France

Dome Des Invalides, Paris, France

Commissioned by the Sun King, Louis XIV of France, a gold domed church was built at Les Invalides and completed in 1708. It was designed with St. Peter’s Basilica in mind and is an example of French Baroque architecture.

Below this glorious dome lies the tomb of Napoleon. Although Napoleon died on the island of Helena, his body was exhumed and he was returned to Paris in 1840. 12 large figures encircle the tomb that represent his great victories in battle.

Battle of Delville Wood – Longueval, France 

The World War 1 battle fields of the Somme are located in the Picardy region of France. The Battle of Delville Wood was fought between July and September 1916. The British needed the wood cleared of Germans before any attack could be launched on the notorious German Switch Line. This job went to a South African brigade attached to the 9th Scottish Division. Delville Wood was the most costly action the South African brigade fought on the Western Front. Mud and rain covered the thousands of dead, the wood was obliterated and bodies remain in the wood to this day.

The Official History of the Great War 1914-1918 records the courage of the South Africans holding the wood:

“The South Africans had covered themselves with glory at Delville Wood, which is now laid out as a memorial to their dead. In spite of terrible losses, they had steadfastly endured the ordeal of the German bombardment, which seldom slackened and never ceased, and had faced with great courage and resolution repeated counter-attacks delivered by fresh [German] troops. Since their first advance into the wood on the morning of 15th July they had defied all attempts to drive them completely from it.”

The poem: DELVILLE WOOD

By ruined homes in Montauban, by trench and sunken road.

All resolute and strong the living stream of khaki flowed.

Through land laid waste and seared and torn by ruthless giant guns

And so that stream South Africa had lent her sturdy sons.

Of Boer and British stock were they, and lean and lithe and tanned.

Yet mingling there as brothers fighting for one Motherland ;

For kith and kindred o’er the sea, for King and Country now

Their hands they joined in fellowship, and took the filial vow.

And thus they entered Bernafay through fire and fitid fume,

While every tree atrembling stood, as if it sensed its doom ;

And in that avenue of woe they paused to count their dead.

Then grimly on on Delville, where their path of glory led.

Within that wood of epic fame for days and nights they fought.

And backward thrust the stubborn foe, through every step was bought

With tragic toll of vivid youth, that had but life to give.

And gladly gave that precious gift, that you and I might live.

From hour to hour the battle raged and fearful tumult reigned.

And still they fought as men inspired and still their ground maintained ;

And as their stricken comrades fell, the shattered boughs dropped down

In pity on their mangled forms – and made their laurel crown.

So year by year we think of them and humble homage pay

To thocs who trad with courage high that Gethsemane.

Now Delville is South Africa blooddrenched with manhood’s bloom.

Our heritage from heroes brave, our temple and our tomb.

W.A. BEATTIE

The poet fought as a Lance Corporal in this battle and was wounded.

Le Mont Saint Michel, place of the galloping tides

About 2 hours traveling west down from the Normandy Beaches which set the scene for the World War 2 D Day landings and liberation of Europe is a magical sight. Rising from the water is a mount upon which sits a massive Benedictine Abbey.

Benedictine monks made the Mont their home in the year 996. In 1066 the Romanesque church of the Abbey was built. Many underground crypts and chapels had to be built to compensate for the weight of the traditionally ecclesiastical architecture whereby the church form takes on the four arms of a cross. Feudal wars in France in the early 1200s resulted in significant damage to the Abbey. Major renovations were finished by 1228 in the new Gothic style.

A statue of Saint Michael stands at the highest point of the Mount and the abbey is still a point of pilgrimage. Funnily enough, after the French revolution and about a hundred years thereafter, the Abbey served as a prison for radical political prisoners. Contributing to the mystery of the place, the bay surrounding the Mount is subject to the biggest tidal ranges in Europe. During Spring tides the water can recede up to 25 km and when the tide turns the sea has been described as rushing back into the bay at the pace of a galloping horse.

 

Medieval, War Torn North-west France

Dunkerque and Calais were particularly important beaches in World War 2. Dunkerque was the site of Operation Dynamo in which 338 000 British and French soldiers were evacuated in early June 1940 as the Germans bore down on Flanders.

