I have great pleasure reporting on the success of this year’s tour. Details and discussion points are still available on the tour website, which helped us all get ready for the trip. Students also created their own Facebook page to exchange information. I also went to Montreal on 13 May to meet the students from Professor Fortmann’s Political Science class, and to begin our discussions on the Dieppe raid. The Laurier students had the same chance to discuss the Dieppe raid prior to our departure.
The students from WLU covered a wide range of academic experience. Several were second-year undergraduates. Others had just earned a BA, while one doctoral student was along as well. (A last-minute opening allowed me to invite along one of my recent UW graduates who is soon off to Teachers’ college.) I was initially reluctant to see junior undergraduates selected for this tour, thinking that they may not have the background to understand the context of the First and Second World Wars. I was very pleasantly surprised by their industry and curiosity throughout the preparations and the tour itself.
As in previous years, each student was to select a topic to present during the tour. They were also to introduce the group to a soldier who lies in one of the cemeteries along on our route. These presentations were very well done. This was due in part to the cooperation of the Library and Archives of Canada, (LAC) whose staff provided us with quick access to the personnel records of our selected soldiers. Archivist Marcelle Cinq-Mars from the LAC was extremely helpful in finding our soldiers’ personnel records and getting them to us in short order. Marcelle was to join us on the tour, but changes to her work schedule intervened.
22 May 2009
Our itinerary was full. We drove north to Ypres on the first day, and visited several sites, including the Canadian memorial at Mount Sorrel. That evening our group laid a wreath in the daily ceremony at the Menin Gate. After the crowds slipped away, Keith Calow introduced the group to Major Thomas Mercer Papineau, who died fighting at Passchendaele in October 1917. Papineau is just one of over 8,000 Canadians whose names are etched on the Menin Gate, men who died in Belgium and have no known grave.
23 May
Our first full day in Europe found us just north of Ypres, where, in the shadow of The Brooding Soldier, Michel Fortman told the group of what happened here in May 1915. Michelle Lastracco then discussed the origins of the First World War, a topic that provoked some lively debate. We then moved on to the German cemetery at Langemarck, which offers a powerful contrast in tone and meaning to the nearby British cemetery at Tyne Cot. There is no better classroom to help students consider how countries construct a collective memory of their respective wartime experiences. The group then moved on to Passchaendaele village. As Carl Bourchard spoke of the enormous meaning of the place, we all quietly asked the same question Arthur Currie considered when he reluctantly agreed to send the Canadians into that quagmire during that awful autumn of 1917: Was it worth it?
24 May
Our next three days were centred in the town of Peronne, on the Somme. From there we embarked on three day trips devoted to a different year of the war. Andrew McEwan, who is entering our Tri-U MA program in the fall, helped the group ponder the enormous symbolism of Beaumont Hamel, where so many young Newfoundlanders fell as they emerged from St. John’s Trench on the morning of 1 July 1916. A quick side trip found us at the bottom of the Hawthorne Crater, which exploded near Beaumont Hamel at 7:20 in the morning on 1 July to aid the attack of the British 29th Division. A small cemetery nearby hints at the enormous losses incurred in those first few hours. A quick lunch at the nearby Ulster Tower gave students a sense of the many identities that made up the British experience on the Somme. The sheer scale of the Thiepval Memorial, which lists nearly 80,000 names of the British missing on the Somme, provokes much quiet reflection. At the Canadian memorial near Courcelette we tried to understand something of the 24,000 Canadian casualties on the Somme. In Adanac cemetery, Michelle Lastracco introduced us to Piper James Richardson, VC. He was a young Canadian whose pipes had inspired his 16th Battalion, Canadian Scottish, to advance on Regina Trench. The piper died when he returned to the fighting to retrieve the pipes. In the afternoon, we returned to Peronne to explore L’Historial, an impressive museum that speaks of the Somme experience from several different and very innovative perspectives.
That evening a few of us ventured out in the dying light to find the Devonshire Cemetery. The inscription at the entrance reads, “The Devonshires held this Trench; The Devonshires Hold it Still.” Among the 150 members of the Devonshire Regiment who were buried here after dying on 1 July 1916 was poet Noel Hodgson, MC. At his graveside we read his work, Before Action, which ends,
I, that on my familiar hill
Saw with uncomprehending eyes
A hundred of Thy sunsets spill
Their fresh and sanguine sacrifice,
Ere the sun swings his noonday sword
Must say goodbye to all of this: -
By all delights that I shall miss,
Help me to die, O Lord.
