The Western Front - 100 years later

Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof Vladslo, Diksmuide Belgium

This post marks the end of this blog.

My task was to post at least once a week for 2019 and I am proud to say that I was able to achieve this objective. It wasn’t always easy as I have found myself traveling for work more this year than just about any year in the past. But some of this travel is what actually allowed me to generate the material used in this blog.

Belgium and France in March/April 2018.

Back to Belgium and France in December 2018.

The Netherlands in March of 2019.

Back to Belgium in July of 2019.

I am in no way an expert on the Great War. But over the past year, listening again to Dan Carlin’s amazing Hardcore History podcast series Blueprint for Armageddon that covers the war, reading a number of books on the subject, seeing these sites firsthand and reading additional details regarding these locations and some of the individuals that served in these areas, I have so much more knowledge of this time in history than I did at the beginning of this process. Ultimately that was my real goal.

What continues to amaze me is the feeling of pain and sacrifice that comes over one when visiting these sites, especially the soldiers cemeteries regardless whether British, French, Belgian or German. One might think that the time has come to put the past behind us and move on from the tragedy of the Great War. However, these sites, and the feelings that they generate, are critical reminders as to the destructive and wasteful nature of war. Over 100 years later the scar of the Great War remains on the ground from the English Channel to the city of Mulhouse France on the German border. The scar remains on the families of those men who served in the war and were lost, or came home forever maimed or traumatized by the experience. 

I hope you have enjoyed following along over the past year. There was so much more material that I did not have time to include on the blog. There was also so much that I was not able to see, or things on the sites I was able to visit that I was unaware of until I was back home. But I was able to cover what I found most compelling. If you find yourself in this part of the world I strongly encourage you to take some time, even a few moments, and explore this history for yourself. If you are in southern Belgium or northern France you are not far away from some amazing history. You won’t regret a visit and it might even spark a desire to learn more. It certainly did for me.

Thanks for reading.

Best regards,

Christopher Smith Minneapolis MN USA

December 31, 1914

By New Year’s Eve 1914 a war that was supposed to end before the leaves fell had turned into a stalemate along the entire Western Front.

Following the invasion of Belgium in August and the fall of the Liege forts, the Battle of the Frontiers commenced on August 7 with appalling results. Less than one month later the French, British and German armies had suffered over half a million casualties.

The war was almost won by the Germans at the Battle of the Marne but the French, with crucial British assistance, succeeded in turning the Germans back. Paris and France was saved but another half a million casualties had been lost. The war was hardly 2 months old and a million men had already been killed or injured so badly they could no longer fight.

Trenches at Dodengang, Diksmuide Belgium

October found the Allies and Germans trying to outflank each other in the Race to the Sea. Neither would succeed and the Battle of the Yser and the First Battle of Ypres would be fought. The intentional flooding of the West Flanders countryside with sea water, the birth of the legend of the Kindermord at Langemarck, the heroic actions of the British Old Contemptibles with rifle fire so rapid the Germans thought they were machine guns, and settling into the trenches; the first year of the war would close with another quarter of a million casualties between the two sides. 

December 31, 1915

The second year of the war would be one of pointless battles that would cost many lives while resulting in no gain for either side. The Germans, tenaciously holding on to the ground they had gained the previous year, dug their trenches deeper, built bunkers and pillboxes, and constantly reinforced their lines with wire and concrete. The Allies, desperate to throw back the invaders, attacked with ineffective plans and insufficient ammunition. 

Neuve Chapelle, 20,000 casualties. 

Second Ypres and the first deployment of poison gas by the Germans, over 100,000 casualties.

Second Artois, over 200,000 casualties.

Loos, 85,000 casualties.

Second Champagne, another 217,000 casualties.

By New Year’s Eve, over half a million more men lost. The Germans were still in Belgium and France. The Western Front had not moved any significant amount.

German blockhouse, Aubers France

December 31, 1916

A year that would make the previous look mild in comparison. If the Ypres Salient was one of the most dangerous places in human history the year 1916 would add two additional locations for consideration.

On February 21 the Germans would attack at Verdun with the goal of “bleeding France white”. The Battle of Verdun wrapped up in mid-December with nearly a million casualties split evenly between the French and Germans.