Ships of all sizes made the trip across the channel time and time again braving Luftwaffe strikes in what is known as the Mirace of Dunkirk (the English spelling).

Both towns have various memorials commemorating the dead of WW1 and WW2, indeed almost all French towns do.

Originally founded by Saint Eloi in the 7th century the Church of St. Eloi burned down in the 1500s and this edifice built in the 18th century in a Ne0-Gothic style. Dunkirk’s most famous son, Jean Bart, is buried here.He was a great soldier and sailor in the 1600s and is credited with saving his country from starvation by capturing Russian ships laden with wheat.

The French towns in this rural area are largely agriculturally orientated and are almost all Medieval in appearance. Calais has a watchtower built in the 13th century – the only remaining aspect of medieval Calais.

South-east of Calais, the town of Boulogne (used by the Roman Emperor Claudius as his base for Roman invasions of England) has a 53 meter high monument to Napoleon called the Colonne de la Grande Armee. The other popular land mark of this town is the Basillica Notre Dam de Boulogne.

St. Omer lies inland south of Dunkirk and Calais, and dates from about the 7th century.

The Cathedral was built between the 13-14th centuries. The hauntingly beautiful ruins of the Benedictine St. Bertin Abbey, built in the 14th century, are also a great tourist attraction in this town.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Between Calais and Boulogne is Cap Gris Nez with its 70 meter high lighthouse (visible from 30 miles away) and radar and German bunkers.

The south coast of England is visible on clear days from here and has been a watch-point for centuries of war-fare across the channel.

 

 

Walking the Somme

It is my extreme pleasure to include a piece from guest contributor, Malcolm Gough – Headmaster of Sutton Valence Preparatory School, Kent, England.

A hundred years since World War One.

My current view that history is more effectively understood the more you can see it through the eyes of the participants, is put to the test on a bleak winter’s day as I stand in an old trench in Sanctuary Wood. I look out over an immediate landscape of holes and convolutions made by countless explosions, now a little shallower with time. One solitary tree stands amongst the living, blown off about half way up, its remains long since resisting decay, unlike all the other life that came to an end back then. In my mind’s eye I picture the devastation and carnage around me. And that’s pretty effective.

On to the Somme two hours away, to the south, and Serres where in the middle of ploughed fields stand cemeteries, each one unique as they all are, yet similar in the obvious respect that they contain row upon row of neat white headstones, each one a son, brother or father. The most sobering example of this is far further up the line at Tyne Cot, Paschendale. Here, amongst some twelve thousand others, lies Lieutenant R T W Miles, older brother of the man I mention below.

Some rest forever in No Mans Land. As I peer up from the trenches over the fields, for the first time I understand the distances involved, the stark openness that made emergence into machine gun fire so utterly dangerous and, all too often, fatal.

The battlefield that the brave Canadians fought over in what is now called Newfoundland Park stretches before you as you stand at the memorial itself looking down. The topographical scale is large but, there, comprehendable. For me, the remains that arrest me at that site are the resilient little stands still sticking up from the grass around which were wound the barbed wire that was strung across the front of the trenches. As if getting down that hill into murderous fire wasn’t difficult enough…

I had heard about the mining under the trenches and the many large explosions that went off during the major offensives on the Somme. I had heard that some of the bangs could be heard in London. More than an hour from Calais; could that really have been so? Standing on the edge of such a man made crater confirms the awful truth that is was certain to have. The dimensions are volcanic.

But the real understanding comes when standing at the resting place of Lieutenant GR Miles, my travelling companion, Olli’s, great uncle at the Tincourt New British Cemetery. None in his living family have made this particular journey, and it was an honour and privilege to help him find it. This not least because of all of the three members of my own family who had fought, against all statistics and odds, despite being in horrendous fighting, all had returned home, though one was to die a few years later of the bullet that past through his throat. For Olli, this particular journey opens another of research, as we notice that the headstone refers to Lieutenant GR Miles, MC. Olli did not know about the medal; how did he win that?

