Back in late January and early February, I had the opportunity to travel to France on business. I am back now in the Houston area and trying to get caught up on my journal from this travel back then and tell you a little about the weekend trip I made to northern France while over there.
Back in 2006 I had driven through northern France while traveling between two of our office. I had visited some of the World War 1 sites in southern Belgium, but did not have time to visit the locations in France. While I had been back to France a 2-3 times since, I had not been able to get back to northern France. The last weekend of January, 2010, would be my chance.
And it was forecast to be cold and a chance of freezing rain and snow. Great. I guess if I was going to visit the fields and trenches of one of the bloodiest battles in World War 1, I was going to do it in conditions much like they lived through for 3 ½ years.
I left the office in mid afternoon on Friday so I could get to the hotel before it got dark. I was staying in the community of Albert (pronounced, al-behr’), a small town of about 10,000 in the France region of Picardy. It just about 8 miles north of the Somme River and about 50 miles south of the Belgium border. It was the center of the action between June and November 1915, which is when the primary battles in the Somme were fought. So it was a good central location for me to explore.
My hotel was just off of the main square in town and my room overlooked the square and the church. The moon was full that evening, the evening star near the moon, and both appeared to be near the brightly lit gold statue atop the church steeple.
The next morning was very cold and windy – about 28* F - and I had quite an accumulation of ice on the car. Fortunately the rental car company includes an ice scraper with every rental, but still I cannot recall scraping this much ice off a car since college. I had wanted to explore the past, just not that past.
The roads were clear, so far, and my first stop was about 6 miles north at the Newfoundland Memorial between the villages of Hamel and Beaumont-Hamel. It was on this spot that on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, July 1st, 1915, that the 1st Newfoundland Regiment from Canada moved from there trenches toward the German trenches. In less than 30 minutes, 733 of the 801 men were either dead or wounded. Many never even reached the no-man’s-land between the trenches. The original trenches from both sides are still intact and very little has been done to restore them. The intent is to leave the battlefield as it looked on that tragic day.
I could walk through some of the trenches – boardwalks had been laid down to prevent erosion – but many other locations were still lined with barbed wire and inaccessible. Many of the German trenches are blocked with warning signs, “Danger-Unexploded Ordinance.” Three cemeteries are located on the battlefield, one is a mass grave in a shell crater, where over 700 are buried or commemorated (their bodies have not been found) – nearly 1/3 are unknown graves. In all the Battle of the Somme on this first day, the British Army suffered their worst one-day combat losses in British history, with nearly 20,000 killed and another 40,000 wounded, captured, or missing. The battle lasted until November, and total casualties for the British, French, and Germans were about 1.2 million men. Losses and displacement of the French civilians is unknown.
The weather worsened while I was there and the forecasted snow began to fall – huge flakes and very heavy. For about 30 minutes. And in that brief time, the roads and fields were covered in white.
I drove to two other memorials and several cemeteries. Signs of the battle are still noticeable in places today, even after 95 years. One cemetery is built over many of the tunnels dug for defense. The ground has subsided so much that many of the grave markers are now laid flat because they kept falling over. Near one memorial was the remains of a concrete lined machine gun nest defending the hill side.
Next I stopped at the Thiepval Memorial, built to commemorate almost 73,000 soldiers who died on the Somme bat
tlefields between July 1915 and March 1918 who have no known grave. The memorial is the largest British military memorial on the world, and each missing soldier has their name inscribed on the monument. Behind the monument is a small cemetery where 300 French and 300 British are buried, most unknown. The tragic purpose of this site was contrasted by the beauty of the setting and of the snow covered surroundings.
Back in 2006 I had driven through northern France while traveling between two of our office. I had visited some of the World War 1 sites in southern Belgium, but did not have time to visit the locations in France. While I had been back to France a 2-3 times since, I had not been able to get back to northern France. The last weekend of January, 2010, would be my chance.
And it was forecast to be cold and a chance of freezing rain and snow. Great. I guess if I was going to visit the fields and trenches of one of the bloodiest battles in World War 1, I was going to do it in conditions much like they lived through for 3 ½ years.
I left the office in mid afternoon on Friday so I could get to the hotel before it got dark. I was staying in the community of Albert (pronounced, al-behr’), a small town of about 10,000 in the France region of Picardy. It just about 8 miles north of the Somme River and about 50 miles south of the Belgium border. It was the center of the action between June and November 1915, which is when the primary battles in the Somme were fought. So it was a good central location for me to explore.
