Ors
The Sambre-Oise Canal was crossed by the Allies during their advance towards victory in November 1918, just before the end of the War. One of the crossing points was near the village of Ors. It is not a particularly significant battlefield in itself, although the canal proved an obstacle for the advancing troops which had to be overcome. Ors itself is located not far from Le Cateau, where one of the earliest battles of the war was fought in August 1914.
This stretch of the canal is significant for the fact that one of the fatalities in the crossing of the Canal was the poet Wilfred Edward Salter Owen, killed on the 4th November 1918, just one week before the end of the War. As my interest in the Great War was originally kindled mainly by reading Owen's poetry and then reading and learning more about him, I made a visit to Ors in 2004 on my way to the Somme 1916 battlefields. As you might expect, the location is commemorated: there is a Western Front Association plaque next to the bridge in Ors, giving information on Owen and his death.
Owen is buried in Ors Cemetery, which is a civilian cemetery which contains several First World War Graves. When I visited, although there were no other visitors at that time, the grave had obviously been visited by many others, and there were many poppies, plus a photograph and a copy of a poem. The words on the headstone were chosen by Owen's mother Susan, and taken from Owen's poem "The End". They are obscured in this picture by the wreath but read: -
Shall life renew
These bodies?
Of a truth
All death will he annul
The actual spot where Owen was killed lies about 100-220 yards to the left of the bridge (looking from the church bank with the church to your back). It is an unremarkable stretch of water, and hard to imagine the chaos that must have been occurring all around when Owen was killed trying to cross that night.
Perhaps the setting was too tranquil, but I found it harder to be moved by this site than by many others on the Somme and in Flanders where one can more easily perhaps imagine the actualities of the War.
