Anne & Brian
From:
Anne & Brian
To: le.quesnoy@wanadoo.fr
Sent: Tuesday, September 13, 2005 1:25 AM
Subject: visit.
Office de Tourisme, Le Quesnoy.
Salutations de Nouvelle Zelande. Bonjour! Earlier this year I wrote to
your office and accepted information helpful to our planned trip to Le
Quesnoy. We are about to leave New Zealand and will visit your town in
late October.
We have been unable to determine railway timetables and hope you might
send an answer to our question. Is there a train from LeQuesnoy to Lille
on Saturday afternoons or even late evening? We will appreciate your reply.
Sincerely, Brian &Anne .
I
received this email, it was so far away, he had been sent by New Zealanders
looking for information about Le Quesnoy.
I
answered to them and after exchanging several emails we offered them to
come home.
They
came to Le Quesnoy October 29, 2005.
Their journey had started a few weeks ago and Le Quesnoy was an important
step for them.
In our city, where is the monument of New Zealanders, these people have
indeed lost a generation of young soldiers came from around the world
to liberate the Quesnoy from the German invasion in 1918.
As they belonged to the Commonwealth troops, New Zealanders had come to
the Quesnoy during this war.
Anne and Brian wanted to visit the military cemeteries of New Zealanders
in Le Quesnoy, Vertigneul and Romeries where most of these young soldiers
are currently buried.
At Le Quesnoy, the military cemetery of New Zealand is near the civilian cemetery.
Commonwealth soldiers are buried here, this site pays tribute to them.
God
bless them all.
May they always remain in our memories.
Cimetery
of
Le Quesnoy
On
the road to Vertigneul, we stop at the Place du Colonel Blyth in Beaudignies
Lieutenant
Colonel Blyth is one of the liberators of Le Quesnoy.
He
died in 2001.
He returned several times in our city that he and his men released November
4, 1918 just a few days , before the end of this terrible war which ended
November 11, 1918
Lieutenant Colonel
LAWRENCE
MORRIS
BLYTH
1896 - 2001
They
scaled the city walls with ladders to liberate the town.
In St Andrew's church in Cambridge, in New Zealand, you can find the drawing in the war memorial windows.
Click on the picture to obtain some information
At the top of the wall, they saw this street. Baillon Street today.
The New Zealand soldiers
killed in these attacks are buried in
the military cemeteries of
Le Quesnoy, Romeries and
Vertigneul.
who was awarded the Victoria Cross New Zealand is in Vertigneul
Vertigneul and Romeries were both taken by the 1st Otago Regiment, the 2nd Canterbury Regiment and the 8th Lancashire Fusiliers on 23 October 1918.
General Directions: Romeries is a village approximately 16 kilometres south of Valenciennes and 4 kilometres north-east of Solemes. The Communal Cemetery is on the west side of the village on the north side of the road to Solemes.
Part of the II Corps retired through this area during the Retreat from Mons in August 1914, and in October 1918, Commonwealth forces returned during the Advance to Victory. Briastre was captured on 10 October 1918, Belle Vue Farm on 20 October, Romeries itself and Beaudignies on 23 October and Englefontaine on 26 October.
The Battle of the Sambre, the last great action of the war, carried the front forward into Belgium and ended with the Armistice.
Romeries Communal Cemetery Extension is one of the burial grounds of those who died between these dates. The original extension is Plot I, made by the 3rd and New Zealand Divisions, and containing 128 graves.
The
remaining plots were made after the Armistice when graves were brought
in from small cemeteries and isolated positions on the battlefield, including
(in Plot X) a few graves of 25 August 1914.
Near Oamaru, in New Zealand, to keep a memory of the young New Zealand soldiers who died far from home, for each dead soldier was planted a tree with a cross on her foot.
On the cross we can read in wich country the soldier died and in which year.
The trees are like graves and the names remain in the memory of New Zealand.
Here are two pictures taken at Duntroon, a village on the South Island.
In Oamaru, there are also many cross under the trees in the city.
Here
is a link to the
New-Zealand history online
The
ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps), means the troops from Oceania
who have participated in the Australian Army and New Zealand during the
First World War.
The ANZAC Day is celebrated on April 25 of each year in Australia, New
Zealand, Samoa, Tonga, Cook Islands and Niue.
