Arras - The Forgotten Battlefields

This area of France is sometimes known as the 'forgotten battlefields' because Flanders and the Somme get more battlefield visitors, yet it is here on the Arras front that has over 150 British cemeteries, which bear testament to the huge losses. It is also here that you can see some of the most stunning, picturesque, memorials and villages along with the town of Arras itself. Arras is the historic centre of the Artois region with its two famous squares and two world heritage sites - the Citadel and the belfry of Arras.

The Wellington Quarry

One of the most interesting places to visit on the remembrance trail is in Arras itself at the Wellington Quarry. This is an absolutely must see experience. You embark 20 metres down a lift for a 75 minute tour underground into the maze of tunnels and medieval quarries that housed thousands of soldier's safe underground prior to the Battle of Arras in 1917.

The huge medieval caverns were linked up by New Zealand tunnelers, with over 20 kilometres of tunnels snaking their way underground towards the German front line. Over 24,000 soldiers hid underground in these huge chalk quarries for nearly 8 days prior to the Battle of Arras on 9th April 1917.

The tour is exceptional in information with a tour guide, audio visuals which blend into the natural walls of the tunnels and caverns, and you feel as though nothing has been touched since 1917. You can see soldier's names, pictures of their sweethearts, the black indicator paint on the walls indicating latrines, or the smoke from candle burns, or the numbers on the walls to stop soldiers getting lost in the maze of tunnels.

Monchy-le-Preux

In the beautiful village of Monchy-le-Preux, just a few miles east of Arras, there are two of the most amazing memorials along the Western Front here - one a Caribou built in honour of the Newfoundland regiment where ten men kept the hill despite a vicious onslaught by the Germans. It is built over the ruins of a cellar fortified by the Germans. Also in this village is the amazing memorial to the 37th Division. This memorial is three soldiers standing back to back and has got to be one of the most beautifully sculptured anywhere on the Western Front.

Ayette

Further south in the village of Ayette there is an Indian and Chinese Cemetery. This is one of the few places that commemorate the involvement of Indian soldiers and Chinese workers in the Great War. Most of the deaths were in 1919, due to the fact they were clearing the fields of munitions and died of accidents. They also filled in the trenches, collected and buried dead soldiers, animal carcasses and some eventually contracted fatal illnesses. Even though the Great War had ended it was still claiming casualties.

Joseph Standing Buffalo

Buried in the Bucquoy Road Cemetery at Fichuex is Joseph Standing Buffalo, the great grandson of Chief Sitting Bull (Battle of the Little Horn), and son of the Chief of the Sioux Tribe of Indians. Joseph fought as a private in the Canadian Infantry, (the Manitoba regiment) and died at the age of only 20 just a few weeks before the end of the war. Only a few years before his death on the Western Front, his grandfather was fighting against General Custer and the white man to keep their lands. Now Joseph lies in a grave in a foreign field so far from the native land of his birth. On his gravestone there usually is a feather, a poignant symbol of the native North American Indian.

John Kipling

At Haisnes, on the Loos battlefield is St. Mary's Advanced Dressing Station Cemetery, and where Rudyard Kipling's son John, known as Jack, is buried. Jack was killed on his day of action on 27 September, 1915. He was posted missing and his father searched until 1919 to trace his body. Only in 1992 did the Commonwealth Graves Commission identify the grave as that of John Kipling, even though today that is still being disputed.

Notre-Dame de Lorette

At Ablain-Saint-Nazaire is the beautiful French National Necropolis of Notre-Dame de Lorette. It is the largest French Great War Cemetery with a beautiful basilica, ossuary and lantern. The site holds the remains of about 40,000 soldiers. It also has a section for Muslim soldiers with their headstones all slightly turned towards Mecca.

There is a small museum which gives you access to part of the battlefield trench system on the ridge plus a diorama room with a wonderful collection of over 4000 stereoscopic photos of the Great War.

Flame of Peace

Just north of Arras, in the village of Neuville-Saint-Vaast, devastated in 1918, there are no less than 10 monuments including the 'Flame of Peace' which is a hand with a torch rising out of the rubble representing the spirit of the villagers. In 1918, there was nothing else remaining of the village but ruins.
The monument is built out of some charred remains of village buildings.

The Towers of the Mont Saint Eloi Abbey

This was an observation post that was bombed. Since then it has been kept in its ruined state to bear witness to the barbarity of war.

Vimy Ridge

The Vimy Ridge National Historic Site of Canada stands on Hill 145, the highest point of the 14 kilometre Vimy Ridge. This high point was a significant part of the German defence system. On April 9th 1917, four divisions of the Canadian Corps (aided by the British 5th Division), fighting for the first time, fought up the ridge. By mid afternoon all objectives had been taken apart from Hill 145 which was captured the next day.  It was a hard fought victory, out of the 10,602 casualties, 3,598 were Canadians.

Carved on the walls of the monument are the names of 11,285 Canadian soldiers killed in France with no known grave. More than 7,000 are buried in 30 cemeteries within a 20 kilometre radius of the Vimy Memorial.

"To the valour of their countrymen in the Great war and in memory of their sixty thousand dead this monument is raised by the people of Canada." (Inscription on the Vimy Memorial)

Zivy Crater

Zivy is only one of two places in France (both in Thelus) where a mine crater has been kept after the war as a burial place. They were both used by the Canadians to buy soldiers who fell in the battle for Vimy Ridge.

This grassed over crater contains the bodies of 53 Canadians who died when a mine they were setting off, exploded prematurely.

The Saint Laurent Blangy German Military Cemetery

Located just behind the pre-1917 German lines it contains 31,400 soldiers who lie in a mass tomb and also interred in a forest, the symbol of the warriors' paradise in Germanic mythology. This necropolis is considered as the best example of the layout of German burial places. Close by is the Bailleul Road East Cemetery containing the remains of the famous English poet, Isaac Rosenberg.

German Military Cemetery of "Maison Blanche", Neuville Saint Vaast

The largest German cemetery in France, containing quite as many soldier's bodies as the French Necropolis of Notre-Dame de Lorette, but in a radically different layout. The cemetery is situated on the battlefield and you can view a relief map at the entrance. 44,830 soldiers are grouped together or buried in mass tombs.

Scottish Memorial and Point-du-Jour Cemetery - Athies

The village of Athies was taken by the 9th Scottish Division (including the South African Brigade) on the first day of the Battle of Arras. The Scottish Memorial is a replica of a cairn erected in 1746 on the battlefield of Culloden.

Bullecourt

The Bullecourt and Australian Memorial includes a bronze replica of the hat worn by the Australians and also a piece of tank track from a tank which took part in the battle of Bullecourt in April and May 1917.

Cabaret Rouge Cemetery

This is where the Canadian Unknown Soldier was chosen. His body was repatriated in May 2000 and is now buried in a special tomb in front of the National War Memorial in Ottawa.

Le Trou Aid Post Cemetery

This is one of the most beautiful cemeteries of the Western Front. It was enlarged for the casualties of the Battle of Frommelles.

All along the remembrance trail from Arras and among the rolling hills of Artois, efforts continue to remember the tremendous loss of life here from all countries all those years ago.