Source: File: The
destruction of the church in Moÿ-de-l'Aisne, February 1917. Available at: <http://02610.moy.free.fr/Moydelaisne/02610.moy/Infos/Municipalite/Moyquand/N23/Lanciers.html>
[Accessed 18 April 2017]
[Accessed 18 April 2017]
With the western front in
France,
Reaching its 35th week in
3rd
Year of war, devastation of
lives
Of the population had no
conclusion.
Between the invasion of Germany
Taking over ground of Aisne
And reunification of that
area,
Came reports of great
annihilation.
Making a visitation of the
retaken
Region, Chairman of the
Aisne
Refugee Committee D.Camp,
Learned of systematic
destruction.
Eleven French towns and
villages
Were wiped off the map -
The occupiers had used
Variations of means in
process.
Battering rams had been
built
To destroy ancient town
Walls; dynamite, petrol tar
All employed to take down
houses.
Exteriors of churches still
stood
But all contents taken,
Graveyards lay broken -
Opened vaults emptied to bury
own.
Some 25 miles from Laon town,
Lay Ugny le Gay - little
More than a hamlet
Of 234 people, lay in persecution.
Germans made tax of exactions.
First demanded monies
February 1915; £140.00 -
The same demand again in
August.
September 1915 saw how the
Mayor
Of Ugny le Gay and others
Were imprisoned, until
Payment of £500.00 were handed
over.
October 1915, £200 fee equivalent
In francs was demanded -
12 months later, October
1916, another extortion sum
of £1500.
When finally the Germans
were forced
From the area, the people
Found their possessions
Had been seized, pillaged and
abused.
Young girls of the village
were taken
Away - villagers disinterred
as
Germans set homes on fire
Destroying machinery and fruit trees.
Any French people who returned to their
Villages, would have struggled
To see where their homes had
Once stood; to see crushed stone
piles.
by Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1917.
Devastated France. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 9 April March 1917. P.6. Col.5. Available at: <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12214440/Daily-Telegraph-April-9-1917.html>
[Accessed: 20 April 2017].
Mann, J., 2016. 100
years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 20 April
2017).
#WW1
#WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary #worldwarone
#worldwaroneremembered #WW1France
No comments:
Post a Comment