Two Go Back in Time

[DBK]

Nice up there, D Day week on the night they have the fireworks they open up the field behind the little shed thats a tourist office/cafe and you can spend the night there.
We have done most of the sites in the area have been several times always make a point of going D Day week.

It was a good spot - but very popular. If someone wants to stand the best chance of getting in they shouldn't leave it too late. We arrived late afternoon and there were only about two places left.

If not already on your list...we went to the comingworldremeberme land art exibition near ypres yesterday.

Quite a powerful visulisation of the numbers.

Thank you for the tip, I doubt we would have found it without your prompt. We should reach Ypres tomorrow, which will be the furtherest north we go. After that we will turn back and follow the Western Front for a while.

 

[DBK]

Not much to zero to report today. We have stopped a little south of Amiens at the aire at Conty (CC 1320). This is free but water costs €3 with a jeton bought in my case from the mayor's office. It is a pleasant aire, quiet and we enjoyed a bit of sunshine this afternoon. There are some lakes close by which make a good dog walk - and two geocaches to tick off too.

One of the geocaches is reached by crossing a very narrow bridge. In Norway you might expect a troll under the bridge. This one had some very friendly and curious donkeys waiting for us. Charlie was remarkably well behaved with them.

Tomorrow we will drive up to Ypres in Belgium, turn round and meander south, roughly down the line of the Western Front.

 

[DBK]

Our plan was to stay at the aire outside Ypres tonight but the aire is small and lots of other people had the same idea so the place was full. There is a small campsite in Ypres but that was full too so we have ended up a little north of Poperinge or "Pop" as it was known to our troops.

We are staying at a privately owned aire (CC 55234) which has a hidden danger. There is a brewery up the road at the Trappist Sixtus abbey where they brew a beer of 10.2% strength! It would have been rude not to buy a couple of bottles from the van which came visiting. https://sintsixtus.be/trial/breadwinning-brewery/

But before we came here we visited the art exhibition @bungy recommended yesterday. This will close at the end of this year so if you want to visit - hurry!

The first bit of art we came across was this.

Viewed from above you can see a crack filled with glass.

Nearby and under cover is a large glass tank like an aquarium containing 600,000 Identity or "dog" tags.

On the 11th November this year the dog tags will be placed inside the egg.

Another egg themed exhibit is much larger.

This is huge, at least 12 feet high I think. Surrounding it are 600,000 clay figures depicting a human figure curled in a ball. These were made over a four year period by lots of different people at various workshops.

The weeds are starting to cover the outer edges of the exhibit but this is intentional. Nature reclaiming the bodies.

I can't work out the significance of the figure 600,000, perhaps it was the number killed at this section of the Front?

A walkway through woodland contained several of these.

There are speakers in the tunnel and a recording can be heard of someone riciting a poem printed on the board you can see in the foreground.

 

[DBK]

An interesting observation of this aire is that of the roughly 20 MHs here, 19 are Belgian - and then there is us!

Entertainment is provided from a small paddock containing two geese, half a dozen tiny sheep and a small pony. The geese bully the smallest sheep by pecking at them but the ram head-butted the rear legs of the pony this afternoon. The rest of the time they seem to get well with each other.

The website for the art is: http://www.comingworldrememberme.be

 

[bungy]

I can't work out the significance of the figure 600,000, perhaps it was the number killed at this section of the Front?

Spot on, each figure represents a life lost in ww1 in belgium explanation here
Each one of the figures is linked with one of the dog tags, the the name of the person who made the figure and that is linked with a name on the names list
The location is also significant, its in no mans land between two points that were continually fought over
Clicking on each of the pictures in this link will explain each bit

Edit...the whole park is essentially a site of remembrance BTW.

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[DBK]

Spot on, each figure represents a life lost in ww1 in belgium explanation here
Each one of the figures is linked with one of the dog tags, the the name of the person who made the figure and that is linked with a name on the names list
The location is also significant, its in no mans land between two points that were continually fought over
Clicking on each of the pictures in this link will explain each bit

Edit...the whole park is essentially a site of remembrance BTW.

