A Long-Time wish fullfilled.

Between 1st November and the 6th, I accomplished something I've long wanted to do, visit Northern France and Southern Belgium, a part of the world familiar to many generations caused by the aggression of nations.

I love history. It is a sad fact that much history is the story of conflict.

The following covers events that range from Agincourt to WWII, involves British, French, German, American, Australian, Canadian and South African memorials.

There is also a personal element.

So as Shakespeare's Chorus says in Henry V, "So great an object. Can this cockpit hold The vasty fields of France?"



The spelling may have changed (Azincourt). The woods either side have been cleared back but this is where the English (and Welsh) longbow-men formed up in their battles to face the French army in 1415.


Further down the field of battle stands this memorial to all the dead of the battle.

Having completed his capture of Harfleur, Henry marched his depleted army of some 900 men-at-arms and 5,000 archers, most suffering from dysentry, towards Calais intending to return to England but he found his way barred by a French army of some 25,000.

Henry tried to avoid battle and circle around the French but they kept blocking his path. Names of places such as Albert, Bapaume and Peronne figure in the story as they were to do again 500 years later. Henry crossed the Somme in the night but found the French were determined to do battle.

Most of us know that the English did 'a fearful killing' that day and the French losses were huge.



After the battle Henry looked across the field and saw a nearby church spire. He asked what was the name of the place and when told, he replied that the battle would be known as Agincourt.

The locals are aware of the significance to us and the town has several tourist attractions.....

At this time of year almost everything was closed including the local museum.

By the church is a memorial to the sons of Azincourt who lost their lives in later wars.



South of Mons, I came upon another famous name....


and just outside the village the memorial to 'All the combatants'..


and the field of battle itself where the Allies lost over 20,000 and the French as many as 15,000. The Allied commander and victor (despite the losses), Blenheim was of course an ancestor of Winston Spencer Churchill.


The Belgian town of Mons has long been on my list pf places to visit but before I get on to that, I have to apologise for not pressing on north a little further to Waterloo. I just didn't have enough time. It's worth mentioning though as it shows just how close together so many great events ocurred in this region.

Mons. I'll try to be brief (not easy for me as some who know me will no doubt testify!).

My paternal grandfather was a member of what Kaiser 'Bill' referred to as Britain's "contemptible little army" in August 1914 at the outbreak of WWI. He was in the Royal Fusiliers (RF) (as was my father for a short time, my older brother and myself followed in our own time), The RF were in the Division sent to slow the German advance through Belgium and fetched up on the Mons-Condé canal. They were in a precarious position on the southern bank of the canal with the Middlesex Regiment on their right.

The canal, looking from the RF positions towards the Middlesex positions.
On this bridge.....

the Fusiliers positioned one of their two Vickers machineguns under the command of Lt. Maurice Dease. Positioned here to fire upon the advancing German units.

at the southern end of the bridge.

All the gunners were killed and under fire, Dease took control of the gun himself and despite many wounds kept up a withering fire until he succumbed. Deace died of his wounds there, he was replaced by Private Godley who carried on firing until the weapon jammed beyond repair due to over-heating. Godley smashed the Vickers on one of the bridge uprights before throwing it into the canal.
They won the first and second VC's of the war.
Such acts are not the only ones. An unknown soldier of the Middlesex Rgt. lay on the roof of a burning out-building and covered his fellows retreat until the burning roof collapsed. He was heard to be shouting to his mates to make their escape while he gave covering fire. No-one knows his identity, surely if it had been known, he too would have been honoured.

To the Southwest of Mons is the cemetery at St Symphorien.

If you only ever visit one CWGC site, make it this one (Mapsource shows it as a German Cemetery).

It was started as a German Cemetery after they took Mons but they also buried British soldiers here.


Both side are buried here.......

The above are German graves.

The Germans buried....

I'm not sure if you can make it out from this photo but the grave with the wreath beside it is of the last Canadian to die in WWI, he was killed on 11.11.1918, Armistice Day!


Unfortunately he wasn't the last to die that day........

