THE APPROACH ROUTES

These are the suggested routes to the Somme from the Channel or Paris.

Please read this section carefully before you leave so that you can plan the most appropriate route for you. This will depend on your chosen base. Basically the Eastern Approach comes into the battlefield from the east at Péronne via the Historial Museum; the Western Approach enters at Amiens. The Central Approach goes directly to Albert.

Extra Visits are suggested from the direct basic routes that will make your journey more interesting, provided you have the time.

NOTE FOR ALL APPROACH ROUTES

Remember that most of these are toll roads, the toll booths being signed as Péages.

On arriving in France SET YOUR MILEOMETER TO ZERO.

Five miles equate to 8 kilometres.

a. From Calais Ferry Port take the A16 signed Paris/Reims. After 4.4 miles take the A26/E15 signed St Omer/Lens/Arras/Paris (and if all else fails initially keep following Paris signs).

b. From Eurotunnel. After emerging, pass on your left a Petrol station (GPS: 50.93480 1.81769). Follow signs through a series of roundabouts to A16 and deduct approx 8 miles from the total mileages now given. Initially follow signs to A26/Péage and Paris.

c. If arriving by air or train into Paris and thence by car take the A1 to Assevillers and either turn right to start at the Historial at Péronne on the D1029 or left on the D1029 or the Autoroute A29 to Amiens and pick up the Approach routes as appropriate.

THE EASTERN APPROACH

1. This is the Quickest Basic Route to Péronne if you are making it your base or starting point from that end of the battlefield with a visit to the Historial Museum.

Approximate driving time, without stops: 1 hour 40 minutes.

Approximate distance: 100 miles.

At 24.4 miles on the A26 is the first Péage station. Take a ticket.

At 55 miles the Loos battlefield, marked by twin slag heads (the famous ‘Double Crassier’) can be seen on the left.

At 56 miles Exit 6.2, signed to Liéven/Lens/Douai is passed.

[IT IS AT THIS POINT THAT THE LONGER ROUTE (SEE BELOW) MAY BE STARTED.]

At 60 miles the Memorial to Jacques Defrasse (qv) may be seen to the right.

At 62.4 miles the Vimy Memorial (qv) may be seen to the left.

At 69.5 miles at the motorway junction take the A1/E15 signed Arras/Paris.

Continue on the A1.

At 86 miles Exit 14 is passed.

[IT IS AT THIS POINT THAT THE CENTRAL APPROACH ROUTE (SEE BELOW, Map page 29) MAY BE STARTED.]

At 94.3 miles is Exit 13-1.

Take this exit from the A1 at the Aire de Maurepas, signed Albert/Péronne, take the D938, signed to Péronne and the Historial.

At the first roundabout is a large sculpture entitled Lumières d’Acier (Steel Lights), an imaginative comment on the war by sculptor Albert Hirsch, with an explanatory signboard (only seen if you look back as you start along the D938!). Cross the Canal du Nord, enter Péronne, follow signs to the Historial (beware of fierce speed bumps as you enter the town) and park in the square in front of the Museum.

• Historial de la Grande Guerre/RWC (100 miles, Map I /40, GPS: 49.92885 2.93245)

This costly and ambitious project, which aims to show World War I in an entirely new light and act as a centre for documentation and research, was funded by the Department of the Somme, and opened in 1992. At the main entrance is a Ross Bastiaan bronze bas relief Plaque inaugurated by the Australians in 1993.

Its façade is the medieval castle, behind which is the modern building, designed by H.E. Ciriani.

At first considered by some to be somewhat intellectual and exclusive, the Museum started to become more accessible and relevant to the area under the influence of Director, François Bergez. François has now moved on to become Director of Tourism for the Somme Département and has been succeeded by the enthusiastic and dynamic Hervé François, who has some exciting plans for the four years of the WW1 Centenary. The Museum re-opened in March 2014 after extensive work on what will be an on-going project of renovation and change of emphasis over the 4 years of the Centenary. Progressively the great halls will illustrate the history of the Castle itself, the pre-war years and build up to War, its conduct and participants, and finally the Armistice, the trauma legacy of the war and the post-war reconstruction period. These are illustrated through the skilful combination of original artefacts and art works with modern technology. The beautiful courtyard contains a vaulted brick hall whose renovation was funded by the Australians which concentrates on their actions round Péronne and Mont St Quentin (qv, where there is an Australian Remembrance Trail, a map of which may be collected here). There is a new informative video presentation near the entrance, formidable documentation centre, comfortable ‘Internet Café’ and well-stocked boutique. Changing temporary exhibitions.

Historial de la Grande Guerre, the entrance

Floor display, Historial, Péronne

Replica Saint Chamond Tank, Historial courtyard before moving to Thiepval Museum

To further the Historial’s aim to commemorate the Great War through artistic and cultural events, a major ‘artwork’, ‘The Garden of the 6th Continent’, designed by horticultural engineer Gilles Clément was inaugurated on 2 July 2014 beside the Historial with an international ceremony and concert.

The Historial works closely with the Comité du Tourisme de la Somme (CDT) and the Conseil Générale de la Somme on projects to preserve and promote the Somme battlefield by acquiring historic sites, putting up descriptive signboards in sites of particular interest (indicated with CGS/H in the text of this book) and signs for a Circuit de Souvenir (Remembrance Route). It directs the Centre at Thiepval and the new Museum attached to it (qv). Also, in conjunction with the CDT and the Musée Somme at Albert, it produces a list of approved guides/hotels, b+bs to the area (‘Somme Battlefields’ Partners’, qv) and offers special entrance fees to the two museums.

For progress, information and events programme, see www.historial.org.

Entrance fee payable (+ new advantageous ticket covering several other museums).

Closed: annually mid-Dec to end Jan. Open: Low season 0930-1500, closed Wed. High season: Every day 0930-1800. Tel: + (0) 3 22 83 1418. E-mail: info@historial.org

• Péronne/RWC

The town is well worth a closer look. It has been a fortified town since the Roman invasion and the massive ramparts were built in the ninth century (of which only the Brittany Gate now remains intact). Besieged and heavily damaged in 1870 in the Franco-Prussian War and invaded by the Germans in August 1914, it became to the Germans what Amiens was to the British – a centre of activity and leisure. Many dramatic German notices and posters appeared around the town, some preserved in the Historial. The most famous is that which was put up on the Town Hall on 18 March 1917 - ‘Nicht ärgern, Nur wundern!’ (‘Don’t be angry, only wonder’) left by the Germans as they retreated to the Hindenburg Line. The Warwicks retaliated with their own sign, affixed to a lamp-post, ‘1/8 Warwicks Entered Péronne at 7 a.m. 18/3/17’. The town was re-occupied by the Germans during the March Offensive of 1918 and retaken by the 2nd Australian Division on 2 September 1918. Their divisional flag is in the Town Hall, which every day at noon and at 1800 hours plays the Poilu’s favourite song, Le Madelon on its carillon and beside the Town Hall is the Roo de Kanga! The church of St Jean still bears marks of bullets and shells on its walls. Damaged again in 1940, the town bears two Croix de Guerre and the Légion d’Honneur in its coat of arms. It is twinned with Blackburn, which adopted it after World War I and funded the rebuilding of a bridge over the Somme (qv). The town’s War Memorial is unusual as it shows the figure of a belligerently gesticulating woman, Marie Fouré, ‘Picardy cursing the War’.

(Alternatively Péronne and the Historial may be visited on Itinerary Four.)

2. A LONGER ROUTE with more to see. [Much of this Approach is covered in more detail in Holts’ Western Front – North Guide.]

Follow the Basic Route from Calais to Exit 6.2 (note that this was previously 6.1!) on the A26. (56 miles).

New International WW1 Interpretative Centre, Souchez, Notre-Dame de Lorette & French Memorials/Museum RWC/OP/Cabaret Rouge CWGC Cemetery, Czech & Polish Memorials, La Targette–Museum, CWGC Cemetery & French National Cemetery, Neuville St Vaast–German Cemetery, Lichfield Crater CWGC Cemetery, Vimy Ridge Canadian National Memorial, trenches, tunnels and Memorials/WC

Take Exit 6.2, the junction with the A21. Immediately after the péage fork right from the A21 onto the D301 signed to Bruay la B., Aix Noulette. Take the first exit signed Aix Noulette, Béthune on the D937.

Continue through Aix Noulette, past the junction with the D51 to the Auberge de Lorette (uncategorised, 5 bedrooms. Tel: + (03)21 72 25 25) on the right and stop on the left by the Memorial.

The Memorial is to the 158th Régiment d’Infanterie (GPS: 50.40882 2.73190), erected by survivors of the Lorette sector. Before it is the tomb of Sous Lieutenant Jean R. Léon, age 22, 26 May 1915, of the 28th Régiment, Légion d’Honneur, Croix de Guerre.

Walk up the track marked ‘privé’ to the left to the large memorial on the right.

The Memorial (GPS: 50.40926 2.73376) is to Sous-Lieutenant Jacques Defrasse age 23, 16 June 1915 of the 174th Régiment and the men of the 3rd Company, killed in the assault on the Tranchée des Saules (which was roughly on the site of the track leading to the memorial). One side bears a message from the General commanding the Division praising Cadet Defrasse’s courage in the assault on La Tranchée de Calonne on 3 May 1915. The other side bears a message from the Corps commander detailing Defrasse’s promotion to Sous Lieutenant. He had only just put his rank stripes on his tunic (to be seen in the Museum at Notre-Dame de Lorette) when he was killed.

The Memorial is clearly visible to the right when driving past on the A21.

Return to your car and continue. On the left is the

Tomb of Sous-Lt J. R. Léon

Memorial to 158th Regt d’Inf

Memorial to Sous-Lt J. Defrasse

Lens Centre d’Interpretation de la Première Guerre Mondiale, Souchez (GPS: 50.40121 2.73889)

This new WW1 Intrepretative Centre of the First World War, (covering 1,200 square metres, of which 650 are dedicated to the stark anthracite building) was open to the public on 7 June 2015. The ambitious project cost €6.1million and was funded by the State, the French MOD, the Region and the Département. Designed by architect Pierre-Louis Faloci, it uses the latest modern technology - video, audio etc, some of which can be used via smart phones. It describes in chronological order the seven main stages of the conflict in the area. There is access to the personal stories and artefacts of the men commemorated on the International Circle of Death Memorial at N-D de Lorette (see below), an Exhibition space and boutique. Open: 1000-1800 in summer and 1000-1700 in winter. Closed Mon and 3 weeks in Jan. Admission Free. Audio-guide €3.00.

Tel: + (0)3 21 74 83 15/21 67 66 66. E-mail: info@tourisme-lenslieven.fr Website: tourismelenslieven.fr

Follow signs for parking and entrance. Beyond the Centre the Loos Double Crassier is clearly visible.

On the roadside past the Centre is

The Art Deco style white building (now repainted with new images) which was the old European Centre for Peace.

Turn right and drive up the hill to the Memorials.