Allied trench, Beaumont-Hamel France

In order to relieve pressure on the French defending at Verdun the Allies would launch the Battle of the Somme on July 1 and 20,000 British soldiers would be killed in the first minutes of the attack. By November almost 1.2 million casualties would again be split between the two sides of the battle. 

Once again, on New Year’s Eve neither side had made any significant progress in either direction during the course of the year.

December 31, 1917

Something had to change or the war would never end. 

The Germans pulled back to the Hindenburg Line in February, chopping down every tree, poisoning every well, burning or booby trapping every building and blowing up every road as they moved back to the heavily reinforced positions that they had built in late 1916. It would be very difficult to get them out now.

German trenches at Bayernwald, Heuvelland Belgium

French General Robert Nivelle thought he knew how to break the stalemate and launched his offensive in April. The result was a disaster. Nearly two hundred thousand casualties for the French alone, numerous mutinies among the French troops and the sacking of Nivelle. Petain, the hero of Verdun, would be put in charge of French forces but it would take many months before the army could be reliably sent into battle.

In order to relive pressure on the French the British stepped up with attacks of their own. In May they would be rewarded at Arras with almost 160,000 casualties while the Germans would suffer nearly as many.

In June the British attacked at Messines Belgium. Ten thousand Germans were killed in their trenches and bunkers when 19 huge mines were detonated along the Messines Ridge.

The Battle of Passchedndaele was launched by the British on the last day of July. The weather quickly turned sour. Nearly a million British and German casualties would be suffered as the fighting continued into November with thousands of men sucked under the mud of Flanders, drowned and lost forever.

The United States had entered the war in April but had not deployed troops in any serious numbers yet. The French and the British needed to hang on until the Americans could arrive in force. The British sent tanks into battle for the first time at Cambrai in November and optimism started to grow among the Allies, if they could just keep the Germans back.

December 31, 1918

Despite Allied optimism there was no sign that this would be the final year of the war.

British trench, Ypres Belgium

On March 21 the Germans launched the Kaiserschlacht (Kaiser’s Battle) in the hopes of defeating the French and British before the Americans could be deployed in heavy numbers. German commander Erich Ludendorff gambled everything he had, throwing his youngest and best trained soldiers into the attack. Early gains were impressive and the German army again threatened Paris. The hope was that the French would seek an armistice but the Germans soon struggled to supply their troops far away from the Hindenburg Line. By July Germany had lost their youngest, bravest and best equipped troops, the Allies had regained the advantage. The Americans were now at the front in force and were making a critical difference. The Germans were impressed with American bravery at Belleau Wood in June and would lose over 10,000 casualties.

At the Second Marne over 300,000 men would be lost as casualties with the Germans losing 30,000 captured as prisoners of war.

An additional 340,000 casualties would be lost by both sides at Soissons in July.

But by this point the tide had indeed turned. At Ameins on August 8, the opening day of the 100 Days Offensive, the Germans suffered a collapse in morale and the loss of 50,000 captured as prisoners. Ludendorff would call this “the black day of the German Army”.

German bunkers l'Abri du Kronprinz, Varennes-en-Argonne, France

The Meuse-Argonne Offensive began on September 26 and would become the largest and deadliest battle in American history. 320,000 casualties would be lost between the Allies and the Germans with nearly 200,000 coming from the American army. The battle continued right up until 11am, November 11 when the armistice took effect.

The Great War cost 40 million military and civilian casualties. Cities along the front were pulverized into rubble, some never to be rebuilt. Governments fell and some countries ceased to exist. Rebuilding from the war would not be complete until well after the conclusion of the Second World War.

The guns fell silent on November 11 1918, but the war was not yet over. It would take the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on June 28 1919 for the Great War to officially end. To follow, a failed attempt at an international body of nations to prevent another catastrophe like the Great War from ever happening again, the arbitrary division of the Middle East by the Allies creating a future of resentment and distrust still prevalent today, a transfer of global economic power from pre-war London to post-war New York City and a simmering anger among German soldiers and citizens feeling that they had been betrayed by some of their own countrymen not loyal to the Fatherland. Peace would last for just 20 years.

However on December 31st 1918, despite the devastation, the Western Front was quiet on New Year’s Eve for the first time in five years.