Thank you - I hadn't spotted each tag has two names.

 

[Riverbankannie]

If you have time Talbot House in Poperinge is worth a visit and you get a lovely cup of tea in the garden included.

 

[DBK]

If you have time Talbot House in Poperinge is worth a visit and you get a lovely cup of tea in the garden included.

I've read about it but as the next post reveals we didn't visit today. The problem is there are just so many places here although Talbot House is very different to the rest - and in retrospect the cup of tea would have been welcome this morning.

 

[DBK]

We popped into Poperinge briefly this morning to visit one of the two cemeteries here.

The photos above shows houses in the background, this place is within the town.

There are things to see in Poperinge, the Talbot House @Riverbankannie mentions above in particular. Poperinge was shelled a few times but it remained intact and was a staging post for troops going to and from the Front. Talbot house, founded by a couple of chaplains was a place where a few found respite from the horrors just a few muddy miles away.

There are also the cells where soldiers condemned to death were held before their execution. Apparently the post they were tied to is still there. We gave this a miss too but 17 of those shot are in the cemetery we visited. A notice stated that over 80% of those condemned to death had their sentence commuted. It was generally only those who committed several offences who were shot. Which probably included all those with severe shell-shock or as we now know it - PTSD.

From Poperinge we drove to Ypres and the Menin Gate.

The Menin Gate is a memorial to 54,395 who have no known grave killed in the battles of the Ypres Salient.

Confession time now. I've never looked into the history of my family but I wondered if there were any Laidlers recorded here.

Lance Corporal G C Laidler of the Durham Light Infantry.

We were able to park close to the Menin Gate which is on the east side of the town. Coming from the north east we soon saw signs for the Meninpoort and then signs for parking. Unfortunately, there was a triathlon being held today which was to interfere with our travel plans later in the day but we found a spot next to what seem to be the remains of the moat around Ypres.

We next visited Bayernwald or the "Bavarian Wood" which has some excavated German trenches. It is a bit involved getting access here. Tickets are only available from the Tourist Information office in nearby Kemmel. MH access to the centre of Kemmel is limited so we parked just outside the centre and walked in.

At Bayenwalk, where there is even less parking, you offer the automatic gate your ticket but you only get one chance to get it in. If you mess things up you have to play sardines and the two of you squeeze through the barrier on one ticket. Thank God Mrs DBK is so slim!

Bayernwald is a fairly small area of German trenches and concrete shelters.

The reconstruction is realistic as this contemporary photograph shows.

We then drove to the "Pool of Peace" which is a crater left after a tunnel was dug under the German lines and then packed with umpteen tons of explosive. It was one of 19 such mines exploded on 7 June 1917.

We ate lunch here and it really is a peaceful place.

A short walk away is one of many small cemeteries, this one called the Lone Tree Cemetery.

This is one of many small cemeteries you come across driving around the narrow roads in this area. It is hard against a working farm and the lumps you can see over the walls are cows.

There are so many sites to see in this region we took the easy option and went next to the largest of the Commonwealth War Grave Cemeteries, Tyne Cot close to the village of Passendale.

Need I say it has a lot of headstones?

Most of the headstones identify the soldier, others have a plainer marker.

It was quite busy, they have organised tours and in one corner a film crew were recorded what I took to be a Canadian reading from a book. A notice asks folk to treat the site with respect.

In the memorial area to the 35,000 with no known grave we found another Laidler - in the bottom left of the photo.

Both the men came from the north east of England which is where family rumour says we come from.

Perhaps I do need to research the family.

Afterwards we came back to the same aire we stayed at last night where I investigated the Trappist beer.

It was very good but one is enough.

But I did buy a couple more this evening for aids to reflection in future evenings..

