The Somme

This beautifullly maintained , serene park-like spot contained a monument to the Canadians that fell at the Battle of the Somme.

Poppies

Poppies are everywhere. They are on the rug in our hall, on crosses, on wreaths, they grow in the fields.

Everyone had to get off to take pictures of them, to touch them, to pick them, to save one in a book. They grow in the fields, on embankments and in the odd garden.

Busloads of Canadians and veterans are everywhere. While there are a lot of us here, the guides told us they see a lot more British visitors than any other group.

This is a pilgrimage all Canadians should make. I cannot explain it any better right now.

Sunday, May 31, 2009

I have more numbers burned into my memory.


Horrific numbers, staggering numbers like 1000 cemeteries, 750,000 men, 500,000 from the common-wealth (200,000 killed in Belgium, 300,000 killed in France). Of those 500,000 killed, 300,000 were never recovered and remain to -day buried under the soils of France.


Everywhere we go there are members of our tour who search for shrapnel and bits of metal. The fields around us are full of the stuff.


We saw a movie today and another number was 4000, the number of men killed every day for a month during the battle for Arras. Unimaginable.

More Vimy Images

These images from the Vimy memorial need no introduction. They are beautiful and evocative.

The Queens Own Rifles has quite a schedule for themselves. At Vimy one of the things planned was a wreath to the fallen Canadians. The 2 young fellows holding the flag are Queens Own Rifles in service. Adam is a 2 tour vet and Shawn is preparing to go.

I discovered there is a "Friends of Vimy " association or foundation. It probably has a huge amount of info available if they have a website and I imagine they do.

Sat. May 30th 2009

Canadian ground.

Sign posts are at every fork in thr road and all war memorials and cemetarys are well marked.

To-day was Beaumont-Hamel, the Newfoundland Memorial Site and Vimy Ridge. We have 7 people from Newfoundland on this trip with us. During WWI they were still a member of the commonwealth and not Canada. This entire site is dedicated to the sons of the rock.

It is a Canadian National Historic Park and considered Canadian soil in this country. Students from Newfoundland rotate through the park service on 4 month rotations. During WWI Newfoundland had a population of 250,000 and had 12,000 enlist. Most of them were between the ages of 18 and 24. This was considered a significant number from such a small population.

The Memorial we saw today commemorates the loss of 0ver 800 men in less than a 2 minuet battle. Like many of us the number 800 is not easily visualized but when I saw the brass plaques with name after name of the dead, I understood immediately.

The symbol for all memorials for Newfoundlanders is the caribou. It always faces the direction the men were going.

The site is about 82 acres of land with German and Canadian trenches and mortar holes. The guides describe the battle and the land and help us 'see' the trenches and the blast holes. There are 3 cemetery's on the site as well and we saw them all.

Even with the museum and the descriptions, our modern lifestyles prevent us from really understanding why there were over 300 men still under the earth of the site and never recovered. Or why so many soldiers were unidentified.

We also laid a wreath for remembrance of these men and the Queens Own Rifles had a bugler with them to play 'Last Post'. The Newfoundlanders with us were quite moved and so were we all.

Later in the day we saw the Vimy site. It commemorates the 60,000 Canadians lost in the Great War. The site itself is enormous. Both the Beaumont-Hamel site and Vimy had areas fenced off with electric fence because of the 'unexploded ordinance' that is still present. In the photo above you can see the sheep used to trim the grass at Beaumont-Hamel. It is considered too dangerous to send people in to trim the grass.

The trenches and tunnels have been restored at Vimy and again we had a Canadian student guide. Vimy is also a National Historic site and Canadian soil. Acres and acres of the place are filled with tunnels in some state of decay and trenches in the same condition. Huge blast holes were mixed in.

The group laid another wreath, we looked for family names on the memorial and looked over other memorials that had been laid before. Ken and I found one Sloat and two Finches on the Vimy memorial and took pictures of those names.

I'll write some more as I upload pics.

Vimy Ridge

To the valour of their Countrymen in the Great War And in memory of their sixty Thousand dead this monument Is raised by the people of Canada-Inscription on monument





The memorial is inscribed with the names of over 11,000 Canadians for whom there is no known resting place.



Vimy trenches above the ground.

A view of the fenced off trenches/blast holes/mortar holes. In the foreground you can see the wire fencing to keep sheep in and people out!!


Poppy tribute on the steps of the Vimy memorial.

From Wikipedia

The Canadian National Vimy Memorial site is located approximately eight kilometres north of Arras, France, near the towns of Vimy and Neuville-Saint-Vaast. The site is one of the few places on the former Western Front where a visitor can see the trench lines of a First World War battlefield and the related terrain in a preserved natural state.[63][64] The site was founded to principally honour the memory of the Canadian Corps, but also contains a number of other memorials. These include memorials dedicated to the French Moroccan Division, Lions Club International and Lieutenant-Colonel Mike Watkins. There are also two Commonwealth War Graves Commission maintained cemeteries on site; Canadian Cemetery No. 2 and Givenchy Road Canadian Cemetery.[65][66] Beyond being a popular location for battlefield tours, the site is also an important location in the burgeoning field of First World War battlefield archaeology, because of its preserved and largely undisturbed state.[67] The Canadian National Vimy Memorial and Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial sites comprise close to 80 percent of conserved First World War battlefields in existence.[68]

Queens Own Rifles - Canadians at War

As we arrived on our plane and began to meet everyone travelling to France, people began to ask what made you come on this journey.

There are long strories and short ones but as we tried to explain, we finally showed them pictures of Francis and Dad. If they could have seen Dad's cap badge they might even have been able to tell us what regiment he was with!

They nailed Francis' regiment within seconds from his cap and insignia. The long and the short of it is that we have decided that for a short time at least, Francis should have a face to visitors and anyone who may come by the cemetary.

Today we stopped at a small cemetary to honour a soldier. The guidebook shows hundreds and hundreds of graveyards clustered around Amies and Arras. They are everywhere.

In this area we will be seeing more places associated with WWI.