![]() Was it because they found it too ironic to mention burials “in peace” bearing in mind the nature of the deaths? Probably, but the members of the Commission had another, more immediate, concern in mind: they thought it would be too easy to add an “s” to peace, making it sound like “pieces,” in what would’ve been in poor taste for many despite being a much more realistic description of the fate of the thousands during the war. Kipling, who had lost a son in the war, wanted to use the full passage: “Their bodies are buried in peace, but their name liveth for evermore,” but the Imperial War Graves Commission removed the first sentence. It was also Kipling who chose the inscription I keep finding on other different memorials: “Their name liveth for evermore.” The words come from scripture, Ecclesiasticus 44:14. The words cut into the headstones of unknown British soldiers in the Thiepval cemetery came from Rudyard Kipling, a poet with a firm belief in be Great Britain’s providential role in the world. Honouring the memory of these soldiers, their austerity couldn’t be more removed from the final visions of their dying moments: bombed-out trenches filled with mud and sown with the bodies of comrades and foes. It’s somewhat ironic that the war that took their lives and destroyed the landscape gave birth to these reverential memorials surrounded by peaceful, green countryside. While apprehensively walking past the graves, I can’t help thinking that if those lying there came back to life, they would find the battlefield unrecognisable. ![]() Their uniforms were all that signified their nationality. Their bodies are under identical headstones with identical inscriptions: “A soldier of the Great War/Known unto God.” This graveyard has a twin burial ground next to it with the bodies of 300 French soldiers, marked by crosses bearing a single word: Inconnu ('Unknown'). ![]() Identification of their bodies was impossible, so these unfortunate fighters rest together under this colossal tombstone.Īnd while the marker gives their names, a little cemetery next to it holds the bodies of 300 British soldiers who lost both their lives and their identities. They are the names of the 72,000 men who breathed their last in these fields, 72,000 British and South African soldiers, during the seemingly endless (and ultimately pointless) six-month Battle of the Somme in 1916. I find myself staring hypnotically at the names lining the inside of the enormous arch that is the centrepiece of the local memorial. The first place I visit is Thiepval, a tiny village in the Picardy region of France, surrounded by rolling fields, woods, and bucolic brooks. (See also: The United States Enters World War I.) It seems very few families could have escaped the touched of war’s horror. The first truly modern war left more dead than any other previous European conflict: more than 18 million casualties in four years. A chain-reaction of war declarations in August of that same year led to the formation of two blocks: the Allies (France, Russia, Great Britain, Serbia, Italy and-eventually-the United States) and the Central Powers (Germany, Austro-Hungary, the Ottoman Empires, and Bulgaria). The ongoing tensions in the Balkans eventually led to the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, on June 28, 1914. The aggressive foreign policy of the Austro-Hungarian and German Empires led to a build-up of their own and their potential rival’s armies. The Great War started in 1914, brought on by the growing economic rivalry and the fight for hegemony of the main European powers. She often reminded me that there was an uncle she never knew because he was killed in 1918 when she was just a baby. ![]() I would try to mirror her respect for the monuments, memorials, and remembrance plaques we encountered in every English village. Their presence reminds me of my childhood and the walks I took with my grandmother in England. Commemorative monuments can be found in just about every French or Belgian town. I am visiting northern France, where one hundred years have passed since the end of World War I, but its memory is a constant presence here.
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