Day 5 - Dieppe to Honfleur

After the morning routine of breakfast, briefing and loading the luggage onto the coach, the remainder of the day was dedicated to events of the disastrous Dieppe Raid of August 19th 1942. Some historians even go so far to call Dieppe the worst military disaster in Canadian history.

The port town of Dieppe with its casino was considered the poor man’s Monte Carlo. A seaside resort on the Channel coast, Dieppe is the closest beach to Paris. It is also located only about 100 km from the English coast. With its deep water harbour, the town was strategically very important for the Germans. Holding the port allowed access to the Channel for supplies and submarines.

The “why Dieppe” is still a contested questions among historians. After the Germans had launched Operation Barbarossa in June 1942 on their eastern front, the Russians were hoping for a second front in the west, as the Allies had no foothold since the Evacuation at Dunkirk.
Other historians point to the fact that Canada had seen little battle action and that men were getting anxious to see action. There is also the suggestion that Operation Jubilee was required as the test case for an invasion down the road.

Which ever aspect it may have been ( or maybe a bit of each), Dieppe turned into an “anything that can go wrong, did go wrong” event. Intelligence about the German defences and the geography of the area had been insufficient, the planned element of surprise was lost as a German patrol ship ran into some Allied ships. Communication among the different participating regiments was also faulty as for example the Fussiliers Mont-Real who had been held in reserve, were mistakenly sent into battle making the difficult retreat even more difficult.
In the end, the casualty rate was mind blowing as from the slightly over 6 000 men Over 60% were
either dead, injured or taken prisoner of war.

Below are a variety of images taken in the area of Dieppe.

A German bunker located on the cliffs at the edge of town.

View of Red and White Beach

This bridge is located in the small village of Pourville, just west of Dieppe where the South Saskatchewan Regiment landed on Green Beach. The Bridge itself is where Lt Col Charles Cecil Merrit’s bravery won him the Victoria Cross.

War cemetery created by the Germans after the raid. In addition, there a several aircrew buried here from the time after D-Day.

Day 4 - Arras to Dieppe via Vimy Ridge

Day 4 was another intense day that had the group ready to load their luggage at 7:30.

The first stop of the day brought us to Cabaret Rouge British Cemetery. As the name suggests, the soldiers buried her are chiefly British but there are also 49 Canadians interred here. In addition, Cabaret Rouge is the cemetery from which an unidentifiable soldier was removed and relocated to Ottawa to be buried in the tomb of the unknown soldier. This move was certainly controversial then and still is today, especially since the idea of being buried with those who fought and died with you was central to the mourning and healing process of those at home. “He is with his boys.”

The next stop was on Lorette Spur where Notre Dame de Lorette is located. 40 000 French soldiers are buried in this cemetery, the largest military cemetery in France.

At the location opposite of the French cemetery, overlooking the area to the south of the hill toward Arras, a new memorial, L’Anneau de la mémoire or Ring of Remembrance”, was unveiled in 2014 on the 96th anniversary of Armistice Day. The elliptical shaped memorial bears the names of almost
580 000 men of all nationalities who died in the area of Nord-Pas-de-Calais between 1914 and 1918.

The last cemetery stop of the day was at Neuville St Vaast German War Cemetery which is the largest German war cemetery in France with almost 45 000 men being buried here. Over 8 000 of them were never identified. The majority of these men had died in Artois, chiefly on Lorette Spur and Vimy Ridge. Unlike the Allied war dead who each received their own head stone with sometime detailed information, this cemetery is marked by metal crosses bearing the names of four men, two on each side.

Shortly after 10 am we reach the central location of the day, if not the entire trip, Vimy Ridge.

Vimy Ridge for over 100 years has played a pivotal role in Canadian history. Historian often interpret it as Canada’s “Coming of Age” moment. Our visit included a few briefings from our Juno Beach Centre guide Marie-Eve, a walk up to the Memorial and then finally a guided tour by a Parks Canada Summer student that had participants walk through a section of an underground tunnel as well as the trench close to the first German trench. No Man’s Land only consisted of a few metres in this area. The section between the visitor centre and the monument is surrounded by electric fencing and warning signs state that the area behind the fence has not been cleared of unexploded munitions. As a result, the area is maintained by sheep.

After Vimy the bus made a short stop in Amiens to allow the tour participants a quick coffee break and also to visit the cathedral, a beautiful example of a Gothic church.

Endpoint for today’s part of the tour was the port town of Dieppe. While Day 5 will be entirely devoted to the Dieppe Raid of 19 August 1942, the complexity of the event with its different landing sites resulted in the visit to Blue Beach in Puys (to the north of Dieppe) already taking place on Day 4.  Here on this section of the beach is were the Royal Canadian Regiment suffered casualties that amounted to 80%. 

Those images speak to some of the difficulties encountered, the high cliffs and the large pebbles that make up the beach in this area.

Day 3 - Ieper (Ypres) to Arras via Beaumont-Hamel and Thiepval

After breakfast and the daily briefing, the group set off for a tour of the Ypres Salient just before 8 am. The salient was formed to the East of Ypres during the early battles (Battle of the Yser and the First Battle of Ypres) in the area in the fall of 1914.