25 May
Our next day on Vimy Ridge was busy. In a gentle mist, with the memorial looming in the distance, Nick Lachance ‘christened the ground’ and set the context for the battle. Nick later related the stories of Olivier and Wilfred Chenier, brothers who enlisted together and died together at Vimy Ridge with the Royal Canadian Regiment. It was a day of seeking out namesakes, as if the students wanted a personal connection to the grand events we were studying. Louis Messier from Montreal spoke of Hector Messier, who fought and died with the 14th Battalion. His name is inscribed on the Vimy Memorial as one of the nearly 13,000 Canadians who died in France and has no known grave. Andrea Hall took us to Sucrerie cemetery where she introduced us to a fellow Kitchener native, Arthur Manuel Hall, who died in the fall of 1917. Veronique Dumais from UM was fascinated by the life of Paul Dumais, who fought and died with the 22nd Battalion, and is buried in Thélus , on the eastern slope of Vimy Ridge. After Remi Archambault spoke of the battles of Arleux and Fresnoy that followed Vimy, we drove back through Arras to a small communal cemetery in the village of Wanquetin. This sight receives few visitors, which made Remi’s presentation about Joseph Kaeble that much more poignant. Kaeble won the Victoria Cross fighting with the 22nd Battalion in June 1918. It was a long day, but everyone understood a great deal more about their country when it was finished.
26 May
The group stopped at both the Quebec and Ontario cemeteries on our last First World War day, east of Arras. The former is in a field, accessible by a cart path; the latter is sited just east of the Canal du Nord where the Canadian Corps made its spectacular crossing in October 1918. There Tom Atkinson-Graham introduced us to Thomas William Ramsay, who died in the fighting around the Hindenburg defences in September 1918. We then followed the Canadian Corps’ advance to Bourlon Wood where Emmanuelle Roy briefed us on this battle’s challenges and cost. Our last stop was Villers-Bretonneux cemetery, east of Amiens. Buried here is Jean Brillant, VC. A street named for Jean Brillant runs past the main campus of the Universite de Montreal. A curious memorial is also found in a park nearby, so it seemed appropriate that we considered his life and legacy from where he died.
27 May
Our next stop was Dieppe. The students had already considered the strategic context of 1942 that had made Operation Jubilee appear so viable to the planners. But those plans are hard to reconcile from the beach at Puys where the Royal Regiment of Canada was cut down. Along the main beach (Red and White) we considered the horrors the Essex Scottish Regiment endured as its men tried to find a way off the beach and onto their objectives in the factories beyond. Was Les Fusiliers de Montreal sacrificed at Dieppe, as some have claimed? We considered that question, as well as the many ways the markers along the promenade help create a memory of the Dieppe raid. At Pourville, on Merritt bridge, Keith Calow told us of the heroism of Cecil Merrit, VC, as he rallied his men to move inland amidst a wall of fire. Finally, at the Dieppe cemetery, Vincent Geloso, Jesse Finn and Pierre-Olivier Rivest Bonin tried to help us understand how three young Canadians of another generation could end up here. Their presentations made more poignant the inscription at the Canadian memorial to the Royals at Puys. “You who are alive on this beach, remember that these men died far from home, that others, here and everywhere, might freely enjoy life in God’s Mercy.”
28 May
On to Normandy, where the group enjoyed the accommodations at the Moulin Morin, in the village of Vaucelles, just outside of Bayeux. Our first day was devoted to the Canadian landings at Juno. Atop a bunker on the beach in front of the Juno Beach Centre, Jesse Finn told of how the Royal Winnipeg Rifles came ashore with few of the beach defences destroyed. A short walk further west found us at the base of the Croix de Lorraine that marks where General DeGaulle returned to France on 14 June 1944. Kevin Brouke explained the origins of the site, and led a great discussion on the many layers of memory that a single site can represent. Back in Courselles sur Mer, Jesse took us to the beach where the Regina Rifles came ashore and fought to secure the village. At Bernieres sur Mer, Matt Symes introduced the group to the Hoffer family, who own the Maison de Queen’s Own Rifles. The family generously invited us into their home, which was one of the first to be liberated in June 1944. Matt then led us along the route of the North Shore New Brunswick Regiment. Its men landed near St. Aubin sur Mer, and after a stiff fight moved inland towards the village of Tailleville. There Matt gave a riveting account of that costly battle. After a stop at the Airborne Museum beside Pegasus Bridge the group ended the day at Beny sur Mer cemetery where Kevin Brouke and Corina Manole told us about three young Quebecers who died in Normandy many summers ago.
