34
THE YPRES TIMES
armies were never so good afterwards as on the Somine. But did we, either,
ever have so good an army afterwards as on the Somme Admittedly, our armies
later had more experience and were better led, but in no battle in the world's
history has the loss of manhood been so great, measured by the dual standard of
quantity and quality.
A Dominating Monument.
The battles of Delville Wood, High Wood, Pozières Ridge, Mouquet Farm,
Guillemont, Ginchy, Flers-Courcelette, the Ancre Heights and the Ancre are also
covered by this memorial.
The choice of Thiépval," explained Major-General Sir Fabian Ware (Vice-
Chairman of the Imperial War Graves Commission) to me a few days ago was
dictated both by the nature of the site and the historical associations." Of the
low range of hills which mark the Somme battlefields, those rising eastward from
the lower Ancre are the barest and among the most abrupt. Thiépval, held for
nearly two years by the Wiirtembergers, was, of all the positions attacked on
July ist, 1916, the strongest and the most obstinately defended. Alone of all the
Somme villages blotted out in the war, it was threatened with permanent erasure.
Of about 150,000 soldiers of the British Empire who fell in this area before 21st
March, 1918, approximately 82,000 have no known graves; and their names appear,
not upon headstones, but on memorials.
The Thiépval Memorial stands on a site of nearly 40 acres of State land.
It rises 150 feet from the ground, above the Stone of Remembrance, on a base
123 by 140 feet, and completely dwarfs all other monuments in the neighbourhood.
The names are inscribed on panels, being- grouped by regiment and rank. From
a platform at the summit a wonderful panorama of the battlefields is obtained.
The Memorial is from the design of Sir Edwin Lutyens.
A Joint Anglo-French Cemetery.
M. Doumer, the President of the French Republic, has notified his intention
of being present on the occasion of the unveiling by the Prince of Wales. In that
connection, a suggestion was made by the French Authorities, and welcomed by
our War Graves Commission, that a small joint Anglo-French cemetery should
be created to symbolize the sacrifices made by France and the British Empire
in the common cause. It will contain an equal number of French and British
graves and will be used for the re-burial of the bodies of soldiers of both nations
still being found in the neighbouring battlefields. The construction is being under
taken by the Commission (half the cost being borne by the French Government)
and the British Cross of Sacrifice will constitute the central feature. Upon this
will be placed an inscription recording the joint total losses of the British Empire
and France during the Great War.
The Arras Memorial.
The Arras Memorial, bearing 35,902 names, is of an entirely different character.
It stands in the Faubourg d'Amiens British Military Cemetery, in which many
soldiers of the Empire are buried in identified graves. This, also, is from the
design of Sir Edwin Futyens, and takes the form of a low-built cloister, 25 feet high
and 380 feet long, constructed on doric columns and facing west. It will be
unveiled by Marshal of the Royal Air Force, Ford Trenchard, on Whit-Sunday,
May 15th.
The two main engagements covered by the memorial are the British offensive
launched from that city in the spring of 1917, when the enemy retreated to the