Walk the battlefields, walk the history. Think long and deep, admire the bravery and reflect on how you would stack up in similar circumstances. But above all resolve to tell the children to do all they can to curate a world in which culling young men and devastating their families in their milllions can never happen again.

The White Cliffs of Dieppe

Popular with the “beautiful and rich” Parisians of the 19th century, the oldest seaside resort in France remains charming. The town is set along the Alabaster Coast with its towering white cliffs and pebbled beaches. Watch the tide if you go for a walk beneath the cliffs, it comes in quickly !!

Historically the town is best known for the failed Dieppe Raid of August 1942 during which Canadian (mostly) troops attempted a surprise attack and were driven back with losses around 5 000 men. Many lessons, however, were learned in this which were invaluable in the D-Day landing 2 years later.

 

 

Utah Beach and Point du Hoc : June 6, 1944

 

After the evacuation of British troops from northern France (see Medieval War Torn North-West France post), the British and Americans began preparing for an undertaking without precedent in the history of war-fare. The weather was so bad in the English Channel during the first week of June 1944 that the Germans believed an invasion was impossible. In fact it had been delayed 24 hours before Eisenhower gave command to begin.

Just before dawn, battleships started shelling the beach as the landing craft crept towards the continent in heavy seas.

 

 

The 82nd SOS Parachute Infantry Regiment dropped in the early hours by mistake into Sainte-Mere-Eglise where many were shot landing. One soldier found himself dangling from the church town. Feigning death saved his life.

 

 

 

USA troops led by Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jnr advanced on Utah Beach, the tide sweeping them off their intended landing point into a relatively lightly defended area. By the end of the day 23 000 men had come ashore with some 200 casualties only. The cliff, Pointe du Hoc, had to be climbed in the face of enemy fire by the US Ranger Battalion. They were only relieved by troops fighting through from Omaha Beach 2 days later by which time 60% of the Rangers were dead.

 

 

Omaha Beach and the Spirit of American Youth : June 6, 1944

The American invasion at Utah Beach (see earlier post) was relatively successful compared to the outright failure at Omaha Beach where the US forces met intense fire from high and strongly defended cliffs above the beach. First, though, they mistakenly commenced the landing run too far offshore (12 miles out). The seas overwhelmed many of the landing craft. Of 32 D-D tanks that started 6000 yards off the each, 27 sank.

 

German bunkers faced the length of the beach and the heavy guns pounded the Americans struggling ashore in the waves. By noon most of the 1st and 29th Infantry were still pinned down on the beach and the American 1st Army commander, Lt. General Omar Bradley seriously considered evacuating them. “Every man who set foot on Omaha Beach that day was a hero,” Bradley would say later.

The “Spirit of American Youth” statue stands guard overt the vast American cemetery above Omaha Beach. The remains of 9 387 American dead lie here, most of whom were killed during the invasion of Normandy. Theodore Roosevelt Jnr, son of the President, is buried here.

The Mulberry Harbor at Gold Beach : June 6, 1944

While the Americans invaded Utah and Omaha Beaches, the British and Canadians focussed on Juno, Gold and Sword. The bad weather of D Day was possibly the most severe at Gold Beach. The British decided to carry all armor and munitions on landing craft rather than risk a launch of the D-D tanks into the rough water.

A Mulberry harbour was a portable temporary harbour developed by the British in World War 2 to facilitate rapid offloading of cargo onto the beaches during the Allied invasion of Normandy. Two of these prefabricated military harbors were towed in sections across the English channel from Britain with the invading army and assembled off the coast of Gold Beach as part of the D-Day invasion. The installation was originally designed to last for 100 days – remains survive today !

Notre-Dame-de Paris

An emblem of Paris with its 2 towers reaching 69 meters in height, it has been given prominence by many authors and artists including Victor Hugo (The Hunchback of Notre Dame).

Construction began in 1163 on a site where a temple to Jupiter had stood during the Roman conquest. It was damaged during the French Revolution and again in the havoc of the Paris Commune (first working class uprising) in 1871. The Cathedral can hold 10 000 people inside.

