The Visitor's Guide to the Battlefields of the Somme by olivier durand

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Battlefields of The Somme

The Visitorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

Guide

to the Battlefields

This brochure was put together by the Somme Tourist Board and members of the 'Great War Promotion and Marketing' working party with the valuable assistance of Jean-Pierre Thierry, and with financial support from the Somme local authority.

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P th o 1st July at the Thiepval franco-british memorial

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CONTENTS

The historical context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Exploring the British front . . . . . . . . . . 8 Exploring the French front . . . . . . . . . 22 Elsewhere in the Department of the Somme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 • Doullens : the Unified Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 • Cantigny and Bony : American Intervention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 • Amiens : a city in the Rear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28 • Noyelles-sur-Mer : the Chinese contribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28 • Villers-Bretonneux and Le Hamel : the Australian Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28

Elsewhere in France and Belgium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 • Vimy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30

Please help to maintain the peace and tranquillity of these sites of memory.

• Verdun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 • Ypres . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 • The Chemin des Dames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 • Compiègne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30

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The Historical Context On 28 June 1914 the Archduke FranzFerdinand of Austria was assassinated in Sarajevo, Austria-Hungary. Declarations of war followed, in an inexorable sequence : Germany, Russia, France, Great Britain, Belgium, Austria-Hungary, Serbia, etc. Almost all the pieces were in place for the sinister game : confidently expected to end by Christmas, it was to last for more than four years, for the “Belle Epoque” was over and Europe was plunging into its bloodiest civil war. German forces occupied Liège and Charleroi and reached Picardy. On 31 August 1914 they entered Amiens, which was abandoned a week later when Von Kluck gave the order to retreat after the Battle of the Marne : the Schlieffen Plan failed and the pincers did not close around Paris. The first Battle of the Somme, from September 20 to 30, was part of “the race to the sea”, and memorials at Ovillers, Guillemont and Flers recall the battles of those early months. From October the front line became stabilised, stretching 750 kilometres from the Yser to the Swiss border. Strategic aims turned from containment to breakthrough, a policy which was to last for three and a half years. The Somme front, held at this stage by the French army, lay along a north-south line passing close to the villages of Beaumont-Hamel, Thiepval, La Boisselle, Fricourt, Maricourt (with a double right angle), Curlu (following a loop of the River Somme), Dompierre, Fay,

1914

The winding road at Berny-en-Santerre. Collections belonging to the Historial de la Grande Guerre Péronne.

Chaulnes, and Maucourt, while the Germans occupied the ridges above the valleys of the Ancre and the Somme. Each army dug its trenches and communication lines, constructed underground shelters and surface defences. Each set up its networks of barbed wire, often 40 metres thick, along the edges of no man's land, which varied between 50 metres and 300 metres in width. 1915 proved to be the most murderous year of the whole war. It was the year of the great offensives, all designed to achieve a 'breakthrough' - but all failed : Champagne, Artois, Argonne, the Vosges. In Turkey, the Dardanelles operations was a failure, and there was failure too at Ypres. There was no major offensive in the Somme sector, only hit-and-run attacks, raids and mine warfare (Fricourt, Fay).

1915

The Battle of the Somme in 1916 affected a very large part of the department, from Beaumont-Hamel and Bapaume in the north down to Chilly, south of Chaulnes. The British held the battle front line from its northern end as far as Maricourt while the French held the south, across the valley of the River Somme. The general strategy for 1916 on the French, Russian

1916

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and Italian fronts was proposed at the inter-allied conference in December 1915, at the Chantilly headquarters. Joffre defined the Battle of the Somme very clearly : “The strategic aim I intended to carry out was to direct a mobile mass at the enemy's network of lines of communication, through Cambrai, Le Cateau and Maubeuge. The road from Bapaume to Cambrai thus defined the initial line of attack. The objective was marked out by Miraumont, Le Sars, Ginchy, Maurepas, Hem and the Flaucourt plateau” (Joffre's memoirs). But “the Verdun inferno” forced the allied command to reduce the length of the front and to reverse roles on the Somme : the British army was now of prime importance. The German command, anticipating a large-scale attack in the north of the Somme, had had time to consolidate its positions substantially. This immediately made up for its numerical disadvantage, as they took skilful advantage of the local topography, constructing concrete fortifications, reinforcing trenches which in every case overlooked the French and British lines, digging innumerable underground communications networks (sometimes as much as 12 metres deep), shelters and barracks (the Schwaben Redoubt at Thiepval). Both armies prepared for the attack, creating a kind of bustling temporary city. New roads appeared, others were consolidated, and bridges, stations and railway lines were constructed to bring up supplies of food, fodder munitions and equipment. New trenches were dug, jumping-off lines and access lines. First-aid posts and hospitals, battery positions, airfields, assembly areas, observation posts - all needed planning and construction. British, German and French troops finally formed a concentrated mass of approximately one million men and 200 000 horses living in a constant flow of relief and reinforcements amidst the crash of explosives. The battle began on 24 June with an allied artillery barrage that continued without interruption by day or night, designed to demolish the networks of barbed wire barring the way and to flatten the German positions. But bad weather and inaccurate predictions of the effects of the bombardment meant that the surface fortifications were not completely

