Simpson Prize Tour 2018: Days 7-8
Day 7–8: Ypres to the Somme
On day 7 of the trip we travelled south from Belgium to Albert, France, where we would be staying for the next few days of our journey and from where we would explore the 1916 Somme battlefields and the 1918 battlefields near Amiens. During the trip from Ypres to Albert, we stopped at Vimy Ridge, Arras, and Bullecourt. Daniel Docker, from Western Australia, reflected upon day 7:
The first stop on the journey from Ypres to Albert was Notre Dame de Lorette, which is the world’s largest French military cemetery. Before that cemetery, I had been stunned by the sheer number of headstones at Tyne Cot, the largest British and Dominion forces cemetery, but Notre Dame de Lorette filled me with that same feeling I experienced there just a few days before. The most eye-opening portion of the memorial was the Ring of Remembrance, a huge oval with the names of more than 580,000 men and women who died in northern France during the First World War – listed without their rank or nationality. To me, that emphasised the tragedy of the First World War …
Following Notre Dame de Lorette was the Vimy Ridge memorial for the Canadians, which was breathtaking. Not only was the monument itself beautiful but the view from the ridge was also amazing. After lunch we went to the Wellington Tunnels, where the New Zealand soldiers continued to dig out the existing quarry system, making it capable of hiding 20,000 soldiers for the battle of Arras. It was really interesting to learn more about Bullecourt, which we visited that afternoon, as it was included in my entry essay. The day also included a visit to the German Neuville-Saint-Vaast cemetery, highlighting the fact that there were two sides to the war. I think people sometimes miss the fact that the Great War had a huge death toll collectively, and although we live in an allied nation who fought the Germans in the war it’s important to remember the Germans who died. When we were in Fromelles the day before, we were told that two Germans were shot by soldiers who didn’t know they were bringing wounded back to the Australian trenches.
Rachael Leeson also reflected on this part of our trip:
On this day of the tour we were able to gain a valuable appreciation for the global aspects of the First World War at the Canadian memorial at Vimy Ridge. The offensive that occurred here is often referred to as Canada’s “coming of age”, and is held in much the same esteem by its people as the Gallipoli campaign is by Australians. These similarities gave us a valuable understanding of the Canadian experience one of the First World War, and helped us to recognise the important roles played by all allied nations in the war effort. The monument itself was spectacular, as was its use of symbolism to represent the values of truth, knowledge, gallantry, sympathy, and sacrifice displayed by the Canadian soldiers.
We then visited the Neuville-Saint-Vaast cemetery – the only exclusively German cemetery that we would encounter on the tour. With metal crosses each representing four fallen German soldiers, the cemetery was distinctly different from the allied forces cemeteries we had previously visited. The seemingly endless rows of graves prompted us to ask how many soldiers were buried in Neuville-Saint-Vaast, to which Koenraad replied with a figure of approximately 48,000 – around four times more soldiers than are buried in the Tyne Cot cemetery in Ypres. This visit also helped us to gain a global perception of the tragedy experienced in the First World War, and we were able to recognise the German soldiers as real people with families like ours – something that is not often acknowledged by the people of allied nations.
Our next stop was to the Wellington Quarry in Arras, where we were taken on a tour of the underground system that had been expanded by New Zealand tunnellers in preparation for the Arras offensive. This underground system housed 25,000 Allied troops for eight days in April 1917. Moving through the tunnels and caverns and seeing the conditions in which these soldiers had worked and lived gave us a great appreciation for the courage and endurance of the New Zealanders and other allied soldiers.