 


 http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15480
Showing the Ypres Salient during the Second Battle of Ypres.

The first stop on this tour was at the Essex Farm Memorial, located to the north of Ypres half way to the town of Boezinge. This cemetery, named after the Essex Regiment, was located adjacent to a Canadian Advanced Dressing Station. It was at this location that medical officer Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae treated wounded soldiers during the Second Battle of Ypres and wrote his now famous poem In Flanders Fields".

This stone bears the name of V.J. Strudwick. One of the youngest casualties at age 15.

The next stopped occurred near the village of St. Julian, at an intersection called Vancouver Corner. Towering over this location is the Brooding Soldier Monument created by Frederick Chapman Clemesha, an English born architect from Regina and himself a veteran of the war. Erected on 8 July 1923, this eleven meter high granite monument depicts a soldier's head and shoulders, bowed down with his hands in repose, resting on a rifle butt with the rifle's barrel pointing to the ground. The site was selected to commemorate the Canadian 1st Division's action from 22 to 24 April 1915, the beginning of the Second Battle of Ypres, as they withstood the first large scale German gas attack in the history of warfare. It is also a monument that focuses on the notion sacrifice.

Due to the early hour, the sun was not in the best position for a good picture.


The third stop of the day took the tour group to Zoonebeke and the Tyne Cot Cemetery. The name Tyne Cot or Tyne Cottage is attributed to the Northumberland Fussiliers who gave this name to a barn and or some small blockhouses in the area. Tyne Cot Cemetery received its first bodies in the fall of 1917 when the area was captured by the 3rd Australian Division and the New Zealand Division. After the war it was enlarged by concentration graves form other, smaller cemeteries in the area,
becoming the final resting place of nearly 12 000 Commonwealth soldiers, about 8 000 of whom are unknown.


The northeastern boundary of the cemetery is marked by the Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing, a
semicircular wall that bears the names of almost 35 000 names of war dead from Great Britain and New Zealand. The names of the British soldiers were initially supposed to be inscribed at the Menin Gate but it turned out that there was not sufficient space. As a result, those who died after 15 August 1917 were commemorated at the Tyne Cot Memorial. The centre of the wall was chosen for the New Zealand Memorial Apse, one of three larger memorials to commemorated the approximately 5 000 New Zealanders who gave their lives in the Ypres Salient.

One of the interesting discoveries for many in the group was the fact that families could select the epitaph included on the stone for their loved one.
These are two very personal ones that stand out from most of the others that seem almost formulaic.

The first one reads: “Would Some thoughtful hand in this distant land please scatter some flowers for me.”
The second: “Sacrificed to the fallacy that war can end war.”

After the Tyne Cot Cemetery we did a short, unplanned stop at the Passchendaele Memorial.This interesting aspect of this site was how integrated it (but also many others) was into the daily live of the local community as a pasture with two horses was located right at the edge of the park area.

After leaving the Ypres Salient, the tour group crossed the border, leaving Belgium and entering France and had a short stop for lunch in the town of Arras, capital of Pas-de-Calais, which dates back to Roman times.



After lunch the next stop was the Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial Park located about 30 km south of Arras. The park commemorates the sacrifices made by the Newfoundland Regiment 1 July 1916, the first day of the Somme offensive. Ordered out of their trenches as the third wave of attack around 9:15am, most men of the regiment were killed or injured before they even reached No Man's Land. Of the once almost 800 men strong regiment fewer than 70 had survived uninjured.
One of the defining commemorative features of the park is a bronze caribou (the regiment's emblem) overlooking the rolling fields, gazing in the direction of the former enemy.

(Vinyl Ridge from a distance as it is part of day 4.)

For more information on the Newfoundland Regiment's engagement during the first day of the Battle of the Somme see:
https://www.heritage.nf.ca/first-world-war/articles/beaumont-hamel-en.php

The final stop of the day had the group visit the Thiepval Memorial and Visitor Centre, located just a few kilometres from Beaumont-Hamel on the eastern side of the Ancre, a Somme tributary. The Thipval Memorial bears the names of over 72 000 men from the British and South African forces who died in the Somme sector between 1 July 1916 and 20 March 1918 and who have no known grave.

The visit to Thiepval concluded the site visits for Day 3 and had the group return to Arras for dinner and an overnight stay.

Day 3 -Ypres

As we are getting ready to leave, I wanted leave this before exploring the salient.

Taking in hotel lobby.

Day 2 - Brussels to Ieper (Ypres)

After the flight arrival in Brussels the group boarded a motor coach and began the first leg of the trip traveling to Ieper or better know as Ypres, the French version of the town's name.  

Hotel check in was supposed to be later in the afternoon but due to the late arrival, many of the rooms were ready to be occupied around 1pm. This gave most people time to freshen up and then set out on foot to explore this Flemish town.
It's origins date back to the early Middle Ages and by the thirteenth century it had become an important centre for cloth trade. The importance of this trade was showcased through the Cloth Hall which the Drapers Guild built between 1260 and 1304. The ever increasing need for wool led to a close trade relationship between the region and Great Britain even when the wool trade declined.

