Rilla of Ingleside, L.M. Montgomery
“The moon sank lower into a black cloud in the west, the Glen went out in an eclipse of sudden shadow—and thousands of miles away the Canadian boys in khaki—the living and the dead—were in possession of Vimy Ridge. Vimy Ridge is a name written in crimson and gold on the Canadian Annals of the Great War. “The British couldn’t take it and the French couldn’t take it,” said the German prisoner to his captors, “but you Canadians are such fools that you don’t know when a place can’t be taken!” So the “fools” took it—and paid the price.”
Vet in a Spin, James Herriot
“As we walked over the grass I could see one of my friends coming in to land. The little biplane slewed and weaved crazily in the sky. It just missed a clump of trees, then about fifty feet from the ground it dropped like a stone, bounced high on its wheels, bounced twice again then zig-zagged to a halt. The helmeted head in the rear cockpit jerked and nodded as though it were making some pointed remarks to the head in front. Flying Officer Woodham’s face was expressionless but I knew what he was thinking. It was his turn next. The Tiger Moth looked very small and alone on the wide stretch of green. I climbed up and strapped myself into the cockpit while my instructor got in behind me. He went through the drill which I would soon know by heart like a piece of poetry. A futter gave the propeller a few turns for priming. Then ‘Contact’, the fitter swung the prop, the engine roared, the chocks were pulled away from the prop, the engine roared, the chocks were pulled away from the wheels and we were away, bumping over the grass, then suddenly and miraculously lifting and soaring high over the straggle of huts into the summer sky with the patchwork of the soft countryside of southern England unfolding beneath us.”
In Flanders Fields, John McRae
“In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.”
Lest we forget
To be a Shennachie 