So What Happens Now?

As we've all now safely arrived home, more things have been coming together for what the purpose of this trip and research was for. The abstract for the research has now been put together for further work, and accepted for a conference presentation by the academic powers that be. This is the shape of things so far that our experience has helped contribute to:

The Canadian National Vimy Memorial: The Role of Memory in Remembrance, Dissonance and Resonance
Lemelin, R.H. and the Lakehead University OUTD 4370 class of 2014
Type: Oral presentation in English – However, Dr. Lemelin is fluently bilingual in French and English
The management of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial with “scars and all” in the early 20th century was a novel management approach to battlefield tourism.  Since then, the popularity of Vimy has waxed and waned, yet throughout the last two centuries no national historic sites or national parks can lay claim to having been championed by a prime minister (Mackenzie King), designed by an architectural genius (Walter Seymour Allward), inaugurated by a King (Edward VIII), visited and preserved by a dictator (Adolf Hitler), and re-dedicated by a Queen (Elizabeth II).  Despite its historical significance and current popularity along the Western Front (approximately 700,000 visit the site annually); the contribution of Vimy in battlefield tourism literature has largely been neglected. The purpose of this presentation is to address this oversight by presenting the findings from a field study conducted with Canadian university students visiting the western front in the spring of 2014.  The goal of the study is to examine how heritage dissonance can increase remembrance and even in some cases, resonate within the collective memory of a nation and within the memory of the international community.  The findings from the study are timely since it is being conducted by young adults partaking in the celebrations and commemorations surrounding the first world centenary.

The link for the conference, "Remembering in a Globalizing World: The Play and Interplay of Tourism, Memory, and Place" is http://memorytour.u-cergy.fr/, where more information can be found on the types of research and presentations that are being done with this sort of question in mind.

Another thing born of our trip was that, in the next few months, a video and photo montage will be created for the school of Outdoor Parks, Recreation, and Tourism at Lakehead University, to add to the diversity of the program, and add to the broadness of the field. We'll be posting what bits and pieces of that as it comes along, so though our trip is done, the work is by no means over. Hopefully, we can in some way translate what our experience has been to others, and to a wider global community just what the importance of this type of experience has the potential to be for people, whether old or young, students or tourists.

Cheers, and check in for more details towards the fall!

Amsterdam Wrap Up

This course had a purpose. It was not simply research, it was an exercise in the impact and value of these historic and spiritual sites and memorials. Throughout, each of us have been completing a series of interviews at intervals during our trip. We did four in all, one before, and three during this trip. The interviews were to track our expectations, thoughts, and responses to what we were visiting and exposing ourselves to.

A good question raised by our interviews and experiences was this: Are these sites and memorials, these cemeteries and ceremonies, glorifying war?

No.

A resounding, deeply felt, no.

I would be shocked to hear that opinion from anyone who has ever been present at one of these ceremonies, or who has visited these places. Including the German cemeteries and memorials, they are the most solemn, respectful, and spiritual moments I have ever experienced, and everyone taking part, from child to elder, has been well versed in the meaning of the event, and just what it was that happened here.

It may be easy from a difference to wonder why people do this, or why these sites are still maintained. But here… In France, Holland, Belgium, so many other places we didn’t even get to see, where the land is still torn and gouged, bodies are still found every year, the horror and the fear and the feeling of being saved is still present through the generations that remember. Where bullet casings and barbed wire can be found in every field tilled a bit too deeply. Where two people were killed by an undetonated mine only six month ago. It’s here. It’s real. It changed the cultural and social landscape as well as the geography.

Would it be better if the war had never happened? Of course. No acres of dead young men would be littered across a continent. No generations would have gaps that left widows, children, destroyed families, and brought back bloody memories. No towns and villages and homes and populations would have been enslaved, burnt, raped, killed, or gassed. If any person in this world could wish it undone, done another way, any thing but the things that happened and that horrendous half a century of war, they would wish it so.

But it happened. And they remember. They remember because they can’t wish it undone, but by God they can wish it never happens again. And they can give their respect and their honour to those who were hurt and killed in trying to help and free them, though everyone would wish they never had to at all. This is not glorifying war. It is mourning. It is grieving. It is a process of honour and remembrance, that we might never take those steps again, and that by this horrible reality, if we at least take away that much then maybe the world can be changed for the better.

That is why they stand in silence, and prayer. Or in music, and song. Or bring candles and flowers and read poems to the dead and to the living.

