It is almost impossible to put into words just how many graves there are in the area around Vimy. I’d like to be able to tell you of the emotions that course through you after visiting graveyard after graveyard after graveyard, filled with young men, but I can’t.
Nine Elms cemetery was the first cemetery I visited, almost accidentally. One thing that struck me was how close everything was, closer than I had envisioned. We had left Arras heading for the Vimy Memorial and had just left the outskirts of the city when we drove by the cemetery. I had known what it looked like from Google Earth and I also knew from it that I drove by another cemetery without even noticing it. As it was the cemetery where my Grandfather’s best friend, Stewart McNicol, was buried I turned and stopped. The first cemetery was the easiest, emotionally. I remember standing in front of Stewart’s grave (one of almost 700 in this cemetery), thinking about what it must have been like for my grandfather, watching his best friend, a man he joined with, who he had been with all of the time he was overseas, what it had been like to watch him shot beside him and to keep going. I cannot fathom it. I recall a sense of pride as I walked amongst the graves there, pride that there were so many willing to make that sacrifice for a better world.
There are cemeteries everywhere there, and I visited many, looking for men from Roblin who gave their lives in the Great War. Eventually an overwhelming sadness crept over me. So many young man, so much promise lost, so much futility. There are over 11,000 names on the Vimy Memorial, for Canadians killed in France that have no known grave, there are another 7,000 names on the Menin Gate memorial for Canadians killed in Belgium with no known grave.
Here are some of the cemeteries I visited.
Nine Elms – 684 Burials (including two brothers killed at Vimy)
Lichfield Crater – 57 Burials in mass grave
Orchard Dump Cemetery – 3023 Burials 4/5’s unidentified
Zivy Crater – 53 Burials
La Targette British Cemetery (with French Cemetery in background) – 638 Burials
La Targette French Cemetery – 12,000 burials
Neuville St Vaast German Military Cemetery – 44,000 Burials. Each cross has four names, two on each side
Barlin Communal Cemetery Extension – 1170 Burials, including a Canadian Soldier executed for desertion.
Sucrerie British Cemetery – 382 Burials
French National Cemetery at Souchez – Approx 100,000 Burials (40,000 known soldiers) (this picture shows but a small portion of the cemetery. Note the crosses back to back.)
Vimy Memorial – 11,252 soldiers with no known grave. 
Comments
12 responses
I wish I had visited some of these places when I was living in France (not too far from Arras). I was too young at the time to care much about history I guess.
Lovely pictures.
Clare – Photographs of these cemetaries always tighten my chest; they astound me. I look forward to reading more about your experiences.
Astounding. I don’t know why, but it is consoling to know that the cemeteries are so well kept. Straight rows, neat grass. Why should that matter when it surrounds so much loss and sacrifice? I guess it is because the attention to their graves shows the depth of gratitude for these brave men. I imagine the persons responsible for the care of these cemeteries as feeling honoured and proud to have the important responsibility of caring for the final resting places of these men.
Thanks for the pictures.
Looking at those pictures makes me want to there and see them for myself. Thanks for sharing Clare.
Just a note, the Algerian graves in the French Cemetery at Souchez, pictured above (I didn’t get to the Muslim section… its a big cemetery) were desecrated today with swastikas and slogans painted on them. Man, there are idiots in this world.
Your pictures speak volumes.
Welcome back Claire. It seems you had a very somber and sobering trip.
Thanks rurality, I enjoyed my time in Arras, and it was a really good time to be there as a Canadian. People couldn’t do enough for you.
I know what you mean about the chest tightening larry, I experienced it often there. It was all very overwhelming.
The graves are incredibly well maintained Jennifer and Ian. The Commonwealth War Grave Cemeteries does an incredible job. And there are so many to maintain. I met one of the caretakers of Beny-Sur-Mer Cemetery at the candlelight ceremony there. They are very dedicated people. Here was a fellow whose job is to look after the cemetery going there on his own time, lighting candles with his young daughter, honouring the soldiers buried there. And it’s not just caretakers.. We met a fellow who would go and photograph any grave in France, free of charge for any Canadian who asked, school children go to the grave yards, light candles etc. I understand that in Holland every Canadian soldiers grave has a student assigned to it, and they bring flowers etc. Incredible.
They are an amazing place to visit Kara.
Thanks Darcy,
Thanks gary it was a very good trip.
Powerful photos, Clare. My great-great-grandfather was a British Officer in the war, I never found out what happened to him since my great-grandfather never wanted to talk about it since he was a war orphan. When I see pictures like that and think to myself that every single name on those graves was a unique person with their own unique personality, I can’t help but feel sad at the loss of such potential… I feel angered at the callousness and thoughtlessness of the people that engineered that conflict and the people that caused the war to escalate the way it did. And then I look at where we are today and to my dismay, I can’t really see much of an improvement.
Today, I see politicians in the ‘civilized’ world still send countless men and women into the horror of battle, and for what? All I hear today in the defense of war is pure rhetoric, I don’t buy it. I do agree that we should honour those that gave their lives in Europe to preserve our freedom in WWII, fascist authoritarianism was a real threat to the whole free world. But, unfortunately today, I see the freedom those soldiers gave their lives for now being usurped and abused today by the very countries that originally sent those brave individuals.
