Ending the War to End All Wars

I wonder how often folk have driven past the Ardgour War Memorial and never paid it much attention. This was certainly the case for me, having passed it countless times on my way to and from the Corran Ferry, until one day when I found myself with some spare time at the marshalling area on the Ardgour side of the Corran Narrows. After deciding to go for a quick walk, I found myself up on a bank just south of the lighthouse, standing beside the War Memorial and looking southwards at an expansive view of Loch Linnhe. While standing there, I spotted something that I would later learn played a small part in a huge project that is thought to have been key in bringing World War I to an end.

Image 1: Ardgour War Memorial near Corran Lighthouse

​The Ardgour War Memorial is typical of the many that you find scattered across the Highlands, consisting of a granite Celtic cross and plinth mounted on a base of what seems to be made of local stone. Whilst here, I took a moment to stand by it with my eye drawn to the wreath of red poppies that had been laid at the base of the cross and to the words inscribed on the plinth beneath it:

IN MEMORIAM
PARISH OF ARDGOUR
THE GREAT WAR 1914-18
_____
DO'N GHINEALACH A RINN ÌOBAIRT SADH FHUILING
CRUADAL, S A SHEALBHAICH BUAIDH
_____
TO THE GENERATION WHICH BORE THE SACRIFICES
AND BY SHARING IN THE HARDSHIPS, ACHIEVED VICTORY

​I then noticed that the Memorial’s stone base was sitting on what appeared to be a metal ring with several bolts protruding from it. I didn’t give them much thought at the time, but a day or two later, I couldn’t help wondering what they had been used for, so decided to try and found out.

A bit of research revealed that a gun battery had been built on that spot in 1917. Its purpose was to provide protection for United States Navy ships unloading mines at Corpach. It comprised two 15-pounder guns and one 7.5-inch howitzer, all bolted down onto steel rings called holdfasts which were set into plain concrete slabs. The War Memorial was later built on one of these concrete slabs and the steel ring I had noticed was one of these holdfasts. The Imperial War Museum Archive holds some photographs of the gun battery that were taken during World War I and you can see them by clicking here.

Image 2: The Metal Ring and Bolts at the Base of the Ardgour War Memorial

​The mines were being used in the North Sea Mine Barrage, a large minefield laid easterly from the Orkney Islands, right across the top of the North Sea to Norway with the aim of preventing the U-Boats based in Germany from making their way out into the Atlantic to attack the convoys that were bringing supplies from the United States to the British Isles.

Image 3: As the Stars - Ardgour War Memorial, Corran Point, Ardgour
A tribute For the Fallen. Ardgour War Memorial beneath the Milky Way during a late September night

Laying the Barrage was a huge undertaking and until World War II, it remained the largest ever laid. It spanned the entire 230-mile width of the North Sea from Orkney and Norway and was between 15 to 35 miles wide. The Allied Forces began it in June 1918 and within a matter of a few months they had laid just over 70,000 of mines at a total cost of just over £1bn in today’s money. The barrage was considered to be a great success and is credited with the destruction or damage of up to 21 U-Boats, but probably its greater effect was in shattering the morale of German submarine crews, thus helping to bring about the revolt of German seamen that marked the beginning of the defeat of Germany in World War I.

Taking a step back, I found it amazing that such an incongruous set of bolts would have been part of what today would be the equivalent of a £1bn military project that is thought to have played such a key part in bringing World War I to an end. A war that left more than 16 million people dead. Poignant, very poignant indeed. So much so, that I felt compelled to return on a starry autumn night and take this image titled “As the Stars”.

​I took these words for the image title from the seventh stanza of the poem, “For the Fallen” by Laurence Binyon, which reads:
 
“As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.”
 
The poem is more commonly known for its third and fourth stanzas as they are often recited at Remembrance Day services as what is termed the "Ode of Remembrance", ending with the familiar words “We will remember them”.

​Despite the words of these two stanzas being extremely thought provoking, I find the words of the seventh stanza incredibly moving because there is such strong sense of poignancy to them. I guess that’s why I used them as the title for this image.