 

[DBK]

This may not mean much to most folk but the Talbot House @Riverbankannie mentioned was the start of the Toc H organisation which I first came across while serving in West Germany in the late 1970s.
https://www.talbothouse.be/en/museum/friends/toc-h

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[Riverbankannie]

When we went in May, I had previously bought a box of 25 wooden poppy crosses from here
https://www.ladyhaigspoppyfactory.org.uk/product/remembrance-cross/
And then in each Cemetary, we laid one at the headstone , or by the wall of names, where there was a name or place that related to our family (not a family member though). It made the visits a little more personal.
We only had one family member to visit, my Uncle William whose name is on the wall at Lens Cemetary.

 

[DBK]

When we left the aire near Poperinge this morning I drove to the nearby Dozingham cemetery.

The variety of regiments on the headstones is amazing. Royal Navy and even a couple of Americans who joined British units. Three Chinese too, one of which is shown below.

And trades, this is what we might call a blacksmith now.

The graves here date from near the end of the war when Christmas games of football were a distant memory.

We have now returned to France and a campsite as this being a Monday it is Washday, and a warm Washday too, 27°C this afternoon.

Tomorrow we will visit the Vimy Ridge area.

 

[Riverbankannie]

Seeing your location, can I also recommend the Wellington Caves in Arras. Plenty of parking available.
https://www.carrierewellington.com/

 

[DBK]

Seeing your location, can I also recommend the Wellington Caves in Arras. Plenty of parking available.
https://www.carrierewellington.com/

Thank you. There is a lot to see in Arras but we will give it a miss this year - just so many places and insufficient time.

 

[DBK]

Vimy ridge runs north west to south east a few kilometres north of Arras. It commands wide views of all the land around and as an important strategic position it was the scene of protracted and bloody battles. First the French then the British tried to take it at great cost of life. Then in 1917 four Canadian Divisions succeeded but at again at huge cost.

Today it is one of the few places you can actually see the churned and blown up ground.

The red sign around this fenced off area warns of the dangers of unexploded ordnance still in the ground. The grass is kept short by a flock of sheep who or may not be volunteers.

This crater is one of several formed by mines exploded in tunnels under the German positions.

Some of the trenches has been reconstructed to reflect how they originally looked.

Here you can see the reconstructed trench in the foreground and a surviving but unreconstructed trench snaking away into the distance.

There is a Visitors' Centre, staffed by enthusiastic young Canadians which we visited and from where they run tours of the trenches and tunnels. We just missed a tour, it probably started at 10:00 and the next one wasn't until much later so we explored on foot. The tunnels are only open for the organised tours.

Close by is the huge (45m high) Canadian Memorial which serves both as a witness to those who died on Vimy Ridge but also to the 66,000 Canadians killed in the Great War.

There are figures on the actual columns themselves and around them.

From the memorial and looking north you can see slagheaps and coal mines which were occupied by the Germans for most of the War.

Our next destination was the huge French cemetery, Notre Dame de Lorette.

The crosses are made of cement and there are a lot of them.

Through the door at the bottom of this monument is a small chamber containing the tombs of eight unknown soldiers. Two old soldiers wearing black berets stood as an honour guard. Two of a group of volunteers who maintain a vigil over the dead.

There are several mass graves containing unnamed dead.

This is the writing on another one. It reads "Here rest the bodies of 4,563 unknown soldiers".

Nearby is the Cabaret-Rouge British cemetery, named after a red-bricked café later destroyed by artillery.

Immaculately kept as all these places are.

Finally, we visited the huge German cemetery at Neuville St Vaast.

The conventional headstone you can see above is for a Jewish soldier. Nearly 45,000 German dead are buried here. Four under each cross. There two different names on each side of the cast iron crosses.

The cemetery was only open to the public in 1983 after being reconstructed by the German War Graves Commission.

Intriguingly, at this cemetery is also the depot where all the grass cutting machinery which looks after the other cemeteries is kept.