We took away more than just academic knowledge for having done this tour. If there is something I would wish on anyone, it is to be able to experience these places, and to see how some places and people in the world see us, and why. It is a whole new dimension to being a Canadian, and a young person. They were children too. Teenagers, twenty year olds. But for an accident of birth and timing we aren’t them and they aren’t us.

Remember them.

After this trip, we will never forget.

Groesbeek and Gratitude

Early the next morning, we had a quick breakfast in our hostel before leaving for Holland. We were going to Groesbeek, to see the Canadian Cemetery there, and the liberation museum, and to take place in the liberation day ‘Peace March’. The cemetery was very beautiful. It contained as well a large monument to the parachuters and pilots who took place in operation Market Garden (the liberation of Holland), and so, so many of the graves had small crosses and Canadian flags and poppy wreaths, as did the great Cross at the end. It was obviously a well visited place, though we didn’t realize precisely how much until later that evening.

Canadian War Cemetery of Groesbeek

We spent a an hour and a half at the small but wonderfully interactive Liberation museum. There was everything- sounds, smells, recreations, video, audio, anything a relatively small museum could want to make it a wholly engaging experience. There were children everywhere, and everyone was enthralled with something. Part of the museum was a semi-outdoor dome, with engraved memorials to all the military factions involved in operation Market Garden. The museum stresses that they are not a war museum. They are a liberation museum, and all their many memorials and exhibits are geared towards what life in Holland was like during the war, the impact and aftermath of the liberation, and what putting the pieces post-war back together was like culturally and socially. It was another wonderful tribute, and as we were to see later, it was only the beginning of Holland’s deep appreciation and continuing gratitude for Canada and it’s people. After a rest at the hotel, we went into town to have some supper, and then went to City Hall, where the Peace March in honour of liberation day was to begin. We were there early, but already there were people waiting. Many dignitaries were in attendance, including the mayor, and the Canadian Ambassador to Holland. At seven precisely, we began. The mayor et al, the uniformed military representatives, and other local heads lead the every growing line of people down the half hour walk from the centre of a now free, proud city… To the Canadian cemetery at Groesbeek. We walked silently, watching everyone around us. Children, elderly, families, couples. People on bikes followed the paths  beside the closed off highway. Children ran into the nearby fields and parks to gather flowers. Everyone was silent, walking together.

As we approached the cemetery, we could hear the piper outside in full kit, piping in the marchers as we headed towards the great cross at the end of the cemetery. We were here for the second time today, and this time it was filled with hundreds upon hundreds of people, standing grouped around the cross. There was a roped off area for the speakers and the choir. The canadian ambassador spoke as the M.C, and began by inviting everyone present to stand for the national anthem of Canada. They choir sang 'O Canada', and we joined noisily and enthusiastically in, and Dr. Lemelin sang in French. It was an off-key, multi-language, but appreciable moment, and we were all moved. The Mayor gave a speech, some children read poetry, a few more songs were sung, and for the second night in a row, we stood for the last post and two minutes of silence. The flowers were placed, and John and Calla brought up our tribute when they invited all those who wished to lay flowers to come up to the monument and do so. Lines of people carried wreaths, bouquets, and flowers. They then invited all the children present to come and place a candle, if they wished. To my surprise, there must have been hundreds of children. They nearly ran out of candles, and every one of them, who had apparently been so patient and quiet during this solemn ceremony, ran up enthusiastically, and stood in line to receive a candle and place it at the monument. Parents walked their toddlers up. Groups of 9 and 10 year olds walked up clumped arm in arm, each filing past the cross. It was one of the most touching things I’ve ever witnessed. The last song, the national anthem of Holland, was sang, and they released a pen-full of pigeons to symbolize freedom. The pigeons quite stole the show, really. They did a beautiful curving loop over all our heads, and continued doing so over the cemetery in wider and wider arcs. I know I’m getting repetitive, but it was just beautiful. 

Afterwards, we lingered long enough and made our way up front so that Dr. Lemelin was able to introduce himself to the Ambassador, and tell her about our trip. She came and met all of us, and told us about her experiences living among the Dutch, and about the various ceremonies going on all over Holland for liberation day. They were all individually organized by the towns and cities, and how much ordinary citizens involved themselves was something she loved seeing every year. We had all thought the ceremony was amazing, and more than a few of us had shed a tear. I think it was one of the highest points in all our lives of feeling so much pride and thanks in being Canadian. 

