Whitby High SchoolBattlefields Tour 18-21st March 2006 |
Notre Dame de Lorette
i) The Style of Cemetery The emphasis in French cemeteries is on the scale of loss that had befallen the French nation during the Great War. They tend to be large sites that are the result of many smaller cemeteries being concentrated in one place. Notre Damme de Lorette, for example, is made up of bodies from over 150 smaller battlefield cemeteries. The style of cross and the strict geometry both tend to make the visitors look at the site as a whole rather than at individual graves. Originally there were few, if any, flowers so as not to distract the visitors from the endless rows of crosses. This has now changed and flowers and shrubs are more common. Burials are under either; Many French cemeteries contain an ossuaire (ossuary) a mass grave. In the 1920's the French Government allowed individual families to re-claim the bodies of their relatives and take them home for re-burial. About 30% of French dead were taken home and given civilian burials. Unlike British and French cemeteries, the style of German cemetery is not constant and if you visit a cemetery in Flanders such as Langemark, and then visit one on the Somme or near Arras or Verdun you will see many differences. However they do have basic ideas in common; Notre Dame de Lorette
A few points to note on the map: Notre Dame is 2 miles west of Vimy. Our base, Le Chateau, is just outside Hazebrouck. Our tour would continue to Albert (a few miles north of Amiens) and the Somme. French Military Cemeteries
a) Crosses for Christian burials.
b) Headstones for non-Christian burials. These will commonly have;
i) A star of David denoting Jewish dead.
ii) A minaret style top with Arabic inscription denoting Moslem (usually North African) dead.
iii) A plain headstone, usually denoting non-believers.
ii) The Style of Cemetery
1) The architects were trying to convey the waste and sorrow of warfare. German cemeteries are always sad, rather depressing places and this is quite intentional.
2) The architects had to deal with the problem of fitting sometimes quite large numbers of bodies into the relatively small area of land that their former enemies would allow them. This is why each grave marker, whether headstone or cross has several or many names on it.
The Whitby High School, Cheshire County Council.