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
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
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