Day 4 - Amiens to Arras

Day 4 – Amiens to Arras
70 miles, average speed 12.9 and fastest speed 35.5.
We awake to a dry morning. The team who organise the whole event are from a company called Discovery Adventure – a great crew however their basic appreciation of time and distance can take some getting used to. At the morning briefing we were told that the first stop was 4 miles – well 11.9 miles later we arrived at the Australian monument! We now ask whether the mileage being quoted is a DA estimate or real! I could give you all a history tour of the first world war, however there are very good and voluminous books you can read if you are interested. We were well supported by our Commonwealth troops, and Australia was the most supportive. Out of a small population (in 1914 the whole country numbered 3 million people) – 10% (all men) volunteered to fight of whom 50% were killed. What an impact on a nation! Accordingly there are some splendid monuments which we visited commemorating their sacrifices. Continuing with Australia, a mass grave of Australians was found last year and a new Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery built (the first for 40 years). The last of the bodies is due to be buried in July – attended by the Australian and British Prime Ministers and other dignitaries.
Throughout the route we passed cemetery after cemetery – often within a 100 yards of the last. Phenomenal the number of dead. Each country has however a memorial to those soldiers who died but whose bodies were never recovered. The British one is at Thiepval (pictured – apologies for the quality, camera battery has died). The white limestone columns contain a proportion of the British names (the plan was to build 3 such monuments but then, as now, the government was broke and the other 2 were not built). Of great personal interest was finding the name of Amanda’s great, great uncle – Captain George Fussell of the Warwickshire Regiment. Now the Warwicks take up a whole face of one of those columns – hundreds of names. We had a most emotional ceremony and at the end there was not a dry eye amongst us and some were openly sobbing.
The Canadians not only have memorials but some are national monuments – and as such are manned by Canadians sent out from Canada on 4 month postings. A visit to one such memorial was at Beaumont-Hamel. What was fascinating is that the trench system has been preserved – and one can see how close the 2 sides were – and really imagine the wholesale slaughter that took place.
On route to Arras, passing more ceremonies I was passing someone who had stopped at one of the smaller cemeteries who said – “I prefer the smaller ones because I can then blub without anyone else seeing”.
Finally we visited the caves of Arras – where not only 24,000 soldiers sheltered from the artillery fire prior to the Battle of Arras in 1917, but where the New Zealand tunnel engineers built 27 miles of tunnel, in the rock only using picks and shovels out from the British lines so that the troops emerged just in front of the enemy lines. Fascinating.
Room a luxury – by myself! Investment in the cream was a good move and as each day progresses I am fitter than before!