Understanding the Battle of the Somme and the consequences....

On our last day in Albert we decided to pay homage to the many Australians who fought and died in many of the battles fought in this area, known as the Valley of the Somme, in WW1.

Along many of the country roads, every now and then, we have stumbled across a tiny cemetery that is scrupulously neat and tidy and has neat white tombstones laid out in rows, usually the graves of soldiers from many Commonwealth countries.

The Thiepval monument in the distance

Or you suddenly catch sight of a monument across some of the fields and it turns out to be commemorating a battle on that spot, or is a tribute to the soldiers of a specific country.

However we decided we should pay our respects to our own country’s soldiers.

  Neither Ewan nor I have any relatives ( that we know about) who died on the Somme but it was still a very emotional experience.

Pozieres was first and it was a very imposing and large cemetery with a circular wall surrounding thousands of identical crosses. Wandering amongst the graves and reading the epitaphs, especially the ages of those who died, is very sobering and just emphasises the futility of war. Particularly when you consider how many lives were lost, often for so little….a few yards at best. In the Commonwealth cemeteries there are graves for soldiers from all of the Commonwealth nations and rather than group them according to their country or their title/rank they are randomly placed : just as they fought side by side, I would imagine.

There were lots of tombstones with ‘An Australian soldier of the Great War’ and ‘Known to God’. 

View of the cemetery from the top of the Monument

The Australian National War Memorial ( at Villers Bretonneux) was built to commemorate the 313,000 Australians who fought here, but particularly the 46,000 who never returned home and of those, the 11,000 soldiers whose bodies have never been found. Their names are engraved on the base of the memorial.

Many of the crosses we saw had messages from the families of those who died, so it must be particularly heartbreaking to not have any idea where a loved one lies.

 During the second World War there was some fighting around the Memorial and some of the damage is still evident today. A new General John Monash centre is currently being built and will open in 2018.

In most of the towns we have passed through there are War memorials often noting not just the names of the soldiers from that town who died, but also the names of the many French civilians who lost their lives.

We hadn’t realised when we planned our trip that the French have Australia week around the 25^th April and celebrate Anzac Day with a dawn service and other events. Many of the houses, shops and buildings had Australian flags flying, Clearly there continues to be recognition of the sacrifices made by the Australians (who, let’s face it, weren’t defending their own country!)

Even Australian graffiti!

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There seemed to be Canadians everywhere we went, including 70 Canadian students on the Eurostar wearing red jackets saying ‘Vimy 1917 – 2017’. Apparently 25, 000 Canadians were expected at Vimy for a centenary service on Sunday. According to the news reports Justin Trudeau , Princes - Charles, Harry and William - the French president and lots of other celebrities attended. We stayed well away!

We did speak to a Canadian man whose brother had purchased some land next to Vimy and is planning on populating it with oak trees grown from the original seeds brought back to Canada by soldiers. They had to have the field scanned for metal and surprisingly there were lots of live grenades and devices found. Apparently the mortality rate of bomb disposal experts is very high around here as there are lots of unexploded devices that continue to be found. They also uncovered the bodies of two German soldiers. Just as in Fromelles, where a large number of Australians were found when a farmer started to dig his field, there are many bodies still thought to be buried in the area.

Its difficult to reconcile the atrocities that occurred here with the peace and quiet that exists now in these beautiful green rolling hills.

Next stop was Amiens to see the Cathedral which I’m sure many of the soldiers would have visited. The visit also involved a tramp around the antique market which filled every street around the Cathedral. It seemed to have hundreds of stalls selling everything from beautiful antique chairs and vases to absolute junk…..and everything in between! Mostly it was a social occasion for the many stall holders who seemed happy to sit and chat in the sunshine.

At one point I lost sight of Ewan and after searching in a couple of streets to no avail realised that the large Orange (telecommunications shop) on a corner was open….so where else would he be? His new best friend was helping sort out data, connectivity and other stuff (ie the stuff that he tries to discuss with me and about which I know nothing so I just nod and agree!).

 After I managed to extricate him we headed for the Cathedral which is the world’s longest or highest or something fabulous Cathedral. It was very impressive as you can see. Apparently when it was built commencing in 1220, it was brightly painted and colourful. All of the colours have faded over time, but it was great to see some of the colours intact inside.

We decided our bodies could cope with the climb to the northern tower, however I bailed out at halfway: tight spiral stone stairs are not my favourite thing so I was happy to get to the transept which is just under the circular window in the photo. Ewan was determined to do the entire 302 steps so off he went!

These impressive gothic arches are 42 metres high:
 quite amazing considering their age

After we staggered down we powered up the audio guides and immediately had no idea where we were inside the cathedral. Sometimes audio guides are impossible to understand and it appears they are organised by someone who knows where everything is, as opposed to dumb tourists like us who have no idea!

Ewan looking for the relic but all that
 was able to be seen was some jewels
-  not sure where the head is?

 The big deal about this Cathedral is that it is supposed to house the relic of John the Baptist's head. All we could see was a tiny group of precious jewels and the head was nowhere to be seen! It's a mystery!

After a reviving coffee we headed back for a last night at Joelle and Francis’s lovely house (For future reference - Airbnb – Rue Felix Faure, Albert). When we headed off the next morning I felt quite sad as they had been fantastic hosts: we’d had beer in their beautiful garden with them, the breakfast was fabulous (lots of french pastries ) and they had tolerated our appalling French very well! The house was a charming old brick house that had been beautifully renovated and we had to climb a few sets of stairs to get to our room as it was in the attic again…..but all good exercise!

Looking forward to more adventures tomorrow,

Dianne