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The Return to Mons, by Inglis Sheldon-Williams

CWM 1970261-0813, Beaverbrook Collection of War Art

The Return to Mons, by Inglis Sheldon-Williams

A Canadian Remembrance Trail for the Centennial of the Great War?

by Pascale Marcotte

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Pascale Marcotte, Ph.D., is an associate professor and Director of the graduate-level programs committee in the Department of Recreation, Culture and Tourism Studies at the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières.

The centennial of the First World War is fast approaching. It will be a very important anniversary for Canada and the rest of the world, given that more than 10 million people, including 60,000 Canadian service members, died as a result of that war. Some parts of Europe were particularly hard hit: several countries were occupied or ravaged, in whole or in part, by years of fighting. More than 600,000 Canadians served in Europe during the First World War; that represents almost one-sixth of the approximately four million men in the Canadian population at the time. Those men fought in France and Belgium, but they also shared the lives of the people of those countries for four years. It was the first time in history that so many Canadians had stayed that long in a foreign country.1

The centennial of the First World War will be marked by high-profile commemorative ceremonies in the parts of Europe where the war had devastating effects. Canadian soldiers fought mostly in three regions: near the Belgian town of Ypres, and in Picardy and Nord–Pas-de-Calais in France.2 They took part in the Battle of Ypres—the second battle of that name—in 1915, the Battle of the Bois du Sanctuaire (Sanctuary Wood) in 1916, and the Battle of Paschendaele in 1917. Canadians and Newfoundlanders also fought in Belgium in 1918, at Mons and Courtrai respectively. However, they spent most of their time in France: at the Somme in 1916 and 1918 (Amiens), and especially in Nord–Pas-de-Calais, where so many Canadians and Newfoundlanders fell on the Artois and Cambrai battlefields. From Festubert in 1915 to Valenciennes in late-1918, the maple leaf and caribou symbols were seen at Vimy, Lens, Arras, Monchy-le-Preux, the crossing of the Canal du Nord, Cambrai, Douai, and Denain, and in many other towns and villages in the region. Much of Nord–Pas-de-Calais was liberated by the Canadian Corps during the Hundred Days in late 1918.

In addition to their combat activities, the Canadians lived in those regions for several years, side-by-side with the local people, sharing their suffering and their hope. When they were not on the front lines, the soldiers lodged in towns and villages, and the headquarters and support units were set up there. The hospitals and the logistics and supply services maintained daily contact with the Belgians and the French. For four years, the Canadians forged deep and lasting bonds with the local citizens. When the Canadian Corps left France to press on into Belgium at the end of the Hundred Days Offensive in 1918, war correspondent John Frederick Bligh Livesay wrote, “Behind is France and a people Canadian soldiers have learned in these four years to love and revere.”3 There is no doubt that the Canadians had more frequent and constant contact with the French than with the Belgians, particularly in Nord–Pas-de-Calais. Even when they were fighting in the Ypres area, the Canadians often had their rear lines set up in the nearby French Department of Nord. That was where they quartered, trained, and had numerous interactions with the local people.

The Western Front, 1914-1918 - Canadian Operations

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Directorate of Heritage and History

The Western Front, 1914-1918 - Canadian Operations

The Canadians spent several years in Belgium and France, mostly in Nord–Pas-de-Calais. They stayed in towns such as Armentières and Arras, and contributed substantially to the liberation of Lens, Cambrai, Douai, Denain, and Valenciennes. In each of those places, the Canadians made a deep and lasting impression upon the local people, and they themselves came home with memories that would never fade. For example, J.F.B. Livesay had this to say about Denain, a town of some 20,000 inhabitants in the western suburbs of Valenciennes: “No jewel shines so bright, so constant and with such a hidden fire as this of the kind folk of Denain. They struck no medals, they named no public squares in our honor, but they gave us their whole heart (sic), and with it their uttermost possession—Denain, grimy little town of shining and cherished memory.”4 But in Canada today, who remembers Denain? And who remembers the villages of Villers-au-Bois and Gouy-Servins, where the Canadians spent long weeks resting or training, the caves of Arras, or the farms of Cambrésis, where the soldiers were billeted? Who still speaks of the forests in Normandy, Nord, Jura and Landes, where some 12,000 members of the Canadian Forestry Corps were running dozens of logging operations and sawmills at the war’s end? A few French people still remember, but Canadians in general were too quick to forget the bonds formed, in the suffering of war and the joy of liberation, with the people of France and Belgium.

The upcoming commemorative ceremonies should be an occasion for renewing those ties. The impact of the First World War was much more than military operations in Belgium and in northern France. The war affected all aspects of life, and its mark on the landscape is still visible. Unfortunately, today it is very difficult to find any trace of the Canadians’ presence. There is an imposing monument at Vimy that is well known and attracts thousands of visitors. But outside the park at Vimy, the trail goes cold. There are thousands of graves in the Commonwealth cemeteries and discreet memorials erected near Courcelette, the Bois de Bourlon, and Dury. The Newfoundland caribou can also be seen at Beaumont-Hamel, Gueudecourt, Monchy-le-Preux, and Masnières. However, there is no trace of the presence of the Canadian Corps headquarters at Rebreuve-Ranchicourt (1917), nor those of the Canadian Forestry Corps in Jura and Landes. There is no museum where French or Canadian tourists could learn about what the Canadians experienced in Europe from 1914 to 1918.