Thank you, Belgium and Holland, for the two beautiful nights, and the two beautiful ceremonies. We are truly grateful to have been present and take part. 

One day in Belgium: Flanders, Ypres, and Menin Gate

Belgium was beautiful. After an early breakfast at Ferme, and a goodbye pat to the house dog, Cerise, we loaded our gear onto the bus and spent a sunny morning driving through the fields of northern France. We arrived in Belgium late morning, and picked up a guide who spent the next 6 or so hours with us, taking us through the John McCrae site at Flanders, the Flanders cemetery, into the Ypres memorials and cemeteries, the Canadian monument of the ‘Brooding Soldier’, and to the great craters left by the mines packed with explosives that forever changed the landscape of the area. A few of us had connections to Ypres, and we spent a few minutes tracking down the sites where a class members great-grandfather had been. 

We were much later than anticipated to the Flanders museum in the square, so we had to rush to make the last entrance before 5:00pm. We had a good walk around the museum, which was housed in a huge old cathedral in the town square. It was beautiful, and had a fantastic array of exhibits and interactive interpretation that was unique and moving. A temporary exhibit housed in the museum was all about medicine and mental health care during the war, and it was incredible. It was depressing to hear about some of the experiences war nurses and war doctors saw through their patients, but it gave a unique view of war and of soldiers that was deeply moving.

Medical Exhibit at Flanders Museum

After the Flanders museum, we only had an hour to eat before we had to go early to the Menin Gate Last Post ceremony to get seats. It fills up early, and quickly, so we split into groups, had supper in various places from waffle bars to hamburger chains in the square, and met down the road from the great arch that is the Menin Gate, picked up a large wreath that was labelled with “We Remember. -Lakehead University” and found spots along the dividing chain to watch while Sam and Matt went with the flowers to the presentation line.After an hour of standing pressed shoulder to shoulder, and closely guarding the second wreath we had to pick up due to our early departure for Holland the next morning, the Ceremony began with the mournful horn of the Last Post, and the six representatives of the various military bodies lowered their flags only a few metres from us. A cadet troupe of pipes and drums played next, and a choir sang ‘O Danny Boy’. During the next round of piping and singing, the presentations began. Starting with the mayor, in small groups of twos and threes and fours, the line of those who had brought wreaths and bouquets made their way past the lined up regiments to leave their offerings at the monument. We watched Matt and Sam walk across with our tribute, and it was an unbelievable moment. 

Menin Gate Last Post- Ypres/Ieper

Shortly after laying the flowers, the ceremony ended with the horns again, and then the cadet pipe band piped out the marching regiments behind their representative carrying the flags now proud and high. It was a wonderful, moving hour, and after a long and tiring day and a long and tiring wait, we were all giddy with having seen it and been a part of it. We only had the one day in Belgium, and it was a wonderful and meaningful way to end it. 

The Menin Gate last post is a ceremony of respect and remembrance that takes place every evening at 7:30pm. Every day hundreds to thousands of people, many local, crowd into the square and under the arches to stand and hear the last post and the songs and bring flowers to honour those who who live through and die in war. It was beautiful. 

Wellington Quarries and a relaxing day in Arras

Day 8 was a shorter day, which we all needed after the previous heavy days. We spent the morning visiting the Wellington Quarries in the nearby town of Arras. The Wellington Quarries was the deep subterranean city built by allied troops, New Zealanders among the forefront. The different tunnels have names like London, Wellington, Auckland, etc. that the diggers named as they cleared or expanded the lines. We had an excellent guide, who was very engaged with us, and very anxious that we should understand what he assumed to be minimal english- in reality, he spoke very well and clearly to us, and his desire to be understood translated very obviously. Though he had clearly done the tour many, many times, he was attentive to us and our questions, and took time to point out many interesting things. Maple leaves carved into the stone, names, graffiti, songs, jokes. The guide told us he had something to show us that the boys might like, and, sure enough, it was a distinctly well detailed and voluptuous nude carved into the stone of one of the runs. The guide insisted it was an english nude, not a french one. We asked him to explain why, but he refused to share all his secrets. Perhaps we’ll never know. 

Quarry Tunnel

This time with track and cart.

After our visit through the tunnels, we were served coffee in one of the meeting/museum rooms in an outbuilding, and it was good to sit and warm up after the chilly underground tour.