Private Ellison of the 5th Lancers has the unenviable distinction of being the last British and Commonwealth soldier to be killed in action.
Across from him in this group of Middlesex Rgt. dead....

lies Private Parr of the Middlesex who was killed in a reconnaisance on 21st August 1914, the first British soldier killed in WWI.
In this cemetery are examples of futility, irony and courage. I have to be honest and say that I was deeply affected by this quiet little "corner of a foreign field".

I'll jump on a bit, I have plenty of photo's of the Retreat from Mons route and the area of the holding action that took place at Le Cateau. If you want to see more I'll post a full account on my blog soon.

High on a hillside stands...

this monument. The track is broken up and pretty soon turns quite muddy..




The bike's starting to gather a coating of Somme mud.
Despite the time of year, some wild poppies were clinging on.

It did affect me seeing these poppies here when we are so used to the connotation of poppies and The Great War in particular.

A short way down the road is this monument....
to the American Divisions that fought under British command here in 1918. This and the US Somme Cemetery along the road shouldn't be confused with the Battle of the Somme that lasted from July 1916 to November 1916.

The Somme is the name of the river and the region. It is a bit confusing because the 'front' moved backwards and forwards over the same ground as each side began each new "big push" that was supposed to be the one that lead to a war of movement and breakout.


Looking out over some of "the vasty fields of France" from the memorial.

and proportionally more of the "vasty field" stuck on my bike!
A little further on towards Arras, stands a US Military Cemetery...


This headstone struck me because I have a book called "The Rumour of War" about one US Marine Corps officer's account of the early days in Vietnam. The author's name is Caputo.

As I walked through this beautiful (if that's appropriate) cemetery, I was struck by the names. They could have been from any corner of the globe, I think it sums up America in a way.





The citation for the above award (together with two other in this cemetery are in the visitor centre nearby).

More to follow.........

A nice write up Mike and some good pics.

Thanks Mike...well done - on the trip and the thread..Mel.

Seeing all those graves gets to me every time. I don't know if it's the frighteningly young age of many of them or just the sheer numbers. I guess it's probably the combination.

Good report Mike. Keep it coming.

It's a longish story.......

I only decided to do this trip a few days before I started out having finally tracked down the grave of my paternal great-uncle. The family story was that he had no known grave but after using the 1901 Census and CWGC I was able to track down some more details.

I just felt that it was important that a member of his family make the journey.

His grave is listed as being in London Cemetery, Neuville-Vitasse, south of Arras. He was killed in the action that involved the Canadians success at Vimy Ridge (more of that later).

Neuville-Vitasse stands on a slight rise in the ground and like anywhere in this area that has some hight, it was tactically important.

Approaching the town, I had no firm idea of the CWGC location of London Cemetery.
Up on a lonely hillside I could see a 'Great Cross'.


The track up to the site turned out to be worthy of a GS and I wouldn't have fancied it on more road-oriented tyres.

It was much worse down between the trees! At one point I thought I'd made a big mistake

Plugged TKC's.
The cemetery turned out to be...
Neuville-Vitasse Road Cemetery. It was a lonely, windswept place. Not somewhere that many would visit unless they had specific reason. Certainly not somewhere that the young men interred here would have chosen for their resting place.
I re-negotiated the muddy track and in the town stopped by the memorail to the local "Poliou's".
Having visited the Verdun area earlier this year with Clive where we saw a vast French military cemetery and looked around Fort Douamont, it is perhaps right to remember that French losses were three times that of Britains.

In this area too, it has to be borne in mind that although they are surrounded by cemeteries most of their own war-dead are almost as far away from them as are ours.
I finally found London Cemetery.....
I don't know how to describe my feelings at this point.
In this cemetery, somewhere lay a great-uncle. Someone I had never known but was never-the-less, family. He was 21 when he died on 9th April 1917. The action to take Neuville-Vitasse lasted from the 7th to the 9th April.
It and the major action carried out in the Arras area (including Vimy) were designed, at their request, to take the pressure off the French elsewhere. The idea was that a British 'push' would force the Germans to withdraw forces from opposite the French front-line to deal with the action here.

I was working my way around the cemetery when I started down this row from the far end. I knew I was getting close when headstone after headstone was a member of the 12th Battalion The London Regiment (The Rangers).
Near the end, in the shade (and protected from the winds by) the 'gift commemoration' was my uncle Percy.....

