Memories of another war

Back in Normandy, the obvious memories and signs of war were all of WWII. But on moving deeper into rural France, it is WWI that one keeps being reminded of. France's total war dead of about 1.4 million greatly exceeded that of Britain, despite having a smaller population. Each village has its little war memorial and the vast bulk of names are from 1914-18. The first one below may seem rather garish but any fault lies with the photo - the painted soldier seemed to add a human touch.

Even very small villages often have 20 or 30 names from 1914-18. The memorial in Vibraye, a larger village of 2,600 people, has about 120. The side you can see in the picture lists only those from 1914.  (The plaque at bottom left puzzled me - Captain Malcolm Smith, May 1944. Investigation reveals he was a US pilot of a P47 Thunderbolt who came down nearby.)

I ask in the Mairie what Vibraye's population was at the outbreak of WWI. About 2,900, not much different to now. (The impacts since then of large overall population growth in France and of rural depopulation roughly cancelling out.) Hence the Vibraye WWI dead represented about 1 in 7 or 1 in 8 of what I think would have been the male population over the age of 18. And not so long ago. My generation could have talked with grandfathers and great-uncles about their WWI experience. If they had been prepared to talk about it, which this poster underlines was often not the case.

 

The lovely little village of Montmirail (from 'mons mirabilis') had a modern war memorial. From a distance Montmirail, with its castle built to defend the Chartres - Le Mans trade route, seemed like a Tuscan hilltop town.

And a wonderfully inviting hollow way, up to 10 feet deep in places, to lead me out of the village down the hill.