THE IMMERSION INTO WORLD WAR I BEGINS

Holiday Inn

Reims, France

Sunday, August 16, 2015

Sunny, 24 C

DRAFT

Today was an emotional day and we are only just starting the tour. We passed by so many French cemeteries with white crosses, German cemeteries with gray crosses, and British cemeteries, row upon row of graves. We learned that the Muslim Moroccans made a big contribution in battle. We saw the 22 km marker  near Luzarches (http://www.france-voyage.com/cities-towns/luzarches-36479.htm) that signified how close the Germans got to Paris. The marker says, "Ici s'arrete l'avance ennemie a 22 km de Paris. le 3 Septembre 1914"

We stopped at a place where 22,000 French men were lost in a single day, August 21, 1914-- Ardennes.

French Christian and Moroccan Muslim Grave

We were in Compiegne, the site of the signing of the Armistice in 1918 and where the French surrendered in 1940 to the Germans. There were two swans swimming in a pond nearby. We saw where the first  trenches were built on the Western Front near the Marne River and Chemin des Dames .

I felt like I was getting closer and closer to Archie as the journey continued today. I saw ferns along the roadway and thought of the dried fern that Archie preserved and sent home to his mother. I thought about how he saw a living plant, something that he connected with, and he wanted to save it. Was the fern a connection to home, his humble farming, a hope of being home again?

Thinking of him, I began to notice the small family garden plots, a kind of bush full of ripe deep purple berries, as high as trees—at least 15 ft high and 10 ft wide, the turnip fields, the grape vineyards, lettuce, and cabbage. Since war covered four years, families were surely growing these crops in 1914-1918.

Battle markers and pillboxes and trenches and shell craters dot the country side. Today the farmers just plant around most of them. Mike Hanlon said that the area was a hot zone and we would see more areas where there were more conflicts and we would see more monuments. 

An example of a trench today

Our longest stop was at Caverne du Dragon, a limestone quarry from the time of the 1500s that the Germans captured and used as a strategic military position. As we descended about 15 meters into the quarry, it was notably cooler (12 C). In the darkness the slight smell of earth and wet chalk, the smooth yet pitted ground, and the roughness of the stone, were striking. We could see sabers, helmets, barbed wire on spools, mortar casings, basins for well water, boots, plates, tableware, gas masks, ammo cases, a bunk area, a first aid area, and rusty canned food all indicating a life beneath the earth above. The overhead “ceiling” had 6 inch wide cracks in some places with support beams or chicken wire holding the ceiling back, where shells had struck above. We could see traces of German electrical wiring. 

There were forbidden areas because of danger of collapse. Fifteen French soldiers are still believed to be buried here. The guide told us that 2500 soldiers lived in another similar quarry. He also said that 33 tons of shells and munitions were found in France last year and 63 tons the year before. Recently near Reims two teens were severely injured by a WW I detonator they found. The French theorize that it will take 7 centuries to rid the ground of such munitions.

A memorial in the quarry consists of many flickering candle like lights at varying heights, from 1 ½ to 5 ft high, a very spiritual effect. We walked up 70 stair steps to be above ground again.

See http://www.caverne-du-dragon.com/en/decouvrir-musee/history-caverne-du-Dragon.aspx . Photos were not allowed.

Shell Crater outside the Caverne du Dragon--presumably

above where we were standing in the supported area of the quarry below

Part of the Memorial to the Senegalese soldiers who fought for France in World War I

Our final stop today was Fort de la Pompelle, a fort that defended Reims, the city where we are staying tonight. Tomorrow will be another full day. We enjoyed each others company at dinner on the boulevard in Reims. To Verdun!

From Fort de la Pompelle

Note : I'm probably not able to be succinct because this is somewhat like a field journal. This journey is about my granduncle, Russell Archie Harvey. He valiantly served in the U.S. Army's 90^th Division, 357^th Regiment during World War I, a regiment called “Tough Ombres” because most of the men were from Texas and Oklahoma. The 90^th Division experienced both trench warfare and gas warfare. Most of the U.S. Army did not. Archie's story is unique. I do know that my sons appreciate history and hopefully they understand my interest.

Note to B1 and B2: My dear granddaughters, I hope that someday you will have interests that you will want to know more about and that you somehow understand my interest in our connection to history, and in this instance World War I.