Opposite is the Estaminet A l’Potée de Léandre.

Regional dishes. Tel: + (0)3 21 45 16 40.

Turn right and drive up the hill to the Memorials.

This road to N-D de Lorette has been widened to include a walking route with interesting Information Stations en route as one ascends. On the left are panoramic views and on the right pillars with haunting images of Poilus.

Lens Interpretation Centre, Souchez

Notre-Dame de Lorette Commemoration Area. GPS: 50.40012 2.71941

At the entrance to the area there is a fine statue to General Maistre and 21st Army Corps, erected in 1925.

This vast French National Cemetery, containing 40,057 burials of which 20,000 have individual graves and the rest are in eight ossuaries, is on the site of bitter and costly fighting by the French in ‘the Battle of Lorette’ from October 1914 to October 1915. It is dominated by an imposing Basilique (with vivid SGWs showing important highlights of the war) and 52m-high memorial lantern which contains a crypt in which are unknown soldiers and déportés from the wars in 1939-45, Indochina (1945-54) and North Africa (1952-62). An extraordinary personality was commemorated here in September 1994 – Louise de Bettignies - who worked for both the French and British Intelligence Services, and was imprisoned by the Germans, dying in Cologne on 27 September 1918. See http://www.cheminsdememoire.gouv.fr/en/louise-de-bettignies

Haunting Poilu faces, en route to Notre-Dame de Lorette.

The 200 steps of the lantern may be climbed for a superb view over the battlefield and its rotating light can be seen for more than 40 miles around.

Between the two edifices is an eternal flame. This is rekindled and the Tricolore is raised each Sunday morning after the 1030 Mass in the Basilica. There are sixty-four Russians, one Belgian and one Rumanian graves. The first grave on the left as you enter the cemetery is that of General Barbot of 77th (French) Div, whose impressive divisional Memorial is in Souchez village. He was killed here on 10 May 1915. The whole area is manned by volunteers from the dedicated Gardes d’Honneur de Lorette, from 0900-1630 in March, until 1730 in April and May, until 1830 in June-August and then until 1630 again until 11 November.

To the left of the entrance to the Cemetery is an Orientation Table erected in May 1976 by Le Train de Loos. It points to Vimy Ridge and to the ruined church of Ablain St-Nazaire (qv), preserved as a memorial in the valley below.

International ‘Circle of Death’. This ambitious and important International Monument was inaugurated at 1100 on 11 November 2014 by French President François Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron. It comprises a vast circular wall (thought to be the largest ever constructed), designed by Parisian architect Philippe Prost, which carries the names, in alphabetical order, of some 580,000 soldiers (294,000 British Empire; 174,000 German, 106,000 French; 2,300 Belgian plus Czechoslovakian, Polish, Portuguese, Rumanian and Russian) killed in French Flanders and Artois – Allies and Enemies together. It is sobering to look for your own name – there are three complete panels for Smith alone for instance. The impressive wall is seen as a symbol of fraternity and an expression of peace. The monumental task of assembling the names was straightforward for the British & Commonwealth names, using the meticulous CWGC records, but the German names were more difficult to discover as many of their records were destroyed in WW2. Amongst the French names are the North African Colonial Forces.

Lantern Tower, Notre-Dame de Lorette

The Circle is permanently illuminated at night using solar panels. Its horizontal form of the wall contrasts and balances with the perpendicular of the lantern tower and the circular shape creates a space between heaven and earth, a technical work of art in durable, weather resistant fibre-reinforced concrete. The budget for the project was €6.5million.

Entrance free. Opening times vary according to season, on average from 0900-1730 summer and 0830-1615 winter.

International Circle of Death. Look for your own name

On the far side of the Cemetery from where you are parked (you can drive round to it if you wish) is the excellent Museum, now known as Le Musée Vivant [Living Museum] (GPS: 50.40159 2.71581). The Museum is constantly being improved, both with its growing number of fascinating exhibits and its appearance. The owner, M. David Bardiaux (who also owns the Museum at La Targette, visited later) acquired many of the artefacts from the old demolished Artisan Museum and has placed the original stone bas relief frieze on a wall leading to the entrance. On the ground below it is a rose garden in season and a concrete ramp for wheel chair access leads to the entrance. The building beyond, which houses the old Museum’s Diorama and stereoscopic pictures, has a room where students may take their picnics.

The Museum recreates the daily life of the soldier on the Artois front, containing many interesting and realistic dioramas with sound effects in French, English and German, and collections of artefacts retrieved from the original battlefields or donated by families of veterans. They include the tunic of Jacques Defrasse (qv), which should not be missed. Another interesting item is a German 420 calibre ‘Big Bertha’ shell.

Behind the Museum is an extensive recreated battlefield area with trenches, shell holes, barbed wire and many items of artillery.

Open every day (except 12 Dec - 2 Jan): 0900-2000. Tel: + (0)3 21 45 15 80. Entrance fee payable.

Beside it is the now smart Bar/Restaurant/Salon de Thé, L’Estaminet de Lorette, Tel: (0)3 21 45 29 07. It sells regional products and home-made patisseries. Open every day 0930-1830. Closed Dec/Jan/Feb.

When all other eating options in the area are shut this pleasant restaurant can usually be relied upon. It serves hot food until well after 1400 hours and then snacks and pastries.

In front of the Museum is a Memorial to Sous Lieutenant Henri Merlin, age 24, 10th Chasseurs à Pied, 3 March 1915. His citation by the General commanding the 10th Army describes how he fought until his position was overrun by the enemy, made sure that his surviving comrades escaped and then committed suicide rather than retreat.

Return down the hill.

‘Operating theatre’ Diorama, ‘Living Museum’, N-D de Lorette.

The tip of the Vimy Memorial may be seen ahead to the right, and the Loos battlefield to the left.

Turn right to Souchez.

On leaving the village is a fine bronze statue and Memorial to General Barbot (qv) and the 77th Division with Plaques to General Stirn, 1871-1915 and General Plessner, 1856-1914. GPS: 50.38628 2.74438

The nearby imposing N. African Campaign (1952-64) Memorial was raised in 2002 by the survivors to their fallen comrades. It consists of large white archways joined by a pathway in which there is an eternal flame, flagpoles and a sunken pool. The names of the dead are inscribed in white on a black Memorial wall reminiscent of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington DC.

Here around Souchez, particularly in the area of the local cemetery, was some of the fiercest fighting during the 1914/15 Artois battles. The Germans had fortified all the houses and built a number of strong points – the cemetery, the Cabaret Rouge – and armed them with machine guns. The heights of Notre-Dame de Lorette (visible on a good day behind the General’s statue) seemed to dominate the French positions at the end of 1914, much as Monte Cassino seemed to dominate the way to Rome in 1944. During the second Artois battle from May 1915 the intensity of the struggle to clear ‘the bloody hill’ of Lorette, the village of Souchez and to gain Vimy Ridge, reached depths of horror and destruction only paralleled at Verdun. Even with Lorette under control Souchez stood in the way of a secure assault upon Vimy and it was not until 26 September 1915 that the village was finally re-taken. It had been in German hands for a whole year. On 23 September 1920 the village was awarded the Croix de Guerre.

Continue.

Memorial to Gen Barbot and others, 77th Division, Souchez.

[N.B.] Some 100m beyond the sign for Cabaret Rouge CWGC Cemetery is a small Plaque (erected in 2002 by the Arras Souvenir Français) on the left marking the exact site of the famous Cabaret Rouge (GPS: 50.38267 2.74302), a small estaminet, named from the red bricks from which it was constructed.

Plaque on the site of Cabaret Rouge.

Continue to the cemetery on the right.

Cabaret Rouge CWGC Cemetery (GPS: 50.38069 2.74158) was started by the British 47th Division in March 1916 and used by fighting units including the Canadian Corps until September 1918. To the east were dugouts used as Battalion HQ in 1916 and communication trenches ended here. This large Cemetery (with nearly 8,000 burials) was enlarged by concentration of graves from the nearby battlefields after the Armistice. It was from here that the Canadian Unknown Soldier was taken on 25 May 2000 from Grave 7, Row E, Plot 8 (and which now bears a headstone explaining the ceremony) and removed to the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior at the foot of the National War Memorial in Ottawa, Canada. To the right under the imposing entrance arch is a Plaque to the designer of the cemetery, Brigadier Sir Frank Higgins, CB, CMG, ARIBA, who was Secretary to the IWGC 1947-1956. His ashes were scattered here after his death on 20 November 1958 (as were his wife’s in 1962).

Continue towards Neuville St Vaast.

Entrance to Cabaret Rouge CWGC Cemetery

Former grave of the Canadian Unknown Soldier, Cabaret Rouge CWGC Cemetery.

On the right is the Czech Memorial and Cemetery (GPS: 50.36589 2.74474). The Czechs joined the French Foreign Legion in Paris in 1914 and fought with the Moroccans in the May 1915 Artois Offensive as part of the French 10th Army. The Memorial refers to the attack of 9 May 1915 on the German strongpoint at Hill 140 in Thélus. The hill was taken but the Czechs had 80% casualties. The Memorial was erected in 1925 and behind it are graves from WW2 (including a Captain Aviator, complete with photograph, from 1940).

Across the road is the

Polish Memorial. The Poles were also part of the Foreign Legion and took part in the same attack on Hill 140. The Memorial was inaugurated on 9 May 1935, twenty years after the battle.

Continue to the crossroads in the centre of la Targette village. On the left is

La Targette Torch in Hand & Other Memorials (GPS: 50.35474 2.74827).

The Memorial was completed on 20 October 1932 and commemorates the rebirth of the village, totally destroyed in May 1916. It is reminiscent of the concept explored in John McCrae’s famous poem In Flanders Fields – ‘To you we throw the torch – Be yours to hold it high’. Beside it are Memorials to Lt Millevoye & Sous-Lt Mouette d’Andrezel.

Torch in hand Memorial, la Targette

Polish Memorial, Neuville St Vaast

Czech Memorial and Cemetery, Neuville St Vaast

On the opposite corner is the private La Targette Museum, owned by David Bardiaux (who also owns the Notre-Dame de Lorette Museum). It contains a superb collection of uniforms, Allied and German gas masks, weapons and artefacts and has several well-presented scenes of trench, aid post and dugout life.

Open every day 0900-2000 (except Xmas & New Year). Tel: + (0)3 21 59 17 76. Entrance fee payable.

Continue on the D937, La Targette CWGC Cemetery will be signed just a few metres off the road to the right.

[At the junction with the D55 and the D937 is the Relais St Vaast. Tel: + (0)3 21 58 58 58. Open Mon-Fri lunch time and Fri & Sat evenings. Annual Holiday mid-Aug. Specialities Pizza and Grills.]

Turn right to the cemetery on the right.

