Arras is a lovely city in northern France which was in the middle of the Somme offensive in WW1, which is why we are here. It was nearly totally destroyed and has since rebuilt itself using old plans of the old buildings destroyed. Our plan was a hotel by the railway station and use this as a base to visit old WW1 places over the 2 whole days, obviously Dave's thing more than mine.
DAY 1 - LE QUESNOY
This little village was on the news before Anzac Day as every year it celebrates Anzac Day on the Sunday before the 25th April. The reason being, and what has intriged Dave for many years, is that NZ forces retook the town and kicked out the Germans who had occupied it for most of the war. It is an old fortified village with layers upon layers of tall brick walls and towers around it. Dave wanted to see this in our big 2012 trip but couldn't face it after the rudeness of the French when we were in Paris. I googled it and it said it was 1hr to get there from Arras by train, however when Dave went online to book the train tickets it took 2 hours including waiting time, and 3 trains one way. The good thing is that the train system here in France is quick and efficient, on-time and covers a wide area. So we got to see a lot of the green countryside and villages before arriving in Le Quesnoy.
This is the sign on the train station, in Maori (meaning oak town) and underneath meaning city of the oaks. The small picture is of a silver fern with half of it as an oak leaf showing NZ and French partnership.
Unfortunately for Dave, after coming all this way and battling getting on and off numerous trains, today was a national holiday so nothing was open. We got here about 9am and were looking at a deserted ghost town, no cars, no people, no shops or cafes open, and most importantly the isite was closed which offered a self-guided map of the historic fortresses and NZ street names etc. So luckily the place is not very big (8500 people - where are they all?) and cobble stoned so walking around it with the use of google was easy. And yes there were lots of oak trees.
There was a moat of water inbetween two high walls to prevent invaders.
The origional gated entrance to the village.
As we got closer to the NZ memorial site we saw below - street names after NZ.
Avenue to honnour NZrs in war.
The nz memorial was in this wild park with fortifications on each side and you kept walking along a path.
This is the memorial which is opposite the wall that apparently they managed to get over and surprise the Germans, kill a couple and the rest surrendered! The wall was too high for their ladders to get up so they used kiwi common sense and climbed up by putting their ladders on top of a sluice gate to get extra height. The locals love NZ as their town was liberated with very little loss of civilian life.
Wreath left over from local Anzac Day ceremony.
The sign on the wall says 'they came from the ends of the earth'
Just by the wall is a poster advertising a kiwi jazz concert on the 25th April.
NZ born French singer and composer
In the middle of the square are these crazy statues that are representing oak trees??
French memorial
Yes Helen got her name on a road!
While we were waiting for some life to start, noon was the opening of the cafes, we found this lovely lake with walk ways and paths, with ducks and geese etc. Then the locals started emerging with families and dogs, and kids on bikes. It reminded me of Napier's Anderson Park.
So a bit disappointing for Dave but we got to see all he wanted to see. Big day by the time we finished.
BUT WAIT THERE WAS MORE!
WELLINGTON CARRIERE UNDERGROUND TUNNELS
Bit of backgrounf story, on Anzac Day there was something on the news about how the Mayor of Arras (I pricked up my ears as I knew we were going there, but knew nothing about the place) and some officials had come over to attend Anzac Day service in Wellington because there were tunnels under Arras that NZ tunnellers had dug out during the war, and left graffetti on the walls of the tunnels. Interesting I thought. Then the mayor and his lot went onto the Cook Islands for another Anzac ceremony with the families of some Cook Islander tunnellers who were part of the group and had left some Cook Island art work on the walls. They had photographed each one, found out who had done it, and presented the photos all lovely framed to the families.
After this I thught it would be gret to see this place as we were there anyway. So (as things here in France start late, shops open at 10am and finish late 6pm) I booked a tour of these tunnels for later in the day. We were able to walk there which was a bonus, uphill, not so much after our big day. But what a place! It was fantastic - Dave said it was a highlight so far, and he didn't even know it existed!
Back in the olden days there were old chalk quarries under the town of Arras. The allies needed a diversion for a major French attack, so from Nov 1916 NZ tunnellers were brought in to connect these quarries and transform them into a network of tunnels that went under the German line. The tunnellers were miners from mainly Waihi area (gold miners, not coal miners as they were needed in NZ for the war effort). They had a short time to do this task and worked 24 hrs day, 3 shifts of 8 hours and used pick axes and shovels as explosives would let the Germans know something was up.April 9th 1917 24,000 British soldiers had waited weeks undergroung and then attacked by going up through the exit tunnels. A major engineering feat by the NZrs.
We got an amazing guide who could switch from fluent English to French and back again to cater for all in the group. She was excited to hear we were from NZ and aimed a lot of the talk for us. The tunnels were 20m underground.
To understand where they were the NZ tunnelers called different parts after NZ place names like on a map. There was even Waitomo for the caves! Graffetti was carved into the chalk rocks.
These wooden support frames were built by Maori soldiers from wood 'stolen' from british supplies undercover, at night.
The tunnellers managed to wire up electric lights (they had worked by candlelight and lanterns) and toilets.
Bunk beds for the 24,000 British troops that awaited the signal to go up and start battle.
Picture of his daughter drawn by British soldier on eve of the battle
It was a great tour with interactive photos and re-ennactments played up onto the chalk walls of the tunnels like a screen which made it so real.
