Once More Unto The Breach At Agincourt

It is one of the most studied and storied battles of history, Henry V's "band of brothers" and their victory over the numerically and otherwise superior forces of France. Mobility, massing firepower, unity versus division of command, the importance of terrain, the end of chivalry and chivalric values, the common man versus nobility, initiative in battle, nation-building, and so on. Azincourt, as the French call it--the village--was on our way back to the coast, and we had to see it, the battlefield (which is well-known and little changed for its 600 years), and the museum. Besides, we hoped the museum might let us spend the night in its parking lot. Not surprisingly, this is not one of France's most popular tourism sites. Indeed, and appropriately, the museum seems intended largely for English-speaking visitors. We were the only people there on a Monday afternoon in July. Michelin, FWIW, gives it one sentence and no stars. Sore losers.

Life-sized plywood knights, squires, archers, varlets, et al., are
all over the little town and on the drive around the battlefield

Entrance to the museum, which is actually not little: many
different rooms and halls, displays, multi-media type stuff;
typically French, however; but in English too

Large model of the battlefield showing various stages of the
battle...here, the French cavalry 

Part of which is charging part of the English archers and getting
impaled on the palings and then filled with arrows

Henry V in command (Google Earth view); later, by all
accounts, he would join in the hand-to-hand melee

Pretty much the story of the battle, according to the museum

Henry talks to us, en Francaise, explaining his
claim to the French throne

Charles saying  "now go away or I shall taunt you
a second time"

There is appropriate attention to literary and cinematic
depictions of the battle; and its putative importance in the
building of the English nation and character

If you take away nothing else from this post,
take away this: a competent long-bow archer
could fire ten arrows a minute, maximum range
400 yards, effective range, 200 yards, lethal
under 60 yards; at close range an iron-tipped
arrow could penetrate Medieval plate armor;
at any instant, a given archer could have three
arrows in flight; multiply this by 5,000 archers,
protected from cavalry by terrain and palings...

French cavalry view of the battle; after getting shot up by the
archers, the survivors retreated back into their own advancing
ranks...and the melee was on, the French so thickly packed
they could barely swing their swords

Hard to trudge 300 yards through mud in one
of one these outfits, especially under fire; once
knocked down or tripped over a fallen comrade,
you were helpless; many of the French nobles
simply suffocated or drowned in their own armor;
the rest, once down, were easy pickings for the
archers, who, after spending their arrows, joined
the melee

Vicki in dress-up

More display

And now we are out driving around the battlefield; the museum
gives you a helpful map 

Seemingly every house in Azincourt sports one
of these

English sniper

Et cetera

Battlefield

Ditto

Pretty much where the battle was joined

"Take that, English-type varlet personne!"

Pretty much the story of the battle...

La Coupole, Near St. Omer

According to Michelin "the oldest rocket launch pad in the world, this 55,000 tonne dome (the same weight as an aircraft carrier) hides an underground town where the Nazis developed the V2 rocket."

Alas, disturbingly, none of this is true. Indeed, the Germans hoped to launch V2s from this site, near St. Omer, even to manufacture liquid oxygen fuel here. But British reconnaissance identified it in 1943, and RAF and USAAF bombers disabled it in 1944, before it could come close to being operational. No V2 was ever launched from St. Omer. The V2 was developed at Peenemunde, in Germany. Interestingly, only a single bomb hit the dome at St. Omer. The rest fell where they needed to fall, at the railroad entrances and architectural supports, undermining the vast structure.

More disturbingly, the French now promote La Coupole, touristically, as a stepping stone to space exploration. The Germans had nothing such in mind, only the pulverization of London, which they might well have achieved. The site is well worth seeing, I think, but kept in its real, grotesque, context. Oh, the state-of-the-art aircraft carrier of WWII, the USS Essex class, was only 27,000 tons. None ever was sunk.

The La Coupole complex

The dome itself; it was configured for rockets of 65 feet; the V2
was only 45 feet; which raises questions of more distant targets...

On site advertising...beyond distasteful; could we give any
thought to the thousands of victims, and the thousands more
lost in destroying the V2?

Ieper (Ypres)

What do you say about Ypres? Total destruction, by the Germans, of one of the great cities of Europe, in 1915-17. The first use of poison gas, by the Germans, in warfare. The beginning of the stalemate and trench and artillery warfare that was to characterize this terrible war. Five enormous battles in the Ypres Salient in four years. Hundreds of thousands of combatants killed, many more wounded. No name more associated with the catastrophe of WWI.

The more positive attitude is to marvel at the reconstruction, beginning in the 1920s, and the beauty of the city as it now exists. It is indeed impressive and beautiful, and suggestive of the greatness that once was, comparable to Bruges and Ghent. Perhaps future generations, ignorant or insensitive or far removed, will be able to so marvel. Now, still, a century later, one can only mourn what was forever lost. And so much more.

A beautiful old building, dated 1544; but rebuilt;
if you look at the photographs, nothing was left
standing in the city center

Cathedral spires, rebuilt in the 20s, re-consecrated

in 1930

South porch, tympanum, all rebuilt

A beautiful flamboyant Gothic structure it was

It, and the Cloth Hall, among the first German artillery targets

A 12th century city marker, the only one to have
survived

The Cloth Hall, one of Medieval Europe's very greatest
buildings; rebuilt in the 20s and 30s; Ypres rivaled Ghent and
Bruges in textile manufacture

Tower of the Cloth Hall

In the Cloth Hall is the In Flanders Fields 
museum; maybe next time...

