2009 Battlefield Tour well and truely over!

Friday 14th August 2009

It was that day that we all dislike when we are on holiday the day we have to go home. We were up early, loaded the car and then sat down for breakfast. Then after paying our bill and saying some rather long good byes we jumped into the car and headed for Albert to fill up with petrol. The drive to Dunkirk took about 2.5 hours and was pretty uneventful and delay free, French roads are an absolute joy to drive on and so well maintained. In fact we made such good time we arrived nearly an hour before boarding so we had a chance to stretch our legs after checking in.

The crossing was pretty calm and in beautiful sunshine which remained the case once we got to Dover. Once we were off the ferry and onto the roads in and around Dover they proved to be typically British roads, congested and full of fouled mouthed drivers I had drivers flicking me the “V’s” and shouting abuse before were even out of the docks what a f****** ignorant bunch the Brits at home can be once they get behind the wheel of their little tin boxes. I for a change failed to respond to one particular Neanderthal in his new (judging by the registration plate) BMW 4 x 4. He was obviously very jealous of my vastly more economical 15 year old Rover and of the fact that unlike me, the female passenger in HIS vehicle was let’s just say, “not blessed with good looks”, HA.

Motorway progress was slow but steady until we got within 10 miles of the Dartford tunnel crossing under the river. Traffic then ground to a halt and those 10 miles to the crossing took two hours, nearly as much as the entire journey from Telford to Dover took just 7 days earlier. I think the lesson which has been well drummed into me over the past 25 years of driving in the UK is if you want to get anywhere in reasonable time on the motorway system (especially in the area around London) then travel at “silly o clock” at night/very early morning!!

Overall it took 6 hours to get to Telford from Dover, not a happy bunny was I.

2009 Battlefield Tour of The Somme, Day 6

Thursday 13th August 2009

Thursday was our last full day and it was hammering it down for the first two/three hours of the day, so after breakfast we drove out to village Martin Puich to have a look at a German Bunker that during al my previous visits to the Somme has been fenced off. It has recently been excavated cleared of all rubbish and is open for the public to wander round, there is no charge and you can come and go as you please.

The rain became little more than a light drizzle so we drove off to Danzig Alley Cemetery and parked the car, Danzig Alley was the site of a German Trench and is now a CWGC Cemetery, the trench ran into a German fortified position about 800 meters away know as Pommiers Redoubt. An uncle of my late grandmother Thomas Coulson served with the 6th Royal Berkshires in WW1 and on the 1st July the first day of the battle of the Somme the trench and the redoubt were their targets, both successfully taken and held (at some cost). Thomas was seriously wounded on the first day but recovered and was transferred to the Essex Regiment and served in Egypt and Palestine he survived the war. Anyway it was interesting to see the ground he and his comrades fought their way over.

From the cemetery we took a track across the farmland towards Mametz Wood, which lies behind the village of Mametz, eventually reaching the Welsh 38th Division Memorial opposite the woods, they lost 1000’s of men taking the wood, which they eventually did. Now I suppose it’s important to remember the fallen and that’s what the memorial is for it does its job, personally though as a sculpture I think it’s hideous.


Welsh Division memorial opposite Mametz Wood

From there we walked in a large loop eventually reaching the village of Mametz itself and headed for the civilian cemetery and the shrine. On the 1st July 1916 the Germans had a machine gun hidden in it, unknown to the Devonshre Regiment in trenches in Mansel Copse opposite the shrine and the Gordan Highlanders in Trenches just in front of and to the left of the copse. I don’t need to tell you what happened when the whistle blew at 7.30am that morning, suffice to say there are two cemeteries one is exclusively Gordan Highlanders the other Devonshire Regiment. We visited the Devonshire Cemetery which is basically their old front line trench (many never made it beyond the Trench) before walking back to the car at Danzig Alley Cemetery.

The Shrine where the Germans hid their machine gun.


Mansel Copse is on the right in the tree line at the front of the copse is Devonshire Cemetery.


Memorial stone at the entrance to Devonshire Cemetery, the words were originally inscribed on a wooden cross.


Devonshire Cemetery, the former front line trench of the men from the Devonshire Regiment, cut down by that machine gun in the shrine.


All that took just over three hours, we then drove to the village of Carnoy to visit the cemetery there, notable for containing the grave (amongst many others) of Billie Neville who led the four companies of his battalion across no mans land with each of the companies kicking a football, there was a prize on offer to the first company to get their football into the German Trenches. The prize was never collected, Billy Neville never made it two of the footballs survived and are in the regimental museum. Just outside of Carnoy we visited the spot of the old front line trenches of the 6th Berkshires where Thomas Coulson started out from, so now we where looking at the land they attacked over from the starting point, where as earlier at Danzig Alley we were looking at it from they were heading for.