Engraving Machine

We hopped back on the bus, and arrived a few minutes later at the France head office of the CWCG, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. We were given safety vests, and over the course of perhaps another hour and a half taken around all the many workshops onsite. We learned about the history and mission of the operation, and saw the engraving machines where they put the names, crests, and epitaphs on the stones. We learned about the different types of stones they use, and how they need to match each original cemetery for when they replace the stones, crosses, and do repairs on the walls and monuments. They arrange for and maintain every commonwealth cemetery in Europe and around the world, and maintain and repair many other by contract. They purchase and cut the stone, engrave it, purchase and carve the wooden fixtures such as doors, benches, window frames, all exactly to reproduce the original. They even have a metal workshop for the registry boxes and hinges and decals. It was a huge property, and the middle courtyard all filled with stacked pallets of blank headstones will forever change how I see cemeteries. We thanked our guide, a large Scottish man with a truly intimidating whiskey-and-cigar voice, who had given us such a fascinating and in depth tour. 

We had an hour and a half to ourselves to have lunch in the main square at Arras. It’s a beautiful city, with cobbled streets and dutch influence evident in the curved and pointed rooftops and hatched windows. A few of us went for crepes, a few others went for quiche, and I found a nice charcuterie platter with a half baguette. We met up again at the tourism centre in the old bell tower, where we met with one last interesting interview: the architect who excavated the wellington quarries. He’s a local expert who is also called in when bodies and war sites are found. He spent about a half hour telling us about the area, the quarries, and the medieval history beneath the city, as well as answering our questions about his work and about the sites we’d seen. It was brief, but very interesting, and a good end to even a short day. We were able to be back in Gouy-Sous-Bellone by about 4:00pm, so were were able to complete our second round of interviews, pack up early, and enjoy our last meal at Ferme de la Sensee. It was steak au poivre, very rare, with dark gravy and vegetables.

So very delicious.

 It was an early morning, leaving by 8:00am, to bring us into Belgium by noon the next day. We had completed Dieppe, Vimy, and the Somme. It was time for Ypres, and Flanders Fields. 

Cemeteries, Remembrance, and Vimy Ridge

Day 6 was beautiful; bright, warm, and flowering everywhere. This was pleasant because it was a day full of visiting cemeteries and memorials, and the sombre places we visited looked full of light, gardens and trees green and colourful. We started with Maison Blanche German cemetery, and it was very, very different from the commonwealth cemeteries we’d been visiting. Instead of white stone markers, there were row upon row of black iron crosses, with four names to a cross. With over 44,000 men buried there, even with four to a marker they appeared endless from the gate. When we first arrived, it was early in the AM and there was a good deal of fog along the ground even as the sun dissipated it. It was an eerie site, as many of our class remarked, with the black crosses rising out of a thick fog to the new sun. The cemetery was full of trees, though it lacked the neat bordered gardens of the commonwealth sites. There were also occasional large, rough, black stone crosses that marked mass graves. There was a neat walkway, and the crosses and memorials had wreaths of poppies just the same as the commonwealth graves, which was good to see. One interesting thing to note was the occasional Jewish graves. This was a WWI cemetery, so there were some Jewish soldiers in the German army. Instead of a cross, they were the stone markers with a star of David, the soldiers name, rank, serial number, etc. There was never more than one to a Jewish marker, and they were off not quite in line with the other cross markers- not quite the same as the other soldiers.

Maison Blanche

Afterward, we headed to Cabaret Rouge British cemetery, also WWI, where we similarly paid our respects and looked with horror at the thousands upon thousands of white headstones, so many with names unknown. Our last stop before lunch was at the awe-inspiring Notre-Dame de Lorette French cemetery. The cemetery is watched over at all times by an honour-guard of veterans, who stand at the doors to the small chapel, and in the foyer of the great ossuary housing the coffins of many soldiers. It was a large and beautiful monument to far, far too much death. As beautiful and cared for as a cemetery may be, it is still a cemetery, and watching the ages on the stones was an excruciating exercise- so many men (boys, really) our age and younger. 16, 19, 24. It turned my stomach after a while. 

Ossuary at Notre-Dame de Lorette, with Honour Guard

A restaurant nearby to the cemetery provided us with a wonderful, full, french meal. A slice of flaky cheese tart with salad to begin, a steaming  individual crock full of guinea fowl, peas, and potatoes roasted in gravy, followed with raspberry cheese tart and coffee. Despite of (or perhaps because of) our emotional morning full of graves, prayers, and counting the dead, our appetite was sharp and our lunch break was cheerful, and long. After we finished, many of us went back into the cemetery for a last walk through. A few of our number went to visit the nearby trenches, and a few others went to view to section of the cemetery devoted to muslim soldiers, respectfully engraved with their prayers and faced towards Mecca. It was a powerful place.

