Reading MineRover's post, triggered off my memory concerning WW1, having grown up with stories of the war from my father who served in the Royal Field Artillery for four years in France, some of the places where he was involved in the fighting being Hellfire Corner, Hill 60, Loos, Gommecourt, The Somme etc. Unfortunately he died when I was in my late 20's and not then being interested in WW1 I didn't really absorb these stories, I now wish I had. I do have his copy of a very tattered first edition of the book of the 46th North Midland Division (the first complete Territorial Division into France in February, 1915, which was composed of Regiments of the old Danelaw counties, i.e. Lincoln, Nottingham, Leicester, Derby and Stafford) "Breaking the Hindenburg Line - The Story of the 46th [North Midland] Division" by Major R. E. Priestley, M.C., R.E., published 1919 by T. Fisher Unwin Ltd., London. In the book as well as describing the final onslaught are some large scale hand painted maps. For years trying to recall where Dad said he'd been, I'd studied maps of France trying to locate the area of these maps around Bellenalise near the St. Quentin canal, where a memorial to the 46th was erected. It was near to the St. Quentin canal tunnel, I knew no more than that.
In 1972 my 2 No. ex and myself organised a four week caving expedition to Turkey, down to the Taurus Mountains. Accompanying us was Jim Eyre and his girl friend who he would later marry, we'd organised earlier expeditions to Iran and Turkey on which Jim and his first wife had also accompanied us. Well we were travelling across northern France (this time in our Transit not the Land Rovers) with Jim driving, when suddenly he braked outside a cafe and said "coffee time folks". My eldest son pointed down the road to a small war memorial that stood by the stone wall that lined the road we were driving along, we walked down to it. To my astonishment it was an American memorial erected by the "Tennessee troops of the 59th & 60th Brigades of the 30th Division who broke the Hindenburg Line on September 29th, 1918". Not only that but we looked over the stone wall and down below us was the St. Quentin canal and the tunnel entrance. Shortly after resuming our journey, we came to a cross roads and there was a sign post pointing to Bellenglise! Shivers went down my back, of all the places in France that we had to stop for a break, why here? I have often puzzled about it. I am an agnostic, but felt very close to my dad that day, it was a very strange feeling as though he'd directed us there, answering yet another of the many questions that I constantly asked him throughout his life.
Still on the same expedition, we left Istanbul and drove down to the west side of the Dardanelle Straits where we reached the ferry terminus to cross to Cannakale which is sited on the east side. The ferry had stopped for the night, it was very late, dark, cold and a strong wind blowing, most of the rocky shore line was covered in masses of plastic of all descriptions, it was a horrible, eerie, uncomfortable place to be. Jim without a care in the world said "well thats it I'm throwing my sleeping bag out and sleeping on the beach tonight". I made Reg put our tent up, it had such an unhappy feel about it, we hardly slept and were up at dawn break. Next night found us outside the gates at Epheusus, the stars were shining in a cloudless sky, it had a most peaceful feel about it, Jim muttered and groaned, he hated it, so that night he put his tent up and my ex. and me slept under the stars. Just goes to show how different people react to different places doesn't it. We went on many expeditions together, Jim was a good bloke to have in tricky situations and we had many adventures, some of which he wrote up in his books.
On our way back from the 1965 Oxford University/Derbyshire caving expedition (a lot of Eldon P.C and P.D.M.H.S. went on this trip) to Leon and the Cantabrian mountains in Northern Spain we visited some of the WW2 cemetaries in northern France. The American cemetary (I've forgotten the name but it was the one where the recent 65th D. Day remembrance ceremony with President Obama was held) was immaculate, the headstones in marble, it was gleaming and to my mind glorified war. We then visited a German cemetary, and having lived as a child through WW2 experiencing bombing etc., I felt that this cemetary with sculptured figures, heads hung down, hewn out of brown/black granite as were the headstones, really brought back the meaning of what war was really all about. The feeling was of great oppression, and sadness. I had to leave because the atmosphere was so overbearing and it made me cry. A complete contrast to the American cemetary.
Sorry to have gone off topic once again, but there are many, many eerie places on this earth, that arn't just confined to mining areas.