I cannot explain or put into words what I felt. I was drawn to the headstone and found myself running my finger, tracing the outline of his name as some sort of contact I suppose?

It wasn't easy to leave.
Odd isn't it? Now I was here, I really had to make an effort to get back on the bike and move off (I did make an entry in the visitors book that was quite a personal moment).
I rode on to Vimy Ridge and the memorial to the Canadians who against the odds (and expectations) took the ridge, something that hadn't been achieved in many attempts until April 1917. It is seen (quite correctly) as being the moment that Canada rose out of the British shadow as it were and became aware of her own status as a new nation.

The Vimy memorial is under wraps but you can see the craters in the foreground.

Above and below are massive craters on Vimy Ridge.

In this next photo I got into one of the preserved Canadian trenches and what you can see is the German trench line on the other side of a crater.

The trees were planted to prevent erosion but otherwise the area has been left as it was. You can enter the trench complex or even the tunnels (with a guide) that are still present.
This is a Canadian national shrine. It is well kept and staffed with pleasant young Canadians who are genuinely happy to be there and to help in any way they can.

Delville Wood was my next stop. It is the site of the South African Monument.


I think that you can make out that this too was undergoing repairs.
Across the road is a large CWGC cemetery........


Row upon row of young men, very many unidentified.

Always appropriate.
It's always appropriate too to remember that the 'enemy' were human....


Above is Bapaume. A name that featues in every account of the Somme including back in 1415!
Just north of Arras, I came across this little CWGC cemetery...

Look at the external face of the archway........

those are bullet strikes.
In 1940 another generation of British Expeditionary Force stood here and fought. Arras 1940 features in many lists of Battle Honours in the British Army.

I hope that the occupants of these cemeteries weren't offended by me rolling up on a Boche Machine

Thanks Mike for that report. It brought back some moving memories of a trip I did over there some 10 years ago. Those war cemetries get me every time. I went to one of the ones in Thailand once at Kanchanaburi (spelling?) which is the famous Bridge on the River Kwai. I don't think the Japanese tourists, who unbeleivably go there in large numbers, could figure out why a young british bloke seemed so distressed by the whole thing. Perhaps I'm just too soft.

Thanks again. Very interesting.

"The Vimy memorial is under wraps ....

Click to expand...

After 3 years, my memory is a bit hazy, but is the Vimy Memorial a bronze Moose standing on a big rock ? If it is, I have a photo of it at home if you want it.

Taff said:

After 3 years, my memory is a bit hazy, but is the Vimy Memorial a bronze Moose standing on a big rock ? If it is, I have a photo of it at home if you want it.

Click to expand...

Taff,

Thanks. The Vimy memorial is a huge stone edifice. It has a statue of 'Canada' as a young mother mourning her losses (amongst others).

The one I think you are referring to is one of several dedicated to Newfoundlanders.

Mike.

Rich

Soft? I doubt it. I pop over the Channel once in a while to visit these famous places and when I read the graves and realise these young men were no older than my children, my heart also cracks up. When I see old newreel footage of the small 'old pals' battalions that were formed from one town, to see them marching off happily and that many were decimated. Towns and villages lost almost all of their young men.

Mike

Thanks very much for those two posts. Very moving. The 'Last Post' at the Menin Gate at Ypres ("Wipers" as the British Tommys called it) each evening by members of the local Fire Brigade also has to be experienced.

Yes, Vimy Ridge is enough to take ones breath away.

Two or three years ago, The Commonwealth War Graves Commission created a website directory of all known war graves (www. cwgc.org) and it was so popular at the beginning that the system kept jamming. It's improved since the rush has died down. I did a search on both World Wars for anybody with my surname, and discovered two in WW1 and two in WW2. I knew of one of the two WW2 Narramores, as he was an uncle who died on HMS Javelin. The second was an Australian motorcycle dispatch rider who was seriously injured by a mine and died in a PoW camp. Destroyers in the Channel had a fearful time with great loss of life. During his last leave, my father and he made up after a family row and he said that he believed he would return from his next tour of duty.

