Authuille – Vimy – Iepers
5th of October 2011
We woke to another day on the Western Front
battlefields. Sadly the weather had not improved and it seemed we were in for
the full Somme experience – wet, windy and chilly. We left early from our
campsite and headed to nearby Thiepvale – the site of the Franco–British Memorial and Cemetery with French crosses on one side and the Commonwealth grave
headstones we had become familiar with on the other. Once again the walls of
the monuments pillars bear the alarming number of Somme missing – 73 637 men.
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| Walls of the Somme MIA |
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The monument can be seen for Kilometers around |
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| Thiepvale - The Franco-British Cemetery |
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| French Crosses on the left... |
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| Commonwealth Grave markers on the right. So many just have "A soldier of the great war, Known unto God" |
From here we headed further northwards out
of the Somme region but still on the Western Front towards the village of Vimy.
We drove the whole way across delightful country roads past the corn and potato
fields, which seem to be the crop of choice here. Along the way we passed the
Ulster Tower – monument to the Northern Irish division.
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| The Ulster Tower |
We arrived 40km later at Vimy Ridge Nations
Historic Site Canada. This is an amazing site which has been preserved by
reforestation to prevent to prevent the erosion of the shell pocked ground all
around. There were also well preserved sections of both the Canadian and German
trenches sitting only a mere 25m apart at some points. That 25m through….what a
hell it would have been with the deposits of crates creating a mountain either
side would have to run up and take the opposition’s trench.
The Canadians also used a system of subways to more safely bring supplies in from the rear. You could go under-ground on guided tours, however we missed our opportunity as we weren’t told the tour was close to capacity and didn’t reserve a place – Oh well, time to move on anyway.
But before we did we visited the colossal Memorial to the Canadian’s who dies in WWI.
From France we continued even further North (and a bit east) to cross the
border into Belgium. Our destination Ypres (Iepers or ‘wipers’ as the
Tommy’s nicknamed it) we had been strongly recommended to visit the “In
Flanders Fields” museum located in the town hall in the centre of the town. We
certainly weren’t disappointed with what we found.
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| Amazingly well preserved site. A definite for modern history buffs |
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| Dave checking out the view from the Machine gunners post |
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| The view between trenches - now lush and green but still bearing the signs of intense shelling |
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| What the...? |
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| Oh its Dave manning another gun post/pill box |
The Canadians also used a system of subways to more safely bring supplies in from the rear. You could go under-ground on guided tours, however we missed our opportunity as we weren’t told the tour was close to capacity and didn’t reserve a place – Oh well, time to move on anyway.
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| No mans land is still no mans land with unexploded ammunition littering the ground nearly 100years later |
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| Except for these guys... they are the bomb detection experts or guinea pigs.. just depends which way you want to pitch it |
But before we did we visited the colossal Memorial to the Canadian’s who dies in WWI.
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| Vimy |
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| The Canadian Memorial |
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| The Somme - Wet, Windy & Cold |
When we arrived we were each given
characters to follow at the start, middle and end of the war. Dave had an
Aussie soldier, Ralph Pendleton and I had Marie Curie, a Polish woman who
married a Frenchman and moved to North Eastern France. The museum had more
great information about Belgian part of the Western Front and combined it with
great audio-visual displays which had a very emotive effect on both of us.
During the war (as some may know) Marie won Nobel prizes for physics, chemistry and pioneered x-ray technology and brought it to the front line hospitals to better diagnose soldiers injuries. She survived the war but died in the 30’s from radiation exposure. Ralph died in the same year he enlisted – 1918 in a shell explosion while stringing barbed wire defences. He is buried in Somer Farm Cemetery South of Ieper. Other amazing stories were that of the Christmas truce of 1914, where soldiers called out from opposing trenches and even crossed no man’s land into the enemy trenches to swap gifts, food and show photos of their loved ones. It nearly brought a halt to the entire war as soldiers began to question why they were fighting one another. But sadly after Boxing Day the war resumed, or in some extremely ‘friendly’ areas the fighting resumed another new years.
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| Eerie installation showing the gas and barbed wire of trench warfare |
During the war (as some may know) Marie won Nobel prizes for physics, chemistry and pioneered x-ray technology and brought it to the front line hospitals to better diagnose soldiers injuries. She survived the war but died in the 30’s from radiation exposure. Ralph died in the same year he enlisted – 1918 in a shell explosion while stringing barbed wire defences. He is buried in Somer Farm Cemetery South of Ieper. Other amazing stories were that of the Christmas truce of 1914, where soldiers called out from opposing trenches and even crossed no man’s land into the enemy trenches to swap gifts, food and show photos of their loved ones. It nearly brought a halt to the entire war as soldiers began to question why they were fighting one another. But sadly after Boxing Day the war resumed, or in some extremely ‘friendly’ areas the fighting resumed another new years.
Another amazing but tough day we decided,
as we were once again in Belgium to end the day and drown our sorrows in banana
and chocolate waffles and Grimbergen beers.
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| And on a happier note: WAFFLES! |
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