|
The place was called “The Windmill” due to the building that once stood on this pathetic patch that obviously had some strategic or symbolic importance during the “Somme Battle”. A small marble altar explained what happened here:
“The ruin of Pozieres windmill which lies here was the centre of the struggle in this part of the Somme battlefield in July and August 1916. It was captured on August 4th by Australian troops who fell more thickly on this ridge than on any other battlefield of the war”.
Thousands of young Australians slaughtered for claiming an elevation in the mud on the other side of the earth might have been a proper explanation too. It was still drizzling and the cold crept into my bones in no time. So I quickly returned to the well heated van, wondering how these soldiers must have felt spending weeks in the half flooded trenches in weather like this. Not to mention the constant bombardment and the stench of their decaying comrades and enemies “buried” in the deserted mud battlefield around them.
I drove another few hundred meters and then left the main road to followed the signs for more “Somme Battle” sites. In the middle of a field lay a small cemetery. I walked over. It hosted “just” about 30 tombstones. Again many of the tombstones had instead of a name just “A Soldier Of The Great War” carved into the stone. Translates into: we found a few bones that might be from a Commonwealth soldier.
continue >>>
|