Sam said a prayer, and we sat and enjoyed the day with Lt. Pawley for a few minutes.

After lunch, we visited Villers Station Cemetery, where we laid a wreath for Norman Howard Pawley. Months ago, a relative of Lieutenant Pawley came to speak with us about our plans and commemorations in Europe, and about her own family experiences with the world wars and connecting with history. We found his grave, laid a wreath, and said a prayer on her families behalf. 
It was also in Villers station cemetery that an interesting thing happened. Looking through the register, Dr. Lemelin found a laminated insert that had been left by someone. It had a typed poem on it, with a grave reference number and a name. The poem, eerily enough, put a long dead finger on precisely why we came to do what we are doing here with these places and monuments.  It was titled ‘remembrance’ and asked what those who remembered would do, in times to come. Would they come and gawp and ‘say silly words’, or would they come quietly, with respect and empathy. We read it aloud by his grave, and hoped that he would see what we were doing as the latter. 

On our way back to Gouy-Sous-Bellone, we stopped and had a poke around an old field where a recent development operation churned up piles of artifacts from the first World War. We found old bullet casings, barbed wire, the end of a trench shovel, and even a bone fragments. An elderly man was combing the area with a metal detector, and had been finding, restoring, and selling artifacts for years. He had even severely injured himself doing so- he had only one arm, the other was lost to some explosive he handled too carelessly while digging. An average of 25 bodies a year are found every spring by farmers across France and Belgium, when fields are being turned. There is a unit responsible for identifying soldiers if they can (they can often only identify nationality, perhaps regiment) and placing them in a commonwealth cemetery, usually with one of the ‘A Soldier of-‘ headstones with the bittersweet epitaph ‘Known Unto God’. 

Barbed Wire

We had another quick poke around some WWI German Bunkers in a small village. The local farmers are actually still using some of the bigger ones as cow sheds at the edge of fields. Most of them are buried deep in the encroaching woods now, though. We all had fun exploring before heading back.

Some of us more than others. -Feat. Sam

We arrived back at our lovely hotel, where our marvellous hosts gave us yet another home cooked french meal, served with bread, wine, and conversation about our day. We prepared for a long day at Vimy Ridge to Follow.

Day 7 was Vimy Day, and bright and early with a packed lunch from our hotel, we were in the bus and off.In no time, we could see the pillars rising in front of us as we approached, and by 9:30 we were walking up the steps, running our hands across the too many names carved in the stone, and, one by one, laying the flowers we had bought in Arras the previous day. 

Vimy in the Distance

We reluctantly made our way to the visitor centre for our 10:00pm tour of the underground tunnels and the trenches that wind their way under and around Vimy. It was deep, cool, and unnerving to think of so many men packed like sardines, waiting for orders in ankle deep mud and rats. 
When we emerged again into the preserved trenches, we had a walk through both the Canadian and the German trenches, seeing the differences. Having been entrenched longer, literally, the German lines were much better dug out and more deeply fortified. They were also dug in a serpentine shape, better protection from shells, rather than the more roughly z shaped Canadian trenches which had been done in more of a hurry. It didn’t prevent us from taking the Ridge, however, to the benefit of the allies. 

After our tour, we walked through the small museum that was the visitor centre, and then went to a Q&A on site with Arlene King, the site director. Our visit with Ms. King was fantastic- it went almost an hour and a half, and she was a wonderful speaker, though a bit fast paced sometimes. She gave us an incredible amount of insight about the benefits and challenges of managing major sites like Vimy and Beaumont, about the political and financial issues about what they can and can’t do on the land without French permission, some of the legal problems they’ve faced, and a lot of information about what they expect over the centennial, and about working for Veterans Affairs and Parks Canada, and how the two units approach preservation and interpretation. It was a long and interesting talk, and we all very much appreciated her taking time to answer all of our questions, and to spend further time privately with those students working on their own research projects.

