We start today with a model of a typical trench system of the Western Front.
Close by is a space you can walk through, dimly lit, with audio playing the sort of sounds one might have heard in those trenches.
Back outside, we find mementos of that war, made by soldiers in downtime.
A pocket bible and a mirror, preserved as part of the collection, are displayed here. They were lucky for one Canadian private, but when he gave them to his brother in law, he would end up dying at Vimy Ridge.
The Somme was one of the big battles of the war, and often a casebook example of futility.
Some of the hand weapons of both sides are here.
Along with one of the more lethal items of that battle.
The Battle Of Courcelette is the title of this painting by Louis Weirter. It was part of the larger Somme campaign, and Weirter painted what he had experienced as one of those there.
The first day of that battle- July 1st, 1916- was the bloody day for the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, which lost most of its number at Beaumont-Hamel within a half hour.
The Great war was a meat grinder for the soldier!
ReplyDeleteAn awful time!
ReplyDeleteSuch a terrible waste of life.
ReplyDeleteWalking through that trench place must feel very frightening.
ReplyDeleteThose must be terrible time for the soldiers.
ReplyDelete@Cloudia: an apt term.
ReplyDelete@Linda: very much so.
@John: that it was.
@Sharon: one feels uneasy.
@Nancy: it was.
...unimaginable.
ReplyDeleteI understand that the German trenches were much nicer than the allied trenches.
ReplyDeleteThe horrors of it all.
ReplyDeleteI think about every day was messy and bloody overthere.
ReplyDeleteSounds hellish.
ReplyDeleteThose trenches were the worse of the worse.
ReplyDeleteYo creo que sentiría un poco de agobio, entrar por ahí.
ReplyDelete@Tom: indeed.
ReplyDelete@anvilcloud: relatively.
@RedPat: quite appropriate.
@Jan: that would be.
@Bill: indeed.
@Maywyn: they were.
@Ventana: thanks.
Be@umont Hamel was a huge tragedy for Newfoundland. So many young men died!
ReplyDeleteAnd it is remembered today.
DeleteThe trenches look terrifying to me.
ReplyDeleteThey must have been.
DeleteIt's so hard to imagine how awful it was and how brave they all were.
ReplyDeleteIt was an experience.
DeleteVery realistic study ~ glad I didn't experience it but it sounds excellently done
ReplyDeleteHappy Day to you,
A ShutterBug Explores,
aka (A Creative Harbor)
Thank you.
DeleteI can't even imagine life in the trenches.
ReplyDeleteIt was hell.
Delete