La Targette CWGC Cemetery (GPS: 50.35056 2.74881), described in the Register as “known until recently” as Aux Rietz Military Cemetery, was begun at the end of April 1917 and used by Field Ambulances and fighting units until September 1918. One third of the burials are of Artillery Units. They also include 295 Canadians, 3 Indians and 3 South Africans. There is one WW2 burial. Adjoining it is

La Targette French National Cemetery. The perfectly symmetrical pattern of lines of white crosses, which changes from each angle, stretches up the slope to three ossuaries. Built in 1919 it is formed exclusively from concentrations from the surrounding battlefield and other small cemeteries. It contains 11,443 burials (including 3,882 unknown) from WW1 and 593 French, 170 Belgian and 4 Poles from WW2.

Return to the D937 and turn right. Continue to the sign to the German Cemetery on the left.

La Targette CWGC and French Cemeteries.

Neuville St Vaast (Maison Blanche) German Cemetery/WC/GPS: 50.34334 2.75216

This is on the site of the heavily defended German position known as ‘The Labyrinth’, graphically described by French writer Henri Barbusse and English writer Henry Williamson. It contains 37,000 burials with 8,000 in a mass grave. In the centre is a stone monument erected by the old comrades of the 4th Hannover Inf Regt, No 164 with the inscriptions Ich hatt einen Kameraden Ein Bessern findst du nicht (I have a comrade whose better you could not find) and Sei getreu bis in den Tod (Stay true, even unto death). There are WCs to the left of the entrance and Information Boards in three languages which describe the renovation of 1975-1983 by the Deutsche Kriegsgräbefırsorge when it was reopened again to the public.

Opposite is a farm known as La Maison Blanche, the original of which gave its name to this sector.

Memorial to German 164th Regt, Neuville St Vaast German Cemetery

Beneath it is an amazing network of tunnels and chambers known as the Maison Blanche Souterraine. Originally a chalk quarry, it was probably used as a refuge in the 19th Century (some graffiti would appear to be c1861) and later as a storage facility for the farmer. Although technically part of the vast ‘Labyrinth’ system, there is no evidence that it was used by the French or the Germans in the heavy fighting of 1915. It was however certainly used by the Canadian Corps as an underground barracks behind the reserve line in their preparations for the assault on Vimy Ridge of April 1917. (It was later again used as a shelter for Belgian Refugees in May 1940. After WW2 the souterraine was used as a dump by the current farmer and rubbish filled the puit, almost blocking the entrance.)

The Canadians refer to the ‘Maison Blanche Caves’ in the History of the 15th Bn, CEF (48th Highlanders of Canada) and now they form part of the Canadian Souterrain Impressions Project. It started in 2009 when Zenon Andrusyszyn, Canadian founder of CANADIGM saw a TV programme about the Caves and the Canadian carvings in it. They are of an exceptional quality and skill (notably those executed by Pte A.J. Ambler who is understood to have been a stone carver before he enlisted).

The Project aims to preserve these carvings by documenting, scanning and duplicating them and exhibiting them in travelling exhibitions throughout Canada to commemorate the Centenary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 2017. They will then be permanently exhibited in a Canadian museum.

The entrance to the Caves had been rediscovered by a French archaeologist, Dominique Faivre, in 2001. In 2006 Judy Ruzylo, a film researcher, negotiated access to the Caves to film them and at this stage the respected and experienced Durand Group became involved. They formed an agreement with the proprietor to protect access* to the Caves and were permitted to undertake extensive archaeological researches, clearing out the garbage, improving the safety underground, installing lighting etc and mapping the extent of the souterraine. They assisted the Canadians in laser scanning the carvings in 3D. A YAP film, ‘Vimy Underground’ was duly made in which Ambler’s son, Alex, and other family members were shown Pte Ambler’s extraordinary work. (Alex died the following year, age 93).

NOTE. The entrance to the Caves is on private land and may not be visited under any circumstances by individuals who are not part of an authorised group. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO FIND THE ENTRANCE! The only way to see these remarkable Caves is by joining an official tour organised by the Durand Group (Contact : Lt-Col Phillip Robinson (pgrobinson@telco4u.net), sometimes in conjunction with other experienced underground archaeologists, such as Andy Robertshaw (andy@dtsmail.net)

The wonderful work achieved by the Durand Group in the area over many years is detailed in the book Phillip wrote with Nigel Cave, The Underground War. Vimy Ridge to Arras, Pub Pen & Sword 2011.

Return to La Targette crossroads. From La Targette crossroads take the turning to the right signed to the Canadian Memorial. Continue through Neuville St Vaast to the sign (easily missed) to the right to Lichfield Crater. Turn.

15TH Bn Can 48th Highlanders carving, Maison Blanche Souterrain

Lichfield Crater CWGC Cemetery.

Lichfield Crater CWGC Cemetery (GPS: 50.36020 2.77731) is one of the most unusual on the Western Front. It is in one of two mine craters (the other being Zivy crater) used by the Canadian Corps Burial Officer in 1917 for bodies from the Vimy battlefield who all died on 9 or 10 April 1917. It was designed by W. H. Cowlishaw and was originally called only by letters and numbers – CB 2A. The grassed circular cemetery is essentially a mass grave and contains only one headstone (to Pte Albert Stubbs, S Lancs Regiment, age 25, 30 April 1916) found after the Armistice. It is surrounded by beautiful stone and flint walls and the Cross of Sacrifice is on a raised level. Below it is a Memorial wall on which are the names and details of 41 Canadians soldiers who are buried here. There are also 11 unidentified Canadians, 4 completely unidentified men and 1 unidentified Russian.

Return to the main road, turn right and continue to the well-signed entrance to the Vimy Ridge Canadian Memorial Park.

NOTE. you are now travelling in the direction of the well-planned and successful Canadian attack on Vimy Ridge, strongly fortified and held by the Germans for the first three years of the war, despite several brave and costly attempts by the French to take it. Following a well-timed artillery barrage the attack went in at daybreak on 9 April 1917 with all four divisions of the Canadian Corps fighting together for the first time under General Byng. By mid-afternoon they had taken the entire 14km long ridge except for Hill 145 (the highest point upon which the Memorial now stands) which they captured three days later. The price was 10,602 casualties, 3,598 of whom were killed.

• Vimy Ridge Canadian National Memorial & Park/WC

On 25 April 1915 allied landings were made in Gallipoli. The ANZAC forces landed in the wrong place and were caught and held by the Turkish defenders on a narrow beach below high cliffs where, in essence, they were to remain until withdrawn nine months later. The extraordinary courage and resolution of the ANZAC soldiers, depicted mostly in the writings of C.E.W. Bean, the official Australian historian, led to the Gallipoli campaign becoming a focal point in the developing character of that young nation. Here too, at Vimy, was a ‘National Army’ fighting its first battle, the Canadian. In a way the fighting for, and the capture of, Vimy Ridge, might be seen as Canada’s Gallipoli. Their achievement was remarkable and their pride in what they achieved thoroughly deserved. The importance of Vimy to the self-awareness of Canada is evident in that it is at the highest point of the Ridge that they have placed their most important Memorial, which is visited later.

In 2001 a massive programme of restoration of all Canada’s Memorials in Belgium and France began. At $(Can)20 million, Vimy is by far the most important project – 20% of the original stone needed replacing, name panels needed re-engraving, the drainage system needed renewing. Work (which included the renovation of trenches and tunnels) was completed for the official opening date of 9 April 2007, the 90th Anniversary of the Battle. The pristine Memorial was re-inaugurated in an impressive ceremony by HM Queen Elizabeth in the presence of the Canadian and French Prime Ministers, an estimated 5,000 Canadian students, Canadian war veterans and serving soldiers.

As part of the commemorations on 9 April 2007 Pte Herbert Peterson of the 49th Bn, Can Inf was reburied with full military honours in nearby La Chaudière CWGC Cemetery. Peterson, who was commemorated on the Vimy Memorial, was killed on 9 April 1917 but his body was lost and then rediscovered, with another body, in 2003 at a construction site some 2 kms from Vimy Ridge. Scraps of uniform, a cap badge and other debris were found with the remains and there followed three years intensive historical, forensic and archaeological research which finally resulted in the identification by means of DNA matching. Members of Peterson’s family were present at the moving funeral ceremony. During the extensive work the Welcome Centre was moved to the area near the tunnels/craters/trenches, which is where the visit begins.

Drive through the Park to

The Vimy Welcome Centre (GPS: 50.37197 2.76973) has informative panels and photographs, some trench periscopes, a circular audio-visual presentation of the battlefield in English, French and German and a small book stall. Here enthusiastic and well-informed bi-lingual Canadian student guides are based. There is fierce competition in Canada amongst young people who wish to be guides, most of whom are either students or graduates. Each year a new cadre is selected and shared with the Memorial Park at Beaumont Hamel on the Somme. In 2013 the Canadian Government allocated $5 million towards the construction of a permanent Visitor Centre to replace this temporary building. Construction will be completed in time to mark the 100th anniversary in April 2017. The Vimy Foundation, a charity founded in 2005 to promote Canada’s war legacy, will also conduct a fundraising campaign to complete the project.

Open every day (except two weeks around Christmas) 1000-1800 May-Oct, 0900-1700 Nov-April. Guided tours available May-November. Tel: + (0)3 21 50 68 68. E-mail: vimy.memorial@vac-acc.gc.ca Website: www.virtualmemorial.gc.ca. There are WCs next to the Centre.

In front of the Centre is the Lions Club International Memorial.

The underground tour (which must be booked through the Centre – well in advance for groups) goes through part of the Grange Crater tunnel system but for security reasons only in groups accompanied by guides, for which there is no charge. A trip into the tunnel, which begins near the Canadian flag, generally lasts about 25 minutes and should not be taken by anyone who is at all claustrophobic. It is cold underground and often wet and slippery.

Beyond the tunnel, clearly signed, are the preserved trench lines formed with concrete sandbags. Work on preserving this area began in the late 1920s and was still going on in 1936 when the Vimy Memorial was unveiled. The first trenches are the Canadian line, and sniper posts, firesteps and duckboards are plain to see. Just over the top of the Canadian parapet is one of the features that makes Vimy so extraordinary – a huge mine crater.

When the British took over this ‘quiet sector’ from the French, (after the Artois battles of 1914/15 both sides settled for a mutually uncomfortable existence devoid of set-piece attacks) peace gave way to conflict. Fighting patrols were sent out to take enemy prisoners, raids were launched, ‘nuisance’ bombardments began and underground too the warfare intensified. Tunnel after tunnel was driven under the enemy trenches, packed with explosives and fired, producing huge craters. The crater immediately beyond the Canadian line is ‘Grange’ The effectiveness of the mine warfare is evident in a report from the German 163rd Regiment. ‘The continual mine explosions in the end got on the nerves of the men. One stood in the front line defenceless and powerless against these fearful mine explosions.’