Le Grand Arch de Triomphe

The Arc de Triomphe is the largest monument of its kind in the world : 45 meters wide and 49 meters high. Construction began in 1806 by order of Napoleon as a memorial to his victories. When his empire fell in 1815 work stopped and only resumed by order of Louis XVIII 7 years later. The sculptures and stone relief depict scenes of heroism from French history. Each “tooth” in the serrated embellishment at the top of the arch is devoted to a triumph of Napoleon’s armies. Interestingly, the sun sea exactly through the center of the arch on December 2, the anniversary of the Battle of Austerlitz (widely regarded as Napoleon’s greatest victory).

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Paris.
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Paris.
The Tomb of the Unknown soldier lies here. There is a torch that is lit every night at 6:30 and burns through the darkness to recall the sacrifice of an unknown French soldier who gave his life during World War 1.

 

 

Basilique du Sacre-Coeur

Established in the mood of nationalism and hope that characterized the harsh Franco-Prussian War of 1870, it was only completed in 1914 and only opened in 1919 after World War 1. It was built as a sort of “penance” to the Sacred Heart with the architects believing that France’s defeats were of a more spiritual as opposed to political nature.

During the Nazi occupation it was open around the clock and silent protest vigils stood watch despite the bombing that took out the stained-glass windows. Inside is one of the largest mosaics in the world depicting Jesus and the Apostles. It is built beside St. Pierre de Montmarte, a monastery dating from the Middle Ages.

The Louvre Pyramids, Paris

The Louvre started out as a fortress in the Middle Ages, built to defend Paris against Norman invaders. As Paris grew the City’s walls expanded outward and the Louvre was no longer needed for defensive purposes.

In the 1300s and through the Renaissance Period it was renovated and expanded by successive Kings and used as a Royal Residence. Louis XIV was the last king in residence until he relocated to the Palace of Versailles. It was used subsequently as a museum exhibiting priceless arts and antiquities.

The Louvre Pyramids are relatively recent Parisian landmarks dating from the 1980s. They were designed by Chinese architect, I. M. Pei. The largest was created as the new entrance to the Louvre in response to the previous entrance being unable to handle the massive influx of visitors to the Louvre.

Even so, with tourism to the Louvre now approaching 9 million per annum, the entrance is once again under pressure and the layout beneath the Pyramid is once again undergoing redesign.

 

Shot At Dawn

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row ………

They blew in May 1915 when Canadian army doctor, John McCrae, wrote these immortal lines. They blow today. Colorful memorials of a war-torn world entrenched in the bloody, muddy fields of France and Flanders.

On route to the World War 1 battle fields in the Somme region of France my husband and I (and our well-traveled dog, Spike) spend a couple of days in the southern Flanders town of Poperinge. Close by is Ypres which found itself in the thick of the Allied war effort for 4 years during the course of WW1. In the main square at Ypres is the Cloth Hall, home to a memorial museum that chronicles the devastation. Trenches have been preserved in the area – Hellfire Corner, Menin Road and Sanctuary Wood amongst others. Hard as we try it is impossible to conceive the horror and appalling conditions which imprisoned the young Commonwealth elite in the pitted patchwork of Flanders’ fields. Only the clusters of somber stone crosses strewn over the countryside bear ghostly witness.

Popering was positioned behind the Allied Front and remained unoccupied for almost the duration of WW1. Yet not without its dead. Its British Army dead. Shot at dawn with British Army bullets.

 

To the north of the town square, in the appropriately named Gasthuisstraat (Guest House Street), is Talbot House. It was opened in 1915 as an “Every Man’s Club” where all Tommies, regardless of rank, were welcome. It is open to visitors and one is free to linger in this “soldiers’ home away from home” including library and chapel. It is best described as a “living museum” as it also serves as a hostel, offering accommodation on a self-catering basis. The garden is the epitome of manicured tranquility, yet watching the short movie (A Peace In Flanders) screened in the adjacent Visitors Center, drives home the cold, brutal reason for the existence of this garden, and indeed Talbot House, in the first place.

