WW1 Battlefields of Northern France and Belgium

Again I've been typing this for a bit, but just now can add the pictures and post it. Be warned there is a lot of detail about the many places we have visited in the last day and a half - but that is what it is like here.

Colin, retired from the British Army, is our guide on the WW1 battlefields Tour that started on Saturday afternoon. He is well versed in the culture, history and anecdotal insights that make such a trip a treasure.

Near Pozierres, the highest point of this gently rolling countryside, in all directions are sites of significance. Here is a monument to the Royal Tank Corp – one of the instruments that greatly assisted the British forces. Across the road are the remains of a windmill – a position taken by Australian forces.

Jim Gelch, the manager of Nuffield Australia, also knows his war history. He periodically reads to us from a book called “Walk with the ANZACS”.  One describes the battle here, including in particular the “foremost act of individual audacity,” by one man.

Mouquet farm, fondly know to the Aussies as Moocow Farm, was a heavily fortified site occupied by the Germans. All around here are such sites and the stories of the bravery and casualties required to take them. This action took place largely in 1916 in a sustained push to drive the German line back.The villages here have had to be rebuilt, most being either seriously damaged or even completely obliterated.The problem here along this line was that the Germans had had a couple of years to establish defensive lines – usually if the commonwealth forces broke through one line, there were still several more to breach. Yesterday we saw memorials to battles fought in 1918 – after the dogged reclamation of many of the positions in this area in 1916, the Germans took them back in “The race to the sea” - their drive for the Channel in 1918, requiring the French and their allies to once again reclaim this land - including the story of the Red Baron.

As I got back on the bus from Mouquet Farm, I could hear music. As I sat down I even glanced up to see where the speaker was, because it was quite loud by my seat I thought. “Going Home” played on… my friend said, “Is that you” as picked up the iPad to continue with my blog writing. No I said, as the music got louder as the iPad came out of its case. Yes, it was me; I must have inadvertently started up Sofia’s playlist as I put it away to get off the bus and view the memorial at the farm. We had a good chuckle about that, thanks Sofia!

Caterpillar Valley Memorial holds the headstone that marks the site of where NZ’s returned unknown soldier lay from 1916 to 2004, before being taken home with much ceremony to the memorial in NZ. We watched much of the proceedings on tv and I remember still the emotion we all felt then. Colin our guide asked if anyone spoke Maori – while I needed the translation to understand it, I was able by virtue of the relentless correction of my Maori pronunciation by the rest of my family to deliver an acceptable reading of the Maori inscription for everyone. An honour.

To give some context, where the grave is lie hundreds of other graves – from a variety of commonwealth countries, jumbled together, not sectioned off. Standing from the archway entrance with my back to the headstones, to my left lower in the valley is another small graveyard and at 10 o’clock a memorial. It has taken less than 15 minutes to drive from where we have ‘crawled’ from one site of significance to the next, the last being the impressive Franco-English memorial at Theipval.

All have information in both English and French, side by side. The Newfoundland memorial has their symbolic caribou on a high rocky knoll, overlooking preserved trenches,  looking to ‘advance’. This force left Newfoundland as 1000 men, lost 200 at Gallipoli and after an attack here in 1916 only 68 remained unscathed. The battle of Pozieres is renowned - 60,000 casualties were sustained – the darkest day. There are over 200 cemeteries in this vicinity. I learn near Messine that there are still open war cemeteries – about 50 bodies are found around the Somme and 50 around Messine each year…
A poem by John Oxenham includes these lines:
“For not one foot of this dank sod but drank
It surfeit of the blood of gallant men…”
This is on a plaque at the Newfoundland Memorial, a site that has preserved the original trench lines. Today they are softened by grass and made passable by a nice wooden boardwalk; it is hard to imagine the series of craters, trenches, mud and munitions debris that made up the landscape then.

We were told to stick to the paths – unexploded arms still lie in the ground, to the point that sheep are used to graze the area from time to time, and suffer their own losses in these fields today.
In the extensive fields that make up the now beautiful countryside, one can still see the evidence of the artillery fire… the many ploughed fields awaiting their spring sowing show the underlying white chalk subsoil, which was brought up by the explosions. Some fields have a homogeneous colour, but in some the clear splashes (explosions) or runs (trenches) of white can be seen.

I really had no idea when I signed up for this tour that it would be so extensive and with so many adjacent sites to see. Ross should really be here for this :)
After lunch we saw what is probably the most emotive monument – that to the Canadian forces, commemorating in particular the taking of Vimy hill.

Again the jumbled pock marks have been retained here, with woods allowed to grow over them in places. A line of sight however draws your eyes to the soaring white twin-pillared edifice.

Evocative statues are scattered around different sides and heights of the sculpture, which would be over 15m tall. It can be seen from miles around, including from several highly populated areas.
I was surprised to see as I walked from the trenches to the monument what looked like distant pyramids looming over the horizon – coal tailings I am told.

We have passed only one German cemetery so far, though they too died here. Originally tye Germans had 678 cemeteries in this region, consolidated down to 128 and now there are only 4. The cemetery at Langermark in Belgium has 44,000 people buried.
We don’t have to travel far however to see a church spire rising above the village or town it stands over – as I glance around I see 3 without looking too hard. Another phenomenon that has faxcinated some of us is the endless appearance of jetstreams – one industrious lad says they counted 45! With the countryside so gently rolling, and in the absence of significant hills, the sky is very big here. Last night as we stopped to view the gravesite of Australia’s returned unknown soldier we were treated to a magnificent sunset. This developed further as we drove toward Amien, our overnight destination.

In most places in NZ we don’t get the opportunity to see such a widespread and long-lasting sunset – a combination of less ‘big-sky’ and less low-hanging smoke!
Pylons, motorways, railways and smoke stacks exist amongst fields, barns, copses and village churches. No farmer has to travel far to arrive at a village, or even a major town – and vice versa of course.

Driving off the main highway over the Belgium border I see a wee road sign pointing down a narrow country road that says “Christmas Truce”, which brings me to tears.

I truly couldn't say how many times we got off the bus - maybe up to 20 - and we didn't stop for eveything we could have... Our final stop was in the town of Iper, popluation 30,000 and one of the centres of Battlefield Tourism.
Preparing for the memorial service tonight at the Menin Gate, Colin tells us that the memorial was opened in 1928, with the words, “This is a memorial to the missing, but they are not missing, they are here.” It was the first broadcast by theBBC from a foreign place.
I was given the responsibility of choosing which of us four NZers would represent our country in laying a wreath at the service.
Though my name was drawn by lot, I passed the honour to Dan - who had both a grandfather and a grandmother over here. More about that another day...