2003-11-13
�Where have all the flowers gone��and my laptop?

4:33 p.m.

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Tuesday morning we woke up and left for Vimy. I was traveling with three Canadians, and being at Vimy on Armistice Day was quite a big deal for them. The short story of Vimy is it was a ridge that was occupied by the Germans in the summer of 1914 and held until April of 1917. It was quite a strategic point, and was part of their plan to push to the English Channel. They failed in that, but succeeded in defending the ridge and holding off the myriad attempts by the French and British forces to retake it. In April of 1917, the four Canadian battalions were combined and given the singular task of retaking the ridge. (Being part of the British Empire at the time, when Britain entered the war, Canada was included as well and sent over what troops that they could. Canada declared war on its own in World War II.)

They practiced for months, dug trenches and tunnels (we were fortunate enough to be able to go in one of the tunnels that had been preserved) and on the morning of April 9th, 1917, they attacked, surprising the German army. After four days of fighting, on April 12th, 1917, the ridge was theirs. One of the comments by a captured German soldier was that it was their belief that if they lost that ridge, they would lose the war. It was the first time that all four battalions had fought together, and is considered the start of the Canadian army. The land at Vimy, while governed by France, is actually considered Canadian soil (Canadian students working at the memorial do not have to have a work visa), given to them in the 1920�s as thanks for their contribution.

Incidentally, whenever I mentioned where I went to the French, they have no idea what I�m talking about.

Around 11 a.m., there was a memorial, in which the park rangers read the above poem in both English and French, observed two minutes of silence, and then placed a wreath and poppies on the tomb of the International Soldier who is buried at the base of the memorial. Everyone was wearing these poppies, which covered the graves in Flanders field and were the inspiration of the above poem. In Canada, everyone wears poppies for about the week prior, and then they lay them on memorials on Remembrance Day. I have been told that it is actually considered impolite, even rude, to wear them afterwards because the whole point is to lay them down in memory on November 11th.

After the ceremony, we talked to some of the ranger students and she told us about a tour of the tunnels that were used by the Canadians to take the ridge. She asked where we were all from and the fact that I was American was skipped over (later, when I admitted my nationality, one of the girls said that she thought so). Kelly had made me an honorary Canadian for the day, and the rangers were going to give me a pin but didn�t have anymore. Anyway. We headed over to the Interpretation Center and watched a 10-minute movie on the taking of Vimy Ridge (I watched it twice � in English and then in French) and Kelly managed to get us on the 1 p.m. tour of the tunnels.

The tunnel tour was about 45 minutes long and was pretty incredible. They dug them out by hand, with picks and shovels. There were several main tunnels, some over 1 km long, but we only saw about 400 m. It was something to imagine the scene on April 9th, 1917�the soldiers, of an average age of 19 years, standing for 7-8 hours in the tunnel, to attack at 5:30 a.m. in the middle of a snowstorm, knowing that they were going into the very gates of Hell.

One thing that was amazing the distance between the two front lines; about 20 feet was all that separated the Canadian soldiers from the Germans.

It was a beautiful day, with the leaves every color of autumn, a soft breeze rustling the leaves, sun shining, and birds singing. The entire landscape, though nearly fully recovered, still bears testament to the horrors visited upon it by the war. The entire surface of the ground is a network of tiny hills, the result of the myriad trenches. There are deep recesses with names like �Winnipeg Crater� and �Montreal Crater� that were formed when the mines underneath the ground were detonated. Some of the trenches are preserved, as well as the tunnels, and you can walk among them and look over to the other side. Children ran among them, yelling and jumping and peeking at each other from the look-out points. It was hard to believe, and yet indelibly written on the Earth, that 85 years ago men, many not even a decade older than these children, lived, fought, and died on this land. Some of them have never been found, same for their weapons. Still, on average, 85 people in Northern France are killed each year by undiscovered (and therefore undetonated) bombs and mines from World War I.

