Lest We Forget - Visiting L'Aisne

This year sees the buildup to the centenary of first world war, I for one will never forget and never let my children forget the sacrifices made by so many people. My great grandad for one, I will never forget  the loss our family suffered and how it changed the course of our history.

So whenever we are over in France we always go and visit something from WW1 or WW2 and this year was no different.

We stayed in L'Aisne area of France, an area that suffered massive losses and over 90% of the landscape was destroyed from the heavy fighting.

A beautiful landscape, these first images were from hillside above Cavern Du Dragon, unfortunately you couldn't take pictures inside, but the cave itself was unbelievably moving. Seeing the cave as it was left all those years ago, some of it which will never be explored because of the many remaining unexploded bombs.

The tour guide was a knowledgeable lady who explained about the caves and areas around the Chemin De Dames or Ladies Way.

 

These black crosses were in a german cemetery near where we stayed, I cannot explain the sadness I felt visiting this cemetery, so many young men giving their lives needlessly and sometimes without really knowing why. The dark crosses so different to the English and American bright white stone, it really was a moving place. Each cross represents two men, here lay about 11,000 men.

This English Cemetery was resting place to a brave 16 year old soldier who lied about his age and was killed in the vicious fighting in the area, I didn't manage to find his headstone but just looking at the rest was enough to make me stop and stifle back the tears.

And finally the French Cemetery, compared to the English and German Cemeteries this had been left in a sorry state, I am not sure why but I still love the flowers and the shear number of small crosses is a stark reminder of the loss.

Crumbling French Crosses

If you visit this area of France I can highly recommend visiting the Cavern Du Dragon and stopping at the cemeteries along the Chemin De Dames.

A Very Real History Lesson

Whilst on holiday we visited the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach, a little morbid I admit but I do love WWII.

Thousands upon thousands of white crosses with a few stars stand in rows, it's hard to imagine what it would look like if each one was actually a man!

There are no dates of birth just the day on which their lives were cut short. Many mown down by machine gun fire or blown to pieces by the heavy shelling that awful day and those that followed. 

 The beach is now peaceful, in fact it is a gorgeous beach but because of it's history isn't used as much as maybe it would be, there is no beach bar or bucket and spade stalls.

The monuments at Omaha beach are a beautiful symbol of the tragedy that happened on the beach that misty June morning.

I have been to the WW1 memorial to the missing at Theipval which has 73,367 names engraved on it. The American Cemetery only has about 9,500 crosses, but to see the them stood up in lines like that seems more real than names upon a wall. It is almost possible to visualise the great loss.

The museum which holds some interesting pieces of history was well worth the visit (once you got past the metal detectors and bag searches anyway).

Films and items from the time help you to envisage what it was like, the full scale of the D-Day Landings.

I am forever fascinated by the beaches, every time I go back I am in awe of what happened on that day, the day's running up to it and the days after it.

I have visited the Pointe Du Hoc, an utterly breathtaking place which I shall never forget and still bears the scars from the days leading up to June 6th.

And then Arromanches, where the remains of the Mulberry Harbour still sit, I will write a post about this another time.

Finally, I saw a flag fluttering against one of the stones, a fabulously named man and as the flag blew in the wind it said everything that needed to be said.