Both sides attempted to sabotage each other’s mining by burrowing under the other’s galleries and blowing them up. Miners had to stop and listen at regular intervals for the sound of enemy digging and then make fine judgements about just where the other’s tunnel was and what he was about to do. The tension must have been heart-stopping. Dark cramped conditions, foul air to breathe, hot and probably wet too, trapped mole-like underground – it needed special qualities just to remain sane. Tunnels were frequently dug at different levels. Near Souchez mining went on at 110 ft and 60 ft down, and some tunnels were over 1,000 yards long. One, called ‘Goodman’, was more than 1,800 yards. Grange was a sophisticated tunnel 800 yards long with side-bays for headquarters, signal offices, water points, etc. and standing room. It was meant for the movement of troops. Six miles or more of such tunnels were dug before the battle. Tunnels to be used solely as a means of reaching the enemy lines in order to place explosives under them were frequently crawling-size only. There is yet another surprise in store for the visitor because just across the crater, on the opposite lip, are the German trenches.

The Grange Tunnel, Vimy

It was a remarkable feat for the Canadians to do so well here. The whole attack had been rehearsed day after day at unit level on a full-scale replica behind the front. Short, reachable objectives were marked on maps as lines – black, red, blue and brown - attacking formations only moving on or through as each line was established. The Canadians went in ten battalions abreast, fighting, for the first time as a national contingent, and working steadily forward from objective to objective. Left to right in line the Divisions were: 4th, 3rd, 2nd and 1st. The Canadian 2nd Division was strengthened by the attachment of 13 Brigade from the British 5th (Imperial) Division the remainder of that Division being left in reserve.

The 0530 hours pre-assault bombardment, which had been started by the firing of a big gun from behind Mont St Eloi, was of such intensity that it was impossible to distinguish the sound of individual explosions. Those present felt that if they could reach up into the air they would touch a wall of sound. The plan was that the guns would lift at intervals and the infantry would then walk forward as if behind a curtain of steel. Gus Sivertz, serving with the 2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles, later recalled, ‘We didn’t dare lift our heads, knowing that the barrage was to come flat over us and then lift in three minutes. I don’t think anyone was scared… instead one’s whole body seemed to be in a mad macabre dance. It was perhaps the most perfect barrage of the war, as it was so perfectly synchronised. Then suddenly it jumped a hundred yards and we were away,’ (Vimy Ridge – Alexander McKee). Flying over the assault was Major Billy Bishop VC (the Canadian aviator who became an Hon Air Marshal of the RCAF after the war) who wrote,

‘The waves of attacking infantry as they came out of their trenches and trudged forward behind the curtain of shells laid down by the artillery were an amazing sight. These troops had been drilled to move forward at a given pace and from this timing the “Creeping” or rolling barrage which moved in front of them had been mathematically worked out’, (Winged Warfare).

In fact the timing for the infantry was that they should move 100 yards in three minutes. If they were to go too fast then they would run into their own artillery fire, if they were too slow then the barrage would get too far ahead of them and they would lose its protection.

The timing of the Canadian attack went even further. The four Canadian divisions had 35 minutes to reach the Black Line, then 40 minutes there to re-organise, then 20 minutes to get to the Red Line. There the attack was to narrow to a two division front and, after two and a half hours there, reserve brigades of the 1st and 2nd Divisions were to push on to the Blue Line, re-organise there for 96 minutes and then carry on just beyond the crest of the ridge to the Brown Line which in theory would be at 1318 hours. It was an extraordinary plan. A common military maxim is that ‘No plan survives contact with the enemy’ and the more complicated a plan the more likely it is to go wrong. There are many examples of too complicated plans going wrong particularly when they involve precise timings. A prime instance took place 27 years later on 6 June 1944 at OMAHA beach when American General Huebner’s precise instructions did not survive contact with events. However, it worked for the Canadians in 1917 and they deserved it to do so but they had to have an added factor – luck. Perhaps one does make one’s own luck and, as President Lincoln apparently said, ‘Give me lucky generals’.

The Grange position was defended by companies of the German 261st Reserve Regiment of the 79th Reserve Division. When the fighting was over the 261st Regiment had lost 86 killed, 199 wounded and 451 missing – a total of 736 men. The Canadian assault here was made by 7th Brigade of the 3rd Division and alongside, to the north, 111th Brigade of the 4th Division. One of the Canadians waiting in the Grange tunnel at 0530 hours described the sound of the opening barrage as ‘like water on a tin roof in a heavy thunderstorm’. Around the Grange crater area there are many other craters with names like Durand, Duffield, Patricia, Birkin and Commons, as well as paths leading off into the woods.

It was long believed that each of the trees in the park represented one of the 66,655 Canadian soldiers (their dead for the entire war) listed on the Memorial and that they came from Canada. In fact they are Austrian firs, three containers of whose seeds arrived by train after the war as part of Germany’s reparations price. Beneath the trees, shell-holes, craters and lines of trenches in the Park are a series of German and allied tunnels which were packed with mines and then exploded. The 100-hectare Park is full of unexploded and highly volatile materiel and most areas are out of bounds. There is a constant threat of erosion to this historic site, presenting great problems of preservation to the Canadian Ministry of Veterans Affairs which administers it. Much dangerous work has been undertaken by the Durand Group (qv) to render known unexploded mines harmless to the thousands of visitors who walk and drive over them each year.

Sadly one of the group’s founders, Lt Col Mike Watkins, was killed in 1998 when one of the tunnels they were excavating collapsed. There is a Memorial Plaque to him at the entrance to the Grange subway.

Drive out of the car park area and turn right signed to the Memorial. En route you will pass signs to the following:

Canadian Cemetery No 2, Givenchy Road Canadian Cemetery and Givenchy-en-Gohelle Canadian Cemetery. Map 14/16

Continue to the main car park. It is opposite the Moroccan Memorial (GPS: 50.37919 2.76990) see below.

Canadian National Memorial/WC

Here are Canadian Guides ready to assist you – and occasionally buggies are available for the disabled. There is a toilet block on the right before you go up the main path.

As you walk towards the Memorial you are looking at the rear of the monument. When the Canadians decided to erect a national Memorial here to replace the divisional Memorials placed after the battle, they invited competitive designs and 160 were submitted. The winner, who said that the design came to him in a dream, was a Toronto sculptor, Walter Seymour Allward (who also designed the Superintendent’s house opposite). The two tall pylons symbolize Canada and France and between them at the front, carved from a single 30-ton block of stone, is a figure of Canada mourning for her dead. She overlooks the Douai Plain and the Loos Battlefield.

Below the figure is a sarcophagus carrying a helmet and laurels and a Latin inscription commemorating the 60,000 Canadians who died during the Great War. On the wall of the Memorial are the names of 11,285 Canadian soldiers who were killed in France and who have no known grave. The 90 ft high Memorial stands on Point 145, the highest point of Vimy Ridge. The base was formed from 12,000 tons of concrete and masonry and 6,000 tons of Dalmatian stone was used for the pylons and the figures, of which there are twenty, all 12 ft high. Construction began in 1925 and Allward’s aim was, he said, to produce ‘a structure which would endure, in an exposed position, for a thousand years – indeed, for all time’.

When the Memorial was unveiled on 26 July 1936 (it took four years longer to build than at first estimated) it was in the presence of King Edward VIII, his only overseas official engagement as King. Also present was M. Victor Maistriau, the Burgomaster of Mons, which had been liberated by the Canadian Corps on 11 November 1918. He carried with him the personal flag of Lt General Sir Arthur Currie who had commanded the Corps. The General presented his flag to the town of Mons and it is now in the Museum there. The area between where you are and the Memorial was estimated to have been filled with 100,000 pilgrims, of whom 8,000 had come from Canada. These had left Canada on 16 July 1936 in five of Canadian Pacific’s steamers, sailed to Antwerp, stayed overnight in Armentières and then on to the unveiling ceremony on Sunday 26 July. The pilgrimage, which was organised by the Canadian Legion, continued to London where ceremonies were held at the Cenotaph attended by British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin.

Return to the car park. Opposite is

The Moroccan Division Memorial, commemorating the Division’s achievements during the second battle of Artois on 9 May 1915. Bronze panels around the stone monument list the ORBAT of the Division (motto Sans peur, sans pitié – without fear, without mercy) and also recognise the contribution of other foreign forces, including the Jews, Greeks, Sudanese and Czechs.

Return past the Canadian Cemetery No 2 signs etc and turn left following signs to Vimy for 1.2 miles to a small track to the left which may – or may not – be signed to the Canadian 3rd Division Memorial. Park.

Twin pylons, Vimy Memorial

Memorial to Canadian Artillery, Thélus

Canada mourning for her dead, Vimy Memorial

Moroccan Memorial, Vimy National Park

[N.B.] By following some 200m up the track the concrete cross of the 3rd ‘Canadian’ Division Memorial, GPS: 50.36887 2.78417 is reached. It was erected to the men of the Division who fell in the defence of the line from 23 October 1916-15 February 1917 and the attack on Vimy Ridge of 9 April 1917. It is on the centre line of the Divisional attack (which came from the area of the Welcome Centre, aiming in the direction of Thélus (next stop). In the centre of the 1,500 yards wide line was the 2nd Canadian Mounted Regiment who were searching for the German position at la Folie Farm, which was some 150 metres due east of the Memorial. The Divisional Commander, Maj-Gen Lipsett, had commanded a Battalion during the gas attacks near Ypres in April 1915. The Division would go on to liberate Mons on 11 November 1918.

Memorial to 3rd (Canadian) Division, Vimy Ridge

Continue through the battle-scarred woods of the Park and at the T junction turn right signed Arras/A26 on the N17.

Pass the Canadian Artillery Memorial, GPS: 50.35616 2.78983 (unveiled by General Byng on 9 April 1918) on the left at Thélus crossroads. This was one of the few Memorials to be inaugurated during the War.

Drive under the motorway and rejoin the A26/E15 direction Reims/Paris and continue with the main itinerary, being careful to take the A1/E15 Paris/Amiens fork to the right when the motorway splits.

THE CENTRAL APPROACH (SEE MAP PAGE 29)

It may be considered useful to start one’s tour of the Somme battlefield by visiting the Historial at Péronne (planned to be ‘The Gateway to the Somme Battlefields’) as in The Eastern Approach above. However, this involves a considerable detour from the area considered to be of greatest British interest, which centres around the town of Albert, and a direct route to that town is therefore proposed for those with limited time.

The Quickest Basic Route from Calais Ferry Port/Eurotunnel to Albert
Approximate driving time, without stops: 1 hour 45 minutes. Approximate distance: 100 miles.

Follow the instructions for The Eastern Approach to Exit 14 on the A1.

From the A1 at approximately 86 miles take Exit 14 signed Bapaume. In the town follow signs to Albert on the ring road and then take the D929 which leads directly to Albert.

THE WESTERN APPROACHES

1. The Quickest Basic Route from Calais Ferry Port/Eurotunnel to Amiens if you are making your base or starting point from that end of the battlefield.

From Calais Ferry Port take the A16/A26 signed Paris/Reims. After 4 miles fork right signed Boulogne on the A16.

From Eurotunnel (Exit 42) join the A16 and deduct 8 miles from the total mileage.

Continue on the A16 round Abbeville to Amiens.

