GRAVES OF THE FALLEN

Southland Times, Issue 19389, 1 November 1924, Page 8

GRAVES OF THE FALLEN

THE FRENCH WAR CEMETERIES A TOUR OF INSPECTION A FATHER’S GRIEF AND PRIDE. PILRGIMAGE OF LUMSDEN CLERGYMAN. Rev. D. K. Fisher, of Lumsden, supplies a vivid account of his recent visit to the battlefields of France and, in particular, the Great War cemeteries in the vicinity of Albert. He writes:— THE GREAT UNKNOWN. ‘From the town of Albert (the French pronounce it Alber) a few of us made a motor journey or two within a radius of 30 miles, with a view to obtaining a clear and full survey of the battlefields of this famous neighbourhood. Personally, I was anxious, first of ail, to get within the vicinity of the village of Beaumont Hamel, Jor here our eldfest boy, Charlie, was killed on April 5, 1918, while serving with the Canterbury Infantry. From information received at the time, both from the chaplain of the Battalion who conducted the burial service at the grave, and from the Lieutenant of the platoon in which our son was serving, I was able to get within a fairly sure distance of where he, with other New Zealand boys, fell that very tragic morning. The military authorities with whom we had frequent negotiations in connection with the identity of she grave, could now render us no assistance in the matter. After those very fateful days of eary spring, 1918, the Germans had either been able to recapture some of the ground the Allies had driven them from, or they had paused somewhere in their retreat and bombed the place out of all recognition. Certain it is, that earth and trees, and rock and human bodies, were co-mingled in common extermination and powdered into common dust by the fury cf that German onslaught. The result was that our boy’s remains, with others, including that of Private Sam Parker, Athol, whose parents specially desired me to try and find, are altogether untraceable. The only little comfort our military authorities can offer — and they are worthy of all praise for what they have done, and are still engaged in ; doing, is this—in due time a worthy mem- ■ orial is to be erected in some central spot i to commemorate the names and heroismI oi the lads whose bodies cannot be found, ! and the dead and buried whose graves 1 can now no longer be identified. It was, I therefore, rather sadly I stepped over all i this area of undulating and fair country- | side—at the m .neat grass covered and beI strewn with some wild flowers and poppies flaming rod —in i.,.xcd .feelings of grief and I pride. : LIKE A CITY OF THE DEAD. J “Except on the regular roadways, all ■ the ground in thi;; region was rough ami hilimky, pitied, honeycombed with she'd and danje.ouj to tread on, for live i cartridge.', u:..-:. :■ ded bombs, and halfburied powder dumps were on every hand. But al ng the valley’s course and right up and down the whole di tnct of the rivers i Somme and Ancre the nun ■■ reus silent, i but lovely and eloquent cemeteries met \ one’s gaze. With reverent oi p and bared i head, visitors perambulated oil over this i ground, for it is a veritable necroiopis—acity of the dead—-a land where one wanders j as if among the Ep.ru of t);c departed ; brave whose glorious deeds cn the field of battle shone over us in recollection more brilliantly than even the radiant sun in the heavtns which bcai icd down in i brightest eifuigeffee upon that memorable j and sacred tpoi where so many of our i i bonnie laddius lie. Ever} few miles we i i could hak jn ’ ur motor dm and enter I ! the lovely'white panelled gate of a come- , ! '.cry and walk softly am.d th • thousands , • of small wooden crosses ami -headstones, i ‘each of which is tiu.tGuiiy f'.mked by i ! chaste wreaths and del cate lowers sur- | I sounded by verdant and c! aiy cropped | i grassy lawns most careful!-. .{■' ■Jed. As fur | ' as possible now, the B:i iii .ary powers ! are arranging that B; . <service men p hall have ihc superintei.-h . e and the j control of ail • b.c.-ie . conic.: . and much toil and care / i . civ. the part of 1 those who are : . e charge oi -their over.!;'.., mr l!j. .. ..is of graves ! are consider, l i., there bii.. .