Traces of New Zealand in France . . .

In reference to the above story, northern France is literally littered with military cemeteries from the 1914-1918 conflict. Conflict ? How about : Horror. Hundreds of thousands of stones like these dot the landscape. Without making any extraordinary effort to seek them out I visited seven such places as illustrated in this first photo in quick succession this afternoon. With a lump in my throat the size of the sun that was shining down on it all . . . The stones are often grouped by country of origin, rows of English, Australians, Canadians, and more from New Zealand. . . Young men for whom life had hardly started, before it came to violent ends . . .
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There were more officers and soldiers from the New Zealand Canterbury Regiment in a few other cemeteries I saw, like this 21 year old Lieutenant . . .
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From the town of Beaudignies, where Sergeant Henry Nicholas was killed, it is only a short stretch further to Le Quesnoy, a small city fortified by Vauban in the 1600's. I had hardly parked the car when the first street sign I spotted was in honor of New Zealanders . . .
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And just a short distance down that avenue, I stumbled on another sign speaking of New Zealand . . . pointing to a memorial which I'd never heard of before today . . .
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I followed a path along the ramparts of Le Quesnoy until it came to this archway . . .
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Above the arch, a plaque said, "Jardin de Souvenir". . . Memory Garden, New Zealand . . .
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A bit further on, set right into one of the vast rampart walls, there was a large memorial sculpture. This may be a little hard to make out on the photo, but on the left in English it says : "In honor of the men of New Zealand, through whose valor, the town of Le Quesnoy was restored to France 4th November 1918" . . . The bas relief depicts men climbing the fortified walls of the city and going over the top. Carved into the wall on the area where this could be viewed from were the solemn words : "FROM THE UTTERMOST ENDS OF THE EARTH" . . .
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And as I was heading back out of town, this wall caught my eye, where again the name "New Zealand" figured prominently. I had the strong impression that Kiwis are welcome anytime in Le Quesnoy . . .
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