HISTORY
RARE PHOTOS FROM PEARL HARBOUR
POPPY DAY COLLECTIONS
Poppy Day as most people call the annual S.A. Legion collection, in November each year, is actually "REMEMBRANCE DAY." Armistice celebrations parades are held worldwide on the Sunday nearest the 11th of November. Poppy day collections occur on the Friday and Saturday, before the parade, on Sunday. All donations collected go towards assisting war veterans who find themselves in need. The S.A. legion exchanges all donations for a red poppy with a black button shape centre.
The 11th of November commemorates the end of both world war one (1914 – 1918) and world war two (1939 – 1945.) Included are all wars thereafter where soldiers paid the supreme sacrifice, while serving their countries in time of war.
The red poppy is as international symbol of ‘sacrifice and remembrance’ worn by war veterans, their families and the public, giving thanks to those who answered the Sunset Call by giving their lives for a worthy cause. Also assisting war veterans, currently world war two survivors and border boys who find themselves in need.
During world war one (1914 – 1918) South African and Rhodesian soldiers, serving with the British Forces against the might of the Kaizers elite German army, entered Delville Wood, a very dense forest, located 90 Km North-East of Paris and near to Longueval, a key position, during the Battle of the Somme.
During this period of world war one, our soldiers experienced two historic events:
The first was, 121 officers and 3032 other ranks entered the Battle of Delville Wood, only 5 officers and 750 other ranks walked out of the wood. To date, this is the greatest defeat out two countries ever suffered, in our military history. Delville Wood suffered a worst fate. When the battle was concluded, this previously dense wood had only one Hornbeam tree standing unscathed. Seeds from this tree were brought back to Brakpan and germinated by our parks department. A Hornbeam tree stands next to the Crusader at the Cosy Corner Shellhole, in Brenthurst, for those who are interested to see.
The history behind the red poppy of sacrifice is both barbaric and benign. Approximately 1240 AD Mantua Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan, reached Flanders fields, the northern part of France. These Mongol barbarians raided as far a field as China, India and the Middle East before entering Europe via Turkey. Both Genghis Khan and later Mantua Khan were drug addicts. Whilst in their drug induced state they killed, every living thing that was in their path. They raped, pillaged, plundered as they conquered. No marauders in history can compare their actions. Khans favourite stratagem during attack of large defences was to feign defeat, turn and run to a previously selected location, ambush, surround and annihilate in situ. To trace these hoards movements was easy, due to the desolation they left behind, after their heinous actions.
In retrospect, anthropologists agree had theses atrocious scorched earth policies not occurred, the European of today would have had slanted eyes and a yellowish complexion. Genghis Khan, Mantua Khan and their troops favoured the poppies main drug, opium, to satisfy their addictions. Obviously scattered or dropped white poppy seed would also reveal areas where they had operated in the previous year, when white opium poppies flowered the next year.
Below the petals of the Opium Poppy there is a tubular sac that when slit open with a sharp knife bleeds a white paste, this paste contains the drug opium. Modern techniques also extract other drugs from this paste, which becomes the drug of the present day user that indulges in drugs.
The red poppy with the black centre, as we know it today, only evolved after the Battle of Delville Wood, which began on 15th July 1916 and ended on the 20th July 1916. The intense rate of shellfire and exploding ordinance over this five day period, shattered vegetation and had an effect of tilling the soggy clay soil, added to this was the human and animal blood and bone which added to the soil, raised the fertility and iron content of the soil, according to agronomists and botanists opinions.
The following year (1917) the troops witnessed the second historic event. After hundreds of years of lying dormant WHITE OPIUM seeds germinated and grew in profusion. No longer a white flower, it had produced a red poppy with a super imposed black cross extending to the four petals, with a black crown of thorns in the centre. Those of Christian faith believe God’s intervention played its part, particularly so, as the tubular opium sac, was now absent. In this new variety of poppy the cross fades away within fifteen to twenty days to reveal a red poppy with a black centre, which is the international symbol of sacrifice and remembrance.
At the MOTH Sound Memory Cottages in Brenthurst, Brakpan, two examples of this poppy are in evidence, at some resident’s cottage gardens, these flower between September and November, every year. The seeds of these poppy plants also came originally from Delville Wood. "Cobra."