THROUGH NORTHERN FRANCE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2935, 22 November 1916, Page 5

THROUGH NORTHERN FRANCE

HISTORIC BATTLEGROUNDS

(From Malcolm Ross, AYar Correspondent with the New Zealand Forces.) ' Northern Franco, August 26. Five hundred and seventy years ago to-day, on ground not far from where I write, was fought a battle famous in history—tho battle of Crecy. Tho Crcey still stands, as is the way with.forests in the Old World, and a little to tho north of it is the hamlet Crecy-ren-Ponthieu, which marks the field. It is interesting in this year of grace to open your Froissart, and, in tho light of what is happening on another battlefield only a few miles away, to read how the English, encamped on tho field, took up their positions betimes, ate, drank, and. rested, and awaited quietly the onslaught of tho French. There wero only three divisions of tho English. To-day there aro three divisions from one of England's youngest and farthest colonies, numbering more men, fighting in the great battle of the Sommo. Five hundred and seventy years ago to-day, when the French King sent his Genoese cross-bowmen, fifteen thousand of them, into tho battlefront; they were awed by the rigid stillness that reigned in tho British ranks. To-day on the Sommo there is no rigid stillness in tho British ranks. Their guns are thundering to some purpose. In the battle of long ago the Irish and the Welsh, who formed a great part of King Edward's forces, armed with long knives, brought many knights to tho ground. ~ To-day the Irish and tho AVelsh, who still form no inconsiderable part of our King's forces, aro bringing many knights to tho ground. The difference is that they aro not so chivalrous, these German knights, as were the French knights of-old.

It was on that field, at tho corner of tho wood of Crecy, that the. Princo of AA'ales—Edward the Black Prince —who commanded the first division of the English, -won his spurs. "Is my son hurt, or dead, or on the earth foiled ?" asked the King, when a message for help was sent to him. "No, sire, but he is hardly matched, and hath need of your aid," was tho reply. "Eoturn to them that sent you," said Edward, "and say to them that they send no more to mo for any adventure that falleth as long as my son is alive; and also.say to them that they suffer him this day to win his spurs; for, if God be pleased, 1 will that this day be his," and that the honour thereof, and to them that be about him "

A cross near the village marks tho spot where the body of John the blind King of Bohemia, was found. His knights had led him on his horso into the fight, "to striko one more good blow," and ho and all those about him were killed. It is from him that the Princes of AA'ales got their crest 'and motto. Only a few days ago tho present Prince, with his father, wore on tho battlefield where the descendants of tho soldiers of Edward 111 wero winning immortal renown in the greatest war of all But the French who wero our enemies at Crecy wero now our friends, and each is proud.of tho valour of the other.

In the villages all about this region where I now am the New Zealariders aro billeted, and assiduously training before going into the big figW It is a beautiful land, with rolling downs, clumps of forest, and splendid roads shaded.by stately avenues of tall trees. In the fields, where the corn is half cut, old men and old and young women and children are busy wi<h the burden of the harvest. Nearer the lines you may see women cutting grass in fields in which the German shells aro actually falling. You may even see a woman binding the wound of a cow that is a victim to a splinter of high explosive. AVitli the patient industry of these people and with the splendid agriculture o'fthe country our men are tremendously impressed,' and the lesson, on hopes, will not be lost to New Zealand farmers and farmers' sons who havo come .this way. _AA r o_have come through country of historic interest. The ecclesiastic monuments alone are an inspiration, and oven under the stress and strain of war one finds numbers of our men taking an interest in them. A town is no longer a place where you can buy broad and beer. Nearby is a village whero a famous abbey was founded towards the end of the fourth century. Charlemagne and Hugh Capet were identified with it. Normans, Burgundians,_ French, English, and Germans have in the past laid their destroying hands upon it. Tho Abbey, which was bumt / in "the eighteenth century, became a seminary. It is now a hospital. In 1536 the women of the town were instrumental in repelling an attack by tho troops of Charles the Fifth. The Gothic church has a beautiful front, that passing motorists going to and fro and from tho front stop to see. Though tho ravages of time have eaten into the soft stone, the carvings aro still beautiful, and on the high-altar there is a figure of Christ carved in wood by Girardon. Abbeville, through which we passed, is rich in historic incident. Under Capet it got its girdle of ramparts. It was the meeting-place for the leaders of the first two crusades. It was under English dominion for two hundred years. The Dukes of Burgundy held it, and then, in 1477, it finally passed to France. Tlicro Louis XII married Mary Tudor, and Wolsey and Francis I signed their alliance against Charles A r . And now tho new Crusaders have come 'to Abbeville. It was a strange sight to see the New Zealanders 1 marching through the old town.

To-day they are marching along the roads where Philip rode after Crecy jjjith his few remaining Barons to the uastle of Labroye, and thence to Amiens. In that great battle 11 princes, 80 bannerets,' 1200 knights, and 30,000 footmen wero slain on theFrench side. But to-day we aro friends with tho French, and any Frenchman will talk to you quite calmly about it all. In another part of Northoru France, near my billet of a fow days ago, there is an old chateau at which our present King called and was hospitably entertained. The Baronne wlio is tho owner told mo that in her cellar wore somo of the missiles thrown by tho English in a former fighting. She laughingly told the King that she had put them all out of sight against his coming—all but one, which she uses as a vaso for flowers in honour of his visit. And the_ King laughed, and signed his name in an old book that contained a picture of _tho chateau with its great walls and its moat in days before even tho English camo. It has taken us toino timo to become tho fast friends we now arc of tho French. Ono wonders how many decades it will bo before we could bo again of one mind with tho Germans!