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[Lenny HB]

We did the trenches tour with a young Canadian girl she was very well informed and it was well worth doing. My wifes aunt married a Canadian during WW2 and we found one of his relatives names on the monument.

 

[DBK]

And as a complete contrast to all this seriously grim stuff I've just realised I haven't closed the loop on the Brussel Sprouts!

The story so far...

Mrs DBK buys a packet of Brussel Sprouts.

Why?

For a stir fry - because it tastes like cabbage but we don't need a full sized cabbage. The photo above was taken before the noodles were added.

 

[Lenny HB]

Using the B...... S.... words is really lowering the tone of this thread they are worse than sauerkraut.

 

[DBK]

Using the B...... S.... words is really lowering the tone of this thread they are worse than sauerkraut.

True, I should have mentioned it when we were in Belgium, which was where we ate it. The geographical relevance has been lost now.

 

[DBK]

It occurred to me the other day we are visiting some of these sites in the wrong chronological order. Yesterday we were in 1917 but today we went back to 1916 and the Battle of the Somme. My more or less complete lack of planning is to blame but all of these sites are new to me and we only intended to get an impression of them on this first brief trip though this Thread should probably be renamed "Two Go Back in Time (Randomly)".

Our main destination today was the Thiepval Monument. There is a very good Visitors' Centre here but sneakily there is also a museum which costs €8 to enter. The signage may not be deliberately misleading, I'm sure it isn't meant to be, but the Visitors' Centre is free, only the museum has an entry fee.

The displays in the Visitors' Centre are very clearly and well written.

As you leave the Visitors' Centre the Memorial itself can't be seen but as your round some trees it comes into view. There is no hard path to the Memorial, you approach it over mown grass.

If you look carefully you might see a figure on the steps. This is the biggest British War Memorial anywhere in the World. Designed by Lutyens it was controversial at the time of its construction (1929 to 1932) because of its cost.

On the broad pale band at the base are carved the names of 72,000 soldiers with no known graves, the so called "Missing of the Somme" and 90% of them died between July and November 1916.

Being an old hand at this now I went straight to the Cemetery Register which here comes in several volumes. In the appropriate one I found these entries.

As before, having never researched my family I've no idea if these Laidlers are related to me. I doubt the Irish one is but Yorkshire is in the vague zone family rumour says we came from. My father was also a William.

The register also gives an indication where the name is to be found.

Laidler G W is in the middle of the photo above. Sadly Mrs DBK can't really do this as being Welsh, 99% of her ancestors are called either Jones or Thomas.

Just beyond the Memorial is a small cemetery with British and French dead lying side by side, not be accident, by design.

The Somme Battle started on the 1st of July, 1916 and at 07:28 (the troops went "over the top" at 07:30) after a week of artillery fire several mines were exploded under the German lines. One of the largest created a huge crater, 91m wide and 21m deep which is called the Lochnagar Crater. It is owned by a Brit, entrance is free but donations are welcome on his website: https://lochnagarcrater.org

At first sight it looks a slightly haphazard place but around the perimeter of the crater are a number of boards many carry very poignant stories from survivors and about those who did not survive the subsequent battle.

I've also put together one of my shaky videos. The print, especially of the last photo, is probably unreadable but it is about a young pilot who witnessed the explosion from the air then subsequently went on to help found both the BBC and ITV.



Tonight we are on a free aire (CC 8211) which we only found after visiting two smaller aires which were chockablock. This experience is pursuading me that at this time of year it is probably pointless looking at small free aires in this part of France - they will be rammed!

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[Lenny HB]

This experience is pursuading me that at this time of year it is probably pointless looking at small free aires in this part of France - they will be rammed!

Often get a space if you arrive between 12 pm - 2 pm.

 

[Riverbankannie]

On our trip to the area this year, we took friends and so the car and stayed in accommodation. One place was on the road alongside the Lochnigar Crater and the British owners of the BnB are both battlefield tour guides. We had really interesting conversations over dinner about the detail of the battles particularly 16 July. They had an extension built recently and when digging the foundations, uncovered munitions and part of a skeleton which they decided to rebury carefully. They find both live and used shells very regularly in the fields around and showed us some of their private arsenal!

