A Canterbury Tale (cont.) . . .

As described in the below piece "A Canterbury Tale" just a few posts down on July 14th, out of curiosity about a story presented at "More Canterbury Tales" by the Sagittarian, I went looking for the tomb of Sergeant Henry Nicholas of New Zealand who died shortly before the end of World War One. She just did a follow up piece today about this story, so to complement that information, here is just a little bit more from this end of the story in France. Sergeant Nicholas was awarded the Victoria Cross, the British Commonwealth's highest military honor, for bravery in action in Belgium in 1917 while still a Private. He was killed on October 23rd, 1918, in the village of Beaudignies, France, which is between Vertigneul, where he is buried, and Le Quesnoy, where there is a large monument to New Zealand's forces. This is the church in Beaudignies . . .
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The town hall, or "Mairie" of Beaudignies is built of red brick, which is typical in the region. The sign needs a little bit of a face lift . . .
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Sergeant Nicholas was killed near a bridge in Beaudignies which would have been over the Ecaillon somewhere not far from this current bridge . . .
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The Ecaillon, as you can see here, is little more than a small creek, but the Germans made a stand near here in the final days of the "Great" war, as they were being pushed back on all fronts, leading up to the Armistice. This place seems so peaceful today, hard to imagine the hell it must have been a little over 90 years ago.
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