Paul Fussell Quote

Today the Somme is a peaceful but sullen place, unforgetting and unforgiving.... To wander now over the fields destined to extrude their rusty metal fragments for centuries is to appreciate in the most intimate way the permanent reverberations of July, 1916. When the air is damp you can smell rusted iron everywhere, even though you see only wheat and barley.

The Great War and Modern Memory (1975)