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.
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.
posted by Whitey in Telford at
02:03
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