Battlefield Debris

Nearly 100 years after the end of WW1 there is an awful lot of ordnance and general battlefield debris still turning up every time the fields are ploughed, bullets, inexploded shells, grenades, motars, the occasional rifle, pistol, bayonet and general equipment the photographs that follow are some of what we came across on our most recent trip.

In the first photograph the two shells are still live, in the second photograph the middle of the three shells (all of which are live) is a gas shell, photograph three is whats left of a stokes mortar (the bit in the photograph is the explosive bit), all the bullets in the fourth photograph were "live" when we found them , we de-tipped them all, and the corderite in the british rounds burnt off, the same with the gun powder in the german bullets, photograph five is a egg grenade and photograph six a pineapple grenade both of the grenades are live.


All the shells were left where they were found placed there by the farmers concerned, who would have informed the French Army who will eventually come round to collect them (which can take some time!!).

Achiet-Le-Petit, Lancaster LL836

Further to my post about the Lancaster Crew at Grevillers, the very first time I came across such a thing was during our 2008 trip to The Somme Battlefields, on one of our momentously long walks we walked through a little village called Achiet-Le-Petit when we noticed on the outskirts of the village a Commonwealth Wargraves Commision sign at the entrance to the local communal cemetery, we walked into see what was there, and against the far hedge was a row of seven Commonwealth Wargraves Commision headstones all RAF and all having died on the same day, the assumption at the time was it was either a Lancaster, Halifax or a Stirling Crew.

On getting home to the UK a look at my Bomber Command Losses 1939-1945 CD Rom and a hunt round the internet yielded all the information you could wish for, the men all belonged to Lancaster Mk1, LL836, of 550 Squadron flying out of North Killingholme, Lincolnshire, which was shot down on the way to bomb Aulnoye, France on the night of 11th April 1944.

Burial details:

Pilot Officer .William ESSAR Royal Canadian Air Force

Sgt. Thomas Henry GUEST. Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve

Flying Officer John James LOGAN, D.F.C. Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, aged 26. Son of George Charles and Janet Georgina Logan of Penicuik, Midlothian

Flight Lieut. Richard William PICTON, D.F.C. Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve

Flying Officer John Foster POTTER. Royal Canadian Air Force

Flight Lieut. William Hugh WAYCOTT, D.F.M. Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, aged 22. Son of Percival Guernsey and Annie Waycott; nephew of Mr. C. C. Waycott of Whitchurch

Sgt. Kenneth Percy Charles WILLIAMS, D.F.M. Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve

A true "Commonwealth" crew, all so young and three of which had already been decorated for bravery, may they forever Rest In Peace.

Grevillers, Lancaster DS660

During our wanderings around the battlefields its not unusual to come across the graves of aircrew shot down during WW2, one such occasion was while visiting a predominantly WW1 cemetery at Grevillers, we quickly surmised it was a Lancaster Crew, but there were only six, there are seven in a Lancaster Crew, the missing man was the pilot. It turns out that the pilot F/O R B Larson of the RCAF survived the crash and was taken prisoner, its not known what condition he was in but it must of been some impact for him to be the only survivor from a crew of 7, the oldest of whom seems to have been just 28, the youngest 19.

Lancaster MkII DS660 of 115 Squadron was one of 374 aircraft on a raid to Aachen in Germany, it took off from East Wretham at 00.24am, it was shot down on the outskirts of Grevillers 3km WNW of Bapume on 14th July 1943 by a night fighter piloted by Hubert Rauh at 2.35am. 23 aircraft were lost on that raid, DS660 was one of two lancasters from 115 squadron lost that night, the other being DS690.

Pilot: F/O. Rod B. Larson R.C.A.F. Survived POW No: 1778 Stalag Luft Sagan and Belaria

Killed Fl/Eng: Sgt. Mervyn Jones 1653104 R.A.F.V.R. Age. 20.

Killed Nav: P/O. Chester Armstrong 138396 R.A.F.V.R. Age ?

Killed Air/Bmr: F/O. Frederick Leonard Yates 131977 R.A.F.V.R. Age 28.

Killed W/Op/Air/Gnr: Sgt. Peter Williams 1077619 R.A.F.V.R. Age 21.

Killed Air/Gnr: Sgt. Derick Murphy 1044231 R.A.F.V.R. Age ?

Killed Air/Gnr: Sgt. John Albert Thomas Newton 1601296 R.A.F.V.R. Age 19.

Staying at Avril Williams Place!!

We all stayed at Avril Williams place "Ocean Villas" in Auchonvillers, an old farm house now rebuilt after WW1 on its original cellar, she's extended it a little and she can quite comfortably have 16 people staying, it leads to some very lively evenings over dinner, wine, cheese and beer, many an evening has extended into the early hours of the following morning. Auchonvillers was behind the lines but still heavily shelled and much of it was flattened, Avrils place as I've already said was rebuilt over its original cellar which was used as a dressing station before the wounded were moved onto field hospitals further behind the lines, the cellar was also used on the odd occasion to keep prisoners over night while awaiting court martial/execution, one infamous case been that of James Crozier.

A communication trench ran through the village linking up all the cellars of all the houses in the village the one at Avrils has been excavated and restored to an "as it would have been" condition, hundreds of artefacts were found during the dig and many are in display around Ocean Villas for all who stay to look at.

The guy in the second trench photograph is my nephew Greg "Smiler" Colson, enjoying his first trip out to the WW1 Battlefields of The Somme (well he at least he told me he was enjoying it, but he had had a few beers at the time).

Tanks and Football !!

During this years historical research Somme Trip, we walked the area of the first time tanks were used in WW1, starting by Deville Wood then walking into Flers onto Gueudecourt into Lesbouefs, Ginchy and back to Deville Wood. More German ammunition and British .303 rounds than we've found in all our other trips put together, all now safely deactivated and housed in various collections. A couple of intersting memorials in Flers, one only erected last year to the footballers of Leyton Orient FC and one to the 41st Division.

The two unsavoury looking characters that you can see standing in the road, who look like they'd steal your packed lunch are Doug Lewis (he of the Hoody) and the one who looks like he is about to ski down mount Everest is the master field walker Dave Shaw.

2012 Trip to The Somme with The Lads.

Well, it was over as almost as soon as it started, a trip to the Somme Battlefirlds from the 13th - 16th April, usual motley crew and a couple of new faces to our little group, my nephew Greg Colson, a friend from Telford local historian and author David Shaw and his brother inlaw Greg.

The trip was just how I like it, walk till you drop, walking over THE BATTLEFIELDS, treading in the footstep of the men many of who died on the very ground we were stood on. Then of course much drinking and eating in the evenings, my capacity to eat lots of French Cheese and drink lots of French Wine has not been diminished by my advancing years since my first trip out to the Battlefields back in 2006.

Nephew Greg has an "eye" for spotting artefacts in the fields and proved a worthy apprentice to The Master Field Walker Dave Shaw, so much so that the Apprentice was outdoing the master before the end of the weekend, the cars weighed several kilo's more than when we entered France but those who know me say it was all the cheese I ate not all the ordnance we found and spirited back to the UK (all safe I asure you), star find was a rather rare find a 37mm Anti Tank Round, now residing in Dave's collection just down the road from me.

Photo of the weekend was the one taken at the Altar "Their Name Liveth For Ever More" taken at Gommecourt Wood Cemetery, the scene of some of the bloodiest fighting of the whole Somme campaign, when many of the men of the South Staffordshire Regiment and the 46th North Midland Division were cut down in their 1000's, sobering place to visit while reading a passage from the book "A Tommy at Gommecourt" by a man who fought there and survived the garnage.