 

[DBK]

We stayed last night at an aire beside the canal in Catillon sur Sambre (CC 8211) which was just a big gravel car park but it was very quiet apart from some church bells in the distance.

They have built a new service point here but it has not yet been commissioned yet and remains fence off but there are services at the other air just beyond the swing bridge over the canal. This aire has a better location but is much noisier due to the traffic going over the steel bridge which makes a loud banging sound with every vehicle. The blue posts below are the water points. The dump area is off to the left beside the road. Both sides are free although the new service point, if they ever open it will take cards.

This morning we drove a few miles to the village of Ors where there is a small British Military Cemetery but we headed for the municipal cemetery where a small group of military graves are found.

Virtually all of them died in an action at a nearby bridge on the 4th of November, 1918 just 7 days before the end of the War.

One of the graves here is quite famous.

We travelled east into the edge of the Ardennes region afterwards and have stopped at the really excellent free aire at Rocroi or Rocroy as it seems to be spelt locally.

Tomorrow we will travel north up the Meuse valley and back into Belgium and then towards Luxembourg.

Rocroi is a small town built in the middle of a star-shaped fort.

You might be able to see the aire symbol at 8 o'clock. It is built along a disused railway track.

Henri II established the first fort hear but Vauban reworked it in his very distinctive style in 1675. For the photographer the most challenging thing about a Vauban castle is they are all but impossible to photograph!

These are the best I could manage, here viewed from near the aire and showing the typical low wall of a Vauban fort.

Looking down from the bridge into the town you can see the deep ditch in front of the wall.

The fortifications are complex and have been added to over the years and some of the underground chambers were used as air-raid shelters. One of which contained a geocache.

The centre of the town is pleasant.

Near the aire I spotted an animal I've never seen before - an edible dormouse or a Loir as it called in France. They are found in the UK and may have been introduced by the Romans.

Sadly it was dead and several large flies were checking on the edibility qualities of the corpse.

Given it was dead I have decided, taking into account the current headlines, to call it "Chequers".

But I can't finish on such a lightweight note given the horrors of the Great War we have been thinking about for the last few days.

Here is a final thought from someone who almost survived the slaughter.

The Send-Off

BY WILFRED OWEN

Down the close, darkening lanes they sang their way
To the siding-shed,
And lined the train with faces grimly gay.

Their breasts were stuck all white with wreath and spray
As men's are, dead.

Dull porters watched them, and a casual tramp
Stood staring hard,
Sorry to miss them from the upland camp.
Then, unmoved, signals nodded, and a lamp
Winked to the guard.

So secretly, like wrongs hushed-up, they went.
They were not ours:
We never heard to which front these were sent.

Nor there if they yet mock what women meant
Who gave them flowers.

Shall they return to beatings of great bells
In wild trainloads?
A few, a few, too few for drums and yells,
May creep back, silent, to still village wells
Up half-known roads.

 

[Lenny HB]

We stopped off at Rocroy last year another French gem.

 

[Anthea M]

We have done many of these sites and Thankyou for posting and reminding us. Always poignant whether there or through photos.

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[scousebird]

We spent a night at Rocroi last year, I think, lovely spot but the town was dead apart from one bar which we had to call into.

 

[DBK]

We spent a night at Rocroi last year, I think, lovely spot but the town was dead apart from one bar which we had to call into.

It didn't strike us as exactly lively either.

 

[Just smiffy]

We spent a night at Rocroi last year, I think, lovely spot but the town was dead apart from one bar which we had to call into.

It didn't strike us as exactly lively either.

If there’s only one bar open somewhere, Helen and Alan will find it....

 

[scousebird]

If there’s only one bar open somewhere, Helen and Alan will find it....

Pot - kettle

 

[rb62]

We must have been lucky when we stayed there it was market day

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