100 Years Ago: A Special Remembrance

CWGC Cemetery in Etaples, France - Photo copyright Melanie Wills

Wandering through this Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) cemetery at Etaples on the north coast of France, I felt a visceral connection to “The Great War”, now ended 100 years ago.

This photo can’t even begin to convey the enormity of the site or the profound sadness that you feel among the nearly 11,000 WW1 graves. Seeing the ages on the tombstones is heartbreaking. They are mostly young men and a few women - a Canadian nurse lies on the front right - who never had much of a chance at life.

Dud Corner CWGC Cemetery, France - Photo copyright Melanie Wills

There are endless pockets of small cemeteries, especially near the battlefields. Neatly walled, lovingly maintained, they appear like a bizarre crop amid farmers’ fields. The CWGC website allows you to do a search on fallen Commonwealth soldiers, and pinpoint the exact location of a grave. Armed with that info, my family visited my husband’s great-uncle’s grave at Dud Corner cemetery in 2008. He died at the age of 21 in the Battle of Loos in 1915.

But we also mustn’t forget those who survived, and had to rebuild lives shattered in trenches or aerial warfare. Veterans were haunted, but reluctant to talk about their horrific experiences. They often felt guilty that they didn’t lie alongside their comrades.

Families had to carry on without husbands, fathers, brothers, sweethearts, and friends. With about 60,000 Canadian men killed, there was a generation of “superfluous” women who would never marry and so, had to make careers for themselves. For some, the war was never truly over.

My “Muskoka Novels” pay homage to this generation tested by extraordinary times. They’re not war stories, per se, but are about people caught up in the cataclysm - young men who become aviators, soldiers, front-line medics, and their wives, sweethearts, sisters who endure their own hardships as ambulance drivers and nurses, as well as those anxiously waiting on the home front, who also made enormous contributions. It is by seeing the war through the eyes of individuals that we can truly understand the life-altering consequences of that tumultuous time.

The author paying homage at Canada'a Vimy Memorial -  Photo copyright Melanie Wills

Remembering.... Always

CWGC Cemetery at Etaples, the largest in France with 10,773 WWI graves - copyright Melanie Wills

Although the war is over when Book 3 of my Muskoka Novels, Under the Moon, begins, it lingers for many of my characters. It’s perhaps hard for us to imagine trying to rebuild lives shattered in trenches or aerial warfare, and to carry on without friends, husbands, and sweethearts when life is just supposed to be beginning. Little wonder that became known as the “lost generation”.

War veterans were reluctant to talk about their horrific experiences, especially to those who weren’t there and wouldn’t truly understand. Many couldn’t readjust to civilian life or were haunted by unforgettable experiences, including their own participation in the brutality. How does a young man, brought up to believe in the sanctity of life, reconcile that with his requirement to kill? Survivors often felt guilty that they didn’t lie alongside their comrades.

A few eventually wrote memoirs or thinly disguised fiction, possibly to help exorcise the demons, leaving us with valuable insight.

One of the most compelling is Vera Brittain’s classic, Testament of Youth.  After her beloved younger brother, her fiancé, and their closest friends joined up, feisty Vera delayed her Oxford education to do “her bit” in the war by becoming a VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) nurse. Through her eyes, we witness the carnage of war and feel the profound sorrow of so many young lives shattered. She wanted to ensure that no one ever forgot that sacrifice.

A powerful, moving film adaptation of Testament of Youth was recently released. Here is one of the official trailers.

Vera’s memoir was an important part of my research, since my Muskoka Novels are told mostly from the viewpoint of women and their often unsung participation in the war, especially in Elusive Dawn. By sharing their experiences vicariously, we can perhaps have a deeper understanding. I shall certainly never forget.

Lusitania Medal

The sinking of the Lusitania on May 7, 1915 by a German U-boat is an important chapter in The Summer Before the Storm. Although she was a passenger liner with almost 2000 men, women, and children aboard, she was also carrying empty shell casings and over 4 million rifle cartridges, unbeknownst to the public. The Germans claimed that she was a legitimate military target, and had given people fair warning.

The German embassy had placed a notice in American newspapers stating “vessels flying the flag of Great Britain, or any of her allies, are liable to destruction in those waters [adjacent to the British Isles] and that travellers sailing in the war zone on the ships of Great Britain or her allies do so at their own risk.”

Tragically, 1198 people died when the torpedoed ship sank off the coast of Ireland in only 18 minutes. People worldwide were shocked and outraged, and even a few German newspapers condemned this attack on civilians.

A few months later, a Munich sculptor, Karl Goetz, privately created a commemorative medal of the sinking as a satirical statement, blaming the Cunard line and the British government for allowing the Lusitania to sail into perilous waters.

British replica of the Goetz medal

The medal attracted so much attention that the British head of Propaganda decided to use it to keep stoking anti-German feeling. Replicas were made by Selfridges, and profits from the sales of 250,000 medals were given to the Red Cross.

I’m thrilled to have just received one of those replica medals, thanks to the generosity of John Reynolds, a fan of my Muskoka Novels. It’s exciting to hold something so old and, to me, significant.

Here is the document that came with it, which explains what’s on both sides of the medal. The reverse side is pictured below. 

Reverse side showing Death at the Cunard booking Office

If you're interested in seeing the original medal in more detail, visit this website.

You can also sail aboard the doomed ship with some of my characters in The Summer Before the Storm.

Summer's End?

copyright Gabriele Wills

Labour Day has always seemed to signify the end of summer,  but the traditional closing of the cottage – for those that are seasonal – is the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend in October. So there are still plenty of colourful autumn days to enjoy by the lake.

My privileged characters often lingered at their Muskoka cottages into late September, until The Great War intervened in The Summer Before the Storm.  The locals were happy to reclaim their lakes when the summer people had gone, as you'll discover in Book 3, Under the Moon.

The Troops Called it "Wipers"

Ypres, Belgium - copyright Melanie Wills

Last week’s post about John McCrae mentioned Ypres, which was a critical salient in the battles between the Allies and Germany during the Great War. It was also where Canadian troops had their baptism of fire in the spring of 1915, and where they later distinguished themselves again at nearby Passchendaele in 1917.

Wartime Ypres, the same vantage point. The Cloth Hall is on the left, the church on the right.

The medieval city of Ypres was virtually reduced to rubble, but has been rebuilt to resemble its former glory, as can be seen in the top photo. It’s a magnificent, friendly city – especially to Canadians – and well worth a visit.

See this blog about the daily commemorative ceremony at the Menin Gate.

The Lusitania Tragedy - 100 Years Ago

The Track of the Lusitania, by William Lionel Wyllie

100 years ago on May 7, 1915, some of my characters were aboard the luxurious, ill-fated Lusitania when she was torpedoed by a German submarine off the coast of Ireland. Also on board was the daughter of mercantile millionaire Timothy Eaton, Josephine Burnside, who was sucked into a smokestack when the ship sank, but was blown out again.  Miraculously, she survived, but her 20-year-old daughter didn’t. You can be sure that one of my characters has a similar experience.

The Lusitania is a riveting tragedy, as much for the conspiracy theories that still surround it as by the harrowing tales of the 761 people who managed to survive.  1200 didn’t, and 900 of those were never found.

For more info, see an older post of mine.