Remembrance Sunday in Aulnoye

I really wanted to post this dated the 11 November, but I didn't realise the time, so unfortunately it's come under the 12th November. (therefore as it's just after midnight, when I say today, I mean the 11th, not the 12th!)

I went to the Remembrance service in Aulnoye today. I wasn't even sure if they would even have one, I'd tried to find out, but hadn't managed to find anything, so my plan was just to walk to the war memorial around 10:45 to see if anything was going on. In the end I got woken at 10:20 by the band matching past my window!!! I moved sooo fast, jumped up, got dressed, and was out the door in about 5 mins!! Luckily the parade had stopped outside the Station so I was able to catch up with it there. It was a bit different to the parade in Ashford, Much much smaller, there weren't any guides or scouts! Instead there was the band, followed by the firefighters, and the junior firefighting corps, the some representatives from the nearby steel factory, the station and old soldiers carrying flags (only about 6 though) and then some of the children from Joilot Currie, then the rest of the town followed behind. We walked to the War Memorial for the service there. I couldn't really understand what was being said, the guy speaking was speaking quite fast, but I got the general idea. The only had 1 minutes silence at 11am though, either that or it was a very very quick two minutes!! There was no Last Post or Reveille, although they did lower the flags, in fact the only way I realise it was over, when they raised them again!! Then the children sang the French National anthem, unfortunately it was raining, and they were quite quiet so I couldn't really hear them, which was a shame.

Then everyone started leaving the memorial, I thought it was the end, but then the band started playing again, I wasn't to sure if it was like in Ashford where the band plays again afterwards, and we just parade back to the start, but everyone was following them, so I followed.

We walked a little bit further up the road to the town cemetery, I walk this way to Ecole Joilot Currie, but what I hadn't noticed before was that at the back of the cemetery there were some British war graves. As we approached I saw the Union Flag flying from the flagpole (I'm almost positive it wasn't there when I walked past on Thurs, or else I was really stupid not to notice it!!) The cemetery is quite small so we had to stand outside in the road, whilst the children went in and put flowers on each of the graves. The band then played 'God Save the Queen' I must admit because I wasn't expecting it, it took me a couple of seconds to work out why I recognised it!! Afterwards they played the French Anthem again and then we continued walking round to the 'Hotel de Ville' (Town Hall) where they ended the service. In total, (bearing in mind I missed the beginning) It was about an hour long, so it was longer than in Ashford, but it didn't really seem that long cos we moved around. After people were going into the Town Hall, so I went in, they had a kinda reception thing, with drinks and nibbles, but as I hadn't had breakfast I turned down the glass of wine! The mayor, (or someone from the town council anyway!) then made a speech to say thank you to everyone which seemed to go on for ages! I left about 11:45 initially I intended to go back to the flat to see if I could watch/listen to the service in London online, but as I walked past the cemetery I decided to have a look.

There were 44 graves, 43 identified and 1 unknown soldier. What was quite surprising was that they were all from 1918, and in fact 21 were killed on the 6-8th November 1918. Almost spookily 8 of the 21 were from the Middlesex Regiment, which considering I live in Ashford, Middlesex, makes it one of the Regiments that would have been based closest to my home. It was so bizarre to be standing in a cemetery, in a small town, in the middle of France, and see Middlesex written on a gravestone. I mean I know WWI was fought in this area, but I was just thinking of all the main battlefields like the Somme, Ypres, Flanders, you know the ones we learnt about in school. I never imagined finding graves in a tiny town such as Aulnoye.

As I was standing there I heard the clock tower strike 12, (i.e 11am in England) so I had my own little 2 minutes silence, thinking about these men that had come through the town 89 years ago and those who would never return home. I was still wearing my poppy and so just before I left I took it off and placed it at the foot of the grave of the Unknown Soldier. (I got it when I was at home, they don't have poppies in France) It just felt like the right thing to do, my little way of saying Thank you, and Remembering the men who died here.

I was thinking about the men who died, particularly those who had died in the final days of the war, and I really wanted to know why they had died, what they were doing in Aulnoye. So when I got back to the flat I looked it up online. I managed to find a really detailed website about the 1st Battalion Middlesex Regiment (which was the one the 8 soldiers belonged to) which said that the 6-8th Nov 1918 was the Battle of the Sambre. (The Sambre is the river just to the north of Aulnoye separating it from the town of Berlimont) The Germans had held Aulnoye since 1914, making particular use of the railway line to bring supplies in to the front line, and so on the 6th Nov 1918 there were still a number of German troops stationed here. The British troops had to get across the river from Berlimont, and although they tried at night, they were met with Machine-gun fire, and several soldiers were killed. They eventually made it into Aulnoye, and assembled in front of the station. It's so weird to think that 89 years ago there were British troops fighting right here where I am now! The next day the Battalion advanced on the road towards Avesnes but were met with shell fire and another 4 soldiers were killed, one of whom Lieut. W.L Hudspith had fought since 1914. The rest of the Battalion reached their objective, and then were relieved at 4am on the 8th Nov, when they came back to Aulnoye before marching on to Sassegnies, a tiny village just south of here, where they stayed until receiving news of the Armistice.

Sorry I know that was a bit of a history lesson, but I found it really interesting, I thought it was especially sad that the soldiers died right at the very end of the war, in fact during the very last advance that the Battalion made toward the Germans. 24 hours later and it was all over for them. The fact that some had fought throughout the whole war, only to die right at the end, is really sad.

It's strange, every year I take part in Remembrance day parade, and I can see the list of names inscribed on the War Memorial, but that's all it is...a list of names. To actually take a name from a grave and find out how old they were, where they lived, where they fought, and where they died, makes it more real. It's not just a name anymore, but an actual person who walked the same streets I do, and died in this town fighting for Britain.

Anyway, sorry for wittering on, this is rather a long post, and it is now 2:45am so I'd better get to sleep or else I'll be late for work tomorrow (even if I start at 1:30!) I'll update again soon with how it's going in the schools and stuff.

I do also have some photos from today, but for some reason blogger won't let me post them, so I'll add them later.

Rebecca