I have often been asked why I revisit the world war 1 battlefields.When I think about it the answer is more complex and multifaceted than I imagined.I will undertake to answer it and hope you will find some aspects you may identify with.Firstly,what was the spark which triggered this desire to visit the battlefields in the first instance?The answer is simply a medal ribbon bar actually relating to World war 2, leading to a chain of events not relevent to this article,which led to my general interest in W.W.1.
My first visit to the battlefields was in 1996 to the Somme.Prior to this visit I read Martin Middlebrook's The First day on the Somme,which had a profound effect on me.I remember the first occasion I saw the Thiepval memorial to the Missing.The coach rounded a bend and this monolith confronted me.This monument never ceases to impress,rising majestically over the battlefield and visible from many miles around.Whilst there my wife,who accompanies me on all battlefield tours,sat patiently on the steps of the memorial awaiting a glimsp of one of the 26 volumns of the register for a full half hour.I took many photographs at this time.Imagine my surprise when she told me:"We have 2 family names on here."There is no doubt that a family connection made this much more interesting for me and the diversionary action at Gommecourt became more relevant to me.This I intend to deal with in a later article.Here for me lies the first answer to the question"Why visit?" : direct connection to the events of 1914/18.
A family connection also leads to a sense of loss even though these people were unknown to you they are family, your direct predecessors who died in dramatic unnatural circumstances fighting for whatever was relevant to them,whether King and Country,family or freedom, mostly all three I suspect.I have been on many tours since and the moment when the tour guide takes time to visit the grave of a family relative is always very special for those concerned.
Upon returning from this first visit to the Somme battlefields I was prompted to write the following poem, which is something I have not done since secondary school.
Thiepval
Confronted by the monolith to the missing,
I stood in awe,eyes reaching to the sky,
A condemnation of War,
A stepping stone to heaven for the legion of the lost.
Standing as a giant, growing as the years stand up on end,
The vigilant sentinal of the sleeping Somme,
Carrrying the army of Armeggedon,safe in golden slumbers.
A profanity of peace,
A warning to the abandonment of hope.
A statement of INSANITY.
In retrospect this was a purging of the soul I guess, and now seems a little angry to me,however it was how I felt at that time.Any reference to Beatle Lyrics or anti war Lennon"esk values are purely intentional you understand.I am a product of the Sixties after all!
I will now attempt to cover another aspect of desire to visit battlefields. In a nutshell" a sense of belonging."The vast majority of tourist I meet have either been before or intend to go again.only once can I remember a lady telling me that she had always promised herself a visit to the battlefields,had enjoyed it,if that is the right word,but would not come again. She was very elderly and had found it rather exhausting.The Western front in particular does draw you in.The more you learn the more knowledge you wish to accquire.It is very addictive and can become a passion.We are looking at history in the raw,the very ground we walk on is spewing its bitter harvest upwards,vast concentration cemeteries cover the fields,monuments to the lost rise from the ground.The sense of loss can be overwhelming.The best young men of a generation gave thier lives in the greatest confilgration the world had seen , many by the big guns of an enemy they never saw,witness the memorials to the missing and the endless inscription"known unto God."There is a vast army still out there in the fields.The Artillery ruled this world of death and destruction,this was an artillery man's war above all else.The poem by the then Major John McCrae sums up my feeling on this subject.I became aquainted with this poem many years ago but saw it in a different light after visiting the battlefields.This is a forthright insruction from an officer to a future generation , a command ,no less, full of anger and resentment.It states the facts in three verses.The final verse is an order from Mccrae written in 1915.
Take up our quarrel with the foe,
to you from failing hands we throw,
the torch,be yours to hold it high,
if ye break faith with us who die,
we shall not sleep,though poppies grow,
in Flanders fields.
The message is clear: remember us and keep the faith.
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