Battlefield Tour

This weekend I went with British Studies to tour battlefields of the First World War. It is unusual for Americans to spend a great deal of time studying WWI. I know that my own courses barely touched on WWI before spending a great deal of time on WWII but the First War had a dramatic impact on the world, not least because it was the foundation for the beginnings of the second war.

We started our trip with a tour of Vimy Ridge in France. At daybreak on 9 April 1917 Canadian troops (fighting together for the first time) stormed the ridge. Although the victory was swift, there were 10,602 casualties of which 3,598 were Canadian. The victory here was a turning point for Allied forced in the war. It was also the beginning of a national identity for Canadians. The national park is owned and ran by Canada and the tunnels and trenches have been preserved as well as a beautiful monument built on the Ridge.

Friday night we stayed in Arras, France and Saturday we toured The Somme battlefields and cemeteries with guides. There are 240 Commonwealth cemeteries in the area of the Somme. The first sight we visited was the Lochnagar Crater. Our second stop was Delville Wood which was fought over in July and August of 1916. At the end of the war, only a single tree was left alive. The memorial here is to the South African soldiers who fought their first battle here. The Thiepval Memorial is designed to recognized those soldiers with no known grave. The Memorial commemorates 72,085 men who died in the Somme sector up until 20 March 1918. It is also a recognition of the Allied forces. Beneath the dedication to the French and English Armies are inscribed "The Missing of the Somme." Our final visit was to Beaumont-Hamel (Newfoundland) Memorial Park where on 1 July 1916 the Newfoundland Regiment fought for the first time in France. In the middle of the battleground and cemeteries stands a Caribou, the badge of the regiment.

Saturday afternoon we spent exploring the town of Ypres, Belgium. It is a lovely little town that was completely destroyed during the First World War. All the ancient looking buildings you see in the pictures below were actually rebuilt (paid for by the Germans) after the war but they are built back to their original design using postcards from before the war. After dinner, we walked to the Menin Gate, a "Hall of Memory" "To the Armies of the British Empire Who Stood Here from 1914 to 1918 and to Those of Their Dead who have No Known Grave." Each night at 8 PM traffic is stopped while members of the local fire brigade sound the Last Post from under the Memorials arches. That night we stood with a huge crowd to mourn the loss of the last living British soldier of the war.

The battles of Ypres (of which there were four - the third being Passchendaele) began in 1914 and continued until 1918. The weather was awful (raining constantly so the trenches were full of water). Around the Ypres Salient there are graves and commemorations for almost 100,000 British soldiers. It is truly a moving experience to visit the German Cemetery of Langemarck and the British cemetery of Tyne Cot.