December 31, 2019

Wishing you a happy and peaceful New Year in 2020. Lest we forget.

St Symphorien Military Cemetery, Mons Belgium, July 2019

Full photo gallery online here.

St Symphorien Military Cemetery

The Battle of Mons in August 1914 was the first engagement between the British Expeditionary Force and the forces of the German Empire. While the small but very professional British soldiers fought extremely well, holding off the enemy for a number of hours, the superior size of the German force and the collapse of the French Fifth Army on the right flank caused the British to have to retreat.

In the spring of 1916 the German commander in the area wanted to consolidate the remains of his soldiers killed in the Battle of Mons and subsequent actions into one cemetery. Local landowner Jean Houzeau de Lehaie offered some of his property for a cemetery under the condition that soldiers from both sides of the conflict be included and treated with equal respect. German and British dead were reburied under markers with the message Im Leben ein Feind, im Tode vereint (Enemies in Life but United in Death).

Mons would be the scene of additional fighting in the final days before the Armistice. From November 9 to the 11th 1918 the Canadian Corps fought to push the Germans out of the city with hostilities continuing up until the final moments before the 11am cease fire took effect.

I visited the cemetery on a glorious July afternoon. It was really remarkable to see such a beautiful memorial to men of both sides of the conflict laid to rest next to each other.

Headstone of John Parr, the first Commonwealth soldier killed in action in the Great War on August 21, 1914. Parr was on patrol by bicycle just outside the city of Mons when his patrol encountered scouts from the German First Army. Parr stayed back to hold off the Germans while his patrol mates went for help.

Menin Gate, Ypres Belgium

April 2018 photo gallery online here. December 2018 photo gallery online here.

Menin Gate

Currently there are around 2500 cemeteries and war memorials that are under the authority of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. A family that lost a loved one in the Great War could be consoled if they knew the cemetery where their soldier was laid to rest and could visit that site as part of their grieving process. But what to do for the tens of thousands of families whose loved one went missing in the war? At best they could hope that their soldier’s remains were found and buried under a headstone marked “Known Unto God”. But so many thousands of men were shattered by machine gun or artillery fire, cut down in a remote location that was then abandoned, or sunk into the mud of the Somme or West Flanders. These men were never found, never buried, and their families left with nothing. Thus memorials to the missing were created.

The Menin Gate in Ypres Belgium was built to honor those Commonwealth soldiers with no known grave. The stone panels inside the arch of the gate hold the inscribed names of 54,395 men who were lost in the Ypres Salient during the Great War. Due to the incredible number of lost soldiers in the salient only those lost before August 15 1917 are included inside the Menin Gate. An additional 34,984 names are listed at the Memorial to the Missing at Tyne Cot 10km northeast of Ypres.

Relatives of those missing in action visiting Ypres at the inauguration of the Menin Gate Memorial in July 1927. photo - Wikipedia The Menin Gate was inaugurated on July 24 1927, just nine years after the Armistice. In attendance for the event was King Albert of Belgium, General Foch of France who was Supreme Allied Commander during the last year of the war, and British Field Marshal Herbert Plumer who was in command of Commonwealth troops in the Ypres Salient. Also in attendance were thousands of family members of those men lost in the salient during the war. Plumer, who saw for himself the sacrifice made by the troops under his command during the war and attempting to give comfort to those families who had no headstone in which to visit, stated:

One of the most tragic features of the Great War was the number of casualties reported as 'Missing, believed killed'. To their relatives there must have been added to their grief a tinge of bitterness and a feeling that everything possible had not been done to recover their loved ones' bodies and give them reverent burial. That feeling no longer exists; it ceased to exist when the conditions under which the fighting was being carried out were realized.

But when peace came and the last ray of hope had been extinguished the void seemed deeper and the outlook more forlorn for those who had no grave to visit, no place where they could lay tokens of loving remembrance. ... It was resolved that here at Ypres, where so many of the 'Missing' are known to have fallen, there should be erected a memorial worthy of them which should give expression to the nation's gratitude for their sacrifice and its sympathy with those who mourned them. A memorial has been erected which, in its simple grandeur, fulfills this object, and now it can be said of each one in whose honor we are assembled here today: ‘He is not missing; he is here’.