Approximate driving time: 1 hours 30 minutes. Approximate distance: 113 miles

2. A Longer Route with more to see

If you can set aside a day and wish to make the Approach an interesting and pleasurable experience, with frequent stops along the way, the route to Amiens is via Wimereux, Boulogne, Etaples, Montreuil, Hesdin, Doullens, Louvencourt, Warloy Baillon, Querrieu to Amiens, with an alternative route via Bus les Artois, the Château of Val Vion, Vert Galand and Bertangles.

SET YOUR MILEOMETER TO ZERO.

From Calais Ferry Port take the A16/A26 signed Paris/Reims. After 4 miles fork right, signed Boulogne on the A16.

From Eurotunnel (Exit 42) join the A16 and deduct 8 miles from the total mileage.

Continue on the A16.

At Exit 43 on the A16 (7.2 miles) is the good shopping facility at Cité Europe.

At Exit 38 (13.7 miles) the Cimetière Canadien is signed.

At 22.6 miles take Exit 33 then the D242 signed Wimereux-Nord. Continue over the first roundabout and over the railway to the large, ornately landscaped roundabout, with a ‘Mermaid’. Take the D242 exit signed Cimetière Sud, take the first turning left and follow those signs to the entrance on the left at the bottom of the hill.

The CWGC plot is a walled enclosure within the main cemetery wall.

Open: 1 Nov-31 March 0800-1700, 1 April-31 Oct 0800-1900.

• Grave of Lt Col John McCrae, CWGC Communal Cemetery, Wimereux (24.8 miles, GPS: 50.77394 1.61333)

To the left of the CWGC cemetery entrance is a Plaque bearing some biographical details about McCrae, erected by the Ontario Heritage Foundation and Ministry of Culture & Recreation. Below it has been added a blue Plaque to RBL Standard Bearer John Munn, who during many years perpetuated the memory of Col McCrae on 11 November.

Standing with one’s back to the Plaques the Napoleon column (see below) is visible at 11 o’ clock. Some lines from McCrae’s famous poem, In Flanders Fields, are inscribed on the Memorial Seat set in the internal wall to the right of the cemetery. The headstone (near the Cross of Sacrifice) of this compassionate Canadian Medical Officer is laid flat, as are all of the headstones in this Cemetery, designed by Charles Holden. Lt Col John McCrae died on 28 January 1918, at No 14 General Hospital of complications to pneumonia and was buried here with full military honours. His appointment as Consulting Physician to the First British Army had just been announced. There is a shelter with Visitor Book and Cemetery Report at the bottom of the plot, which being attached to a hospital, segregates the burials by rank, including QA Nurses.

Plaques to Lt Col John McCrae & John Munn, Wimereux Comm CWGC Plot

The row of burials above the CWGC plot contains some interesting British Private Memorials, e.g to Winifred Constance Lockwood, wife of Cdr E.M. Lockwood RNVR, Hawke Bn RND; ‘Constance Eugenie ‘Barry’, husband and infant Hugh 25 April 1915’; Capt Cameron Lamb, DSO, 2nd Border Regt, 29 Dec 1914, youngest son of Sir John Cameron Lamb; Samuel Pickard, IWGC 2 Nov 1920.

Continue to the bottom of the road and turn right uphill, picking up signs on the D242 back to the ‘Mermaid Roundabout’ and thence to the A16. Rejoin it and continue directions to Boulogne.

At Exit 32 the imposing Colonne de la Grande Armée may be seen on the right. Surmounted by a figure of Napoleon, whose back is pointedly turned towards Britain, it commemorates the Assembly of Napoleon’s Army as it prepared to invade Britain in 1804 and the first issue of the Légion d’Honneur on 19 May 1802. It was financed by subscription of Napoleon’s soldiers to honour their Commander. (One of the authors remembers ‘subscribing’ to a memorial. The Commanding Officer announced that his officers would donate a day’s pay but that it was entirely voluntary. Anyone not wishing to donate had to put his name on the mess notice board.)

Continue on the A16 to Exit 31, 33.6 miles.

Grave of Lt Col John McCrae, Wimereux CWGC Cemetery

[N.B.] At this point a visit could be made to Boulogne Eastern CWGC Cemetery (GPS: 50.72480 1.62172), by taking Exit 31, continuing on the D341 signed to Boulogne Centre and turning left and left again following green CWGC signs on Rue de Dringhien to the entrance on the right through a lovely stone shelter. Here is buried the poet Capt the Hon Julian Grenfell, DSO, famous for his poem Into Battle, written in April 1915 near Ypres. He was then wounded on 12 May, sent to the base hospital here at Boulogne where he was nursed by his sister, Monica, and died of his wounds on 26 May 1915 (Plot 2, Row A, 15). Also buried here is L/Cpl Jesse R Short (Plot 8, Row 1, 43), shot for his role as ringleader in the Etaples Mutiny (see below). Short’s headstone bears the ironic personal inscription, ‘Duty called and he went forward. Ever remembered by his wife and children.’ His death certificate gives as the Cause of Death ‘Shot by Sentence’.

Grave of poet Julian Grenfell, Boulogne Eastern CWGC Cemetery

Continue to Exit 29 and take the N1 signed Abbeville/Boulogne Centre. Keep following Abbeville par RN [Route Nationale] on the D901. At the T junction with a château to the left, bear right on the D901 and keep to the right following signs to St Etienne au Mont/le Touquet on the D940. Continue through Pont de Briques and on leaving St Etienne au Mont stop by a striking pagoda which can be seen in a cemetery on the hillside to the right.

• Chinese Memorial in the St Etienne au Mont Communal Cemetery (39.2 miles, GPS: 50.66938 1.63523)

The Memorial is at the top of the Cemetery, through the French local burials and surrounded by Chinese graves. It was erected by their comrades in December 1919 in memory of the Chinese labourers who died on service during World War I and are buried in this cemetery, which is on the site of No 2 Labour Gen Hospital. The 168 WW1 graves are from 1917 to 1919. In this fascinating cemetery there are also three graves of the SA Native Labour Corps from September/October 1917 and three Chinese sailors from HMT Montilla (launched in February 1917, later renamed Gaelic Star) from October 1918 – a Donkeyman, a Fireman and a Greaser – who died of ‘flu. There are members of the RASC Canteens, a Major Houssemayne du Boulay, DSO, RE of the RAMC Labour Corps and 3 RAF graves from 31 August 1944. In the civilian cemetery that one passes through is the grave of Mme Rufin, ‘Victim of the Bombardment of St Omer, 28 April 1942’.

[For more information about the Chinese Labour Corps, see Holts’ Ypres Battlefield Guide.]

Continue towards Etaples on the D940, passing Camiers on the left.

It was there that the stockade of the Etaples base court-martial prison and detention camp was situated. Here the various delinquents, deserters and absentees that hid in the dunes as they attempted to get back to Blighty were rounded up. Many of them were desperate men, some of them out and out criminals who preyed on the soldiers training at the Bull Ring with gambling games and robberies.

Continue towards Etaples and stop at the large cemetery on the right.

Unusual headstone of a Chinese sailor, St Etienne-au-Mont Cemetery

St Etienne-au-Mont CWGC Cem, Chinese Memorial

• Etaples CWGC Military Cemetery/Bull Ring (49.6 miles, GPS: 50.53568 1.62442)

The large Cemetery (of 11,436 burials and covering 59,332 square metres) which overlooks the railway line and the Bay of the River Canche originally contained soldiers, sailors, airmen and civilians from the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, British West Indies, Newfoundland, India, USA, Belgium, China, Germany and Portugal (who were later re-interred), with eleven Special Memorials. Set apart at the left (as one enters) of the left hand shelter is a row of Chinese Labourers. The burials were made by ward, therefore officers and other ranks are segregated. Several nurses are buried here. The Cemetery was started in May 1915. Its striking entrance complex with fine stone flags was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.

The Cemetery overlooks the vast area of dunes that was occupied by extensive hospitals (eleven general, one stationary, four Red Cross and a convalescent depot, which could collectively cope with 22,000 wounded or sick), stores, a railway, and the infamous ‘Bull Ring’ training ground, site of the ‘Monocled Mutineer’ episode. The ringleader, L/Cpl Jesse Short, who had served in France since November 1915, was tried, found guilty, shot for mutiny on 4 October 1917, and is buried in Boulogne East CWGC Cemetery (see above). Vera Brittain served as a VAD in No 24 General Hospital in 1917 and mentions the mutiny in Testament of Youth (a major film based on the memoirs appeared in January 2015). She sometimes nursed the Portuguese officers and, rather to her bewilderment, the Germans. Among the many harrowing and tragic experiences she endured in the wards, the haunting Last Post, with its ‘final questioning note’ inspired her to evermore ‘sacrifices and hardships’ and to write a poem called ‘The Last Post’, published in her 1917 collection Verses of a V.A.D.

In his fictional account of his own war-time experiences, The Golden Virgin, Henry Williamson describes how the hero, Phillip Maddison, arrives at Etaples (‘What a —-–ing hole’) in 1916, for three days training en route for the Somme. The Bull Ring ‘lay beyond a sandy road past hospitals and rows of bell tents, upon an open area of low sandhills where trenches were dug, bayonet-fighting courses laid out, with Lewis gun and bombing ranges’. He recalls the ‘scores of sergeant-instructors … the barrack-square drill … physical jerks; firing of rifle-grenades, throwing of Mills bombs; filing through a gas-chamber, wearing damp P. H. helmets … under coils and over knife-edge obstacles of barbed wire, down into the trench, to stab straw painted crudely grey and red.’ Most Bull Ring trainees remembered the brutality of the experience. Robert Graves in Goodbye to All That also describes bayonet practice and the words of the instructors with ‘their permanent ghastly grin. “Hurt him, now! In the belly! Tear his guts out! … Now that upper swing at his privates with the butt. Ruin his chances for life! No more little Fritzes!”.’ Like Williamson, Graves was ‘glad to be sent up to the trenches’.

In 1922 King George V visited Etaples during his Pilgrimage tour. In anticipation of the visit Mrs Matthew of the Bear Hotel, Devizes, wrote to the Queen and asked her to place a bunch of forget-me-nots on the grave of her son, Sgt Alpheus Thomas William Matthew, RASC. The Queen was unable to go to Etaples and gave the letter to the King and asked him to put the flowers by the headstone. This he did. Sgt Matthew is buried at XLVII .C.5. Actually he died after the end of the war, on 9 December 1918.