The next day we took a break from the battlefields. Some went to the beaches, others went to Caen. Another intrepid group had a lesson in modern French politics when they found the highway to Mont St. Michel barricaded by French farmers protesting low dairy prices. Undaunted, and with an elderly French gentlemen as our scout, the group discovered the back way to Mont St. Michel. We later paid our respects to Jacques Cartier in St. Malo.
30 May
Understanding different national memories of war is central to any battlefield tour. This was especially true on 30 May when we headed west to the American beaches. From an empty gun position atop the Pointe Du Hoc, Corina Manole detailed the enormous aerial preparations for D Day. Veronique Dumais then stood on Omaha Beach and talked about the horrendous challenges to the American troops, particularly of the 29th Division that came ashore through the waves behind her. The group then walked down Omaha Beach and climbed the bluffs into the American cemetery. Workers were preparing for the official commemorations in a week’s time, but the cemetery’s scale still allowed the group to feel the powerful message that this place was designed to evoke. Moving from Omaha Beach to La Cambe, where so many German soldiers are buried, is a study of profound contrast that again encouraged a wide discussion. Finally, from the bluffs overlooking the Mulberry harbours at Arromanches, Vincent Geloso reflected on the enormous logistical preparations required to launch such an operation. We then returned to Bayeux to consider an invasion of an earlier time.
31 May
Our final days on the ground brought us back to the Canadian battlefields of 1944. We began 31 May by considering the fortunes of the two brigade attacks towards Caen in early June and July. From Hellfire Corner we followed 9 Brigade’s initial attacks on D+1, through Buron and Authie. In the garden in the Abbaye d’Ardennes, Tom Atkinson-Graham told of the Canadians who were murdered there after being taken prisoner. Among them was Private Hollis Leslie McKiel. Andrew McEwan spoke about him at his graveside in Ryes British Cemetery, near Bazenville. Andrea Hall then set the wider context by detailing the planning and execution of Operation Charnwood in early July 1944. At Buron we considered the fighting of the Highland Light Infantry and the Sherbrooke Fusiliers. An interested resident pointed out the marker of the HLI’s regimental padre, Jock Anderson, who wanted to be buried where so many of his comrades fell 60 years before.
Through a modified TEWT, the group then tried to understand the costly success of 7 Brigade as it held and successfully defended the villages of Putot en Bessin, Bretteville l’Orgeuilleuse, and Norrey en Bessin. At Norrey we tried to imagine what Stu Tubb’s company must have felt as it watched waves of German counterattacks try to push the Canadians back into the sea. We then slowly drove the perimeter of Putot en Bessin to consider how Colonel Meldram had to locate his Royal Winnipeg Rifles in defending the village. The group emerged with a much better sense of the enormous problems the Canadians had to face in 1944.
1 June
Our next day began at Point 67 south of Caen. A site first conceived by the Canadian Battlefields Foundation, we found the site transformed through the efforts of the nearby villages. Unfortunately, we had to scale a locked gate to get inside, but the work is most impressive. After discussing operations Goodwood and Atlantic, Grant Hallas laid out the planning and execution of Operation Spring. We stopped briefly in St. Martin de Fontenay to consider the awful final hours of The Black Watch of Montreal as its men advanced up Verrieres Ridge. Michel Fortmann’s close connection to the Black Watch, (whose efforts contributed to the tour) made this a very poignant and powerful stop. We carried on to Troteval Farm and Verrieres village where Matt Symes gave a superb briefing. The group then gathered at the Canadian cemetery at Bretteville-sur-Laize, where Grant introduced us to a young soldier, Private Bernard Spencer, who died following Major Phillip Griffin towards their final objective. Emmanuelle Roy then spoke beside the grave of Private James Smith, who also died on Verrieres Ridge. A final stop found us in the Norman countryside, near Hill 140, where German tank fire destroyed the British Columbia Regiment and the Algonquin Regiment during Operation Totalize in August 1944.
2 June
Our last day ‘on the ground’ began in Falaise, where we (along with several hundred French schoolchildren) stormed William the Conqueror’s castle. We then headed east into the Falaise Gap through Trun to the belvedere overlooking St. Lambert sur Dives. Louis Messier gave a powerful briefing that explained how Major David Currie, his SAR tank crews, and some Argylls and Lincs found themselves in this village in late August 1944. It is always a terrific moment as Canadians stand under the French and Canadian flags, consider the maps and narratives and discover what an important role fellow Canadians played here so long ago. We like to remind our students here that the Battle of Normandy may have ended nearby in a remarkable victory, one that found First Canadian Army playing a role all out of proportion to its status as a junior ally. But there was still to be much more fighting, and dying before the war would finally end.