At the end of the ceremony buglers of the Somerset Light Infantry sounded the “Last Post”.

"Last Post” ceremony at the Menin Gate. photo - Wikipedia

Beginning on July 2 1928 the citizens of Ypres, in a desire to express their gratitude to the soldiers who defended their city during the Great War, continued the tradition of sounding the “Last Post”. Every evening at 8pm members of the Ypres Last Post Association close the road that passes beneath the Menin Gate and sound the “Last Post” to honor those lost in the war. The ceremony was moved to at Brookwood Military Cemetery in Surrey England in May of 1940 when the Nazis began their occupation of Belgium during the Second World War. At 8pm on September 6 1944, the same day that Polish troops were in the process of forcing the Germans out of Ypres, the Last Post Association was back at the Menin Gate sounding the “Last Post”. They have performed this ceremony without interruption ever since. 

Simply put, the Menin Gate and the “Last Post” ceremony is not to be missed if you are anywhere near Ypres Belgium. Like the Thiepval Memorial at the Somme, the size of the memorial and the number of names inscribed on the walls is nothing short of staggering. But the “Last Post” ceremony itself creates an emotional connection to the memorial, to the war and to those men who never came back home to their families. I have been able to see this ceremony twice and was deeply affected each time I saw it. Places like the Menin Gate, ceremonies like the “Last Post” link the present to the past and serve to remind us of the human tragedy that lies behind the history of dates, locations, troop strength, which army was defeated in battle and which was the victor. Those families with a name inscribed inside the Menin Gate, on the wall at Tyne Cot, at Messine Ridge, Thiepval, Loos, Arras, Cambrai, Neuve-Chapelle and more, all paid a heavy price for a lesson that none of us should ever forget.

Tyne Cot Cemetery and Visitors Center, Zonnebeke Belgium

April 2018 photo gallery online here. December 2018 photo gallery online here.

Tyne Cot Cemetery and Visitors Center

Located in the Ypres Salient, Tyne Cot is the largest cemetery for Commonwealth soldiers in the world. The site takes its name from the cottages of Tyneside England, of which the many bunkers of the German Flandern I Stellung fortified position reminded the British soldiers. A number of these bunkers, sunk into the mud during the Battle of Passchendaele, are located in the grounds of the cemetery including the largest of the bunkers over which Cross of Sacrifice was built. The inscription on the cross reads:

THIS WAS THE TYNE COT BLOCKHOUSE CAPTURED BY THE 3RD AUSTRALIAN DIVISION 4TH OCTOBER 1917

11.965 men are buried at Tyne Cot including one French soldier and 4 German soldiers. 

In addition to the cemetery is the Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing. 34,959 names are inscribed on the stone wall on the east side of the cemetery site. Due to the horrific nature of the fighting in the Ypres Salient, especially the mire and artillery shells of the Battle of Passchendaele, thousands of men were never found after the fighting. Many of those that were found were completely unidentifiable. The names of those that went missing after August 15 1917 are included on the wall at Tyne Cot. The rest are inscribed on the Menin Gate in Ypres.

I have been fortunate enough to be able to visit Tyne Cot three times now in the last two years. It’s an amazing site, incredibly large and very well kept. The visitors center is not to be missed if you can visit during normal hours. But visiting the cemetery and memorial after hours, especially at dusk, is a somber and sobering experience. So many men forever at rest under their headstone, so many more with their name on the wall most likely never to be found, and all with families whose soldier never came home once the Great War ended.

In military terms, a salient is a part of the front line that projects into enemy territory. It is an especially vulnerable area because the force within the salient is surrounded on three sides by the force outside of the salient. An attack on the salient can occur from any of those three directions and it can be difficult to move men and supplies around the inside of the salient when necessary.

The salient to the northeast of the Belgian city of Ypres was formed during the so called “Race to the Sea” when the Allies and German armies were trying to turn each others flank following the First Battle of the Aisne in September 1914.

The Allies had made a stand at the First Battle of Ypres in October 1914 and were determined to keep this area from falling into German hands. The result was a four year long gristmill. A constant artillery barrage across the lines along with numerous individual and particularly deadly battles made the Ypres Salient one of the most dangerous places in the history of mankind during the Great War.

