THE BATTLE FIELDS OF SOMME, FRANCE

From the road we look back at the battlefields & the memorial

Last November, Mr G and I traveled to France and we took the opportunity of visiting Amiens and the Somme battlefields to show our respects at the resting places of many of these young Australian soldiers. 

                 The Catherdral of Amiens

Cathedrale Notre Dame       Inside we also see St John the Baptist's skull.

I must say I was overwhelmed at the attachment the French have felt for the ANZACs.  Here in glorious picturesque countryside lie the remains of our countrymen and the monuments of remembrance to Australia and many other countries.

The Australian alcove which is in great need of repair

When we reached the Australian National War Memorial, I never could have imagined how I would feel walking in a cemetery like this. 

The hundreds of rows of white crosses standing in front of a huge memorial wall.  A tower stands proudly bearing the names of 10,082 soldiers who went missing in action.  We arrive in the late afternoon, the sun is shining over the crosses and lighting up the autumn leaves.  As I walk up and down the rows I feel extremely melancholy.  Rows upon rows of soldiers who never made it home. 

Corporal Ogg of Haberfield

On one cross, the name and address of one young man who had lived close to where I live now.  That really hit home, so to speak!


The rows of head stones line the mountainside

We drive through tiny villages and by farm houses and along the way pass by the many other war cemeteries.  I am in awe at the gorgeous scenery and yet in the annals of history, it is a place described as so awful that some men died of the disastrous conditions of just being there and bunkered down in the trenches. 

We arrive at the Memorial Terre-Neuvien.   A sign tells us that 'strategic and tactical miscalculations led to a great slaughter’ where the Royal Newfoundland Regiment was nearly wiped out. 

Looking up a trench towards the caribou statue

The sun has almost set as we enter the park gates so we have the place all to ourselves.  We walk anticlockwise around a tall rockery outcrop in the middle of the enclosing pine trees.  We walked up the spiral concrete path to get to the top of the outcrop which happens to be planted with plants native to Newfoundland.  We peer out towards the dark hidden trenches.  Standing high and mighty, protective and watchful stands a beautiful caribou statue.   He is the sentry now.

He stands on watch

Back down on ground level we can walk out into the trenches where timber slates have been laid for a walkway to prevent the mounds from being disturbed.  It is now completely dark except for a few dull electric lights and it is freezing.  In fact, I am shuddering with the chill.

Mr G and I talk about how these men must have suffered here in this now quite peaceful landscape.  They were huddled under blankets, wet, muddy and frozen.  In fact it was so cold, it is written, that their drinking water was brought to them in frozen blocks!!!! It doesn't seem that surprising at this moment as I shake and shiver inside my woollen coat. 

Mr G on the trench track

"Their eyelids froze together" from the temperature and their "legs swelled up twice the size" from being constantly immersed in water, it is said. 

Surprisingly to me, it isn’t eerie walking around these trenches of despair.  I really feel at peace and tranquil.  Maybe these souls are truly at rest.  I hope so.

History shows us that within this great war zone, was one of Australia's greatest World War 1 victories.
 

It is incredible to think that in 1918, 5,000 diggers (the cream of healthy Australian men) made a daring attack on Western Front on the Somme. The Australians were given the job of recapturing Villers-Bretonneux from the advancing Germans.  1,200 Australian men died in a blink of an eye, a mere 24 hours.

On the Western Front eventually, 46,000 met their death with another 14,000 dying elsewhere.

The ANZACs have repeatedly shown the rest of world that they possessed a courage and determination allowing them to accomplish the impossible but with a hefty price.

This year on April 25, 2008 in the town of Villers-Bretonneux in France, a dawn service was held to mark the 90th anniversary.


At the going down of the sun - we will remember them

In this quaint French village, the classrooms of the local school have ensured that the ANZACs will not be forgotten.  The classrooms have signs with the words  "N'oublions jamais l'Australie" (Let us never forget Australia) to remind future generations of this unusual bond between two unlikely countries. The French have promised never to forget the role the ANZACs played in gaining their freedom.

So on April 25, 2008 the local people, Australian ancestors, tourists and the curious "filed up the hill, past the ocean of white crosses that line the avenue to the memorial tower. Called by the bagpipes, some carried simple posies of fresh local flowers, others wreaths entwined with eucalypts and wattle"


The appalling death toll between 1916 and 1918 saw an incredible loss of life.  The "backbone of many countries" was felled in a moment of war madness, thousands of miles from home.

But it wasn't just the Australians who died in the thousands.  21,392 British troops died, another 35,492 wounded and the Canadian Virtual War Memorial has details on more than 116,000 Canadians who perished during the war.  In fact the area has many memorials dedicated to soldiers from many far off lands.  So many died here, it is hard not to think about the ground being awash with blood. 

At the Australian National War Memorial, Mr G and I signed the visitor’s book with
the words:
 
"We will never forget them".  And WE won't.

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