My hotel was just off of the main square in town and my room overlooked the square and the church. The moon was full that evening, the evening star near the moon, and both appeared to be near the brightly lit gold statue atop the church steeple.
The next morning was very cold and windy – about 28* F - and I had quite an accumulation of ice on the car. Fortunately the rental car company includes an ice scraper with every rental, but still I cannot recall scraping this much ice off a car since college. I had wanted to explore the past, just not that past.
The roads were clear, so far, and my first stop was about 6 miles north at the Newfoundland Memorial between the villages of Hamel and Beaumont-Hamel. It was on this spot that on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, July 1st, 1915, that the 1st Newfoundland Regiment from Canada moved from there trenches toward the German trenches. In less than 30 minutes, 733 of the 801 men were either dead or wounded. Many never even reached the no-man’s-land between the trenches. The original trenches from both sides are still intact and very little has been done to restore them. The intent is to leave the battlefield as it looked on that tragic day.
I could walk through some of the trenches – boardwalks had been laid down to prevent erosion – but many other locations were still lined with barbed wire and inaccessible. Many of the German trenches are blocked with warning signs, “Danger-Unexploded Ordinance.” Three cemeteries are located on the battlefield, one is a mass grave in a shell crater, where over 700 are buried or commemorated (their bodies have not been found) – nearly 1/3 are unknown graves. In all the Battle of the Somme on this first day, the British Army suffered their worst one-day combat losses in British history, with nearly 20,000 killed and another 40,000 wounded, captured, or missing. The battle lasted until November, and total casualties for the British, French, and Germans were about 1.2 million men. Losses and displacement of the French civilians is unknown.
The weather worsened while I was there and the forecasted snow began to fall – huge flakes and very heavy. For about 30 minutes. And in that brief time, the roads and fields were covered in white.
I drove to two other memorials and several cemeteries. Signs of the battle are still noticeable in places today, even after 95 years. One cemetery is built over many of the tunnels dug for defense. The ground has subsided so much that many of the grave markers are now laid flat because they kept falling over. Near one memorial was the remains of a concrete lined machine gun nest defending the hill side.
Next I stopped at the Thiepval Memorial, built to commemorate almost 73,000 soldiers who died on the Somme bat
tlefields between July 1915 and March 1918 who have no known grave. The memorial is the largest British military memorial on the world, and each missing soldier has their name inscribed on the monument. Behind the monument is a small cemetery where 300 French and 300 British are buried, most unknown. The tragic purpose of this site was contrasted by the beauty of the setting and of the snow covered surroundings.I stopped back in Albert for a visit to their World War 1 museum housed in tunnels beneath the city streets. The museum is normally closed until after the winter, but I had contacted them in advance and found out a British school group was to visit on this day and I was welcome to join them. Turns out this school group had just been at Thiepval the same time I was there, and one of the parent sponsors and I joked about who was following who. It was fun watching the kids on this field trip. In many ways, not any different from field trips I had when I was there age or those of my children. Some kids poured over the information and exhibits and took careful notes, and for some it was just a fun time to run up and down the tunnels with only an occasional glance at the artifacts around them. The museum specializes in recreating life in the World War 1 trenches, and includes a great deal of items excavated from the surrounding battlefields. Not just weapons, but everyday things like glassware, cards, pictures from home, and items handcrafted from war leftovers like shell casings. Things like crosses made from weapons.
Before it got dark I ventured out for a bit more driving, and the roads, parking areas, and pathways were starting to get icy. Just north of Albert is two interesting sites. First is the village of Pozieres, famous as it was near here that tanks were first used in battle in September 1916. They really ready for use in battle yet, and less than half of those deployed actually made to the German lines. But it was here that tank warfare began.
Not far from this monument is the village of La Boisselle, which was located on the German front lines on July 1st 1915. On that morning, nearly 27 tons of explosives were detonated from a tunnel dug beneath the front lines. The resulting explosion left a crater 90 feet deep and 300 feet across and sent debris almost 4000 feet into the air. Over 2500 British casualties were suffered in the attack. No one knows how many Germans died and many are presumed buried beneath the crater. Memorial crosses have been placed in the bottom of the crater. The body of one of the missing British soldiers was found at the edge of the crater 82 years after he died.