Over the course of the First World War the area surrounding Ypres became the site of numerous battles during which over half a million soldiers lost their lives. The Second Battle of Ypres (22 April - 25 May 1915) can be considered a turning point in the history of warfare as it marked the beginning of chemical weapons usage. On April 22 German troops launched their first offensive of the year but when the initial shelling stopped, Allied troops waiting for the first wave of German attackers where instead met with swathes of chlorine gas.

At the end of the First World War the town of Ypres lay almost wholly in ruins. Many of its famous buildings, such as the Lakenhalle (Cloth Hall), the town hall and St. Martin Cathedral were rebuilt after their original plans and today once again speak to the town's prewar architectural glory. The Cloth Hall today houses the Flanders Fields Museum, initially called the Ypres Salient Memorial Museum, but after renovations it was renamed in 2012 after John McCrae's famous poem.

A large number of the tour participants decided to visit this museum. When you purchase your ticket (8.00 euros) you receive a bracelet with a contact. At your first stop you personalize the bracelet by telling the system where you are from. Some of the stories you will read about via the bracelet contact are selected based on your entry. One word of caution though, the museum is set up in four languages; Flemish, English, French and German. If you try to use your second or third language when buying the ticket, your bracelet will be auto programmed to that language.

                                                      Belfry of the Cloth Hall - Ypres


In 1927 another landmark was unveiled. The Menenpoort (Menin Gate), situated on the eastern edge of town, had long been the gateway to the town of Menin situated about 16 kms from Ypres. Designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield, the gate today stands as a memorial to 54 389 soldiers who have no known grave and whose names are engraved on stone panels located in the Hall of Memory.

The main dedication panel reads:

TO THE ARMIES
OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
WHO STOOD HERE
FROM 1914 TO 1918
AND TO THOSE OF THEIR DEAD
WHO HAVE NO KNOWN GRAVE

The Menin Gate is also the location of a Last Post Ceremony conducted every evening at 8pm. The tour group participated in this rather moving event which was particularly meaningful to two
tour participants who have relatives memorialized on the Gate and who had been asked to lay a wreath on behalf of the Juno Beach Centre Association Summer Institute.

Day 2 -Brussels

As the sun rises and the flight approaches Europe, we are greeted by the beautiful mosaic of beige and green fields, separated by hedges, of southern England. After a glimpse of the Themse’s estuary, the view suddenly changes to an endless “field” of soft looking, cotton ball like clouds.
Just as we reach the coast of continental Europe, there is a break in the clouds that reveals the actual coast line. At this moment I wonder what the pilots of the Second World War thought as their planes may have taken a similar path. Relief to have left the danger of the North Sea behind? Anxiety of what was to come? Fear of the enemy?
Clearly my, albeit still somewhat tired, mind has arrived at the experience that lies ahead as I watch the countless villages and settlements drift by below me. A stark contrast to the sparsely populated part of England just thirty minutes earlier.

Upon arrival in Brussels it soon came to light that one person’s piece of luggage had not made it. After about two hours the bag was confirmed to still be in Montreal and instructions were left so that the bag can hopefully catch up to it’s owner in the next couple of days. At 11am we were finally ready to board our bus and depart for Ypres, a roughly 1.5 hour drive.

Day 1 - Toronto to Brussels via Montreal

The day has finally arrived. It has been over six months since the successful applicants for the Juno Beach Centre Association Summer Institute received their notices. The Summer Institute is a professional development activity created by the Association to take educators over to Belgium and France to give them a better understanding of some of the sites that played an instrumental role in Canada's contributions to the Allied war efforts during the First and Second World War. The majority of participants are elementary and high-school teachers from all over Canada. Well, and then there is me, aka Astra Girl, a Museum Educator who works at the National Air Force Museum of Canada. In my day to day work life, I create and coordinate programs for schools from JK to grade 12, cadets squadrons and other interested youth groups. In addition, I design public programs for our general visitors who come outside of a formal programs. If you would like to find out more, you can always visit the Museum in person from 10-5, or start with our website www.airforcemuseum.ca

(Back to the Juno Beach Tour...)
Anticipation for this tour kept growing over those months as more details were released and tour participants began to touch base with each other via email. The Juno Beach Centre Association also provided lots of reading material to give people plenty of background information on the sites on the itinerary, and their historical significance in the context of the two world wars in general, and the Canadian experience in particular.

I would like to invite you to follow me on this once in a life time journey. My plan is to give you as much background information of each stop, and I can promise you there will be many, as possible and to post a few pictures of each stop as well. Much of this will depend on the Wi-Fi connections available but also on how much time is left at the end of the day.

Okay, time to close the suitcase and head of for the Airport. See you in a bit.


I made it to Pearson on time despite the heavy Friday traffic on the 401.About one third of the group gathered at terminal 1 to fly to Montreal. The flight was slightly delayed but given the layover time, this was of no concern.
Wifi at Trudeau airport is not working, so updates have to wait.
The remaining tour participants all arrived in Montreal and now the tour can officially begin.

The flight into Brussels is a little bumpy and soon after take off we are flying over a thunderstorm. It is an interesting experience to see lightning strikes from above.