MM 1944

 

There are those in the nature loving and pagan communities who'd pour scorn on folk who'd scar and mark trees, and in some circumstances I've got a degree of sympathy for that. Though I have to say that for the most part I enjoy graffiti. Be it profane or mundane or profound, someone had been moved enough to spend time and effort on it's carving. Fair play. One type of graffiti that never fails to move me is wartime graffiti, and particularly that of American servicemen here only fleetingly during World War Two. I've often wondered the fates of the carvers. To me the imagine of young men thousands of miles from home, fully cognisant of the possibilities ahead on the eve of the unknown wishing to leave some mark before they go, no matter how ephemeral, is a powerful image. MM did just that in 1944, no doubt just before D-Day. There used to be ten or so pieces of American WW2 graffiti I knew of in Burley Old, though as the years go by they're slowly being reduced by time and the elements.