I cross the threshold of a tiny cell to the south of the town square behind the Town Hall. An unfathomable sense of futility invades my thinking. I feel a reluctance to enter, yet I am drawn to the frames, neatly aligned on the otherwise bare concrete walls. Three photographs per frame: Photograph 1 – bullet hole. Photograph 2 – face of soldier. Photograph 3 – inscription Shot At Dawn. The faces, pale and child-like, of British Army deserters shot at dawn in the courtyard visible through the single, barred window. This was the death cell where they were imprisoned prior to execution. An execution pole stands outside – a stained and splintered wooden pillar, protected now by a perspex sheath. A plaque reveals its sober history in Flemish. A rough translation reads as follows: Between 1916 and 1919 many British soldiers were executed in this courtyard. Most of them were sentenced to death for desertion. The execution of deserters is today a symbol of the inhumanity of the war. It is not certain how many soldiers were executed here. There is evidence of eight, but also strong suspicion of more. Possibly 16 in total. The execution pole that stands here, however, was only used in the last execution on 19 May 1919.

There is a place where the people are poor and the hops now grow where the bodies once fell. The Battlefields of the Somme encompass an approximately 10 square mile area around the small French town of Albert, bordered to the south by the Somme River. It is the site of the greatest tactical blunder in British military history. On July 1, 1916, 60 000 soldiers were mowed down at dawn as they scrambled from their trenches. 20 000 dead that first day! The Battle of the Somme lasted until November and claimed 80 000 British lives.

This area is mourned and honored not only by the British. The soil is steeped in South African blood too. Delville Wood is where South Africans, black and white, got their first bloody exposure to “modern” warfare. The South African Infantry Brigade was ordered to hold Delville Wood at all cost. They paid a devastating price. Only 113 khaki clad soldiers have identifiable graves in the cemetery at Delville Wood. 65 unidentified men lie beneath tombstones inscribed with the words: Soldiers of the Great War, Known unto God. The remains of 538 South Africans lie buried in the soil of the wood itself.

The South African memorial (which also commemorates the soldiers who gave their lives in WW2 and the Korean War) is a place of beauty and interest erected on the hallowed ground amidst the green and generous trees of the tragic Delville Wood.

The lushness of the land today is largely irreconcilable with the bleak reality of 100 years ago, yet pock-marked trenches and huge holes caused by underground explosions remain. The most famous are the double craters on Hawthorn Ridge and the Lochnagar Crater near Albert. Local farmers, still to this day, plough up unexploded shells, rifles, tin hats and dug-out roofs!

The Somme region does not cater for large droves of tourists and frankly, it is an area best explored along among your own thoughts and melancholy. Albert is a logical base while Amiens and Peronne are the larger towns in the region. We stay, however, in the ancient Gallo-Roman town of Poix de Picardie. it is a place, nestled in a sculptured valley, that will delight lovers of history, old architecture and landscaped gardens. We wake up on the Sunday morning to find the village square outside our hotel room transformed overnight into a colorful and bustling flower and vegetable market where we can buy anything from a herd of cattle to a cell phone. Unintentionally my husband buys a horse-meat hotdog! Suspecting its identity after one bite he distributed it between Spike and the nearest trash bin. Franco-chevalphiles we are not!
We journey west through undulating hills of unsurpassed serenity. Picnic hamper and portable barbecue in tow, towards Dieppe. Sheer white cliffs soar splendidly skyward from the heaving swells that beat and retreat on the black, pebbled sand. We move the barbecue 3 times (ending up with our backs almost against the cliffs) and eventually eat a hurried meal of rare chicken pieces. For such a tranquil spot the tides sure are temperamental – and have witnessed such tragedy. It was off this coast in February 1917 that 607 soldiers of the South African Native Labor Contingent lost their lives when the troopship SS Mendi sank after a collision. Their remains are interred in the war cemetery at Arques la Bataille near Dieppe which contains the largest concentration of South African war dead.

While the world pursues its relentless race to prosper and progress, the rural people of Flanders and France still harvest history’s madness – although the hops now grow, where the bodies once fell.