My father was a bomber pilot during the Second World War. An uncle was a tail-gunner in a Lancaster. I have seen countless movies where that war was the central character. I have seen photographs of cities and villages destroyed by Germany as it advanced through France. The destruction seemed unfathomable.
Now, as we travel through France, I have learned that the Second World War was just a skirmish compared to the First World War. The total number of deaths in France during the Second World War was 600,000. A number that cannot be dismissed. But it pales in comparison to the horrors of the First World War during which 1.7-million people in France lost their life.
Our travels through France are limited to what we can see along the waterways and in cities within walking distance of where we are moored. It is more than enough to help us try to understand what happened in the little bit of France we can see.
Just metres from where we are moored in Sillery, a cemetery with more headstones than I can count. All from the First World War. All from close-by battlefields.
The rows seem endless.
On each one, the name of the soldier buried here.
All religions are treated equally.
In Chap. 2025 – 6 – The Battle of the Somme, I wrote about the “Red Zones” that still exist in France and are predicted to be there for 700-hundred years. They are parts of the country that no one is allowed to enter because of the unexploded ordinances still in the ground – bombs, mines, mustard gas – almost all of them from the First World War. It is estimated that there are 300 unexploded devices per hectare in the worst areas. As we cruised south on the Canal de l’Aisne à la Marne, I saw a “Do Not Enter” sign. It said it was due to explosives but gave no other details.
As you may have read in Chapter 10, we loved our short time in Soissons. But we couldn’t help but think of what happened there during the First World War. Sitting on the Aisne River, it was a major battleground. The city endured constant shelling. By the end of the war, 80-percent of Soissons was either destroyed or badly damaged. The city was awarded the Croix de Guerre for its suffering and heroism.
The Soissons Memorial honours the nearly 4,000 British soldiers with no known graves who died in the battles along the Aisne.
A few hundred metres away, another memorial to those who died fighting for France – regardless of their nationality.
While most of Soissons was destroyed, what remains still bear the scars.
The majestic cathedral in Reims was spared – not because the Germans felt religious – but because their weapons couldn’t penetrate the heavy stonework.
We will be leaving the Aisne soon – but not the horrors of the First World War. We will be heading south on the Marne, the site of more horrendous battles. We visited one of the memorials when we were on it in 2023. You can see it in Chapter 204.