In L1.C.1 at the top of the cemetery to the left, is the headstone of ‘Florence Grover, wife of Pte A. Grover, 26 November 1918, age 21, one of the 19 women buried in the Cemetery.’ She died of pneumonia after going over to France to nurse her wounded husband who survived her until 17 December, age 23. He is buried in XLV11.E.5. Another of the 4 Non World War combattant dead is George William Riley, died of peritonitis 11 March 1919, age 52, XLV.C.12. He was in charge of the Lena Ashwell Concert Party. As well as the amateur regimental concert parties that sprang up, professional companies also toured behind the lines to raise morale and provide a little light relief to the horror and monotony of WW1 trench life. Most were light-hearted performances but Lena Ashwell’s company also performed Shakespeare. [In 1916 it was planned to issue a copy of Shakespeare’s works to each wounded soldier in memory of Lord Kitchener]. Ashwell, who married the Royal Obstetrician, Sir Henry Simpson, was convinced that such shows helped to alleviate shell shock and by the end of the war she had 25 companies touring the camps. She was awarded the OBE and died in 1957. It was a Lena Ashwell Concert Party in April 1918 that inspired Siegfried Sassoon’s evocative poem, which could so easily apply to a concert party at Etaples:

Concert Party (Egyptian Base Camp)

They are gathering round…

Out of the twilight; over the grey-blue sand,

Shoals of low-jargoning men drift inward to the sound –

The jangle and throb of a piano … tum-ti-tum…

Drawn by a lamp, they come

Out of the glimmering lines of their tents, over the shuffling sand.

O sing us the songs, the songs of our own land,

You warbling ladies in white.

Dimness conceals the hunger in our faces,

This wall of faces risen out of the night,

These eyes that keep their memories of the places

So long beyond their sight.

Jaded and gay, the ladies sing; and the chap in brown

Tilts his grey hat; jaunty and lean and pale,

He rattles the keys … some actor-bloke from town …

God send you home; and then A long, long trail…

I hear you calling me; and Dixieland …

Sing slowly… now the chorus … one by one

We hear them, drink them; till the concert’s done.

Silent, I watch the shadowy mass of soldiers stand

Silent, they drift away, over the glimmering sand.

Continue. After .3 mile to the right is the renovated *** Hotel Kyriad Tel: +(0)3 21 89 99 99, letouquet@kyriad.fr Open all year but restaurant closed at lunch-time Oct-April.

Continue into Etaples following signs to Centre Ville/A16 on the D940 (51.2 miles).

Along the north bank of the mouth of the River Canche are a variety of delightful fish restaurants, notably Aux Pêcheurs d’Etaples, Tel: +(03) 21 94 06 90, etaples@auxpecheursdetaples.fr which closes promptly at 1400 hours at lunchtime! Closed Sunday evenings. It is very popular and therefore advisable to make a reservation in advance.

Continue along the quay.

To the left from the Anchor roundabout and on the left before the Town Hall in the main square, Place Gen de Gaulle, is the Musée Quentovic (GPS: 50.51397 1.63781) in which there is a small exhibition on the Bull Ring Camp. Tel: +(03) 21 94 02 47 for opening hours. Closed Tues. High Season July & Aug.

Return to the Anchor Roundabout and take the D939 signed to Montreuil/A16. Continue to Montreuil. Turn right and follow signs to Centre Ville and then right up a road which becomes cobbled following Ville Haute signs. Continue to the Place du Théatre.

• Montreuil/Gen Haig Statue/RWC (59.8 miles, GPS: 50.46144 1.76047)

From March 1916 to April 1919 the old walled town with its encircling ramparts housed the British GHQ, General Haig staying in the nearby Château de Beaurepaire (about 2 miles south on the D138 near St Nicholas). In the market square, in front of the theatre, is a post-World War II replica of an equestrian statue of Haig on Miss Ypres (who, on closer examination, appears to have undergone a sex change). The statue was raised by national public subscription in memory of Marshal Haig and of the collaboration between the British and French armies, and Franco-Britannic friendship. Montreuil is an ideal place for a lunch break or stopover, with several interesting restaurant possibilities around the square itself. An alternative is Hesdin, near the Agincourt battlefield.

Continue through the Square following signs to Hesdin and at the first small roundabout turn onto the D138, which becomes the N39. Continue to the bottom of the hill and take the D138E4 just before the motorway. Continue to the T junction and turn right on the D349, signed to Hesdin. Continue, with the River Canche and a single track railway line to the left, along a winding and scenic route. [If in a hurry take the D939 to Hesdin.]

On approaching Hesdin on the D349 continue to the crossroads with the D928 (signed right to the A16) and go straight over, into Marconne on the D349, and keep on it to St Pol. At the junction turn right signed Frévent on the D340. Continue to Galametz.

In the centre of the village to the right is a Memorial to François Lesur, FFI, (84 miles, GPS: 50.32781 2.13901). Groupe de Fillièvres, age 19, ‘abbatu lâchement’ (‘killed in a cowardly fashion’ – actually shot in the back) by the Germans on 3-9-44. Erected by his brothers.

Continue following the path of the Canche to Fillièvres. On leaving the village watch out for the green CWGC signs to the right. Follow them along a picturesque and winding small road to the cemetery on the right.

Gen Haig on Miss Ypres, Montreuil

• CWGC British Cemetery, Fillièvres (86.2 miles, GPS: 50.31093 2.16593)

Begun in June 1918 by 46th CCS and later used by 6th Stationary Hospital, the Cemetery contains 81 WW1 burials and 19 WW2. In it are some interesting burials, including Lt E. F. Baxter, VC of the King’s Liverpool Regt, 18 April 1916, age 30. Near Blairville Baxter dug out the detonator from a ‘bomb’, which fell with its pin withdrawn, and smothered it, saving many lives. Later he led a storming party, helped the last man over the parapet after bombing enemy dugouts and was never seen alive again. Also Lt-Col Gerald Cornock-Taylor, CBE, Deputy Director of the Graves Registration and Enquiries, 14 February 1919. A variety of regiments and corps are represented, including the Royal Marine Light Infantry, the RAF and the ASC Canteens and one New Zealand burial of World War I.

Continue through Conchy-sur-Canche and Boubers-sur-Canche to the turning to the left on the D111 at Ligny-sur-Canche.

Headstone of Lt E.F. Baxter, VC, Fillièvres Brit Cemetery

Memorial to François Lesur, Galametz.

[N.B.] By going straight over at the roundabout and turning left on the D111, crossing the River Canche, and by following the green CWGC signs along a narrow, winding country lane, the tiny but immaculate Ligny-sur-Canche British Cemetery (GPS: 50.29361 2.26427) may be reached. (It is a 2-mile round trip.) The beautiful wooden entrance gate is set between stone benches and inside two tightly-packed lines of headstones stretch to the Cross of Sacrifice. The Cemetery, designed by W.H. Cowlishaw, which contains 80 burials, mostly from August/September 1918, is enclosed by a fine stone wall. The care and attention lavished on this small and rarely-visited cemetery ‘in the middle of nowhere’, typifies the dedication of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

The lovely entrance to Ligny-sur-Canche Brit Cemetery

The road now becomes the D941. Continue into Frévent, following Toutes Directions, and at the roundabout turn right following Amiens/Doullens signs on the D916, then go straight over at the next roundabout signed to Arras/Amiens/Doullens Centre on the D925. Then at the next roundabout take the D916 to Doullens. Continue to the next roundabout signed Arras to the left and A16 Amiens to the right. Take the second exit up a small road, Ruelle Merlin, signed Calvaire Foch. Drive uphill to the Calvary at the top.

• Foch Memorial Cross (104 miles, GPS: 50.15720 2.36035)

Foch was familiar with Doullens, having set up his HQ here in the early days of the war. He returned again in the last year and this Memorial, with bas reliefs of Foch and his Poilus by Albert Roze, erected in 1921, recognises that fact, although no inscription remains.

Return to the roundabout and take the N25 signed Amiens and take the first turning to the left, then turn right following the green CWGC signs to

• Doullens Communal Cemetery Extension (104.9 miles, GPS: 50.15476 2.34969)

The military graves are in the local cemetery which is Open: 1 Feb-30 April 0830-1830, 1 May-10 Nov 0730-1900, 11 Nov-31 Jan 0830-1730.

From the summer of 1915 to March 1916 Doullens was at the junction of the French Tenth Army on the Arras Front and the British Third Army on the Somme. The Citadelle was a large military hospital and the railhead was used by both armies. From March 1916 the Arras front became British and 19th Casualty Clearing Station came to Doullens, followed by the 41st, 35th, 11th CCS. At the end of 1916 they gave way to 3rd Canadian Stationary Hospital and from June 1918 the 2/1st Northumberland CCS arrived. From February 1916 to April 1918 British medical units continued to bury in French Extension No 1 of the cemetery until it contained 1,142 UK, 78 New Zealand, 69 Australian, 36 Canadian, 4 Newfoundland, 3 South African, 2 British West Indies, 1 British Civilian, 1 Guernsey, 13 German and 469 French burials. In March/April 1918 the German advance threw severe strain on the Canadian Stationary Hospital. The extension became full and Extension No 2, on new ground, had to be opened. It contains 321 UK, 27 New Zealand, 23 Canadian, 23 South African, 1 Australian, 1 Chinese Labourer and 87 German POWs. Like Etaples, another ‘hospital’ cemetery, the burials are in rank, according to ward. An interesting conjunction of graves has 2nd Lt James A. Donnelly of the RFC, killed on 31 March, the last day of the RFC, and in the next-but-one grave Lt Ronald Stonehouse, RAF, killed on 1 April 1918, the day that the RAF was officially formed. Brigadier H. T. Fulton, CMG, DSO, Croix de Guerre, of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade who served on the Indian Front and in South Africa, died here of wounds on 29 March 1918. Side by side are the German Moritz Demant, 9/J.R. 184 and Pte C.A. Jennings, Notts & Derby, both killed on 25 April 1918. Also side by side [I.B. 28 & 29] lie Lt Edgar Meath Martyn, age 25, 19th Battalion 2 Can Mounted Rifles and Lt Francis Leopold Mond, age 22, RFA, both of 57th Sqn RAF, who were shot down on 15 May 1918 and to whom there is a Private Memorial at Bouzencourt. Originally the wrong headstones were put on these graves (see Itinerary Three for their full story). There is a row of French Colonial troops which also contains Muhammad Beg, 29th Lancers (Deccan Horse), 6 November 1916 and Kala Khan of the RFA, 23 May 1918. There are also some British burials from World War II (mostly from 20 May 1940) and a large French World War I plot at the top of the Cemetery, with a Private Memorial to Georges Martelle, 10th RIF, killed on 17 August 1916 at Belloy (qv).

Return to the N25 and turn left. Continue over the traffic lights and turn right signed to Doullens Centre. Continue, passing the Tourist Office (see Tourist Information) on the left and at the T junction turn left following signs to Salle de Commandement Unique to the Town Hall and park.

