2009 Battlefield Tour of The Somme, Day 3

Monday 10th August 2009

Well Monday was another fantastically hot day, but instead of walking we spent some of it in the car as what Amanda wanted to see was at least 28km away.

We drove over to Arras to visit the tunnel system under the town. Which are a series of underground limestone quarries from the 17th century linked by 20 km of tunnels dug by the New Zealand Tunnelling Corps in just 6 months prior to the battle of Arras in April 1917. They where used to hide 24,000 men before a surprise attack on German positions on the morning of 9th April 1917, the population of Arras itself only numbered 20,000 at the time. As a result of my research into my family history I have discovered an ancestor (Private Arthur Lambeth of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment) who was one of those 24,000 men waiting in those tunnels, he survived the first days of the battle but was killed in action on 27th April 1917 and he has no known grave, so a special moment for me.

After that we drove to the centre of the old town for a walk round and a look at all the old buildings and then stopped for a spot of lunch, which gave Amanda a chance to practice her spoken French.

After Arras we drove to Vimy Ridge which is now the site of Canada's national memorial of remembrance for the dead of WW1, I visited this last October when I was out here with the lads and after Amanda had seen my photographs she was particularly keen to visit Vimy Ridge. We had a guided tour of the tunnel system and surviving trenches. The French and British had spent 2 years trying to take the ridge, the Canadians threw everything at it (4 division's) and took the ridge in 4 days, for the loss of just under 4000 men

Much wine and Leffe was consumed in the evening, even by Amanda who is a bit of a light weight when it come to alcohol.


Vimy Ridge Memorial.

2009 Battlefield Tour of The Somme, Day 2

Sunday 9th August 2009

After breakfast we visited some excavated and preserved trenches behind the guest house where we are staying (the village of Auchonvillers was just behind the British front line) and then the cellar that was used as a dressing station in 1916 and also as a prison for a well known and controversial shot at dawn victim Private James Crozier.

It has been blisteringly hot today, I have no idea what the temperature was but whatever it was it was very high and probably not ideal walking weather but we went walking anyway, a three and a half hour walk turned into a 5 hour walk!

We walked the area around the village of Serre, where a lot of men from the "pals battalions" from Leeds, Hull, Accrington, Sheffield, Chorley and Hull were lost attempting to take the village from the Germans. It's beautifull countryside and so peaceful with so few people around, sometimes its difficult to imagine what went on in this area over 90 years ago.

After a few beers back at Auchonvillers early in the afternoon we took a drive out to Albert and made our way back, via Lochnagar Crater (site of a 60,000lb mine exploded under German positions) near the village of La Boiselle, Poziers Memorial to the missing, Moquet Farm (both part of the Australian sector), Thiepval Memorial to the missing (over 73.000 names on it) and Ulster Tower (memorial to the 36th Ulster Division)

Amanda has enjoyed the walking and peace and quiet and Alice has loved the history part of the day (despite moaning about the walking), me I've just enjoyed been out and about.
The day ended with dinner, red wine and Leffe back at Auchonvillers (this is going to get terribly “familiar”) over the next few days!!


It's a Live one Dad!(A live ww1 shell found in the field opposite Serre Road No2 CWGC Cemetery). Hundreds of shells, bullets, grenades,etc still turn up every year during ploughing,this shell was put back.

2009 Battlefield Tour of The Somme

"Auchonvillers and the Guest House called Ocean Villas"


Saturday 8th August 2009

We are sitting here in the village of Auchonvillers, which is part way between the towns of Arras and Albert.

We are all completely cream crackered me especially having done all the driving and as I type this I have been up 38 hours. The journey isn't really that long in terms of time and distance but when common sense said I really should have gone to bed for a couple of hours on Friday before driving down to Dover to catch the ferry, I decided not to, so now I know about it!

After landing at Dunkirk (the BEF went “the other way in 1940!!) we drove down the coast to Boulogne to visit the grave of my Great Grandfather who died of wounds in a hospital in Boulogne in March 1915 after the Battle of Neuve Chapelle, while serving with the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, I haven’t visited his grave since 2007. From Dunkirk, I said to Amanda “find me a route from Boulogne to Auchonvillers that doesn't involve using the toll motorways”. She did but it must have been the most convoluted journey between the two destinations known to man.

After dumping all gear in our room we were out walking for two hours on a circular route that took in the villages of Auchonvillers and Hamel and the site of a mine just off Hawthorn Ridge that was exploded under German positions using just over 40,000lbs of Ammol on 1st July 1916, the resulting hole is now known as you guessed it "Hawthorn Crater".

The large amount of Red Wine and Leffe beer is now starting to take, so I'm off to bed, Amanda and the little one retired an hour ago.