Arras

I have a locket I picked up many years ago at a flea market in a little resort town on the shores of Lake Huron.  It is tarnished and battered, but for some reason it called out to me, and I "had to have it".  My guess is it is pewter, and was once plated with silver, but most of the silver is long gone.  On the front is a regimental crest that I have not yet had identified (although not from lack of trying) and on the back, inside a wreath of ivy leaves, is engraved the word "Arras".

A dear old gentleman I knew as a teenager, a WWII veteran and long time Canadian Forces member, who went on to serve in the diplomatic service,  told me that soldiers would have these lockets made when going in to battle, and send them home to their sweethearts.  I dearly wish my locket could talk,and tell me its story.

I am sitting here today watching a History Channel Documentary on Normandy, and was thinking about my locket.  While I cherish the locket for reasons I can't name, the thought crossed my mind of this tradition in a modern setting.  I would not want a locket commemorating Panjawaii or Nahkonay; from Medak or Sarajevo.  I do not want a pice of jewellry to remind me of a place a loved one or friend experienced the realities of war.

I do wear jewellry, mementos to remind me of my loved ones, and maybe to some that is equally strange.  I choose to remeber the person, not the event.

Today's musings.

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Arras itself is a village in Northern France, in the heart of the Artois region.  The Dutch call the village Atrecht, and it is founded on the site of an ancient Celt village called Nemetocenna, in homage to a sacred grove that once stood on the spot.

If you look up the Battle of Arras in Wikipedia, you get 5 results.  One from 1654, 3 from WWI, and 1 from WWII.  I don't know which Arras my locket refers to, although I think we can rule out the one in 1654.  I believe the lockets are a WWII tradition, so I will assume it is from that one.

What is referred to as the First Battle of Arras began October 1, 1914, and was a conflict between France (which, although it lost the major battle, managed to hold Arras itself) and the German Empire.

The Battle at Vimy Ridge was part of the larger WWI assault referred to as the Battle of Arras, April 9 to May 16, 1917.  It is an interesting historical side note that since Newfoundland did not agree to become part of Canada until 1949, in the records for Arras it is listed separately as one of the combatants, equal along side of The United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand 


The offensive referred to as the Second WWI Battle of Arras was August 26, 1918, as part of the Second Battle of the Somme, and the Hundred Days Offensive. 

The WWII Battle of Arras, commencing May 21, 1940, was a "tank war" fought as part of the Battle of France.

Red Friday

The Price of Peace Monument to Canadian Soldiers in Ortona, Italy

Last week marked the 66th Anniversary of the beginning of the Battle for Ortona, Italy.

Canadian contributions to World War II are often associated with the Liberation of the Netherlands, Flanders, Juno Beach, and Dieppe.  Ortona, however, was one of the most difficult and bloodiest battles of the Italian Campaign, and was once a well known battle.  Canada lost +/- 1,200 troops in Italy in December 1943.  For our generation, it may have been glossed over, with focus on the "more famous" battles.  But during the war, everyone knew of the Battle for Ortona.  Last year, on the 65th Anniversary, my cousin (a teacher) was selected to take some of his students to help represent Canada at the commemoration event in Italy.

The Canadian Troops fighting there (mainly Loyal Edmonton Regiment, Seaforth Highlanders, and PPCLI) were relieved in small numbers on Christmas Day and taken into the homes of the remaining villagers for a Christmas meal, and a few moments of "peace":

"What a strange clutter of humanity it was. There were some five or six Canadian soldiers, there were old women and there were children innumerable. A painter of genius-Goya, perhaps-might have done justice to the scene. I felt no verbal description could do so. In the half-darkened room the pasta for the midday meal was simmering over the fire in the corner. Haggard, prematurely aged women kept emerging shyly one after another from some inner chamber where an old man, the grandfather of the numerous children, was dying... Another old man was uttering maledictions against Mussolini. Then his wife surprisingly produced a jeroboam of Marsala and half a dozen glasses and moved around among the soldiers, filling and re-filling their glasses. The children clambered around the Canadian soldiers and clutched at them convulsively every time one of our anti-tank guns, located only half a dozen paces from the door of the house, fired down the street in the direction of one of the remaining German machine-gun posts. Soon each one of us had a squirming, terrified child in his arms. And the old lady went on distributing Marsala."
- Christopher Buckley, Road to Rome, 1945.

For more info on the Battle for Ortona, please see The Juno Beach Center, or Canada at War

Lest We Forget