The Second Battle of Ypres began on April 22 1915 and was marked by the first use of poison gas when the Germans used chlorine against Allied troops. 100,000 men would be killed or injured.

In June 1917 the British launched the Battle of Messines. Tunnels had been dug under the German lines of the Messines Ridges south of Ypres and explosive charges set into place. At 3:10am on June 7 nineteen mines were detonated and thousands of German soldiers were instantly vaporized. 

The Third Battle of Ypres began on July 31 1917. As the Belgian fall weather poured rain on the battlefield thousands of men found themselves fighting not just the enemy, but the Flanders mud that would trap any unfortunate soul that slipped off the duckboards, slowly sucking them down and drowning them in the mire. Almost one million soldiers would be killed, lost or injured. Thousands would go missing, buried in the mud or blown apart, their remains never found.

The Germans began their last hope spring offensive in April of 1918 which included the Fourth Battle of Ypres. 230,000 men would be killed, injured or go missing.

The stalemate was finally broken during the Fifth Battle of Ypres in September 1918 when, reinforced with ever increasing numbers of American soldiers, the Allies pushed out of the Ypres Salient and advanced 18 miles into German held territory and capturing thousands of German soldiers.

Few areas of the Western Front can compare to the carnage seen in and around Ypres. By the end of the war the city was reduced to rubble. The numerous cemeteries and memorials, both Allied and German, attest to the toll that this salient took over the four years of the Great War.

Menin Gate, Ypres Belgium

Tyne Cot, Zonnebeke Belgium

German War Cemetery of Langemark, Poelkapelle Belgium

French Cemetery & Ossuary Kemmel, Heuvelland Belgium

Messine Ridge Memorial, Mesen Belgium

Messine Ridge Memorial, Mesen Belgium, December 2018

Full photo gallery online here.

Messine Ridge Memorial

This memorial is dedicated to the 827 soldiers of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force with no known grave lost in this area in 1917 and 1918.

Messine Ridge, like Tyne Cot and the Menin Gate, are the only reminders left on the ground for these individual men that fought and died during the Great War.

Huis Doorn, Doorn Netherlands, March 2019

Full photo gallery online here.

Huis Doorn

Seven years after he was dismissed by Kaiser Wilhelm II, Otto von Bismarck visited the German emperor one final time. Before departing Bismarck gave the Kaiser a warning:

Your Majesty, so long as you have this present officer corps, you can do as you please. But when this is no longer the case, it will be very different for you.

Twenty-one years later this warning would prove true.

Uprisings against the German government began in late October 1918. German sailors mutinied at Kiel on November 3. By this point the Kaiser knew that he would have to give up the crown of the German Empire, but he planned to remain King of Prussia. These plans went awry when, in the hopes of pacifying the citizenship, Chancellor Price Max of Baden announced that the Kaiser had abdicated as Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia on November 9. In a rage the Kaiser tried to hold on to his titles but finally relented when he was informed that the German army would follow the command of General Paul von Hindenburg but would not fight for the Kaiser’s throne. It was Hindenburg himself that had to convince Wilhelm to give up the crown. He boarded a train to the Netherlands the next day where he would live in exile until his death in 1941.

In 1919 Wilhelm purchased a house in Doorn Netherlands and moved in on May 15 1920. The Weimar Republic of Germany allowed Wilhelm to remove 23 rail cars of property from his former palace in Potsdam. While the 1919 Treaty of Versailles allowed for the prosecution of Wilhelm after the war, the Netherlands refused to extradite him. Wilhelm was allowed to travel freely within a 15km radius of the house, but had to receive permission from the government for travel outside of this zone.

Following the initial Nazi success of the Second World War Wilhelm sent a telegram to Hitler stating:

My Fuhrer, I congratulate you and hope that under your marvellous leadership the German monarchy will be restored completely.

Hitler had no interest in a restoration and, other than remarking that Wilhelm was “an idiot”, ignored the telegram. 

Wilhelm was a racist and an anti-Semitic throughout his life. Despite visits from leading Nazis including Hermann Goring, Wilhelm grew to distrust Hitler and was appalled at the actions of the Third Reich. 

