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AT REST A war cemetery for French and Commonwealth soldiers in the Pas de Calais, in France
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Trip to fields of the fallen
15/ 4/2008
THE poet Edmund Blunded once wrote: "In war there is only one winner: war itself."
Could those simple words have been in the minds of a quiet German couple who recently arrived in a village in Northern France where terrible deeds took place nearly 70 years ago?
Ten thousand Britons a year visit the village, to pay homage to the brave soldiers killed in cold blood on May 28, 1940. But never Germans. Largely for them it is a place of shame.
Today, 90 years after the Armistice, Esquelbecques in Northern France is a quiet and serene place. The old church clock strikes but otherwise the silence is broken only by the occasional passing car.
It is a typical French village in the Pas de Calais, a region largely, and undeservedly, ignored by many holidaymakers who pass through on their way south.
Here, in a cowshed in a ploughed field near a placid pond, Hitler's elite SS troops herded 100 captured British soldiers together and perpetrated a massacre.
One morning in May, 2007, on the 67th anniversary of that terrible deed, a German couple arrived in the village. They approached the local tourist office and asked to see the site of the massacre, now a memorial to the dead.
The man was the grandson of one of the SS soldiers. He had come, he said, with his wife, to make amends for his grandfather, who struggled to cope with his guilt after the war and they wanted to seek forgiveness on behalf of an old man who had died sorrowing.
He was a soldier of 25 at the time of the slaughter and one of the squad that threw grenades into the shed where the captured soldiers, on their way to Dunkirk, had been herded like cattle.
It seems a misnomer to describe these black-clad SS killers as elite, a word that implies the best, for after throwing grenades, they walked into the shed and finished off those still alive with bullets and bayonets. Only 15 survived, by escaping in the chaos or feigning death, to relate the horror and bring the perpetrators to justice.
"We never see Germans here," said 40-year-old Ferial Beyaert, from the tourist office. "It was as if they were ashamed. They asked me to take them to the site at Plaine au Bois to see where the actual massacre had taken place."
I am standing in that cowshed in Flanders fields as Ferial talks. She is an effusive Lebanese woman who has adopted France as her homeland. Around us are pictures of the dead soldiers from the Royal Warwickshires, the Cheshires, the Royal Artillery.
Wreaths of poppies and words of memories adorn the walls. It is cold inside with an atmosphere of foreboding. Here is a card with two simple poppies and a child's awkward writing with the prophetic words: WILL WE REMEMBER THEM.
Ferial says: "The man told me he had been waiting all his life to be here and today he had the courage to come. It was very emotional for them and for me. He said his grandfather always told him: `Never go into a war. Everybody has a right to live.'"
The words come to mind frequently as you journey the Pas de Calais region of Northern France, a place with so many echoes of the two great wars of the last century.
It is today a bucolic countryside of sleepy villages, a lambent landscape of fields rolling gently, of stately trees like sentries watching over the hallowed ground where so many fell and died, giving their life-blood for freedom.
War cemeteries, lovingly tended, dominate the Pas de Calais. Evidence of the love and respect shown by the French, old and young, towards the fallen is everywhere.
In these cemeteries lie British, Commonwealth, French, and German troops. Rows and rows of white crosses (German ones are dark brown) mark a brave soldier's last resting place. Some are unknown and writer Rudyard Kipling's words are carved in the Portland stone: `A Soldier of the Great War; Known Unto God'.
I travelled to Arras and made my way to Dud Corner to remember Kipling's son John, my boy Jack, as the poet called him. Kipling was riven with guilt when his son, aged 18, was killed after getting his father to use his influence to allow him to enlist in the Irish Guards, despite his short-sightedness.
Lieutenant Kipling J is the name on the memorial at Dud Corner, so called because so many bombs failed to explode there. Further on is the site of the St Mary Advanced Dressing Station and Jack's last resting place.
From Cassel, with its amazing windmill on the hill, I drove to Arras, the capital of Pas de Calais, an historic town, once famed for its tapestries.
After the First World War it was rebuilt, having been all but destroyed in the dreadful Battle of Arras. It saw 159,000 soldiers die over a period of 39 days, an average of 4,076 a day. Arras - birthplace of the famous French revolutionary Robespierre - is a spectacular town today, its grand squares contain lovingly restored Flemish-style houses, cafes and restaurants.
You can explore, too, the winding network of medieval tunnels running underneath the centre - which were a decisive factor in British forces holding the city, because the Germans did not know of their existence.
From Arras, it is a short journey to Vimy Ridge and its vast memorial honouring one of the major battles of the Great War. It is a place of pilgrimage for Canadians, for here in 1917 on this cold windy ridge, Canada fielded an entire army of its own to win the only victory the Allies enjoyed during the spring offensive that year.
This year, in November, is the 90th anniversary of the Armistice, and the French, in conjunction with Britain and the Commonwealth, plan many memorial occasions.
A testimony beyond the years, they are calling it. The nine million who died will be remembered again, as they are remembered every Remem- brance Sunday.
The cemeteries, some holding 40,000 and more, tell their own stories - stories of sacrifice and of bravery.
Michael O'Flaherty was a guest of the French Government Tourist Board, which provides information on Pas de Calais - visit franceguide.com or call the France Information Line on 09068 244123, calls charged at 60p per minute. He travelled to Northern France with Eurostar, which offers up to 10 daily services from London St Pancras to Lille, with return fares from £55. Tickets available on 08705 186186 and eurostar.com. Operators to the war memorials of Northern France include Leger Travel, which offers five-day All Quiet On The Western Front breaks from £289 by executive coach, and from £345 by Silver Service coach, both departing from 450 pick-up points in England and Wales. Package incl B&B with continental breakfast, and tour guide. Leger: 0845 458 5599/ legerbreaks.info
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