Foch Memorial Cross near Doullens

Bas relief of Foch and soldiers, 1921

One of the last casualties of the RFC, 2nd Lt James A. Donnelly, RFC, 31 March 1918, Doullens Communal Cemetery

Side by side in death and killed on the same day, 25 April 1918. German and British headstones, Doullens Communal Cemetery

• Unified Command Room, Doullens/RWC (105.9 miles, GPS: 50.15705 2.34110)

The first-floor room in the impressive town hall in which Marshal Foch was created Allied Supreme Commander on 26 March 1918, has been preserved, with the original furniture (with place names still around the table) and a stained glass window depicting the players in the drama, including Poincaré, Clemenceau, Pétain and Foch, Haig, Wilson and Milner. It is flanked on either side by magnificent paintings by Jonas showing scenes of the historic day. The conference was called at a time of extreme danger to the Allies. The German offensive had swept like an incoming high spring tide over the old 1916 battlefield and the Allies’ backs were truly against the wall. ‘Do you want peace today or victory tomorrow?’ asked the old tiger, Clemenceau, of Haig as they arrived outside the town hall. Haig maintained that he wished to continue to fight, but desperately needed French support. He offered to put himself under command of Foch, a move since suspected by some as a clever ruse to prevent Prime Minister Lloyd George from sacking him because of the success of the German offensive, code-named ‘Operation Michael’. Only Gough of Haig’s Army Commanders was absent, and he was busy keeping the Fifth Army together in the face of the enemy’s assault, which had started five days before. Despite an earlier February conference at Doullens, when Gough had warned Haig of the danger facing the Fifth Army, Gough was to be the scapegoat for the March Retreat. Henry Wilson, CIGS, insisted that Gough be removed and Haig concurred – perhaps another act of self-preservation.

Neither the Belgians nor the Americans were present on the 26th, but two days later General Pershing visited Foch and put ‘… all that I have … at your disposal. Do what you like with them.’

Stained glass window depicting the scene in the Unified Command Room, Doullens, on 26 March 1918

Foch had been appointed Supreme Commander charged with, ‘co-ordinating the action of the Allied Armies on the Western Front’ whether the Belgians liked it or not. The plan worked. The entrance hall is covered in commemorative plaques of World Wars One and Two.

Open: 0900-1200 and 1400-1800, Mon-Fri (Thurs to 1645) and Sat 1000-1200. For more information contact the Tourist Office on Tel: + (0)3 22 32 54 52. Email: Contact@doullens-tourisme.com

Return to the crossroads with traffic lights and go straight over on the D938 direction Acheux, crossing the D11/D1 en route, and continue to Louvencourt. Drive through the village, past the church and the crucifix at the top of the hill and take the small road to the right.

• Louvencourt Military Cemetery (115.6 miles, GPS: 50.08924 2.50366)

This unusual cemetery has a row of experimental French headstones along the wall (the area was originally a French medical centre) dating from the end of the French occupation of this sector in June/July 1915. Then the British Field Ambulance established itself here, and British burials commenced. During the 1 July 1916 battle, Louvencourt was only 6 miles behind the front line. The Somme battles carried medical units further east until in April 1918 the German offensives pushed the line back to its old position. The 1918 graves here are due to the climax of that fighting. That same year the Imperial War Graves Commission decided upon the sites of the first three permanent cemeteries to be built after the war. They were Le Tréport, Forceville and Louvencourt. It was originally intended that the Commission’s three principal architects, Blomfield, Baker and Lutyens, should build one cemetery each, but in the event Blomfield designed all three and completed them by the middle of 1920. They cost more than the £10 per grave that had been allowed – the War Stone alone cost £500 to make, move and install – and financial lessons learnt were applied to future construction, e.g. in small cemeteries the War Stone would be omitted.

The cemetery contains the grave of 2nd Lt Roland Leighton of the 1/7th Worcesters who died of wounds on 23 December 1915, aged only 20. A brilliant scholar (he attended Uppingham School) and budding poet, he was engaged to Vera Brittain. In 1920 she made a pilgrimage to visit his grave and the areas where he fought. There are often violets on his grave, in tribute to the poem Roland wrote to Vera entitled Villanelle, whose starting lines are,

Violets from Plug Street Wood
Sweet, I send you oversea.

He enclosed four violets with the poem, which Vera still had, dry and pressed, in 1933 when she wrote her wartime story Testament of Youth, which charts their relationship. Later research indicates that Leighton was beginning to have doubts about their future together. Also buried here is Brigadier General Charles Bertie Prowse, DSO of the SLI, mortally wounded in the area of the German position, the Quadrilateral (where Serre Road No 2 Cemetery is today, Map D24) on 1 July 1916, when in command of 11th Brigade. His body was moved here after the war. Prowse Point in ‘Plugstreet’ Wood in the Ypres Salient, now the site of a CWGC Cemetery, was named after him.

Headstone of Roland Leighton, Louvencourt Mil Cem

Experimental French headstone, Louvencourt Mil Cem

Note the singular lack of personal messages here, over and above the usual New Zealand headstones.

The final advance of 1918, which came towards you, stopped on 11 November barely 5 miles further ahead.

Here there are two ways in which to complete the journey to Amiens:

OPTION ONE

Via Val Vion, Vert Galand and Bertangles. Approximate driving time: 1 hour. Approximate distance: 19 miles.

SET YOUR MILEOMETER TO ZERO.

Return to the crossroads with the D1/D11 and turn left on the D11 towards Beauquesne.

Continue to the next crossroads and turn right signed Beauquesne on the D31.

• Val Vion Château (6 miles, GPS: 50.08480 2.41887)

This is visible half a mile later to the left along a track bordered with chestnut trees. The view is of the back of the château (sometimes described in contemporary accounts as being the Château de Beauquesne) where famous photographs of Haig, King George V and members of their entourages were taken, standing on the staircase which can be seen from this point without disturbing the owners (relatives of Mme Potié, former Mayor of Thiepval). Haig had moved his advanced HQ here prior to the opening of the July 1916 Somme battle and was also variously visited by Joffre, Foch, Weygand, Pres Poincaré and Lloyd George. He was still there in April 1918 when the château came within range of the German artillery. The château was demolished by a bomb in 1940, and this is an exact post-war replica.

Continue to Beauquesne to the T Junction with the D23. Continue past the church and take the first right onto the D31. Follow signs to Candas, and at the junction with the N25 turn left. Ahead on the left are the buildings of Vert Galand Farm.

Val Vion Château, with the famous staircase

• Vert Galand Aerodrome Site (10.4 miles, GPS: 50.07005 2.32354)

This is spelt as ‘Galant’ on modern maps and Maurice Baring also uses the ‘t’. The farm buildings were used as a mess and administrative buildings by the RFC and RNAS Squadrons based at the aerodrome. During the Somme battle of 1 July, 60 Sqn, commanded by ‘Ferdy Waldron’, flying Morane Bullets, was stationed there. On 3 July Maurice Baring visited Vert Galand and ‘saw Ferdy Waldron go up. But this time he did not come back.’ Maj Francis Fitzgerald Waldron, 11th Hussars, attd RFC, was one of the pioneers of the RFC and at one time held the height record for the Army. He was killed in aerial combat and is buried in Ecoust-St-Mein CWGC Cemetery (qv) to the north-east of Bapaume. Baring also saw Major Hubert Dunsterville Harvey-Kelly, DSO of the Irish Regiment and RFC take off for his last flight on 29 April 1917. This … gayest of all gay pilots … always took a potato and a reel of cotton with him when he went over the lines. The Germans, he said, would be sure to treat him well if he had to land on the other side and they found him provided with such useful and scarce commodities. He was the first pilot to land in France, reported Baring. Sadly the commodities did not help him — Harvey-Kelly died in captivity, having been shot down by Richthofen’s six red Albatrosses. He is buried in Brown’s Copse Cemetery, Roeux near Arras. His Squadron (60th) was taken over by Capt R. R. Smith-Barry, who in late 1917 went on to found the Special School of Flying at Gosport. ‘The Man Who Taught the World to Fly’ dramatically cut down casualties during training and his methods are still being used to this day. On 7 May 1917, Capt Albert Ball, VC, DSO and 2 Bars, MC, of 56 Sqn was posted as missing on a flight from Vert Galand. He is buried in Annoeullin Communal Cemetery German Extension near la Bassée. Baring had a room at Val Vion (see above) for his HQ during the first days of the July Somme battle.

Continue.

Site of Vert Galand Aerodrome

[N.B.] At this point there is a sign to Naours, Cité Souterraine to the right on the D117. (GPS: 50.03424 2.8080). These huge underground caverns and tunnels, some of which date back to the third century, were rediscovered in 1887. They were used by the Picards to shelter from the dangers of many wars, including World War I, and make a fascinating visit. British units, including the 10th Gloucesters, were billeted in the village prior to the Battle of the Somme and there is much graffiti (particularly Australian) inscribed on the walls of the caves. The Germans occupied the cavern from 1942-44.

Open: Times vary! Tel: +(0)3 22 93 71 78. E-mail: contact@citesouterrainedenaors.fr Website: www.grottesdenaours.com]

Continue on the N25 and at the D97 junction after Villers-Bocage turn right to Bertangles. Continue through the village following signs to Vaux-en-A and fork right on rue du Moulin at a sign to the left to Vaux-en-A. Continue to the cemetery on the left.

• Bertangles Cemetery (Map Side 1/5, 17.8 miles, GPS: 49.97264 2.29405)

To the right of the entrance is a CGS/H Signboard and a brief account of the Red Baron’s burial.

Manfred von Richthofen, the top German Ace (with eighty kills), was buried here on 22 April 1917, by the Australians, with full military honours. In 1925 his remains were moved to the German Cemetery at Fricourt, and later transported to his family home in Schweidnitz. P. J. Carisella in his book Who Killed the Red Baron claims that only the skull was moved and that he unearthed the rest of the Red Baron’s skeleton in Bertangles in 1969 and presented it to the German Military Air Attaché in Paris. Pictures published in magazines like I Was There show the edge of a brick entrance post and a hedge behind the grave. The hedge and gate post are still there, so the grave site, not marked in any way, can roughly be identified as being about fifteen paces into the cemetery and fifteen paces to the right, where there is a distinct depression in the grass. There is one CWGC headstone in the cemetery – that of 2nd Lt J. A. Miller, RFC, killed on 28 March 1918, age 24. Miller was born in Hawaii and his parents lived in California.

Return through the village, past the junction with the rue de Villers Bocage on the rue de Croissy and continue to the N2. Continue to AMIENS Ring Road (approx 19 miles).

Bertangles Cemetery gates, looking from the site of von Richthofen’s grave.

OPTION TWO

Via Bus-les-Artois, Warloy-Baillon and Querrieu. Approximate driving time: 1 hour. Approximate distance: 25 miles

SET YOUR MILEOMETER TO ZERO

From the cemetery return into Louvencourt and take the first turning right after the church on Rue de Bus. Continue bearing right past a small Y fork before green farm buildings and immediately fork left at next Y fork. Continue into Bus-les-Artois. Continue to the T junction. Turn right and immediately stop by the local War Memorial. Behind it is

• Memorial to the Leeds Pals and Leeds Rifles (Map Side 1/2b, 2.4 miles, GPS: 50.10385 2.53933)

This Portland stone Memorial was unveiled on 30 June 2006 to commemorate the men of the Leeds Pals (the 15th (Service) POW W Yorks Regt) who had spent the night of 30 June 90 years before singing songs such as On Ilkley Moor baht ‘at at an impromptu concert in the village before setting off to participate in the 1 July 1916 attack. Members of The Great War Society recreated the event at the inauguration. During their attack on Serre (qv) the Pals lost 13 officers (2 more dying of wounds later) and 209 ORs (24 later dying). They include professional cricketer Lt Major (his forename) William Booth and Pte Horace Iles, who had enlisted aged 14. Both are buried in Serre Road No 1 (qv).