Canadians Passing in Front of the Arc de Triomphe, Paris, by Alfred Bastien

CWM 19710261-0085, Beaverbrook Collection of War Art

Canadians Passing in Front of the Arc de Triomphe, Paris, by Alfred Bastien

Other countries have been more proactive in making their presence felt. For example, Australia—which is no bigger than Canada, is considerably farther away, and does not have Canada’s traditional ties to France—is moving forward with planning ceremonies to commemorate the First World War. There is already a Franco-Australian museum in Villers-Bretonneux, where the Battle of Amiens began on 8 August 1918. Two other Franco-Australian museums were recently opened in Feuchy, and in Bullecourt, near Arras, two locations where Canadians also fought in 1918. By choosing to operate those museums jointly with France, Australia is ensuring better coordination for managing and promoting them. The partnership is also a public declaration of friendship that can only inspire sympathy on the part of the French people.

Australia has also decided to invest €7.5 million (approximately C$10 million) to construct an Australian remembrance trail.5 A remembrance trail is an interpretive experience, and tourism in northern France and the Ypres area is heavily based upon remembrance of the First World War. The vast majority of people who visit those places are attracted first and foremost by the reminders of the war that dot the countryside: cemeteries, monuments, museums, parts of battlefields. The French Minister of Defence has already created its remembrance trails throughout the country; the Nord–Pas-de-Calais region has also done so for the First World War.6 Soon, it will be Australia’s turn to inaugurate its own. Could not Canada, so many of whose soldiers fought so hard to liberate those regions, do the same?

Canadian soldiers marching through the streets of Mons, 11 November 1918.

Canada. Department of National Defence/ Library and Archives Canada PA-003547

Canadian soldiers marching through the streets of Mons, 11 November 1918.

As things stand, it is too often impossible for a French person or a Canadian passing through to know that they are near a site where Canadian troops saw action during the Great War. There are many places—restaurants, hotels, urban squares, churches, farmhouses—where Canadians stayed and carried out missions that had great significance for the local people. Canadians who visit the region would be happy to know that they are standing on the very ground where other Canadians served and fought to liberate the country a century ago. The French and the Belgians would also be happy and proud to be able to acknowledge the routes taken by their liberators. The local authorities would probably be quick to install plaques or other markers themselves, if they were shown the places we as Canadians would like to see recognized. Canadian historians could work with the French and Belgian authorities and with regional organizations to identify those places, and thus begin the process of creating a Canadian remembrance trail in France and Belgium. The centennial of the First World War should be an opportunity to remember not only the sacrifice made by thousands of Canadian soldiers, but also the close and deep bonds formed during those four years between Canada and the regions of Europe that want to keep those memories alive. Vimy is a remarkable monument, perhaps the most beautiful one commemorating the First World War, but Canada’s contribution from 1914 to 1918 encompassed much more than just one battle. Let us make the most of the upcoming occasion to remind everyone of that reality.

I would like to express my appreciation for the exceptional contribution made by Jean Martin, historian at the Department of National Defence Directorate of History and Heritage, for historical information, and for the fruitful discussions that led to the writing of this article. Thank you. I also thank the granddaughter of Joseph Armand Stanislas Paillé of the Royal 22e Régiment, who fought at Vimy in April 1917.

Unveiling Vimy Ridge Monument, 1936, by Georges Bertin Scott

CWM 19670070-014, Beaverbrook Collection of War Art

Unveiling Vimy Ridge Monument, 1936, by Georges Bertin Scott

Notes

  1. Only in the United Kingdom, during the Second World War, did a comparable number of Canadians stay for such a long period.
  2. The Picardy region included the Department of Somme, where the Canadians and Newfoundlanders fought between 1916 and 1918. The Nord–Pas-de-Calais region was made up of two French departments, the Department of Nord and the Department of Pas-de-Calais.
  3. John Frederick Bligh Livesay, Canada’s Hundred Days: With the Canadian Corps from Amiens to Mons, August 8-November 11 1918 (Toronto:Thomas Allen, 1919), p. 394.
  4. Ibid., p. 348.
  5. See the website of the French embassy in Canberra, “Réouverture du musée de Bullecourt 1917, 1re étape d’un chemin de mémoire australien,”at <https://ambafrance-au.org/Reouverture-du-musee-de-Bullecourt.>
  6. See “À la découverte des lieux de mémoire,”at <http://www.cheminsdememoire.defense.gouv.fr/>, and “Chemins de mémoire de la Grande Guerre en Nord-Pas-de-Calais,” at <http://www.cheminsdememoire-nordpasdecalais.fr/>.