National Memorial Arboretum

The development of the vast site is still ongoing and will continue for many years to come. Between my first visit in 2008 and my latest return visit in March 2016, countless more monuments/memorials had been added (in fact the number has gone up almost threefold over that period of time).
   

And at the visitor centre a whole new “Remembrance Centre” was under construction, which will no doubt further enhance the museum-like commodification aspects of the place significantly. 

 

Film footage and eyewitness testimonies on various video screen stations further enhance the exhibition. And there is also a large interactive semi-globe on which you can light up the various locations related to this part of the Pacific war by pressing buttons on a board.

   

Perhaps the most unusual exhibit is a church window. This was made by POWs on Java, Indonesia, and includes an intriguing detail – a small act of defiance: instead of the lion's head in the British coat of arms, the POW artist inserted the image of Churchill, compete with a cigar in the corner of his mouth!

   

Further away at the other end of the memorial complex is also a monument dedicated more generally to POWs. It takes the form of a stretch of wall with a partly opened gate. Behind this, new trees are growing.

  

UPDATE: on my latest return trip in March 2016 I found numerous new monuments had been added since the last time I visited, or perhaps they were ones I had somehow missed before. 

   

Moreover, the main central memorial was undergoing extensive refurbishing/expansion work (yet again – that was also the case when I visited in 2008), so I guess there will be significant changes here too. 

  

Amongst the new memorials I found was one dedicated to the Gulf War of 1991/92, another one by the Football Association celebrated the famous story of the Christmas Truce in WWI when German and British soldiers laid down their weapons, of their own accord,  at Christmas and played football with each other instead. Also new, presumably, was a memorial grove for Special Forces. 

   

What I hadn't seen before either is the memorial to those killed in the Falklands War. Because I've visited the Falkland Islands, and went on several battlefield tours while I was there, this part of the Memorial resonated with me especially. 

   

But the most touching memorial of the whole lot to me is the “Shot at Dawn Memorial”. It's not actually new and was already inaugurated in 2001, but on my previous visits I hadn't walked as far as its location at the extreme south-eastern edge of the whole vast complex. When I arrived at the visitor centre on my most recent visit, however, the lady at the desk alerted me to the fact that there would be a talk given at this memorial, so I hurried to get to hear this. I'm glad I did. 

   

This is an unusual memorial here in so far as it does not commemorate servicemen who died on duty, but those who – during Word War One – were court-martialled and sentenced to death by their own superiors for “cowardice”, desertion or disobedience. 

   

As the docent giving the talk at this site pointed out, most of the victims were young volunteers, often under the age of 18. Many of these youngsters were simply traumatized ('shell shocked') by the extreme horrors of the reality of war, which was so starkly different from all the heroic and patriotic propaganda that had made them volunteer in the first place. 

   

The cruelty enforced by the commanders also involved the fact that the firing squads were regularly recruited from the same units as the soldier to be executed – so it was often their own comrades or even friends who had to kill their mates this way. And if they had refused they'd have been the next in line. 

  

The monument consists of a single statue of a man blindfolded and with his hands tied behind the back awaiting the firing squad to do their job. Next to this there are 306 wooden stakes, one for each soldier executed this way. Little plaques give the names and ranks of the dead, but many do not state the age. However, if the their age was given as “unknown” this means in actual fact under 18, i.e. officially under age for recruitment as a soldier. But such was the propaganda-instilled enthusiasm to volunteer than many teenagers lied about their age … and there was little questioning this on the part of the recruiters.   

  

After this touching and tragic monument you can take a walk along the riverbank as a counterpoint – although you soon get to more war memorials and even an authentic war relic, namely in the form of a WWII-era pillbox bunker, right on the riverbank. In fact the memorial's area incorporates a nature reserve of sorts. This is particularly the case in the parts furthest east beyond the railway bridge. Here at the confluence of the Rivers Trent and Tame there is a little secluded piece of paradise for waterfowl and there are information panels at observation spots for birdwatchers too. 

  

In contrast to that, the northern edge of the memorial area is characterized by the sight of the adjacent mining operations going on. This mining is presumably also responsible for the tailings pond bordering the north-western end of the National Memorial. Here signs warn of dangerous quicksand and urge you to stay away!