The BBC has this fascinating look at French caves that were used by British soldiers before the Battle of Arras. They hid out for eight days there before the battle and the caves have now been opened as a museum.
On Easter Sunday, the day before the Battle of Arras, the soldiers held a service to pray for courage. You can still see the melted wax on the pillars they used as a makeshift altar and a painting by a soldier of his comrades at prayer.
At 0530 the next morning they were marched to Exit 10 and told to climb the stairs to the outside world.
At the last moment they were ordered to leave their great coats behind to allow them greater freedom of movement. As the hatch lifted, the first thing the men would have seen was that it was snowing.
The briefest glimpse into Arras cemetery tells the story of what happened to most of those soldiers. During the six weeks of battle, the British army alone recorded 4,000 casualties per day.
In the daylight, I remembered a prayer of thanksgiving carved into the chalky wall of a tunnel by a soldier grateful not to be in the mud of the trenches: "Thanks be to God for providing us with this shelter from shells and bullets."
The BBC has this fascinating look at French caves that were used by British soldiers before the Battle of Arras. They hid out for eight days there before the battle and the caves have now been opened as a museum.
On Easter Sunday, the day before the Battle of Arras, the soldiers held a service to pray for courage. You can still see the melted wax on the pillars they used as a makeshift altar and a painting by a soldier of his comrades at prayer.
At 0530 the next morning they were marched to Exit 10 and told to climb the stairs to the outside world.
At the last moment they were ordered to leave their great coats behind to allow them greater freedom of movement. As the hatch lifted, the first thing the men would have seen was that it was snowing.
The briefest glimpse into Arras cemetery tells the story of what happened to most of those soldiers. During the six weeks of battle, the British army alone recorded 4,000 casualties per day.
In the daylight, I remembered a prayer of thanksgiving carved into the chalky wall of a tunnel by a soldier grateful not to be in the mud of the trenches: "Thanks be to God for providing us with this shelter from shells and bullets."