-ome c ses | abuUt 10C0, a a c’.Ltw about 7000 sol- : • d.ers buried v. ....a their p:<cincts. In every burying ground there is a carefully kept written* regintsr, lying in a small | wooden box noticeable by e-.eryone entering the gate, and containing all the names, I with fullest details, of ov.; y known man interred therein, while a large i.u...ber remains unknown, and the grave.; of all eul . are simply marked as “Unknown.” NaturI ally, visitors first of’all consult the regis- • ter and ascertain whether the name they ; may be in search of is inscribed upon its pages. In the search for names, the caretakers are exceedingly helpful and willingly 1 impart all information they are in pcssesj sion of. . THE SWORD OF SACRIFICE. i “A somewhat prolonged and laborious j piece cf work is going on among the ceme- ■ terics at the present tune, in that, in many j instances, the white wooden crosses which j are in height somewhere about fifteen ! inches, are being replaced with finely cut, ! and more fully letter-engraven pure white i headstones, standing some two-and a-half ! feet high and one-and-a-half feet broad, i . lost of- these cemeteries are enclosed in a ■ brick and stone wall about three feet high, i some of them again surrounded with a ' tidy wooden fence of white panels. In the ! interior of these burying grounds there is ' generally a large stene column in the shape i of a Cross, surmounting a cement or cou- . crete block of white, and nearly the whole ‘ length of the stone co.umn there is cut out ■ deeply, “The Sword of Sacrifice.” In addi- ‘ tion to that monument, there is also “The i Stone of Remembrance,” which is in the i form of a fairly large obi: ag of cement, i surmounting three or four large steps or ! terraces of the same material. Beaumont ; Hamel, where I lingered more lengthily, is ; a place conspicuous for its war memorials. Here, not many weeks ago, a grand monument was unveiled to commcmmorate the , men of the 51st Division: here, no later than Ist July cf this year, Earl Haig’un- . veiled a war memorial commemmorative i more particularly of the brave men from Newfoundland, who, on July 1, 1916, had ' their ranks terribly decimated by the fire of the enemy; and here, as we, a few i British visitors on land ever sacred to so many of us, stood, on that July 14, and I were confronted by the presence cf a subi stantial and stately monument, erected to ; the memory cf the men belonging to the ; Argylesliire and Sutherland Highlanders : who fell in the war. The words of in- ■ scription chiselled thereon were both in the I English and Gaelic characters. But everyj where we turned or gazed, monumental memorials confronted us, making illustrious fcr ever in this world’s history, the gali an try and self -sacrifice of men from sea I and soil—sons of the Empire of Britain, who came from near and far, eager to defend, ready to shed their blood for the most glorious Motherland. AN ULSTER MEMORIAL. “Beaumont, Beaucourt, Thiepval Wood, Possieres, and other areas unforgettable by the patriotic heart, were all near at hand, but Thiepval Ridge, with its distinctive mount crowned and glorified by the towering Ulster Memorial must claim our especial attention. By some special arrangement it seems with the local or some higher authorities in France, the North cf Ireland Parliament and its military leaders, have come into full possession of a large area of this district of which they are now the responsible guardians. By .this Irish authority, the battleground in this memorable neighbourhood is to be kept free of na£-xuiKi.riiAtuin or the building of houses of

any kind, and kept as far as possible, in the very state it was left at the close of the Great War. On the highest point of this selected piece of country, rises the illustrious tower. The tower is constructed of stone, is 70 feet high, and is surmounted by a flagstaff thirty-five feet high. It is a facsimile of Helen’s Tower, Clandcboye, County Down, the first Marquis cf Duffein’s tribute to his beloved mother.. It contains a memorial chamber fifteen feet square, faced throughout in stone, and here there is the inscription tablet in statuary marble. On the four walls are the following lines which were written by Tennyson for the tower at Clandeboye:— “Helen’s Tower here I stand, Dominant ever sea and land; Son’s love built me and I hold Ulster’s love in lettr’d gold.” The following interesting inscription is on the tower:— 1914-1918. This Tower is dedicated to the Glory of God in grateful memory of the officers and men of the 36th (Ulster) Division, and of the sons of Ulster in. other forces who laid down their lives in the Great War, and of all their com-rades-in-arms who, by Divine Grace, were spared to testify to their glorious deeds. It is erected on the site of the famous advance of the Ulster Division on the Ist July, 1916. Their Name Liveth For Evermore. Unveiled 19th November, 1921, by the Right.-Hon. Lord Carson, of Duncairn. A HISTORIC BATTLEFIELD. Under the guidance of the duly appointed caretaker—who himself came right thiough the war from start to finish scathless, and whose wife and family with him from Ulster are now resident here —we were led to explore this never-to-be-forgotten battleground. The Rev. iivlr Waldrum, his <wife, and I followed our most intelligent and chatty warder as he lit up his liurricaaie lamp which he earned in his hand, and urged us to be careful where we stepped, for live cartndgesc and shells, etc.