No Man's Land (Eric Bogle song)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The grave of a "Willie McBride", died 1916.

"No Man's Land" (also known as "The Green Fields of France" and "Willie McBride") is a song written in 1976 by Scottish-Australian singer-songwriter Eric Bogle, reflecting on the grave of a young man who died in World War I. It refers in the chorus to two famous war songs, "The Last Post" and "The Flowers of the Forest".

"It's a song that was written about the military cemeteries in Flanders and Northern France. In 1976, my wife and I went to three or four of these military cemeteries and saw all the young soldiers buried there." Eric Bogle^[1]

According to the song, the gravestone of the soldier, Willie McBride, says he was 19 years of age when he died in 1916. According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, there were eight soldiers named "William McBride", and a further six listed as "W. McBride", who died in France or Belgium during the First World War but none match the soldier in the song. Two "William McBrides" and one "W. McBride" died in 1916 but one is commemorated in the Thiepval Memorial and has no gravestone. The other two are buried in the Authuile Military Cemetery but one was aged 21 and the age of the other is unknown. All three were from Irish regiments.

"Es ist an der Zeit" is a German translation by Hannes Wader (1980)^[1]
"Willie McBride's reply" is a song by Stephen L. Suffet (1997), replying to the questions raised in No Man's Land^[2]

Piet Chielens, coordinator of the In Flanders Fields War Museum in Ypres, Belgium, and organizer of yearly peace concerts in Flanders, once checked all 1,700,000 names that are registered with the Commanwealth War Commission. He found no less than ten Privates William McBride.

Three of these William McBride's fell in 1916, two were members of the Northern Irish Regiment, the Royal Inniskilling Fusilliers, and died more or less in the same spot during the Battle of the Somme in 1916. One was 21, the other 19 years old. "The law of the greatest numbers does beat even the most poetical license", Chielens remarks.

The 19 years old Pte William McBride is buried in Authuille British Cemetery, near Albert and Beaumont-Hamel, where the Inniskilling Fusilliers were deployed as part of the 29th Division.

According to http://www.greatwar.nl/frames/default-mcbride.html