Across the battlefield all was silent,
Even the guns had ceased their roar,
The terrain looked like hell on earth,
Even the birds sang no more.

The weeks and months of carnage,
When death and agony took its toll,
Trench and barbed wire filled the scene,
It was as if the world had no soul.

Truce and peace came sudden,
On both sides soldiers knew not what to do,
Without the constant noise of warfare,
They wondered if the news was true.

Could they comprehend war was over?
Friend and comrade gone forever,
The past horrors a frenzied blur,
Would they ever forget it? No never!

Although the gunfire had ceased,
It still lived on in their ears,
The stench and fears still pervaded,
Nothing yet banished their fears.

With mud and rats underfoot,
The soldiers tried to rest,
In their world below the horizon,
Where courage had been put to the test.

In that eerie world of silence,
Conflict ceased in that hell so vast,
Midst cordite fumes and hints of gas,
Could there really be peace at last.

Upon that grey depressing scene,
Raindrops began to fall,
As if from the heavens above,
Tears were shed for one and all.

It’s written in the history books,
And on war memorials tall,
That day when the awful war stopped,
And peace reigned over all.