Today we were once again bombarded with the reality of war: the massive amount of fallen soldiers. This was made evident to us when we travelled through the battlefields of France and Belgium; scenic but incrusted with the history of our nation and many others.
Firstly, we travelled onto Vimy Ridge; however, before reaching the jaw-dropping memorial we passed a millions of shell craters and fenced off areas which were filled with live explosives and thousands of unfound, fallen soldiers. Vimy Ridge, although a Canadian memorial, the sight of this gigantic structure takes your breath away. The two white towers are beautiful, covered in statues: a fitting tribute to the fallen soldiers of Canada.
Then, we travelled a short distance to the reconstructed trenches of the German and Canadian troops. We were shocked by the realisation that the warfare was at such close quarters: literally a matter of 50m apart. We were next chilled by the German cemetery close by. The cemetery contained 40 000 crosses with 4 names per cross.
Following this and a few other cemeteries we travelled to VC Corner. This particular cemetery lay hold to two mass graves totalling 410 fallen soldiers. This cemetery contained the relative of Sam and Kristy Pengelly. Then we did something quite moving: we walked in the footsteps of our soldiers from VC Corner to Cobbers. This utterly chilled us as we thought”we could have been one of the men who travelled this path at the battle of Fromelles, especially considering our age.”
Also the border between France and Belgium was ten metres apart with no mans land between and was as simple to cross as walking across a street. The locals were quite amused by us tourists jumping from one side of the border to the other. The fact that the ten metres in between belonged to neither country, this raised some quite perplexing questions that, sadly, no one could answer, such as “what happens if they have a baby in between?”
Cobbers memorial was quite a moving memorial as it symbolised all the characteristics the Australian troops prided themselves on: mateship and caring for your ‘cobber’. We then travelled to the small town of Ypres to participate in the daily service at Menin Gate to lay a wreath in honour of the many fallen in the area.
This service would have to be one of the most eerie services so far, with its six buglers rumbling throughout the memorial and even a sole bag pipe blaring. This immense sound rattled your bones with such intensity. I felt a great honour being able to participate in the service. When the bugles sounded it sent chills down my spine and definitely everyone else in the memorial. Walking up the stairs passing the names on the wall was a very moving experience.
Having a great time,
Jonty and Liam =)
