Tyne Cot

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A teenagers view

Following a school trip I asked my then 16 year old nephew: Simon, to write a few words as to his thoughts on the battlefields and the loss of life.

The first thing that struck me when I initially saw the graveyard at Tyne Cot, was the immense scale of the War. Before me were the graves of thousands of people, and behind those was a long curved wall, listing the names of those who were never found. We had already visited several smaller graveyards, British, French, Canadian and German, but even these contained hundreds of men. The question I found I was asking myself was, what was it for?

The soldiers had no enmity for each other, yet they ended up in some of the worst conditions imaginable fighting each other. I also went to several restored trench systems, including those at Vimy Ridge. The restorations have been well done, and there was a good six inches of mud that we were trampling through. They had even kept the tunnels open which were claustrophobic in the extreme (which is understandable for me because I'm six foot three - 1.9 m). The area where the Canadians fought is different, in that they planted a fir tree for every soldier who had died, forming a substantial forest. The Canadian Memorial was very striking. There was a heavy fog on the day we visited it, so the first I saw of it was when I was no more than a few meters away, it's shadow looming up above me. It was like nothing I had ever seen before.

One thing I noticed was the lines were only about ten meters apart, and yet thousands of men died in a few minutes whenever an assault was made. Why were they attacking like that anyway? The men were suicidally charging machine gun emplacements with little more than a sharp stick (,they didn't have more than one shot from their rifles because they had to reload). I have been watching the Black Adder comedies for a long time now, and it's frightening how realistic they are. Officers were sitting around a table in a mansion somewhere about twenty miles from the front lines giving orders which they knew would result in thousands of men being massacred.

I certainly don't think that people like Field Marshal Haig should have been put in command. In his defence, he should never have been put in Charge, as he was a cavalry commander, and didn't have much idea about trench warfare.

We visited the town of Ypres where the battle of Paschendale took place, and I was shocked to find out that the entire town had been flattened during the war. The museum in the Cloth Hall was very good, as it showed every aspect of the war, including the effects on the civilians. It was quite frightening to see what the human race did to itself in this period.

The Graveyards really must be seen to be believed, and I'd encourage anyone to go. It's hard to get across the awe I felt when I walked through the graveyards and looked at the memorials. The war was a waste of life, and it provoked the Second World War due to conditions of the treaty, but hopefully the memorials will serve as a reminder of the great loss of people due to a pointless war.