The entrance contains a memorial book which is full of poignant entries from visitors. The most moving for me are the ones from young children who have come to see the graves of the grandfathers they never knew - sad voices reaching out to tell them how proud they are of them.
I cant imagine the horror of the trenches. The fear knowing your day would come. And for what? Not one inch of progress would be made for your sacrifice. Knowing that you joined up full of naivety and now that you know the truth - the lies, the futility - knowing there is nothing you can do about it short of deserting as a coward.
The cemetary helped make WW1 real for me and helped me understand those words from Binyon's poem "For the fallen" that we all just gloss over:
- They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
- Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
- At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
- We will remember them.
We need to post some of our photos of this particular visit here. It was so moving words cannot describe it properly. The emotion you feel as you approach the cemetary. You cannot help shedding more than few tears at the loss of so many young lives when you read the memorial books or walk around the reading the inscriptions on the head stones. There is an eerie silence that seems to shroud the whole area. We should also mention the nurses and nuns who are buried at Etaples alongside the soldiers. It's all too sad!!!
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