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.