Speaking of research projects, after a hasty lunch on the bus, it was time to do the other half if what we came to do at Vimy- research. We split into groups or teams with our ‘research instruments’. A five question survey, essentially, about people’s experiences at Vimy and other memorial sites, their demographic, and any other comments. It was a rough day for it for a few reasons. It was a french holiday, so many of the visitors that day didn’t speak english. Also, the weather had turned dark, and a bit chilly, and there was a damp, quickening wind that had ‘something wicked this way comes’ written all over it. Sure enough, about an hour in the skies opened and dark clouds poured rain all over the ridge while those of us assigned to the site and parking lot dove for the bus, and those of us by the trenches ran for the visitor centre. Dr. Lemelin rounded us up and took an interview count- our minimum sample was 20, and we were still short. We waited out the rain, and then split up again to hopefully get a few more before it was time to leave for dinner. Our guide, Phil, a Czech born Australian-raised Frenchman, helped out by translating some french groups for us. After another hour, we had almost 30 interviews. Damp, tired, and probably more than somewhat emotionally exhausted after the last three days of cemeteries and remembrance monuments, we arrived back at our hotel to crash for about two hours before supper. We all needed it, and the next day was an early morning for our day in Arras. 

A bit of Canada in France.

Peronne, Beaumont-Hamel, and French Hospitality

Day 5

Early in the morning, we drove from Paris to Peronne, where our first visit was to the Great War Museum. It was another positive and welcoming experience. 
The museum was large, with many exhibits of the events leading up to WWI, the details of army management, dress, and kits, and many interactive screens to view maps, changing borders, and short clips of the limited footage of the time. There was a large group of schoolchildren there at the same time as us, and it was as interesting watching them as much as the exhibits; the museum had clearly struck a chord, and groups of them, loud and excited, crowded around the displays of uniforms and weaponry and touch screens with enthusiasm. It was good to see. The Peronne museum also had an exhibit of the art of Otto Dix- a german soldier during WWI who transmuted the horror and realities he saw into sketches and drawings. They were shocking, and deeply visceral. Gory scenes of bloated, insect ridden faces three days dead in a trench. Legless horses beside the remnants of exploded mines. Too-young soldiers with too-old prostitutes… I apologize for sharing the details, but it is the details which set his work aside as a chronicle in itself of the war. Many realities of trench life and battle aftermath were not allowed to be shown in images, lest it negatively effect the morale of other troops, or the support of citizens. When bodies were shown, they were faceless, and dead of war wounds nobly received. A soldier dead of disease, hypothermia, or blown half open by shrapnel is not something to put on a Buy War Bonds poster. It was as moving as it was shocking, and though the images have not yet left me, I’m glad I saw the exhibit. I feel as if I’m sharing Otto Dix’s burden, somewhat. His art was clearly a way of processing what he had seen and felt, and turning what could not be unseen into a reminder to all of the parts of war no one likes to dwell on. 

'Wounded Soldier'- Otto Dix

After our visit, the Peronne museum gave us each a packed lunch of sandwiches, chips, and a drink to take with us. We drove to  the monument at Thiepval, and had a picnic on the grass outside the small museum. The memorial at Thiepval is a large, beautiful stone arch and steps leading to a cemetery. It’s run by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, and even though it was only an hour long stopover en route to Beaumont-Hamel, it was a lovely day, and a beautiful tribute.  

Thiepval Memorial Cemetery and Monument

We were at Beaumont-Hamel, the Newfoundland Regiment Memorial, by 2:00pm for our guided tour. David, a Canadian from Ottawa, was our guide, and he brought us all along the old trenches up to the ridge where the great Caribou statue stands on a hill. Almost the entire Newfoundland regiment was wiped out on the first day of the battle of the Somme, July 1st, 1916. Of the approximately 800 men, only 110 returned, and of that 110 only 68 were fit for roll call the following day. Like Dieppe, it was a slaughter. For their valour, the Newfoundland Regiment was awarded the right to add ‘Royal’ to their title, thus making them now the Royal Newfoundland Regiment. They were the only member of the dominions (Newfoundland was not yet part of Canada at the time) to have been accorded that honour, so our guide told us. 

Beaumont-Hamel Caribou

Trenches

After Beaumont-Hamel, we arrived in the town of Gouy-Sous-Bellone. Our hotel, where we are to stay for four nights, is called Ferme de la Sensee, and it’s marvelous. It’s a large renovated farmhouse and barn, and the owners cook us a wonderful three-course supper every night, and give us coffee, croissants, cheese, and yogurt every morning. We are well taken care of here, and were even given a packed lunch for our day long visit to Vimy Ridge.... Which will be tackled in another post! Off now to supper... Last night was Quiche with mushrooms and cheese, followed by roast pork with herbed cream sauce, steamed potato, and apple, with creme brûlée and coffee for dessert. All served with Vin, naturalment.

Sante!