Memorial to the Leeds Pals and Rifles, to the rear of the War Memorial, Bus-les-Artois

NZ WW1 graffiti on Bus-les-Artois church

Around the exterior rear walls of the church (GPS: 50.10364 2.54221) further on to the left, with its immaculately tended churchyard, there remain the traces of graffiti from 1840s and on through WW1 from the successive battalions that passed through the village. Among them are the names of two Leeds Pals from June 1916.

Continue to the T junction and turn left on the D176. At the next T junction turn right signed to Bertrancourt on the D176 and then at the War Memorial turn right on the D114 signed to Acheux and green CWGC sign to Bertrancourt Mil Cemetery. Continue into Acheux and at crossroads turn left on the D938 signed Albert/Amiens.

After the Acheux exit sign there is a Monument to Martyrs of the Picardy Resistance 1940-45 on the left. (GPS: 50.06780 2.542210)

Continue, passing signs to Forceville Comm Cem + Extension to the right.

[N.B.] Forceville Comm Cem + Extension is approached by a grassed path which runs from the end of Forceville Local Cemetery on the right to the CWGC plot at the back (GPS: 50.06213 2.55262). One of the first three Cemeteries to be built after the War, it was designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield and contains 304 burials (3 buried in the adjoining Communal Cemetery) including 7 Germans. This section was taken over from the French in 1915 and used by Field Ambulances from Feb-July 1916 (the graves in Plot II are from the Somme offensive of July/Aug 1916). Buried here is Pte John Lewis, age 21, 5th Dorsets, shot here on 19 April 1917 for desertion with his pal, Pte W Anderson (see Putowski & Sykes, Shot at Dawn).

Continue, passing a sign to Hedauville Comm Cem Extension to the left. Continue to the crossroads, turn right on the D919 to Warloy Baillon and continue to the cemetery on the right.

• Warloy-Baillon Communal Cemetery & Extension (Map Side1/4, 11.2 miles, GPS: 50.01298 2.52920)

Here are the Graves of Lt Col P. Machell and Maj Gen E.C. Ingouville-Williams. These two exceptional officers are buried in what is a cemetery of particular beauty – especially in the late spring/early summer. The main cemetery was used between October 1915 and 1 July 1916, and contains forty-six British and Commonwealth graves and 158 French graves. It adjoins the local cemetery. The extension, in what was originally an apple orchard, was used from July to November 1916 and contains 1,331 WWI, 2 WWII and 18 German graves. It was designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield.

Lt Col Percy Wilfrid Machell, CMG, DSO, served with the Nile Expeditionary Force 1884-5, joined the Egyptian Army in 1886, was Inspector-General of the Egyptian Coastguard, Adviser to the Egyptian Minister of the Interior, 1898-1908, received countless Egyptian Decorations and when World War I broke out, helped the 5th Earl of Lonsdale (known as the ‘Yellow’ Earl, and of Lonsdale Belt fame) to raise and train his own battalion (the 11th, Service) of the Border Regiment. He was killed on 1 July 1916, leading his battalion’s attack on the Leipzig Salient at the age of 54. Machell had married into a distinguished and talented family. His wife, Lady Valda, was the daughter of Admiral HSH Prince Victor of Hohenlohe Langenburg, GCB, RN, nephew of Queen Victoria. Her sisters, Lady Feodora and Lady Helena were both accomplished artists/sculptresses. Lady Helena, who served during the war with the British X-ray Section in France and on the Italian front and who was awarded the Italian Medal for Military Valour, designed the beautiful 37th Division Memorial at Monchy (depicting three soldiers back to back) a replica of which stands in the grounds at Sandhurst. Lady Feodora sculpted a small bronze of the 28th August 1914 ‘Stirrup Charge’ of St Quentin which we illustrate and explain in our Western Front – North Guide Book. Their brother was Major General Lord Albert Edward Wilfred Gleichen KCVO, who commanded the 37th Division 1915-16, then commanded the Intelligence Bureau and Department of Information. The bronze plaque which for many years stood at the foot of Machell’s grave was stolen in the early 1990s.

Headstone of Maj-Gen E.C. Ingouville-Williams, Warloy-Baillon Comm Cem

Headstone of Lt Col P. Machell, Warloy-Baillon Comm Cem

Maj General E. C. Ingouville-Williams (‘Inky Bill’) who commanded 34th Division (which suffered such heavy casualties around la Boisselle on 1 July) was killed by a shell at the Queens Nullah near Mametz Wood on 22 July 1916, after reconnoitring the area and while walking back to his car at Montauban. He too was 54 and had served with the Buffs. His funeral here was held with considerable pomp for a war-time burial.

Another distinguished veteran officer buried here is Lt-Col Thomas Mowbray Martin, Camp commandant of 8 Corps, age 56, killed 20 May 1915. He was decorated in the Nile Expedition and the South African War.

There are two IWGC workers’ headstones here: Ed Jones served during the ’14-’18 War, joined the Commission as a Gardener Labourer in 1920 at a salary of £2.00 and was killed in a motor accident on 17 March 1940. Griffith Jones was born in 1922 and served with the Commission from 1936 until he resigned on 2 March 1940. He died on 24 July 1947. One wonders if they were brothers, although no evidence can be found to substantiate this.

Two soldiers buried here served under aliases: Sgt W.H. Hughes, age 25, 5th Can Mounted rifles, 14 October 1916, served as B. Anderson. Pte Ewen Mackinnon, age 28, 8th Can Inf Regt, 28 September 1916, served as D. Dow.

Continue to the junction with the D179.

On the right is

Memorial to Pilot Officer K.R. Lucas, 145 Sqn, 1919-1940 and Capt D.E. Pinkney, RA, attd 662 Sqn, 1919-1944 (GPS: 50.01231 2.52707). This black marble Memorial bears images of their planes. Beside it is an Information Board. Lucas’s Hurricane was shot down by Gruppenkommandeur Gerhard Homuth who was credited with 63 victories when he himself went missing on 2 August 1943 on the Eastern Front. Both British airmen are buried in Warloy-Baillon Cem Ext above.

Continue on the D919 to Vadencourt and then turn left by the church on the D23 through Franvillers, passing a sign to Contay Brit Cemetery.

Memorial to WW2 Airmen Lucas and Pinkney

[N.B.] Contay British CWGC Cemetery (GPS: 49.99871 2.48277). Designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield, this is a gloriously beautiful sight in summer. It was started in August 1916 for the casualties from 49th CCS, followed by 9th CCCS. Then in April 1918 it was used by 38th and other Divisions until August 1918. It contains 1,133 WW1 burials.

Continue to the crossing with the D929. Turn right on the D929 signed to Amiens. DO NOT TAKE THE QUERRIEU BYPASS but immediately turn left on the D929A to Lahoussoye.

Continue over the river to the château entrance on the right.

• Querrieu Château (20.7 miles, GPS: 49.93876 2.43208)

Here Rawlinson had his Fourth Army Headquarters from the beginning of 1916. From here he organized the ‘Great Push’ of 1 July 1916, and watched the progress of the battle from the heights above the village that he called ‘The Grandstand’ and to where he took Haig to observe the barrage on 27 June. The King visited the château with Balfour in August and there are many well-known pictures of him presenting decorations to soldiers, British and French, in the grounds. The Prince of Wales installed his HQ here in 1918 and was an occasional visitor after the war. During World War II the château was again used as a headquarters – this time by the Germans and Guderian, Goering and Rommel all passed through it. The château is owned by the Count and Countess of Alcantara and they have many photographs and other mementoes of their home during World War I. The elegant château, dating from the eighteenth century, was rebuilt after being burnt down in the Siege of Corbie in 1636 and extensively redesigned under Louis-Philippe in the nineteenth century. It has always played host to a string of glittering personalities, from the aristocracy and the world of the arts. Open to the public 7 July – 25 August (closed Mon) and Patrimoine Weekend. Guided visits 1400 and 1700. Group visits by appointment 1 June-15 September. Tel: + (0)3 22 40 14 09. E-mail: ydalcantara@orange.fr

Querrieu Château

Henry Williamson, in his novel, The Golden Virgin, describes what must have been a typical occurrence in many towns and villages behind the lines – a ‘bioscope’ showing of a Charlie Chaplin film and a concert party, both housed in barns at Querrieu. ‘Some of the actors dressed up as girls, with varied types of wigs’ and garish makeup. ‘Each herded man in the audience was fascinated, filled with longing ….’ But the star turn was the actor, Basil Hallam Radford of the Kite Balloon branch of the RFC, ‘famous before the war for his song Gilbert the Filbert’. In it Radford, known simply as ‘Basil Hallam’, created the comic figure of ‘the Knut’ – a languorous upper class twit. Sadly he was killed when the balloon in which he was observing broke away, and, having thrown all the papers overboard, he tried to descend by his parachute. It failed to open, however, and he received fatal injuries. He died on 28 August 1916, and is buried in Couin British CWGC Cemetery near Gommecourt. Ironically, balloonists were the only members of the RFC then to be issued with parachutes. Initially it was thought that if pilots had them they would be too eager to abandon their expensive, and hard-to-replace, machines.

Continue and immediately turn left following green CWGC signs to the Cemetery.

• Querrieu British CWGC Cemetery (Map Side 1/9, 20.9 miles, GPS: 49.93499 2.42975)

This Cemetery was started in 1918 by the divisions taking part in the defence of Amiens in March 1918. It contains 102 UK, 84 Australian, 1 Chinese and 12 German burials. Here is buried Lt Col Christopher Bushell, DSO, VC, commanding the 7th (S) Battalion, the Queen’s Royal West Surrey Regiment. His VC was won on 23 March 1918, west of the St Quentin Canal when he personally led C Company of his battalion, in a counterattack, in the course of which he was severely wounded in the head but continued to carry on, walking in front, not only of his own men, but those of another regiment as well, encouraging them and visiting every portion of the lines in the face of terrific machine-gun fire. He refused to go to the rear until he had to be removed to the dressing station in a fainting condition. There is also a most unusual Private Memorial in the cemetery which bears the inscription, ‘Well done. Pray for 31691 Dr [Driver] J.P. Farrell, 9th Battery FA, AIF, killed in action May 28th 1918, age 20 years’. Around the broken column that surmounts his grave is the legend, ‘For God and Australia’ and ‘Erected by his sorrowing Mother, Ulverstone, Tasmania’. In 2013 the cross surmounting the Memorial was missing.

Continue to the Amiens Ring Road on the D929 (approximately 30 miles).

Private memorial to Driver J. P. Farrell, Querrieu British CWGC Cemetery