We had visited a number of WWI sites and memorials on previous trips to France and Belgium. They are like Gettysburg, writ large. Very large. Unlike WWII, it was a war, perhaps the last great war, between
armies, men in uniform. There were battles in WWI, I have read (Mons?), in which the British lost more men in uniform than they did in the
whole of WWII. In the Second World War, most casualties were among non-combatants.
After a score or so of WWI cemeteries we decided to stop again at one of the many memorials. The Canadian memorial at Vimy Ridge is relatively unique in that the battlefield has been left as it was, or now is. There is an excellent visitor center and some hundreds of meters of trench and "subway" are open to tour. Electrified fences keep visitors on approved trails. There are un-detonated explosives all over the grounds, some still viable just a few years ago. Much of the warfare here was subterranean. An explosives specialist was killed in 1998, not by a detonation, but by the collapse of a tunnel.
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En route, one of the many memorials that dot
the countryside |
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| Looking to what was left of the village of Vimy, 1916 |
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Very able Canadian college students conduct tours; there
are displays and a superb video at the visitor center |
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| A British mortar |
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Out in the trenches now, standing at a Canadian look-out
post |
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What the Canadian look-out posts looked like from the German
side |
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Trench-work on the German side; note their stone-work
observation post |
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The forest has come back mostly, but there are artillery
craters everywhere, some building-size; it was an artillery
war |
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Me in the German observation post; just happy to be
able to fit in |
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| Much of France is so dedicated |
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Steps down to the "subway," the improved
subterranean route, sometimes going for
kilometers, for communication and supply |
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| NB |
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At the Memorial itself, on which ground thousands of
Canadians died; they took Vimy Ridge, 3,000 killed, 7,000
wounded; among many Canadian triumphs in WWI |
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| The great Vimy Ridge Memorial |
1 comment:
We visited Verdun and Douaumont French military cemetery back in 1999 when our kids were with us. The trenches are still there, now grassy with forests encroaching the edges. The cemetery held both French and German dead from Verdun. Each French grave had a red rose bush. I think it was only this past summer that we did some comparisons of lists of casualties from WWI and WWII of the "morts pour la France" that were carved in the churches and cathedrals along the way. We were amazed at how many more were killed in WWI than in WWII. Guess I had never really stopped to think of the difference in the mortality rates before. Certainly was humbling.
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