The Ypres Times.
proceeded along the very fine, wide, straight road to Albert, bordered by tall, stately
trees unspoiled by the vengeance of a destructive artillery. Before reaching half-way, we
entered first Querrieuwhich was the H.Q. of the 4th Army for some time in 1916
and then Pont-Noyelles. But the latter place is also famous in connection with a former
war, and to-day a monument can be seen just outside the village commemorating the
struggles of Franco-German enmity, 1870-71.
Albert, seen from a distance, presented a picture of
F newly-constructed buildings, works and factories, also
countless bright red-tiled house-roofs, but a batteted,
ghostly cathedral-ruin of brick-and-stone stood out in
gaunt outline against the sky, as if its duty was to remind
all comers that Albert was re-born out of the dust and
ashes of a great war. Here and there, as one passed
along the streets, large gaps could be seen with just a
few bricks above ground-level to lend one a vision of
former days. In other places, fashionable, up-to-date
shops have taken the place of débris, and Albert can
now boast a modern station and several comfortable
hotels. It is interesting to note that a gilt statue of the
Virgin, with the infant Jesus in her outstretched arm,
has been erected on the top of the new church building,
and this statue is a facsimile, reduced in size, of the
original Virgin statue of Albert which once surmounted
the old cathedral belfry, and which so long remained
suspended in mid-air.
Leaving Albert behind, we climbed the Albert-
Bapaume road up to the village of La Boissellethe
a battered, ghostly came- scene of much hard fighting. Huge mine-craters attest
the nature of the warfare in 1916, and the cemeteries
in the vicinity bear witness to the appalling casualties
suffered in that sector. Although La Boisselle was entirely
destroyed during the War, and a sign was found neces
sary to indicate the original site, to-day the village has
recovered its former existence, and the spirited inhabi
tants have settled down to post-war life as though nothing
unusual ever happened.
Pozières, that straggling fortress-village of 1916, is
also completely rebuilt, and contains monuments to the
glory of Australians, the Tank Corps and several batta
lions of the King's Royal Rifles. On the site of the old
windmill on the ridge, there is a memorial cross erected
to the memory of the 3rd Australian Division.
It was thought by many, even experts, who visited
the Somme battlefields soon after the War, that the
ground, so completely churned and upturned, would be
useless for agricultural purposes for many years to come,
and a scheme, I believe, was even considered to plant the
area with pine trees. But despite these predictions, and
the sad upheaval left behind, Mars has packed up most
of the guns, shells, rifles, barbed-wire entanglements,
corrugated-iron shelters, observation-posts, etc., and
only a few bare patches of chalky ground show up here STOOD OXJT GAUNT OUTLINE
and there where death used to lurk in trench and dug- against the sky."
