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Saturday 31 May
We were very sad to say goodbye to Jacqueline and Francoise this morning – who knows how long before we get to see them again? Since we each had a long way, we were pleased with our 8.30 start. Our GPS was programmed for Autoroutes which made it quite a quick but expensive trip to Amiens (nearly 25 Euro). We headed directly to Villers-Brettoneux to the Aussie museum there in the little school financed by the descendents of Aussie soldiers who died taking back the village from the Germans. Fascinating photos and film footage of the war really showed the immense destruction of the towns and farmlands. We had time to visit the Aussie memorial cemetery outside the town before returning to the train station in Amiens to collect Isabelle. We were a little early so spent the time appreciating the magnificent world heritage cathedral – big enough to fit 2 Notre Dames and sporting a wonderfully sculpted ornate facade and interior.
It took us some time to reach our chambre d’hote which turned out to be 30 mins out of Amiens in the opposite direction to the battlefields!
Sunday 1 June
Today was spent entirely touring the museums and sites of the memorials of the various nations – and there is more to do tomorrow! First and most impressive museum was situated under the stunning art-deco cathedral at Albert. Built in underground tunnels that have been there for centuries and which served as bomb shelters in the war, the museum is an excellent depiction of the life in the trenches and the progress of the war. It gave us an overview which enabled us to appreciate the other sites. The first of these was at Beaumont where we visited the Canadian/Newfoundland memorial. Here they have preserved the original trenches of both sides although now overgrown with grass and it is possible to distinguish the craters from the bombs and the complicated network of trenches, so complicated they were given street names like Picadilly and Marlybone to assist troops to find their way. Down the hill were the German trenches well emplaced in a natural gully and in perfect position to mow down the Newfoundlanders who had to attack over open territory. 85% of them were killed in that first charge! Why were they sent on such an impossible mission? It was suggested in the museum that they provided a diversion for the British division coming in from the side... Hmm – more dispensable colonials?
Next was the immense crater left after the Allies tunnelled under a German gun emplacement and blew it to smithereens – like in the movie Hill 60. The crater was 300m across and 70m deep. Later we visited the Franco-British memorial for the unknown soldier at Thiepval – 72,000 died in action and their bodies never recovered or never identified! And that did not include the final offensive.
Monday 2 June
Our day started with the Historial de Peronne which gave an excellent account of the lead up and social background to the war, so well presented that we were not put off by the high school students everywhere with their research sheets. It was lunch time by the time we left and we had to make do with a sandwich from the boulangerie – and a beer, which you can buy almost anywhere and consume in public! The same applies to wine – it seems only Aussies need to be protected by law from such behaviour.
We returned to Pozieres where more Aussies were lost than anywhere else on the Somme and then on to Hamel which was closed for repairs. Everywhere there are cemeteries - in the towns, on the farms, in the woods; it seems wherever a medical centre was set up, there was a burial place beside it. The memorials hold many, many unknown and show the names of many more never recovered.
Tuesday 3 June
We were sorry to leave our lovely B&B in Picardy but it was time to head north. Our first stop was the memorial at Fromelles and who should we see as we pulled up but George & Rosie, and Ross & Pat! If we had planned to meet it would not have happened – not only that, we saw them twice more today! Crossing into Belgium, we went directly to Ploegsteert (Plugstreet to the Aussies) and another excellent and creative presentation in the museum. We wished we could bring the film home with us as it so clearly and succinctly explained the causes of the war and the course of the war. Lunch, our first meal in Belgium, was a disappointment – let’s hope it improves from now on.
Most of the afternoon was spent in Ypres (Ieper) in the “In Flanders Field” museum which is quite simply fantastic, totally absorbing and very much concentrated on the human impact on both soldiers and civilian. The before/after photos of the countryside were chilling – the entire war zone resembled a lunar landscape, a quagmire pockmarked with holes and without a single tree or blade of grass, the towns literally flattened, the landmarks unidentifiable. They say residents came back and could not recognise where their home had been. The magnificent 12 Century Cloth Hall in Ypres was razed to the ground as was everything else. We could not imagine how people would have the spirit to pick up the pieces.
Our final stop was the Tyne Cot memorial near Paschendale where there are more Commonwealth of Nations graves than in any other cemetery of the Great War.
In all, on all fronts and both sides, 11 million combatants died and 7 million civilians. The figures are mind-boggling. Another astronomical number were seriously injured because this was the first “industrialised” war with weapons of much greater power and range. The medical corps were terribly overstretched with the number and seriousness of the injuries.
We arrived in Brugges quite late and the GPS could not find our B&B – at 8 weeks into the trip and after the last 2 gruelling days we were not amused!
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