Wilhelm died of a pulmonary embolism on June 4 1941. The Nazis had occupied the Netherlands for over a year and an honor guard was posted at Huis Doorn. Upon discovering this, his jealousy provoked, Hitler flew into a rage and nearly fired the General that had ordered the guard. As a propaganda device, Hitler had wanted to bring Wilhelm back to Berlin for a state funeral but the former Kaiser had stated a desire not to return to Germany until the monarchy was restored. Wilhelm was honored with a small funeral on the grounds of Huis Doorn, His desire that that swastika not be displayed was ignored. Wilhelm’s coffin, covered in the flag of the German Empire, lies today inside a mausoleum in the yard next to Huis Doorn.

The Dutch government seized the property and its contents in 1945 and opened the house as a museum in 1956. Wilhelm’s family have never accepted the Dutch claim to the residence and property. As recently as 2019 Wilhelm’s great great grandson Georg Friedrich was still engaged in litigation with the Netherlands over the issue.

The home is just as Wilhelm left it, a truly amazing display of souvenirs, sculptures, paintings and knick-knacks. Nearly the entire house is available to see, but you do need a tour guide to take you through the building. There was no English speaking guide available when I visited in March of 2019 but they were kind enough to find someone that could show me around the house. Although this site is not really on the Western Front, it’s an obvious connection to the Great War. It was an amazing experience to get this insight to a man and a time long since past.

Georges Guynemer Memorial, Langemark-Poelkapelle Belgium, December 2018.

Full photo gallery online here.

Georges Guynemer Memorial

Born in Compiègne France, the city where the Germans would sign the 1918 armistice, Georges Guynemer was just shy of 20 years old when the Great War began. Due to his frail nature he was rejected from the army 5 times before being accepted for mechanic training. In June of 1915 he was finally allowed to begin training as a pilot and one month later shot down his first enemy plane. In February 1916 Guynemer shot down his fifth aircraft qualifying as an Flying Ace. In early 1917 Guynemer was named commander of the Storks Squadron and was influencing aircraft design. 

Georges Guynemer by Lucien, image Wikipedia

Less than fifteen years after the Wright brothers had their first success, these pilots were still very much pioneers in the world of airplane flight. This was a war of attrition, with men on both sides of no-man’s land stuck in the mud of the trenches. Those who were brave and skilled enough to fly these fragile aircraft, inventing dog flight tactics that are still in use today, were heroes to the men on the ground and the civilians reading of their exploits back at home. By September 1917 Guynemer had 54 confirmed air combat victories.

On September 11 1917, above Langemark-Poelkapelle Belgium, Guynemer sighted a German observation plane and dove his Spad XIII S.504 n°2 towards the target. His wingman was engaged by several enemy aircraft and by the time he had shaken them off Guynemer and his aircraft had disappeared. Fourteen days later a captured German pilot confirmed that Guynemer had been shot down and buried with military honors by the German army. Guynemer was just 22 years old. His death was a profound shock to France and he was mourned throughout the country.

In the center of the Langemark-Poelkapelle, below the skies were he fought his final battle, a memorial to Georges Guynemer includes the words:

The legendary hero falls in the open sky of glory after three years of fiery struggle. He will remain the purest symbol of the qualities of the indomitable, tenacious and fierce race. His sublime energy and courage animated by the most unshakable faith in victory, he bequeaths to the French soldier an imperishable memory which will exalt to the spirit of sacrifice and will provoke the noblest emulations.

“Until one has given all, one has given nothing” - Georges Guynemer

Memorial Christmas Truce 1914, Comines-Warneton Belgium, December 2018.

Full photo gallery online here.

Memorial Christmas Truce 1914

British and German Soldiers Arm-in-Arm Exchanging Headgear: A Christmas Truce between Opposing Trenches from The Illustrated London News, January 9 1915. - Image Wikipedia.