The last event of the day was a visit to the site of the battle of Bullecourt. We stopped first at the statue of the Bullecourt Digger to pay our respects to the 10,000 Australian soldiers lost here during April and May 1917. This memorial was also one of the many places where we ran into other Australians who had come to commemorate the last year of the centenary of the First World War. It was great to hear some other Aussie accents, and to listen to the incredible stories about the family members they had come to pay tribute to. We then took a quick bus trip seemingly to the middle of nowhere, and were led on a short walk across rolling farmlands. We stopped in a small clearing from which we could just see the Australian and French flags of the Bullecourt Digger memorial we had been standing at minutes before. Dr Grant then explained that we were, in fact, standing at the location of the Australian front line prior to the battle of Bullecourt, and that the Digger statue marked the position of the German Hindenburg line that was the target of that offensive. It was somewhat surreal to be standing in the footsteps of our brave Australian soldiers, and to look out across the landscape to the enemy position as they would have done. We were also able to more fully appreciate the adversity faced by the Aussies during this offensive; seeing the Bullecourt memorial as a speck in the distance allowed us to see for ourselves the immense distance that our soldiers had advanced under enemy fire. Dr Grant also pointed out other aspects of the battle, such as the path that the tanks had taken and where they had ended up in relation to the soldiers. This really helped us to visualize the battle as it would have occurred, and to understand exactly how it had gone wrong for the Aussies. Walking back to the bus, we came across a live shell sitting on the edge of a paddock, further cementing in our minds the horrific events that had occurred in the now peaceful countryside.
Overall, today provided us with a valuable insight into the ways that soldiers of other nations experienced the First World War, and helped us to fully understand the reality of the global tragedy that occurred over those four years.
On Day 8 the group toured the 1916 Somme battlefields. This part of the journey is described by Glenn Edwards, our teacher chaperone from Queensland:
Day 8, 24 April, would start with a very special commemoration. We travelled to Heilly Station Cemetery where Alyssa Siebert from South Australia would be the first person from her family to visit the graves of her relatives. Alyssa told the story of Private Andrew Hacket, and placed a cross at his grave on behalf of the Boylan, Kenny, Clements, and Siebert clans. She also told the story of Private Hero Boylan, and placed on his grave a picture she had drawn. Alyssa had carefully researched the two men, and all were touched by both the stories and the dignity in which Alyssa shared them.
We visited the Lochnager Crater, the First Australian Division Memorial, the German “Gibraltar” Blockhouse remains, and the Tank Memorial, all near Pozières. We stopped at the Windmill, an Australian memorial built at the suggestion of Australia’s official war historian, Charles Bean. In 1916, over a seven-week period, Australia suffered 23,000 casualties, including more than 6,700 dead, around Pozières. The surrounding countryside is now peaceful farmland, with a view that makes one ponder the hardship and sacrifice made by the Australians.
We departed for the Thiepval memorial but stopped at a typical French farm paddock. Here, Dr Grant shared with us the letters of two brothers, Lieutenant “Alec” and Lieutenant “Goldy” Raws. Both men experienced the horrors of Pozières, shared through their letters which are held by the Australian War Memorial. Goldy served on Gallipoli before arriving on the Western Front, where he hoped to meet up with Alec. This was never to happen, as Goldy went missing in action in July 1916, the day after Alec arrived to join his brother’s battalion. Alec searched for his missing brother but did not find him. Goldy’s parents received news his death on the date of their wedding anniversary. Alec was killed by a shell along with several other soldiers in August 1916. News of Alec’s death reached his parents on 21 September 1916 – his birthday. This story reminded us of the impact of the war on those at home. Alec and Goldy live on through their letters, which are true and brutal accounts of soldiers at war.
At Thiepval we admired one of the largest and most impressive memorials on the Western Front. We also had the opportunity to meet and talk to the Australian Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, the Honourable Darren Chester MP, and his official party. The minister talked to all the students and congratulated them on their success in the Simpson Prize.
This was followed by our last visit of the day – the Newfoundland Memorial Park at Beaumont Hamel. It was named after the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, which served with the British and Dominion armies. It is also a memorial to the 29th Division, of which the Newfoundlanders were a part, and which fought on Gallipoli. Newfoundland became a province of Canada in 1949. We found the memorial to be a special place of well-preserved trenches and small, serene cemeteries. In a paddock next to the memorial, our group went for a short walk and found bullets, shrapnel balls and pieces of shrapnel, remnants of this part of the Somme battleground.
We returned early to our hotel in preparation for our big day tomorrow and the highlight of our tour.