Brothers In Arms
Trip Start
Sep 07, 2008
1
24
33
Trip End
Oct 10, 2008
Somme Valley,
France
Thursday, October 2, 2008
After breakfast we headed back to Langemarck to find the German cemetery that we hadn't managed to find yesterday. As our GPS had now been programmed with the help of Google maps, we found it straight away. It was interesting to note how poorly sign-posted it was compared to all the Commonwealth war cemeteries that seem to have signs on every corner. Maybe we were reading more into it than there really was, but it did seem as though it wasn't being advertised quite as freely. The German memorial had a very different feel to it from the moment we stepped through the gate
Langemarck German Cemetery
. It was a dark, morose place set under large overhanging trees. There were a scattering of granite crosses amongst the flat headstones visible in the grass, and a group of 4 statues standing at the back casting an eerie silhouette over the place. What we didn't realise until later, was that this cemetery, which is only about a tenth of the size of Tyne Cot, actually has the remains of 44,000 German soldiers. The flower beds we had walked past and admired at the entrance are actually a mass grave of over 24,000 bodies. The Germans certainly had a very different way of doing things than the Allies. It was amazing to drive through the countryside in this part of the world and see signs to all the towns that were the main battlefields in WW1, such as Passchendale, Albert and Amiens. It is also amazing and quite humbling to see the signs in almost every town for Commonwealth war cemeteries. You don't realise until you see it first hand, just how many young men lost their lives in the pursuit of our freedom. Matt had also found some songs on his jukebox that had been written about the war by modern bands such as Motorhead and Iron Maiden. To drive through this part of the world listening to songs written about the horrors of war was a very moving experience and a real silence fell over us for most of the day.
We now headed south-west back across into France to the Somme Valley
1-Langemarck German Cemetery
. This was the site of the later battles of the First World War and again the site of incredible numbers of casualties. Some of the biggest battles fought in 1917 and 1918 were fought in this area. Our first stop was at Beaumont-Hamel, a Canadian memorial and the site of a large area of preserved trenches. You can actually walk through a whole field which still has its trenches from WW1. It is only when you climb to the top of the memorial and look out over the field that you can make out the main trenches that were the front line for the Allies and the Germans, only about 20m apart. It is quite an incredible sight. We continued a few kilometres further up the hill onto the ridge where Thiepval Memorial is situated. It is an enormous archway dedicated to the missing British soldiers. The walls are covered with the names of the many thousands of soldiers whose final resting place was never known. However if you look carefully along some of the walls you can see where some of the names have been concreted over and removed, as their bodies were found and identified.
Our next stop, further along the Somme Valley was Villers-Bretonneaux, the site of the memorial to the missing Australian soldiers of the first world war. The memorial itself was unfortunately mostly covered in scaffolding, but you could still read the names of all the battles that Australian soldiers had fought in WW1
Trenches at Beaumont-Hamel
. This was the most moving of all the cemeteries we have visited in the past few days as there was a real sense of connection that these men were our friend's great-grandfathers and Aussies just like us. There was a large group of schoolkids all wearing green and gold jerseys standing near the memorial reading out stories about individual soldiers whose names were on the walls above. This was the same group of students whose wreath we had seen under the Menin Gate a few days earlier. It was nice to see fellow Aussies making the effort to visit and pay their respects to our forefathers in such a way. Well done North Mackay State High!The rest of the afternoon was spent driving south to Epernay, our stop for the next 2 nights in the middle of Champagne country. Our hotel was right in the centre of town, although very small and basic, so we headed out almost immediately to explore the town and find ourselves some of the local produce.
We have discovered the secret to having champagne taste on a beer budget. Come and drink from the source in Epernay. We found ourselves in a tiny champagne bar called Vintage, which was decked out in a mixture of red velvet and Louis XIV chairs. Our first drink was an old favourite from our visits to Paris, a Kir Royale, which is basically champagne mixed with Cassis liqueur. Our bar tender tried to ask us in French if we wanted something with our drinks. Having no idea how to translate the word into English he signalled for Matt to follow him to the bar where he pulled out an enormous box of oysters on ice. He proceeded to shuck us a plate of complimentary fresh oysters to have with our drinks. If this is France's idea of bar snacks then Australian bars have a lot to learn. Our next discovery, on further perusal of the wine list, was that we could drink Veuve Clicquot by the glass for 6 Euro. (about $8.50 AUD) We settled in for a while longer but eventually even the oysters weren't enough to keep us any longer.
Epernay is not a particularly big town and we seemed to end up in the busiest restaurant in town for dinner. Another funny language moment happened when our very friendly waiter took our order for our meals, but at the end asked us if we wanted "waiter". Matt and I were both looking at him thinking, "But dude, you're already our waiter!" I eventually realised that what he was trying to ask us was if we wanted water, in his very poor English. It made for quite a laugh.
