The Ypres Times.
93
broken rusty rifles, hand-grenades, leather equipment, German and British tin-helmets,
peppered with shrapnel marks, and so on. Even the old trenches are still to be seen!
The Newfoundland Memorial Park, enclosed within the triangle formed by Auchon-
villers, Hemel and Beaumont-Hamel, presents a grim picture of actual battle-ground,
seamed with deep trenches, guns, dug-outs, big shell-holes, a network of treacherous
barbed-wire, etc. Excepting for the fact that Nature
these past few years has asserted herself freely over
Mother Earth by profuse growth of grass and shrub,
the whole track, from beginning to end, could not
convey a more accurate impression of what the
Western Front really looked like at close of war.
True, the trenches to-day, instead of being of that
familiar earthy-colour, are shaded by delicate green
and yellow through plant and flower nevertheless,
it is a source of satisfaction that some part of the old
trench-line in France is being preserved as far as
possible in the sad condition of eight years ago. It
will serve as a memorial far more vivid than any
group of monuments or statues.
As to other things of special interest in the de
vastated area, now and again one comes across a
shapeless tree, fixed to which, on one side, is a ladder,
and needless to say these observation posts in
trees served the
Armies well during
the war. In parts
some old road
signs are still standing, very much the worse
for the bitter shelling of war days. In a civilian
cemetery, below a crucifix utterly desecrated, I
noticed a machine-gun emplacement. And so on.
One could write for ever on the tragedy of the battle
fields, but the scars of old days are gradually healing
up and a few years hence the valleys and hills of the
Somme will betray little, excepting for the War Ceme
teries, of those mad years, 1914-18. As well perhaps
EVEN THE OLI) TRENCHES ARE
STILL TO BE SEEN."
Note.Members of the Ypres League are re
minded that the unveiling of the South African
Memorial in Delville Wood is to take place on Sunday,
October 10th, and the Ypres League is now in a
position to arrange Pilgrimages and Individual Tours
to the Somme Battlefields, as well as to Ypres and
surrounding districts.
ONE COULD WRITE FOR EVER on
THE TRAGEDY OF THE BATTLE
FIELDS."
B