Captain Robert Patrick Miles, attached to the Royal Irish Rifles, wrote on December 25 1914:

We are having the most extraordinary Christmas Day imaginable. A sort of unarranged and quite unauthorized but perfectly understood and scrupulously observed truce exists between us and our friends in front. The funny thing is it only seems to exist in this part of the battle line – on our right and left we can all hear them firing away as cheerfully as ever. The thing started last night – a bitter cold night, with white frost – soon after dusk when the Germans started shouting 'Merry Christmas, Englishmen' to us. Of course our fellows shouted back and presently large numbers of both sides had left their trenches, unarmed, and met in the debatable, shot-riddled, no man's land between the lines. Here the agreement – all on their own – came to be made that we should not fire at each other until after midnight tonight. The men were all fraternizing in the middle (we naturally did not allow them too close to our line) and swapped cigarettes and lies in the utmost good fellowship. Not a shot was fired all night.

Numerous truce events broke out all along the Western Front in the week leading up to Christmas Day. Neither the Allies or the Germans thought that the war would last this long and they had been sunk in their trenches at stalemate for over a month already. While fighting continued in some areas, French, British and German soldiers all ventured out into No Man’s Land to exchange holiday greetings, exchange food and souvenirs and bury the dead. Stores tell of many games of football that took place between British and German soldiers.

In the Comines-Warneton, south of Ypres Belgium, the Germans began to decorate the area above their trenches on Christmas Eve. First with candles, then Christmas trees were placed on the parapets above their trench walls. The Germans then began to sing carols. British soldiers responded by singing carols of their own and then both sides shouted Christmas greetings to each other. Soon the men on both sides were out of their trenches and greeting each other. The soldiers were tired of war and being away from home for the holidays was especially melancholy for both sides.

Little did they know that three more Christmas days would pass before the fighting would stop. For some, in fact, the holiday season would not end before the violence would begin again. Captain Miles, the author of the letter mentioned above, was killed in action five days after he wrote his letter. The commanding officers, horrified at the idea of their men fraternizing with the enemy, would ban all future Christmas truces and in many cases order an increase in hostilities during that period.

The memorial at Comines-Warneton honors the men who fought in the Great War and celebrates the peace of the 1914 Christmas Truce. A reconstruction of the opposing trenches is included at the site along with a display of footballs recalling the games between the British and German soldiers from that day. Less happy reminders of the Great War are close at hand however. A German concrete bunker from the war sits at the back of the site and right next to the memorial is the Commonwealth Prowse Point Military Cemetery and the remains of 233 Allied soldiers. The first solider buried at Prowse Point was interred in November 1914. The last was Private Richard Lancaster, killed in action that same month, but whose remains were not found until April 2006. Lancaster was laid to rest at Prowse Point on July 4 2007. His named was removed from the Ploegsteert Memorial to the Missing and he lies today under a Commonwealth headstone that bears his name.

Merry Christmas to all today.

Hill 62 (Sanctuary Wood) Canadian Memorial, Ypres Belgium, December 2018.

Full photo gallery online here.

Hill 62 (Sanctuary Wood) Canadian Memorial

At the top of Mount Sorrel, past Sanctuary Wood Cemetery and the Sanctuary Wood Museum, you will find the Hill 62 Canadian Memorial. The granite monument states:

HERE AT MOUNT SORREL AND ON THE LINE FROM HOOGE TO ST. ELOI THE CANADIAN CORPS FOUGHT IN THE DEFENCE OF YPRES APRIL - AUGUST 1916 

The battles commemorated marks the first occasion in which Canadian divisions engaged in offensive operations during the Great War. Standing at the memorial and looking towards Ypres in the northwest it is easy to see the value of holding this position. From June 2-13 1916 the Battle of Mont Sorrel resulted in over 14,000 Canadian, British and German casualties.

Tynecotstraat Bunker, Zonnebeke Belgium, December 2018.

Full photo gallery online here.

Tynecotstraat Bunker

André Maginot Monument, Fleury-devant-Douaumont France, December 2018.

Full photo gallery online here.

André Maginot Monument

Born in Paris in 1877, André Maginot spent part of his childhood in the Alsace-Lorraine region. Alsace-Lorraine had been annexed by the German Empire after France’s defeat in the Franco-Prussian War just six years before Maginot’s birth. French bitterness and resentment over the loss of Alsace-Lorraine would be one of the contributing factors to the start of the Great War.

At 20 years old Maginot began a career in government and was the Under-Secretary for War in August 1914. At the start of the war Maginot enlisted in the army and was posted at the Lorraine front. The Lorraine included the city of Verdun and Maginot was wounded in the leg during the 1916 Battle of Verdun.

