Albert (Somme) - Cimetière de la Boisselle. And a Free-Verse Poem About High Wood.

The Postcard

A postally unused carte postale which bears an image of the Cimetière de la Boisselle. The image is drawn from the photographic negative section of the French Army.

It shows the cemetery after the Germans departed it during the Great War. Note the headstone in the centre of the photograph.

The Germans appear to have cut a trench across the cemetery.

Visé Paris No. 135

The card bears the imprimatur 'Visé Paris' followed by a unique reference number. This means that the image was inspected and deemed by the military authorities in the French capital not to be a security risk.

'Visé Paris' indicates that the card was published during or soon after the Great War.

La Boisselle

La Boisselle is about 3 km north-east of Albert on the Route de Bapaume. It is near High Wood, or the Bois des Fourneaux as it is called in France.

High Wood

Rob Ruggenberg, writing on the excellent website www.greatwar.nl, records that High Wood was a major German stronghold until it was taken and held by the British after almost three months of heavy fighting.

Various British attack methods were used: cavalry charges, infantry assaults, gas attacks, flame-thrower attacks, machine guns, tanks - and mine warfare. Craters dating back to these mine attacks can still be seen when visiting the Cameron Highlanders and Black Watch Memorial at High Wood.

The Poem 'High Wood'

Soon after the end of the Great War, tourists from different countries travelled to the battlefields of the Western Front.

At least one of the soldiers of the Great War had an early premonition that the places where he and his comrades fought and died would soon be flooded with nosy visitors.

Lieutenant John Stanly Purvis summarised his predictions in a free verse poem called High Wood. He wrote it in 1918 using the pseudonym Philip Johnstone.

High Wood, in the Somme area, indeed did become one of the places that was - and still is - frequently visited by tourists.

It is an eerie place that has never been thoroughly cleared of bodies and debris. A conservative estimate suggests that the wood holds the remains of some 8,000 German and British soldiers who were killed in action there.

Even today there are parts of the wood which contain live ammunition, making it unsafe to walk there.

John Stanly Purvis' poem pictures the nonchalance or even indifference of people walking over ground where men had been butchered and slaughtered on an industrial scale.

Here is the poem:

'Ladies and gentlemen, this is High Wood,
Called by the French, Bois des Fournaux,
The famous spot which in Nineteen-Sixteen,
July, August and September was the scene
Of long and bitterly contested strife,
By reason of its high commanding site.
Observe the effect of shell-fire in the trees
Standing and fallen; here is the wire; this trench
For months inhabited, twelve times changed hands;
(They soon fall in), used later as a grave.
It has been said on good authority
That in the fighting for this patch of wood
Were killed somewhere above eight thousand men,
Of whom the greater part were buried here,
This mound on which you are standing being ...
Madame, please,
You are requested kindly not to touch
Or take away the Company's property
As souvenirs; you'll find we have on sale
A large variety, all guaranteed.
As I was saying, all is as it was,
This is an unknown British officer,
The tunic having lately rotted off.
Please follow me - this way ...
The path sir, please
The ground which was secured at great expense
The Company keeps absolutely untouched,
And in that dug-out (genuine) we provide
Refreshments at a reasonable rate.
You are requested not to leave about
Paper, or ginger-beer bottles, or orange-peel,
There are waste paper baskets at the gate'.

Taken on: September 2, 2011

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