George N was a Private in 7th Bat. Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, d. 24 June 1917, and I found buried at Noreuil Australian Cemetery, 10km NE of Baupaume.

Another, Albert N, was a LCpl in the 6th Bat. Royal Dublin Fusiliers. d.8 October 1918, only a month before the Armistice. Unusually his grave, unlike almost all of the others, bore an extra inscription "C.O. reported, Bold, Courageous, Splendid in Action, Always right ahead". His grave was at the Prospect Hill Cemetery, Gouy, south of Cambrai.

When I returned home, I later visited the archives at Kew and got copies of the actual war diaries methodically written up each day by each battalion. It mentions that George N was one of five buried by shell fire, the remaining four were saved.

Great write-up Mike well up to your usual standards.

I have read the book you metioned 'The Rumour of War' a graphic report of what war is about and how it effects the people who take part in it. It could be any war at any time.

Your trip reminds us all of the pain, hardship and loss of life that those brave peolpe went through, not just the great wars but all those conflicts pass and present.

For myself on 11/11 I will be thinking of my brother, killed in Iraq 2003

The Last Tommy

Appropriately there is a programme tonight on Beeb1 at 9pm called The Last Tommy, it features two of the remaining four British vets of the Great War. One is 105 and the other 109! One is the last man alive to have been present at the truce of Christmas 1914 when British and German troops exchanged gifts and played football.

Nice report Mike, its funny how the sky always seems bright and the air cold in those little corners of a foreign land.

Jim

Great report

Hard to believe how many young men fell during WWI. The area of Ypres, Verdun etc. is filled with many wargraves of all nationalities.

An aunt of mine is married to a german. I found the final resting place of his grandfather a few months ago at the german soldier cemetary of Menen (near Ypres) My 'uncle' is 70 now. He never knew his grandfather, only from pictures. He spent quite some time on the cemetary. He's the only one of his family that ever visited the grave. All his brothers and sisters are already dead (he was the youngest)

Hi Mike P

Great event report and Photos,I hope to visit some of these sites in the next couple of years a colleague in work did a similiar trip earlier this year and it effected him when he saw the various cemetries and the numbers involved

Regd's K

Mike

Excellent write up and photos , i have been planning to do the Normandy beaches for a while and just have not got round to it - i think you have inspired me to get the maps out and do some planning and get something sorted

Cheers mate

Thanks for the kind comments everyone.

Today I received microfilm copies of my great-uncles unit war diary. They are not easy to decipher being written in longhand and in pencil.

I requested the extracts from 7th April to 9th April covering the assault at Neuville-Vitasse, where he was killed.

The documents were e-mailed to me from the Public Records Office. I'm using Coral software to enlarge and 'clean' them up. So far there are a few words that I can't fully decipher.



It's fascinating to read about attempts to create gaps in the enemy wire before the assault. Quite emotive too. I'm reading words written by someone there at the time and who saw these events at first-hand and in his own hand-writing, not some clean copy fom a text book.

I'll make a copy for the appopriate entry in my blog sooner rather than later.

(The link to the blog is on my profile page if anyone is interested).

Mike.

Great write up Mike. I've been wanting to do a similar trip for some time. I had two great uncles Killed in WW1. One is in a War grave near an old military hospital at Rouen the other has an inscription on the War grave between Arras and Cambrai. My uncle who was killed and has the inscription at Arras Died in August 1918 during the big push. We only lost his sister My great aunt Sarah last year. She was 104 and as bright as a button. She certainly give me a lot of insight into those times.

Postscript, A strange coincidence!

After updating my mother on what I found out about my father's uncle, she remembered that she too had an uncle killed in the Great War. He was wounded and was being brought back to Blighty when the hospital ship he was on was torpedoed and sunk.

Remembering that my paternal great-uncle was in the 1/12th London Regiment (The Rangers), I was really gobsmacked when I discovered that my maternal great-uncle was in the same battalion!

Further, the wound he received that meant he was on HMTS Donegal when she was torpedoed was sustained on the same day that my other uncle was killed, 9th April 1917, the first day of the Battle of Arras!

It doesn't seem like much but they might at least have been aware of each other not knowing that their families would be linked a generation later.

This has set me off on another trail of family discovery.