The next morning, after more practice at ice-scraping, I headed out to visit a few more sites before heading back to Le Havre. Three sites I stopped at on the way were connected to the famous German aviator, the Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen. In the last months of the war, the Somme region was still divided between the British and French forces, and the Germans. Aviators from both sides would fly over the opponents’ lines to observe military actions, to bomb or fire on the troops, or to engage the planes from the other side. In April 1918, Richthofen was based along the Somme and set up on the morning of the April 21st for a patrol. His flyers and British flyers engaged over the river near the village of Vaux-sur-Somme and during the aerial battle, he was hit and crash landed behind the Australian lines (the most likely scenario was he was hit by a bullet fired from a ground based Australian machine gunner). He was dead in seconds after crash landing, and was buried not far from the battlefield in the village cemetery of Bertangles. After the war, he was move to a German military cemetery near the Somme village of Fricourt, only later to be moved twice more to burial sites in Germany. I visited the three France sites at Bertangles, Fricourt and his crash landing site near Vaux-sur-Somme
The drive back was uneventful until I was less than 30 minutes from the hotel. It began to snow again and more heavily than at any time during the weekend. The expressway was almost completely covered, and snowplows had been dispatched on the lanes heading the opposite direction (I guess that side because it was uphill). I stopped at a roadside park for a few minutes while the snow tapered off, took a few more pictures of the snow covered countryside, then headed back to the hotel.
Later I was thinking on the snow and the battlefields. How a region so scarred by death and violence could look so beautiful and pure by a layer of snow. Kind of like mercy, but instead of snow just covering up the scars, mercy actually heals.
Pictures of the trip are at http://scottshots4.shutterfly.com/479
Before it got dark I ventured out for a bit more driving, and the roads, parking areas, and pathways were starting to get icy. Just north of Albert is two interesting sites. First is the village of Pozieres, famous as it was near here that tanks were first used in battle in September 1916. They really ready for use in battle yet, and less than half of those deployed actually made to the German lines. But it was here that tank warfare began.
Not far from this monument is the village of La Boisselle, which was located on the German front lines on July 1st 1915. On that morning, nearly 27 tons of explosives were detonated from a tunnel dug beneath the front lines. The resulting explosion left a crater 90 feet deep and 300 feet across and sent debris almost 4000 feet into the air. Over 2500 British casualties were suffered in the attack. No one knows how many Germans died and many are presumed buried beneath the crater. Memorial crosses have been placed in the bottom of the crater. The body of one of the missing British soldiers was found at the edge of the crater 82 years after he died.
The next morning, after more practice at ice-scraping, I headed out to visit a few more sites before heading back to Le Havre. Three sites I stopped at on the way were connected to the famous German aviator, the Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen. In the last months of the war, the Somme region was still divided between the British and French forces, and the Germans. Aviators from both sides would fly over the opponents’ lines to observe military actions, to bomb or fire on the troops, or to engage the planes from the other side. In April 1918, Richthofen was based along the Somme and set up on the morning of the April 21st for a patrol. His flyers and British flyers engaged over the river near the village of Vaux-sur-Somme and during the aerial battle, he was hit and crash landed behind the Australian lines (the most likely scenario was he was hit by a bullet fired from a ground based Australian machine gunner). He was dead in seconds after crash landing, and was buried not far from the battlefield in the village cemetery of Bertangles. After the war, he was move to a German military cemetery near the Somme village of Fricourt, only later to be moved twice more to burial sites in Germany. I visited the three France sites at Bertangles, Fricourt and his crash landing site near Vaux-sur-Somme
The drive back was uneventful until I was less than 30 minutes from the hotel. It began to snow again and more heavily than at any time during the weekend. The expressway was almost completely covered, and snowplows had been dispatched on the lanes heading the opposite direction (I guess that side because it was uphill). I stopped at a roadside park for a few minutes while the snow tapered off, took a few more pictures of the snow covered countryside, then headed back to the hotel.
Later I was thinking on the snow and the battlefields. How a region so scarred by death and violence could look so beautiful and pure by a layer of snow. Kind of like mercy, but instead of snow just covering up the scars, mercy actually heals.
Pictures of the trip are at http://scottshots4.shutterfly.com/479
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