Color – A Limerick 

~ Meg

In ‘pantelon rouge’ marched the army of France
But the uniform gave them little chance
To dodge the enemy bullet
In fact made them a target
All because of the color of their pants

In response to Mind and Life Matters limerick poetry challenge.

World War I: The very heavy French losses during the Battle of the Frontiers can be attributed in part to the high visibility of the French uniforms, combined with peacetime training which placed emphasis on attacking in massed formations. The shortcomings of the uniforms were quickly realized and during the first quarter of 1915 general distribution of horizon-blue clothing in simplified patterns had been undertaken.

Source -Wikipedia; photo my own

Published by Meg

Easily amused, never bored and constantly distracted. My creative pursuits include writing, drawing, painting and photography.

26 thoughts on “Color – A Limerick ”

  3. The French discovered in 1914 what the British found out in the Boer War, 15 years earlier. Bright red isn’t a good colour when facing an enemy with skilled marksmen.
    Nicely worked into limerick form!

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    Reply

      1. Me too. My mum’s dad survived the Battle of the Somme but my dad’s grand-dad died in May 1918.
        Interestingly, there’s a school of thought that points out that WW1 was a clear example of Winner Takes All warfare. It re-enforced the idea that war was an acceptable (if horrific) means to an end and made the losers determined not to be beaten so badly again.

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      3. Interesting. Over here we’re taught that WW2 happened because of WW1, so that’s where we start. Recently read a pretty good novel by Ben Elton (known in the UK for stand-up and comedy scripts in the 80s-90s before he branched into books and the Queen musical We Will Rock You). Anyway… he’s always been quite into historical stuff (esp. WW1) and ‘Time and Time Again’ is a bit of a time-travelling ‘what if’, going back to 1914.

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      1. I was in a panic last night because I had nothing to post for today. (I know, it’s nothing to panic about but I didn’t want to miss another day… took yesterday off!) And just as I was about to give up and go to sleep (2 am), my brain gave me the first two and last two lines. So I was still up at 3 am, too… but I was never in bed before that! 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

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