In Flanders Fields

Tour de France 2025

4 July: Arras area
By car: 60 km
By bike: 0 km

Walking: 6 km

I went to some WWI sites in Belgium when I was a student on a field class. Being so close to some of the battlefields further south, literally in John McCrea’s ‘Flanders Fields’ piqued my interest. I have to say that I generally find memorialisation of these events profoundly depressing, illustrating the ultimate futility of war, especially at the moment. At the same time, it’s absolutely necessary to acknowledge the sacrifices made by ordinary people - whatever side they are fighting on.

In the morning I visited Carrrière Wellington in the centre of Arras - a thoroughly absorbing visit. Medieval chalk underground quarries were reopened by the British in the First World War with the intention of launching a surprise attack. The existing series of chalk quarries were joined up by tunnels 20 metres below the surface to form a vast network under no man’s land. Most work was performed by New Zealanders, including Māori and Pacific Islanders. To help orientation, the areas of the network were named in a rough geographical approximation to the countries controlling them - hence Auckland, Wellington, Nelson, and Dunedin in the New Zealand sector. 

Thousands of men were stationed underground, and at the Battle of Arras, at 05:30am on 9 April 1917 they emerged and pushed the German lines back 11km.

The afternoon visit was far more poignant. The northern part of the Battle of Arras was fought to take a ridge dominating the Douai Plain to the northeast. There had been a number of previous attempts to capture it, and now Canadian divisions were tasked with taking it as part of the main 9 April assault. The ridge was captured at the expense of nearly 11,000 casualties, including over 3,500 deaths. It proved to be a galvanising moment in Canadian history, and the Battle of Vimy Ridge is cited as a crucial point of national unity, spurring the drive to become an independent nation.

The Canadian government built a large monument on the ridge, and also preserved some of the battlefield and trench lines. Although these are now neatly manicured and sanitised, it does bring home the stupidity of war, and the reality of trench warfare, where for years armies stood facing each other just 25 metres apart. That’s less than the width of the penalty box in football.

Likely spot me tomorrow at : 155 km remaining, and also hopefully around 1500 metres remaining 

Tomorrow's T-shirt: A blue ’Ride Yorkshire’ T shirt

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