A small group of battlefield enthusiasts spent the whole of Sunday 30th August in the Aisne. Killing two birds with one stone (or improving the shining hour) they started off in the glistening American Cemetery in Bony and then visited nearby Villeret. The sight of the stars & stripes at half mast, paying homage to Edward Kennedy, reminded them that the land upon which they stood was part of a country that lay far away across a wide ocean. The group was warmly received by Craig Rahanian who gave up his time to speak about the global nature of American cemeteries and then focus on individuals buried at Bony. The group was a European mixture itself of English, Scottish, Welsh, French & Belgian WW1 scholars and this echoed the nature of the cemetery: the names on the pristine marble crosses and stars of David bearing witness to the soldiers' origins in the Old World.
The group moved off on foot to Villeret then Hargival to rediscover the story of an occupied zone under the German boot. Ben Macintyre's factual narrative (A Foreign Field) has uncovered every detail of the tortured existence of both the villagers and the British and Irish soldiers they harboured. Walking the Rue d'En Bas one struggles to visualise the secret goings on there.
A chance encounter with an elderly lady in the local cemetery brought the memories of Teutonic sadism in two world wars flooding back. "He denounced my father" she said, pointing to a very grandiose grey stone tomb. "My father was deported because of him. Look at him now in his fancy grave, paid for with German money."
The group stood awkwardly by as she delivered a speech of regret and anger. They could understand her bitterness but felt it was useless to perpetuate hatred. It was a tense, deeply sad moment. If the dead in Villeret's local cemetery could rise up and talk the bickering may well continue: resistance fighters challenging collaborators. Or would they do different and wish to provide a sound philosophical lesson for those who are left ?
