Tempus Fugit reenactment of a World War I trench in Écourt-Saint-Quentin, Digi Mart USA News (Écourt-Saint-Quentin, Pas-de-Calais, France): Each year, the association Tempus Fugit recreates life in a World War I trench for a few days. Part educational outreach and part activity of passionate volunteers, the reenactment was visited on site in Écourt-Saint-Quentin in the Pas-de-Calais department.
The men keep their rifles to their shoulders, and the silence is so heavy that only the breathing of a neighbor can be heard. Feet sink into the mud.
Trees hide in the mist, and so does the enemy. The date is not 1914 but 2026.
In the heart of the Becquerel marsh, in Écourt-Saint-Quentin, volunteers from the Tempus Fugit Écourt association recreate a World War I trench from top to bottom, including costumes and accessories. For a few days during “La semaine du Poilu,” running from November 4 to 11, they live the everyday life of French soldiers of the First World War.
The activity combines remembrance with explanation for a curious public eager to learn about the living conditions of soldiers of the era.
Shell fragments, Lebel rifles and abandoned helmets lie across the landscape. Nothing has been left to chance by the enthusiasts of Tempus Fugit Écourt: “We have the carcass of an old English rifle and even an empty machine-gun ammunition box, to recall their role.” Max Maplant, rifle on his shoulder and dressed head to toe in the French soldier’s “horizon blue” uniform, is happy to present the reconstructed trench where he and his comrades work.
“We’ll have to keep the fire going,” one hears, and it feels almost real.
Some 600 visitors make the trip each year. The volunteers are bombarded with questions, which they answer gladly, particularly about the uniforms: “They already made an improvement for camouflage, it’s more discreet than the red Garance trousers, for example,” Max says with a smile.
François Degroise, another member of the association, wears the so-called “Garance” uniform with its bright red trousers, which the French army wore at the start of the Great War. From 1915, faced with heavy losses caused by the high visibility of the Garance trousers, the French adopted the more discreet “horizon blue” uniform.
“Living history is still more fun. The children who come walk through the mud.
They will feel what we feel, they will smell the smell of the fire, they will see us in uniform,” explains François Degroise. In his view, when children, who visit the trench in large numbers, experience history up close, they will remember it all their lives.
“We hope that this presence strengthens their citizenship and their desire to meet other peoples, to form something powerful,” says Philippe Gyl, the third member of the Tempus Fugit Écourt group. The three men are preparing to sleep for a week in a cagna (an improvised underground shelter), where around ten poilus once crowded together.
“We cannot stop thinking about our grandparents, our ancestors, what they lived through in the trenches during the first world conflict,” Max says. There is no pretense: they light their way by candlelight, sharing the shelter with the shadows of their ancestors still fighting on the walls.
The volunteers, at least, will perhaps not be bothered by rats.
They will occupy the trench until November 11 at 11 a.m., after which they will pay tribute to the poilus at the town’s war memorial.