We finished at 6pm but well worth it. There were videos of Peter Jackson visiting (app. he had a relative by marriage who was a tunneller), the All Black 7's, and NZ school groups doing hakas when they came ( I had to explain to some French tourists what was happening as they were unsure of it all). Very proud today to belong to my country.
DAY 2 IN ARRAS - MORE DEAD PEOPLE!
Dave drinking the local beer, which was disgusting!
We had heard last night how much of Arras had been destroyed by battles during WW! and not much left standing. Dave got up early in the morning to see the historic buildings that they rebuilt using old plans to look the same as before. A major feat.
Today Dave had booked a whole day guided tour of the Somme covering different battle fields and memorials for the Allie soldiers. The first thing I learnt was that the Somme is actually a river and the battles all took part around that area around Arras. On 1st July 1916 mainly British and French soldiers atacked German forces. After 141 days of fighting by November there were over 1,000,000 casulties on both sides. That winter was the harshest ever, so men were fighting in frozen, gluggy mud and constant cold and rain. See below.
We went a British guide called Jackie and 6 others. One was a 7 year old boy, who I deemed on the spectrum, was hyper all the time, and extremely gifted. He was obsessed with WW! and had a running commentry coming out of his mouth! Any question the guide asked us (who started WW!? ) his hand shot up into the air and waited to be asked and was right! There were 2 Australians also, and a British couple. Jackie was a fountain of knowledge, lived in the local village and made the whole history of the Somme so interesting you just absorbed it all in.
One of the first places we visited was the Australian memorial - and what a place! There was a huge cemetry outside and inside this building was amazing interactive displays you could sit down and watch. I did not know how much the Aussies did in France fighting wise, with this great guy in charge who could plan and strategise battles to include all different parts, such as artillery, air support, mortor fire and later on tanks. This was instead of the British, put your head over the trench and run like hell shooting over no-mans-land. All I could think of most of the day was that movie 1915.
After the war this Montash guy (University in Melbourne named after him) organised money from Victoria schools to be used to build a school in this small village which the Australians had captured from the Germans, but buildings had been destroyed. This school is still running and we visited it. Outside were the biggest, reddest poppies I have ever seen!
Part of the school plan was an assembly hall, which French schools do not have!
Sign above the school.
This was the site of a major battle with the two roads used by stretcher bearers to take the wounded away.
All of the area she showed us was in the Somme 'warzone' and it was easy to imagine these now rolling hills and areas of woods (trees) being demolished by gunfire, mortors, cannon fire etc and plenty of dead men. At one stage she pointed to a field and said that there was rumoured to be a battalion of dead bodies still undet the mud and dirt.
A memorial to five allies (not us!).
Some of the trenches still visible.
The Somme river.
We stopped to have lunch in this town which again had been destroyed by the Germans. In the square were large poppy sculptures and statues of a tommy, digger and Scots soldier in each corner. The 4th corner had a French soldier.
When the church was built again they put up this stature of Mary holding up baby Jesus and named it the golden virgin!.Who said the French don't have a sense of humour.
It is hard to see here, but this is the site of a huge crater that was created when tunnellers laid explosives in 17 sites and then let them off all at once. Unfortunately the strategy did not work and the soldiers were shot down and had to hide in these craters for shelter.
An old German bunker kept.
Finally the New Zealand memorial! Set in amongst a corn farm, accessed by dirt road, but Prince (at the time) had been here.
Caterpillar Valley Cemetry - a place with thousands of dead buried (5500) and 240 NZrs buried here. But also on the wall is thousands of NZ listed by name believed missing.
This was a soldier from the Maori Pioneer regiment who lost his life and a big ceremony was held for him on the 100th centenary of the war with a Maori group of relatives doing a haka etc (our guide was there and she said it gave her goosebumps)
A very sombre place, it was also where the unknown soldier was exhumed and laid to rest in Wellington at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior in 2004.
This farm is situated in a high point of a ridge and was pivotal to being able to look down on the enemy. 6000 allie troops died to take it from the Germans who were destroying all the troops.
We visited the Thiepval Memorial, Museum and Anglo-French Cemetry.
This is the largest memorial to the missing in the world, with 72,000 names of soldiers (British) wriiten on the walls of the towers.
Anzac Day wreaths.
The cemetry holds 600 soldiers, British on one side with gravestones and names and the other side French with crosses - many unknown written on them. Apparently the Allies all agreed that each headstone for each soldier was to be the same size, shape, same wording etc with no difference between someone like a General or a private as we are all 'equal in death'. The French had different size crosses depending on your rank!
Memorial for the Irish Ulster regiment who took part from Northern Ireland and since has caused some scenes on commeration day (1st June) due to English memorial down the road and IRA supporters coming!
It got built soon after the war and looks like a British castle!
Lastly we went to the New Foundland memorial (a Canadian island but sent their own troops of 20,000). It was the only one with a securiy guard and strict rules of behaviour. They have planted lots of Spruce trees to protect the memorial. Of interest is the perfectly preserved trenches which you can walk through and imagine gunfire and bombs detonating all around you. This was the scene of a battle where 800 New Foundland soldiers fought a trench warfare, and only 60 returned.
The memorial is a moose on rocks! Very fitting.
T
On our way out there was a cheeky red squirrel (quite rare) running from tree to tree. The British in the group didn't know what to make of us Anzacs getting excited and trying to take photos!
Well, the end of a very long day of seeing and hearing and watching reinactments of poor dead souls. We left at 9am and came back at 7pm, feeling weary, sad, and a heavy heart about the futility of all this destruction and killing. Could not sleep thinking and contemplating about it all.
T
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