Following the war Maginot returned to government. His experience in the war, where he witnessed the strength of the Verdun forts, along with his growing distrust of Germany resulted in his advocacy for increased defense of France. In 1926 he was able to convince to government to allocate funding to begin building a massive line of fortifications along the border between France and Germany.

In 1932 Maginot died in the city of his birth and was mourned throughout France. Construction on the border defenses continued following his death and this line came to bear his name. The Maginot Line was set to be a formidable deterrent to German aggression along the border.

Regrettably, Maginot and those that continued his work, had not only failed to learn the lessons of the First World War, they had also failed to realize the technological changes that had taken place in armaments.

As United States General George S. Patton once said “fixed fortifications are monuments to the stupidity of man.” In May 1940 the Nazis simply bypassed the Maginot Line by invading France from the north by land through Belgium, as they had successfully done 26 years earlier, while the Luftwaffe flew over defenses that were utterly incapable of stopping them. The French were able to hold the German Empire on the Western Front for over 4 years during the Great War. The 1940 Battle of France lasted less than 6 weeks before France surrendered to the Nazis. 

Casemate Pamart N°2 fort de Souville, Fleury-devant-Douaumont France, December 2018.

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Casemate Pamart N°2 fort de Souville

The remains of a gun position at Fort de Souville near Verdun.

One of the key battlefields during the Battle of Verdun, Fort de Souville and its guns saw especially fierce fighting during July 1916.

Today the area is thriving forest. The pockmarked ground provides some clues but it’s impossible to truly imagine the devastated wasteland that existed here 100 years ago.

The Monument to Victory and the Soldiers of Verdun, Verdun France, December 2018.

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The Monument to Victory and the Soldiers of Verdun

On this day, 103 years ago, the Battle of Verdun finally came to an end.

Located in the heart of the city, this monument to recognize the French victory at Verdun was designed by Léon Chesnay. The statue of Charlemagne at the top of the monument was created by sculptor was Jean Boucher, himself a veteran of the Battle of Verdun.

Quotes from Raymond Poincaré, President of France during the Great War, and French Minister for War André Maginot, wounded during the Battle of Verdun, are inscribed on the plaque to the right side of the tower. Marshal Philippe Petain’s rousing order General Oder No 9, concluding with his favorite and now famous motto “Courage, on les aura!” (Courage, we will get them!), is inscribed on the plaque to the left side of the tower. French artillery guns from the war stand on each side of the tower.

The Sacred Flame and Tomb of the Unknown Soldier beneath the Arc de Triomphe, Paris France, April 2018

Every year, on November 1, the Sacred Flame is brought from the Arc de Triomphe in Paris for a ceremony at the monument. The ceremony commemorates the selection of the Unknown Soldier, interned beneath the Sacred Flame under the Arc, which took place in Verdun in 1920.

It was an early Monday morning in December when I visited the monument. Maybe it was the wet and overcast weather. Maybe it was just too early in the day. But a very clear feeling of sadness hung over the monument and this feeling would only grow throughout the day as I toured the area around Verdun.

Monument Chapelle Ste Fine, Fleury-devant-Douaumont France, December 2018.

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Monument Chapelle Ste Fine

A touching and sad monument to the French 130th Division that fought in this area during the Battle of Verdun. This monument represents the farthest German advance during the battle.

Ossuaire de la Haute, Lachalade France, December 2018.

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Ossuaire de la Haute

Deep in the Argonne Forest of northern France lies the Ossuaire de la Haute, a memorial to the Defenders of the Argonne. 150,000 French combatants are commemorated here as well as 275 French regiments, 18 Italian regiments and 32 American divisions that served in this area. The crypt of the memorial contains the remains of 10,000 unknown soldiers as well as small memorial plates dedicated by the families of their relatives.

Distinct from the immaculate and cared for grounds of the Vimy Ridge and  Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland battlegrounds, the forest around this monument was left as it was following the end of the Great War. The terrain churned up by trenches and shellfire is still very much evident. Directly behind the monument is a very large crater from a 52.5 ton German mine detonated 103 years ago today.

The forest was so quiet and peaceful that it was impossible to imagine the violence experienced here a century ago.