The McKnight trench is filled in, but the years-long display behind PoMo Museum to memorialize WWI in a real, visceral way lives on.
And you won't have to get the soles of your shoes dirty to experience it.
Just in time for Remembrance Day, the museum has launched its McKnight Centennial Trench Legacy Project online to continue sharing the stories of Canadian soldiers who served in the muddy trenches of France and Belgium from 1915 to 1918.
The new portal on PoMo Museum's website tells the story of constructing a replica of a typical WWI trench and the volunteers who helped bring it to life, including re-enactments of the drudgery and terror its real life occupants would have experienced in a typical day or night in the battlefield.
"We will continue to remember their sacrifices by building upon this legacy project through the years," said a statement from the museum, adding the virtual nature of the new display will allow more stories to be added as they're contributed.
The McKnight trench was conceived in 2014 by Port Moody resident and veterans' advocate Guy Black as a way to honour the contribution of Canadian soldiers and commemorate the 100th anniversary of the start of WWI. It's named for Augustus McKnight, a WWI engineer from the city who was killed in 1916 while supervising the construction of a trench near Ypres, Belgium.
In September 2014, work began on expanding the original trench that had been constructed in the summer for a re-enactment exercise. Designed by battlefield historian John Goheen, and based on authentic trench plans, the second trench included a No Man’s Land and observation platforms as well as reinforcement and protection elements like barbed wire.
The new trench — 70 feet long and eight feet deep — took volunteers, including cadets, seven months to build.
"This is going to be a realistic trench system," Black told the Tri-City News.
"It's a huge undertaking,” added Goheen, who also put together educational materials to help bring to life the sandbag walls, secret cubbies and weathered planks.
"[Trench life] would have been a common experience that everyone would have had in WWI," Goheen said.
And it wasn't pleasant. As if the constant spectre of death or injury from bullets, bombs, advancing tanks or gas wasn't horrific enough, soldiers in the trenches also had to combat mud, lice, rats and lack of sleep.
Goheen said as many as 1,000 soldiers would die every day from disease, injury and poor living conditions.
"It was vile and disgusting and dirty."
In 2018, another aspect of WWI life was added to the trench display with the acquisition of a 7/8 scale replica S.E.5a biplane that would have brought death and terror from the skies above the dug-in soldiers.
The trench was decommissioned almost a year ago to provide space for new programming opportunities at the museum.
You can view the McKnight Centennial Trench legacy project by following the links on the PoMo Museum’s website.
- with a file from Diane Strandberg, Tri-City News
