sent it to newspapers in England. The Spectator, in London, rejected it, but Punch published it on 8 December 1915.

CO, we often disagree, but I appreciate the background you supply to items like Flanders Field and, I believe it was you, Terry Kelly's 'A Pittance of Time.'

While we pay respects to those that did not return from all of our battles, to my fellow Veterans that did return, I also say Thank You. Thank you for watching my back, for being there with me and for standing between us and our enemies throughout our history.

For any who may not be familiar with Terry Kelly's 'A Pittance of Time,' read it and view the video at Terry Kelly – A Pittance Of Time

CO, just to add a footnote:

"In late January 1918, while commanding No 3 Canadian General Hospital (McGill) at Boulogne, McCrae caught pneumonia and meningitis. He died on January 28, 1918."

I had the good fortune to visit the Belgian city of Ypres/Ieper two years ago. The city was just about destroyed in WW1, but only lightly damaged in WW2.

At one entrance to the city, the street passes under a memorial built to honor British soldiers who died in that area during WW1, on which is inscribed their names - all 54,896 of them.

In WW2, Ypres/Ieper was taken from the Germans by a Polish regiment. A memorial plaque honoring them is found on the Cloth Hall, a large building in the city's central square. The plaque is in Flemish, French and Polish. Fortunately, I could read much of the French and Polish parts. The Cloth Hall also houses a small WW1 museum.

For those interested, The National World War One Museum.

Bear in mind, there is but a small handful of these Veterans still alive. Only 28 verified worldwide.

The latest issue of DAV Magazine has a section asking for any who know of any surviving WW1 Veterans to send information to ww1@va.gov; fax to 202-273-6702; or mailed to Office of Public Affairs, Department of veterans Affairs (80), 810 Vermont Ave., Washington D.C. 20420.

This would include any Americans who served in the Armed Forces of Allied Nations.

Thanks for the background info, CO. Those men were true heroes who endured a lot.