— both British and German —were scattered ail around. Into the enemy trenches, down into his carefully planned dug-outs, step by step we followed into underground communication passages, astomslnngiy preserved, and bearing marks yet of their wonderful scientific and strong construction and well-supported excavations, all skilfully drained, dry, ventilated, and comfortable to live in, and 35 to 40 feet under the surface! Here, in this military underground world, the German Army lived and moved and laughed, secure from every attack of the aides during the year’ 1915 and the greater part of 1916. To' this point in the fair and flowery land of France, came the pick of the German soldiery—the Prussian Guards from Potsdam —to live in luxury, in electric-lit compartments, in revelry and song. Fcr was it not to these quarters the ex-Kaiser came in richest and heaviest imiform in the days when he was the “swash-buckler of Europe”— the favourite son of the gods—and harangued again and again, his gay and gallant Guards, on the impregnable nature oi their entrenched battlefront, the might of their burnished bayonets and their guns, and the i incompetence of “the Contemptible British ' Army” ? Our guide further drew our al- I tention to the specially sheltered nocks ! where the iron beds were still intact—single ' beds one above the other, like berths in a ship's cabin —double iron beds, still more I snugly fixed where the ladies from Berlin ! and Potsdam rested or slept when they ! journey this'length to cheer on, to further ; boost to victory their soldier lovers of the ; Eatheirland, or to share'the labours and the i glories of their husbands Find lovers. j THE HINDENBURG LINE. | “In many respects we were highly fav- ■ cured. It seemed that we visitors were . treading what had once been the most il lustrious and the most luxuriant, the most i envied points of the ceicbratcd, much- ; \aunted, impassable Hindenburg line!! im- : pregnable, inv.ne.blc, impos.nb;e of defeat!! So these well-selected, skilfully constructed hiding places were invincible to all—except our Bril' sh boys of the “Bull-dog Breed.” iiie vain and blustering ex-KaEer was perfectly right from a natural and hmnun point of view. No visitor to these astonishing trenches could think otherwise. And to be actually on the ' spot, to see for one’s self, and to compare ; trench with trench and position with position, as these must have appeared in the height cf the battle iury and fire, was only ; tp depon the woner that “Our Boys” came ; through! it all. It is no surprise from tlm, ! vantage ground that the Great War was j long and bloody, and that the men who 1 were spared to Come through it—whether their sphere of action were the land, the sea or the air— are never the same men again. Not only Right and Wrong were in conflict here—not only honour and dishonour—serfdom and salvation: —but God and the devil in the deadliest combat, till i; . i... and Liberty prevailed. So 1 must write, because so I felt, in that scarred and battered land, whose whole outline and atmosphere impressed those thoughts upon me with a new and indelible, conviction. We had to retrace our steps from those dark, though never damp subterranean labyrinths, and climb away from mucii that was novel and interesting —much that is in all likelihood, to be historical to the world’s end —and seek once more the sweet air of the gracious sunlight of the open spaces. To the Visitors' Book, with its large and well-filled pages, our guide directed us, and while glancing down some of its columns in tp inscribe my own name, I observed the signatures of several New Zealanders, and amongst them this name: .-—Gladys Fox, Invercargill. LARGEST MINE ON WESTERN FRONT. “From where we now stood we could see in the distance, though we did not manage to get that length (much to my regret), the great column or obelisk that has been raised to commemmorate the bravery and sacrifice of the men of the N.Z.E.F. Further on, we were assured, rose another memorial to the honour and heroism of the gallant men of the Australian Forces. Our motor driver then drew our attention to an outstanding mark on one of the flats not fajr distant. Towards this he rushed us, then ied us over’ rough, broken fields to where a great gulf or huge crater yawned before us. This wild and wide opening in the earth was the largest live mine on the Western Front. Its ,dimensions -were given as 300 feet deep and 1300 feet in circumference. This was the mine that was fired as the signal for advance' on that memorable day* 1916.”