When I heard about our current Prime Minister going to Vimy Ridge to ‘honour’ our troops, I couldn’t help but think that this is the same man that would have had our soldiers firmly embedded in the nightmare that is Iraq right now, and is keeping our soldiers in Afghanistan as we speak. When I think about our involvement in Afghanistan, I don’t feel any pride, nor am I convinced that our government’s intentions in the country are noble or completely justified. While I agree that the attacks of September 11 were terrible, I think the reasons why we invaded this already war-torn country were wrongheaded and thoughtless. Afghanistan was invaded as a vendetta against a minority that was originally empowered and armed by the United States and now it is the majority, the innocent civilians that are being punished daily due to our carelessness. Whether we are willing to admit it or not, the onus falls on us, the foreign occupation to ensure that the civilian population in the country are safe, but in that we are failing horribly. One only has to look at the amount of innocent bystanders our forces kill in their operations to realize that.
I fail to see how keeping our forces in Afghanistan against the popular will of the people honours our troops. I fail to see how when defending foreign business interests always seems to trump defending the wellbeing of innocent civilians in Afghanistan is honouring the soldiers buried in Vimy. I fail to see how refusing to recognize a mistake in judgment and pulling out of one of the most recent of many failed colonialistic campaigns to ‘conquer’ Afghanistan somehow translates to supporting our troops.
It seems to me that doing all this would be a great dishonour to the brave soldiers that gave their lives in WWI and II. I just don’t understand how people could see any parallel between what we did in Europe and what we’re doing in the Middle East right now, yet I felt this is what Stephen Harper was trying to instill when he went to Vimy. It’s very frustrating, I have no idea how this guy is so popular.
Hi Jesse,
Good to hear from you. That’s a lot to comment on, and we disagree on a couple of points, but I’ll leave it to a couple of things.
With regards to your Great-great-grandfather. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission has a database you can query to find the location of his grave if you so wish. Just Google the commission and you’ll find their website.
And as much as I’d rather not see young men and women (Canadian or otherwise) dying in conflict anywhere. I can see parallels between fighting the Taleban and fighting and fighting fascism in the other conflicts that Canada was involved in. Afghanistan has such a complex and conflict filled history that it would be almost impossible to address all the issues here. It is simplistic to talk about “colonialistic” campaigns to conquor Afghanistan, as much of its fighting and conquoring has also been internal. Most of what was once called Nuristan, for example, was an animistic culture well into the 19th century when it was converted to Islam at the end of a sword. The Canadian Armed Forces main mission in Afghanistan is not the combat mission, but is a mission to bring infrastructure and stability to a country that has been wracked by conflict. The combat mission is there because there is a group that doesn’t want that to happen and wants to usurp the elected government. I have little problem with our country working with Afghanistan against the Taleban who, for instance, would deny my daughter (if we were citizens of the country) an education and kill any teacher who tried to give her one. The Taleban, are just another group of conquerors who would force their will on the population at the end of a gun, or a noose.
I’m not saying that the Taliban are good people, they’re brutal theocrats through and through. What I’m concerned about is the fact that one of the main reasons why they were able to take control of Afghanistan in the first place was because the CIA and the Pakistani ISI spent billions of dollars arming and training them in the 80s with full knowledge of their brutal ways. The CIA and ISI actually greatly encouraged their extremist and violent ways and there are plenty of credible sources to back this up.
You’ll forgive me for being suspicious of any NATO action in the country in light of these facts. And now I see the same mistakes being made with the Northern Alliance, who have basically been given a ‘get out of jail free’ card in regards to war crimes. I really do hope that the people of Afghanistan will someday be able to live in peace, but in my opinion, the main reason why they haven’t been able to live in peace for all these decades is because of foreign interference.
I don’t think that this conflict can possibly be resolved through force. One only has to look at the history of the Khyber Pass to realize that the people there will rise up against any and all foreign occupations. I think this mission is an exercise in futility, and I think our presence there is just exacerbating the situation.
Oh I hear you Jesse. The CIA is without a doubt one of the most disruptive influences to World Peace that there is, and there arming and financing of groups such as the Taleban have bit them in the butt so many times you think they’d have learned by now.
But… just because a mess has been made by someone else doesn’t mean you don’t get involved in trying to clean it up. A mess was made at the end of the Great War by the allied powers by trying to punish Germany instead of reaching out to them, which created the environment that Hitler and the Nazi’s thrived in and were allowed to exploit. But the problem still had to be dealt with despite of the past mistakes.
I do agree with you that the conflict in Afghanistan can’t be resolved through force (although I’d add alone), but unless I’m mistaken (hey it could happen) that is not the main thrust of the mission there.
There are times when one has to be involved, unfortunately. Perhaps, for instance, if Canada had gotten involved militarily in Rwanda early in the genocide many lives could have been saved. I don’t know.
At any rate this is my last comment on this post about it. Would be happy to continue the discussion via email if you’d like.
And say hello to your mom and Roland the next time you talk to them.