Remembering

When I was first interviewed for a position at NJC, I heard about the trip that the school organizes every November to World War I sites. This prospect fired my imagination. WWI has great meaning to me, and the prospect of visiting the battlefields and memorials connected to it was something I embraced wholeheartedly. It would be especially poignant to be in this part of the world on Remembrance Day.

 

Students and staff at the base of the Vimy Memorial

Unlike the trip to Munich that we took a month ago, travel to the WWI sites was not optional; the entire student body went as part of their education. Because I am currently teaching Timothy Findley’s The Wars, I asked the students in my classes to research topics connected with the Great War beforehand and upon their return, to respond in writing to their experiences. With their permission, I am using parts of their responses in this blog entry. Clearly, I am not the only one who was moved by this trip.

Note this personal connection by Spencer: "Notts & Derby Regiment was my great-grandfather's regiment, and it really hit home with me, far more than anything else I had witnessed. My great-grandfather could very well have known these brave men who were killed and never found."

This wreath was laid at the base of the St. Julien Memorial, The Brooding Soldier.

On November 9th, we travelled first to Beaumont Hamel, the site of a senseless massacre of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, and later, to Vimy, where four divisions of the Canadian forces worked for the first time as a unit. They were successful in capturing the highest point - the ridge - a great achievement, not without great loss and sacrifice, that symbolizes Canadians coming together as a nation.

Below are student comments about our visits to both sites.

Beaumont Hamel

Matt O: "80% of the Newfoundland regiment was killed at Beaumont Hamel. The craters, trenches, and our just being there made it feel too real, too true."

Trenches at Beaumont-Hamel

Matt N: "The caribou, with its head held high, signified the pride and power of the Newfoundlanders."

A caribou stands atop the memorial to the Royal Newfoundland Regiment.  

Stephen: “It was a huge waste of talent, and of young lives for nothing but the twisted idea of a greater empire.”  

Becky: "The Danger Tree now is tiny, dead and grey - so small against the harsh environmental elements, but for me, it had a wonderful symbolic meaning: it represented the soldiers in the Newfoundland Regiment who withstood such a harsh attack."

Vimy

We approach the Vimy Memorial

Isabelle: “I feel that the statues that represent faith, honour, peace, justice, charity, truth, knowledge and hope are very moving. I feel these symbols are important because they do not dwell on the bloodshed of war, but remind us of what Canada stands for.”

The figure of Canada mourning her fallen sons

Katie: “Normally the memorials for the victorious are prideful and strong, but the Canadian memorial, designed by a Canadian, was extremely humble.”  

Nick, our guide, explains the symbolism at the Vimy Memorial

Melanie: “It was horrific to imagine that large a bomb exploding to make that large a crater and imagining how many soldiers would have been killed in the process.”  

The guide explains what the students will witness as they enter the trenches at Vimy.

Becca: "There was a tree planted for every fallen Canadian soldier inscribed on the monument, 11215 soldiers."

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On November 11, Remembrance Day, we traveled to Ypres for the Remembrance Day Ceremony. We then stopped at four sites with great significance to Canadians: Essex Farm Cemetery, the site that inspired John McCrae to pen "In Flanders Fields"; the St Julien Memorial, honouring the contribution of Canadians in the second battle of Ypres: Tyne Cot Cemetery, a large burial ground where most of the graves are for unknown soldiers; and Hill 62, a museum with lots of military paraphernalia, and trenches as they would have been a hundred years ago. We were among thousands who made similar pilgrimages that day.

Ypres

I stood on the parade route as many bands marched towards the Menin Gate in Ypres

Julia: "I realized that we were here not just to pay our respects but to witness the large national pride that people have and the impact these wars have made on people generations later."

Flag bearers on parade

Viggo: “It might sound weird but it felt beautiful to actually be sad and sympathize with others as I did.”

Each of these paper poppies was placed in the ground in honour of someone.

Kaitlyn: "I had chills when poppies fell from three holes in the ceiling."

The poppies raining down into the Menin Gate

Vanessa: "If fifty thousand soldiers died, that means that there were fifty thousand grieving families who were unable to come to terms with the deaths of their relatives because they were never found and laid to rest.

Some of the names on the walls of the Menin Gate

Essex Farm Cemetery

Memorial stone at Essex Farm 

Rachel: “It is very strange to think about someone younger than yourself dying in a brutal war when I have never experienced anything close to what the soldiers had to experience during the war.” 

Someone remembered this Canadian on this day.

Solene: "It never occurred to me before that the soldiers would be the ones to bury other soldiers."

Our guide, Christine, at Essex Farm, the inspiration for "In Flanders Fields"

St Julien Memorial

Siobhan: "Being able to sing O Canada at a Canadian Memorial for fallen soldiers was one of the proudest moments of my life."

We pose for a photo in front of The Brooding Soldier monument.

Sierra: "When we stayed to watch the remembrance ceremony by the British band, the man who stood next to the immense statue of The Brooding Soldier said, "When you go home, tell them of us and say, 'for their tomorrow, we gave our today'."

This British band played "O Canada" at the St, Julien Memorial

Tyne Cot Cemetery 

Tom: 100 years ago the world embarked on a path of great misery which would change the face of the world for good. 100 years ago, nationalism and militarism overcame rationality. 100 years ago, England called on its colonies to protect it, regardless of how it had treated them. 100 years ago, was the start of the Great War. 100 years after the start of this tragic First World War, I stood where thousands lay.

Tyne Cot cemetery

Alix: "Everywhere I looked there was a name I hadn't yet read. This helped me picture the battlefield from so long ago, filled with a sea of men, without identities, as that is how so many of them are buried."

The names of the soldiers who were lost in the war but whose remains were never found are etched on the walls of the Tyne Cot cemetery.

Jesse: "These men died for our freedom, and no one could even say who they were."

Hill 62

Erin leads a group through the trenches at Hill 62. She provided me with several of the photos I have used in this blog.

Alex: “I imagined hundreds of soldiers cramped into the narrow trenches, the rats running below their feet, and the fear, the constant hunger and the inescapable cold of the changing seasons.” (62)

Students enter a tunnel in the trenches

A final word from Alicia:

"My father, who served as a military surgeon in Afghanistan and Bosnia, survived, and I am so very grateful that he did. I believe we need to continue to remember the soldiers’ courage and sacrifice from WWI and every other war on November 11^th, and every day of the year.”