Panning around the great square; all rebuilt from rubble and dust

Thus

Trench art--sculpted from shell casings--in a
book/artifact store

Ephemera...

The Menin Gate, a tribute to the many thousands of Commonwealth
casualties who have no grave; hundreds of thousands of British
and Commonwealth soldiers would have marched out this eastern
city portal, many never to return

Thus

In the Menin Gate

Tributes continue

A beautiful city, if one can forget

Incidents On The Road

Our drive back to Amsterdam Friday was made memorable by the heat, our desire not to get caught up in the Calais/Dunkirk ferry strike traffic, and by our navigatrix' having ticked the "no expressways" box on our satnav and forgetting this days before. We thus wandered the back roads of northeastern France and west Flanders for some hours, passing over numerous freeways, but never entering. The error was discovered somewhere in the vicinity of Ieper (Ypres), but it was over-corrected, permitting toll roads, and putting us on the southside Antwerp Ring road with it's stunning 19E toll. (RVs get counted like 18-wheelers; it's a height issue, not just length or number of axles). Anyhow, we got to Amsterdam in good enough order and parked for the night at BW Campers.

Saturday morning Rene and his colleague Richard were there to work on our ailing fridge. The repair, such as it was, took two experienced men three hours to do. The crux was moving the fridge enough to permit access to the burner and gas jet. The clown who designed our camper put the access hatch about six inches too high. Otherwise it would have been a straightforward half hour, removing the burner, cleaning out the jet, and reinstalling. We stayed that night at Amsterdamse Bos, again, doing the wash, etc., and testing the propane/fridge repair. All seemed well by Sunday morning, so with the fridge re-provisioned, clothes clean, and all tanks relevantly filled or emptied, we set forth again for
France to resume our travels.

There was a surprising amount of traffic for Sunday morning, despite the fact that trucks aren't allowed on the roads on Sundays in Netherlands. (Or in France; or other civilized places). We hit rain near toll-free Antwerp and resolved to stop early and see Ieper the next day. Where to stop was easily answered, since St. Sixtus' Abbey is only a dozen miles from Ieper and we suspected the brothers would let us stay in their parking lot overnight, especially if we drank some of the holy hop water and visited the gift shoppe. We did, and they did. The place is incredibly busy on Sundays, and the parking lot didn't finally clear out until 10 (the restaurant closes at 8), but after that it was very quiet until the first bells Monday morning. We drove on to see Ieper that morning (next post), but then came back to St. Sixtus for a long and productive lunch. In addition to the best beer in all Creation, they also have very reasonably-priced locally-produced food, especially the cheeses and pates, and free wifi, in the restaurant/visitor center, In de Vriede. Life is good. We plan on becoming regulars. I think Vicki gets a kick out of the festive and authentic atmosphere, being with scores or hundreds of
knowing people who are happy to be in a very special and hard to find place.

In Belgium and also a few in Netherlands, giant windmills than have been painted
shades of green at the bottom, as if to make them less conspicuous

This is how civilized people drive: somewhere around Rotterdam, about 2km ahead,
there has been an accident (a boat trailer turned over); the signs overhead advise
slowing to 50kph and moving to the left lane; as if rehearsed, all the Dutch drivers
do precisely this...merging "like a zipper" as the Kiwis say; no testosterone
confrontations about who takes precedence, as in Italy or France; no nasty gestures
nor gun-play nor bloodshed, as in the US; no one passing everyone else on the right
lane, which, as far as you can see, is open; everyone acts in the interest of the
common good....

The road to St. Sixtus' Abbey is straight and very narrow; and wet

Staying over-night at St. Sixtus' Abbey

Part of the Monday afternoon line to buy a six-pack of Westvleteren...

Under The Column Of The Grand Armee

After Cabana City we needed a place to park and plan our next steps, especially in view of our failing refrigerator. Attempts to get it repaired on the road had not been successful. Food was at risk, not to mention nutrition. The Column of the Grand Armee, which towers over Boulogne from the heights of Wimille, seemed a likely place for parking, telephone and thus wifi, and quiet. It is also an historic place of great interest.

Centered around Boulogne, as early as 1798, Napoleon began amassing and training the Army of England and building the invasion fleet that would take him across the Channel to defeat his most persistent enemy. For a great variety of reasons--did you know that the planned invasion was funded almost entirely by proceeds from what we Americans call the Louisiana Purchase? (Do the French call it the Louisiana Sale?) And that the Purchase was funded almost entirely by British banks?--the planned invasion never took place. The landing craft were unsuitable, the French never could best the British navy and control the Channel, etc. Anyhow, even before the decision to cancel was made, in 1804, the troops at Boulogne wanted to erect a victory column to celebrate their impending triumph. So the column was planned and undertaken. What it came to celebrate, however, was not victory in Britain but rather the first Legion of Honor awards, given at Boulogne, and, most importantly, the formation of the Grand Armee. In 1805, the Armee marched off to victories in Austria and elsewhere, but the column was not completed for another couple generations. We were impressed with the number of visitors we saw over the several hours we were there.

Anyhow, inspired by all this, and weighing the various lessons to be learned, we resolved to drive back to Amsterdam and have Rene fix the fridge. We're still under warranty. Maybe do a victory column later.

Beneath the Column of the Grand Armee

Quite a complex, really, considering...

The column

The Imperial Eagle

Handing out the Legion of Honor

Next morning, improving weather

He has turned his back on Britain and gazes now
toward Austria