Arras and Vimy Ridge
Apr. 29th, 2018 02:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smallhobbitOur first stop on the second day was to a cemetery dedicated to those who died at the Battle of Loos:
It's not just a possible relation of my father serving in the East Surrey Regiment who's recorded here, but also Captain Fergus Bowes-Lyon of the Black Watch, elder brother of the Queen Mother. All are remembered equally.
From there we visited Lens 14-18 Centre d'Histoire Guerre et Paix which had a number of interesting exhibitions, especially for me those relating to the German occupation of part of France. They have some period films which were definitely worth watching.
We had lunch in a café in Arras - it was also a bakery, so we made good use of the opportunity to eat cake. Arras is a very pretty town, and it's difficult to visualise the fact that it was destroyed during the war and everything has been rebuilt:
After lunch we went to the Wellington Quarry, and saw where hundreds of men lived in the week prior to the Battle of Arras. The tunnels had been in use for many centuries, but were extended and adapted by New Zealand tunnelers.
Many of those who emerged from the tunnels on the day of the battle are remembered nearby:
From there we went to Vimy Ridge and the magnificent Canadian memorial. Firstly a view from the top of the ridge:
The memorial:
Two shots of TD to give an idea of the scale:
On ANZAC Day it was appropriate to remember the many from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and other parts of what was the Empire, and the contribution and the sacrifices they made.
It's not just a possible relation of my father serving in the East Surrey Regiment who's recorded here, but also Captain Fergus Bowes-Lyon of the Black Watch, elder brother of the Queen Mother. All are remembered equally.
From there we visited Lens 14-18 Centre d'Histoire Guerre et Paix which had a number of interesting exhibitions, especially for me those relating to the German occupation of part of France. They have some period films which were definitely worth watching.
We had lunch in a café in Arras - it was also a bakery, so we made good use of the opportunity to eat cake. Arras is a very pretty town, and it's difficult to visualise the fact that it was destroyed during the war and everything has been rebuilt:
After lunch we went to the Wellington Quarry, and saw where hundreds of men lived in the week prior to the Battle of Arras. The tunnels had been in use for many centuries, but were extended and adapted by New Zealand tunnelers.
Many of those who emerged from the tunnels on the day of the battle are remembered nearby:
From there we went to Vimy Ridge and the magnificent Canadian memorial. Firstly a view from the top of the ridge:
The memorial:
Two shots of TD to give an idea of the scale:
On ANZAC Day it was appropriate to remember the many from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and other parts of what was the Empire, and the contribution and the sacrifices they made.