Driving back to Auchonvillers for a much needed dinner and Leffe and red wine we noticed that there was a private memorial to a Private David Amos in a wood (indicated on the map). We took some time to find it, it turned out to be a nice simple cross with a small brass plaque on it, looking at it I think it was put up over 20 years ago probably by a family member (this sort of thing is not un common in this part of France).


Private memorial to Private David Amos in Bois de Hollande (Holland Wood), just outside the village of Beaucourt

2009 Battlefield Tour of The Somme, Day 5

Wednesday 12th August 2009

We drove out to see the memorial and for a walk around the woods at Deville Wood near the village of Longueval, the scene of an horrific battle when in July 1916 the South African Brigade were ordered to take and hold the wood “whatever it takes” in the woods they were surrounded on three sides by the Germans. Of 3433 men that went in after 6 days, 3 wounded officers and 140 men walked out. Deville Wood is now the site of their national memorial to the memory of all South Africans that has died in combat, whatever the conflict.


Deville Wood Memorial, taken from the entrance to the woods.


After that we headed out towards the site of another big battle which is now a French National Cemetery at Notre Dam De Lorrette, is on a ridge where the is a good view of Vimy Ridge (The National Canadian Memorial) in the distance, the French were fighting to take this ridge at the same time the Canadians were fighting to take Vimy Ridge. Notre Dam de Lorrette now contains over 40,000 individual graves, over 10,000 more in two mass graves and the bones of more than 40,000 unknowns in a crypt under the Ossuary. While there we had a look around the church and the Ossuary itself.


Notre Dam de Lorrette, view of the Ossuary.

During the trip out there we visited the Butte De Wallencourt a large 2000 year old burial mound with a superb 360 degree view for several miles in any direction. The Germans not surprisingly were entrenched on the top and the British made several attempts over many months to take it, which they eventually did at great cost. Even today at harvest time the amount of ordnance that is ploughed up is incredible and the disturbance in the fields (chalk infill in the surrounding and predominantly clay soil) from the shelling is still very evident even after 90 years.

A tiring day ended back at the guest house at Auchonvillers for dinner, lots of red wine and plenty of Leffe (the French don’t do “Ale”)

2009 Battlefield Tour of The Somme, Day 4

Tuesday 11th August 2009

To start with Tuesday was a rather cool day in fact there was very light rain so we opted for a walk, perfect walking weather. We walked Auchonvillers to Beaumont Hamel then over the fields to Newfoundland Park. Newfoundland Park is now a national war memorial park to all Newfoundland men lost during WW1 but particularly the Battle of The Somme (which actually raged for 4 months) and the terrible events of the first day. The land the park stands on was purchased outright by the government of Newfoundland in the early 1920's and now that Newfoundland is officially part of Canada it is staffed by Canadian students who do 6 month stints in France alternating between Vimy Ridge and Newfoundland Park (there is a big waiting list for these post's).
We walked back to Auchonvillers to fetch the car on the way back we stopped of at the local civilian communal cemetery which contains a handful of graves of men who were all killed on the same day in 1916. We then drove out to Ancre Cemetery. Alice has done some research on a casualty Albert Edward Holman from the 11th Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment he was killed in action fighting over the ground to the rear of what is now Ancre Cemetery. Albert has no known grave and is commemorated on Thiepval Memorial. We did however find a number of graves to Royal Sussex men who were unidentified (Known Unto God), so even though the regiment is known, the identity of the casualty isn’t. We stopped at the grave of one of a “Known Unto God” Royal Sussex Regiment casualty, who knows it could be Albert Holman! Walking in the field to the side of the cemetery I tripped over a live shell, dragged up only a couple of days ago by the plough!!

From Ancre Cemetery the next stop on our tour for the day was Ulster Tower a memorial to the men of the 36th Ulster Division (which is about 2 miles from Newfoundland Park) and a tour of the part excavated trench system in Thiepval Woods opposite the tower, Ted our guide the curator of the tower and woods is very knowledgeable and engages with his audience, even if you have no interest in WW1 but maybe an interest in history in general and happen to be in the area, a tour of Thiepval Woods is a must.

The weather brightened up and on our way back to Auchonvillers Alice found a live shell. The detonator may not of gone off (the reason its still in one piece) but the rest of it is still live and after 90 years in the ground is more than a little unstable, try telling her that though, by the time I'd opened my mouth she had picked it up!!

The day (no surprise here) ended with Leffe, red wine and plenty of French cheeses.


The land at the back of Ancre Cemetery beyond the white cross in the background, is where Albert Holman was killed.


This is the patch of land Albert was killed fighting over, he and his battalion were moving left to right, towards Beaumont Hamel.