It's a sobering thought. Next time you're at the Valley imagine that the number of dead remembered on the Menin gate is more than twice the crowd. These are just those who have no known grave.
Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! - An ecstasy of fumbling, Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time; But someone still was yelling out and stumbling, And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime... Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light, As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
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54,000 British and Comonwealth dead who have no known grave are remembered there.
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime...
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
—Wilfred Owen, "Dulce Et Decorum Est", 1917