John William Harvey Hallman
Birth place: Bingara, New South Wales, Australia
Death date: 12 November 1917
Death place: Belgium
Final rank: Private
Service number: 7005 – First World War, 1914-1918
Unit: 3rd Australian Infantry Battalion
AFTERMATH
Have you forgotten yet?…
For the world’s events have rumbled on since those gagged days,
Like traffic checked while at the crossing of city-ways:
And the haunted gap in your mind has filled with thoughts that flow
Like clouds in the lit heaven of life; and you’re a man reprieved to go,
Taking your peaceful share of Time, with joy to spare.
But the past is just the same–and War’s a bloody game…
Have you forgotten yet?…
Look down, and swear by the slain of the War that you’ll never forget.
Do you remember the dark months you held the sector at Mametz–
The nights you watched and wired and dug and piled sandbags on parapets?
Do you remember the rats; and the stench
Of corpses rotting in front of the front-line trench–
And dawn coming, dirty-white, and chill with a hopeless rain?
Do you ever stop and ask, ‘Is it all going to happen again?’
Do you remember that hour of din before the attack–
And the anger, the blind compassion that seized and shook you then
As you peered at the doomed and haggard faces of your men?
Do you remember the stretcher-cases lurching back
With dying eyes and lolling heads–those ashen-grey
Masks of the lads who once were keen and kind and gay?
Have you forgotten yet?…
Look up, and swear by the green of the spring that you’ll never forget.
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We went to the dawn service today with our boys, our oldest is 13, just two years shy of being a private (if he lied about his age, as many did) a century ago. And to see the dark early dawn transcend into a bright Saturday morning, was quite moving, with so many fellow kiwis beside us, bowing their heads in silent appreciation of the ultimate sacrifice that so many made, so that we can enjoy the life that most of us take for granted. One lesson I took home from the service, was from a speech from a defence representative, who spoke of how the relationship between the crown and the colonies changed after WW1, due to the British using the colonial troops as ‘cannon fodder’. It should not, and can never happen again. We live in a completely different age, where the pen (or keyboard) IS mightier than the sword, and, as always, sunlight is truly the best disinfectant. Word is getting around about the ugly truth, and not just in Northland… And LF have played a big role in that. You folk are true ANZAC’s
Do you ever stop and ask ‘is it all going to happen again?’
Well done LF – one of the most moving pieces Ive ever read. Good on you.
great piece LF, Then again your ANZAC day pieces have always been very moving. I appreciate the sentiments expressed by ur posters,however we were never ever threatened by germany in the first world war. It was a spat between cousins, originating with Queen Vics family. Bloody british royals in more ways than one. we need a republic, least we forget lol