[attach id=518191 size="medium"][/attach]

In his article (June 29), Martin Scicluna referred to the effect on the French psyche of the terrible death toll of the battles of the Somme, Verdun and others during World War I.

I have been motoring extensively through France for many years and was always struck by how assiduously the French paid tribute to their fallen. You will be hard put to find a French village, however small, that does not have a dignified monument, even a simple stone column, with inscribed on its base the names of the persons from that village who died during WWI. These were erected after the armistice in 1918 and, more often than not, there is an addendum with the names of those who fell during World War II.

A poignant reminder of the fearsome slaughter that took place, the WWI battle areas are dotted with cemeteries, as are the coastal areas of Normandy where the Allied forces landed in 1944.

What I found intensely moving was the chilling wording on a plaque in Orleans cathedral: “To the memory of one million dead” in the Great War.