There�s another song that I like a lot, and I thought of it while I was at Vimy�

Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing�
Where have all the flowers gone, long time ago�
Where have all the flowers gone?
Gone to young girls, everyone.
When will they ever learn,
When will they ever learn?

Where have all the young girls gone, long time passing�
Where have all the young girls gone, long time ago�
Where have all the young girls gone?
Gone to young men, everyone.
When will they ever learn,
When will they ever learn?

Where have all the young men gone, long time passing�
Where have all the young men gone, long time ago�
Where have all the young men gone?
Gone to soldiers, everyone.
When will they ever learn,
When will they ever learn?

Where have all the soldiers gone, long time passing�
Where have all the soldiers gone, long time ago�
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Gone to graveyards, everyone.
When will they ever learn,
When will they ever learn?

Where have all the graveyards gone, long time passing�
Where have all the graveyards gone, long time ago�
Where have all the graveyards gone?
Gone to flowers, everyone.
When will they ever learn,
When will they ever learn?

As you can tell, I am very moved by all of this. Enjoy is not the right word, I guess, but I am extremely interested in this aspect of history and will always jump at the chance to visit any memorial. My favorite is going to these places with my dad, because he is as fascinated with it as I, and knows a lot more. My parents have finally decided to come in May, and want especially to visit Normandy. I am really looking forward to that.

Anyway, now onto the not-so-honorable aspect of the day. We left Vimy around 2 p.m. and headed back to Strasbourg, Kelly driving. We stopped for lunch/dinner and were about to pay when Kelly looked into her wallet and saw that she had no money. I looked into mine. No money there, either. We figured out then that the car had been broken into�again. Immediately, Ruey and I thought of our laptops. We ran out to the car, and sure enough, they were gone. We determined that it must have been in Vimy, during the ceremony because that�s when the fewest people would have been around.

I know that I�m going to get a bunch of advice, saying �you should have done this� or �you should not have done that� or �you should have known better� and what not. Please, save yourself the trouble. We have already gone over again and again everything that we could have done differently and which would have prevented the break-in, or at least made the car less attractive. For example, Kelly and I both left our purses in the car. Mark left his backpack on the back seat, with money and his passport in it (the passport was left, the money taken). We left our �Let�s Go� and "Lonely Planet" books out. All of those things we should have known better, especially considering that we�d already been broken into once. However, since then, we�d hidden all of our tourist books when we would be leaving the car for a significant period of time, parking in a secluded area, or at night.

I'm not even sure that hiding all of this would have prevented the car from being broken into; it was obvious that the car was from out of town (in Europe, the license plate designates the county of origin). Furthermore, this was 11 a.m. in the middle of a general-use lot with other people and cars around. Would you expect to be broken into then? Really, there�s no way to protect against that. Our purses were also hidden in the car, underneath the seats, and our laptops were in the trunk. There�s only so much that one can do. And yes, the car was locked.

It could have been much worse. MUCH MUCH worse. I mentioned that mine and Kelly�s purses were in the car. Bad girls. My blue passport was in my purse (I had my brown government one � with my residence permit in it!!! � with me), as well as my apartment keys (of which I only have one set), and my wallet with money, credit cards, ID, and Social Security Card. Same for Kelly � she had her passport and wallet in her purse. However, the thieves were very nice; they only took the money form our wallets and from Mark�s bag, and left everything else; they didn�t take cell phones or CD players. Just the quick and easy stuff: money and computers. They even locked the car up when they left! All of this is why we didn�t realize that they were gone until we were well out of Vimy. SO, what we ended up losing was 150 Euros worth of stuff from the first break-in, about 400 Euros cash, and two laptops.

So, we were broken into twice in four days. Not very encouraging.

Yesterday, Ruey, Kelly, and I went to the police station. That went pretty well. I just have to try and track down the serial number of my actual computer. Fun.

By the way, if you rent a car in Europe, avoid Peugeot. I've since heard that they are some of the easiest cars to break into. Also, assume ALWAYS that you will be broken into and NEVER EVER leave anything valuable in the car, regardless of place, time, or duration. I had to learn the hard way. Hopefully, you won't.

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