destroyed and the underground networks survived undamaged…

1 July 1916 On 1 July 1916, at precisely 7.30 am, a few moments after the simultaneous explosion of several huge mines (“Hawthorn” in Beaumont-Hamel, “Lochnagar” at La Boisselle, “The Tambour” at Fricourt, etc.), and moving close behind the moving barrage of the Allied artillery, the British and French infantry advanced from their trenches. The French units south of the river attacked two hours later, as a diversionary tactic. By that evening the French 6th Army under General Fayolle had reached its primary objectives : - south of the Somme the German front line between Fay and Dompierre was captured by the 1st Colonial Corps ; - north of the river, Curlu and Hardecourt were gained but with greater difficulty. In the British sector, however, the situation was disastrous. General Allenby's 3rd Army and General Rawlinson's 4th Army, consisting of new and inexperienced troops, were shattered on the slopes of Thiepval (Ulster Tower, the Irish Division memorial) and at Beaumont-Hamel (Newfoundland National Memorial). South of La Boisselle and at Fricourt, the German line was pierced only here and there. Next day the number of casualties suffered on 1 July proved to have been appalling : 58 000 men fell, including 20 000 killed. Thirty-two battalions had lost more than 500 men (out of an average strength of 800); the Newfoundlanders lost 700 men in thirty minutes. Never before had Britain and her Empire faced a conflict of such proportions, never before had they suffered a military catastrophe on so great a scale. The left wing of the British army lost so many men that Haig briefly abando-

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Maintenance of cemeteries and memorials MINISTRY

DEFENCE

inistry of Defence staff are responsible for maintaining the French cemeteries, which are striking in their uniformity and plain style. The lay-out usually includes ossuaries and a flag-pole flying the French flag. The Department of the Somme has around 20 national cemeteries.

“VOLKSBUND DEUTSCHE KRIEGSGRÄBERFÜRSORGE”

he Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge is a humanitarian organisation set up in 1919 to identify the graves of German soldiers in other countries and to preserve and maintain them. The largest of the thirteen German cemeteries in the Somme is at Vermandovillers, the final resting-place of 26,000 soldiers.

WAR GRAVES COMMISSION”

“AMERICAN BATTLE MONUMENTS COMMISSION” (A.B.M.C)

stablished by Royal Charter in 1917, the then Imperial War Graves Commission was created to carry out the essential work of maintaining the graves of members of empire armies who died during the two World Wars and other wars throughout the British Empire, later the Commonwealth. Its other fundamental task is to maintain the many memorials and monuments. Each cemetery has its Cross of Sacrifice with a sword set on it, and the Stone of Remembrance bearing a carved quotation from Ecclesiasticus, ‘Their name liveth for evermore’. Almost every cemetery has a sheltered area for visitors. The overall result is a very striking architectural feature. The committee maintains 410 cemeteries in the Somme where some 129,237 soldiers have their final resting place.

he prime object of the United States war graves service, set up by Federal decision in 1923, is to maintain the cemeteries containing the graves of the 131,593 men and women who died during various conflicts (the Mexican War, the First and Second World Wars, Korea, Vietnam), in foreign lands and on national soil. Its secondary task is to set up and care for memorials, plaques and monuments. Each dead person, identified or unknown, is comemorated individually with a white marble Christian cross or Jewish stone; the names of those who have no known grave or who are recorded as “missing” are carved on the inside walls of the oecumenical chapel inside the cemetery.

“COMMONWEALTH

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ned the attack to the west of the Pozières-Thiepval ridge. July ended with a slow general advance (Welsh Division memorial at Mametz), its uneven progress revealing the varied results of the two armies' encounters along the line. Successes at Fricourt, Mametz, Longueval (South African memorial) and Pozières (Australian memorials) were not matched elsewhere. The French reached Biaches and La Maisonnette, but although they came within two kilometres of Péronne, the impassable barrier of the Somme prevented them from occupying the town until the end of the offensive. Costly and limited attacks were launched in August, the combined French and British forces gaining control of the 2nd German line : Pozières, Bazentin, Maurepas (memorial to the 1st French infantry regiment, and a plaque to the 9th Zouaves), Hem and Herbécourt. Meanwhile, however, the natural strong-points of Thiepval and Beaumont-Hamel remained impregnable. The Germans swiftly created a third line of trenches ; they were also forced to transfer some of their artillery and aviation forces, and four infantry divisions, to the Austro-Hungarian front, a move that defeated their plans for a counter-attack on the Somme. A fresh general offensive was launched in September, particularly to the east of Pozières. The British launched their first tank attack (tank memorial at Pozières), took Flers (memorial to the 41st Division), Martinpuich and Courcelette (Canadian memorial), and finally captured Thiepval. They surrounded Combles, together with the French who occupied Bouchavesnes (statue of Foch), Rancourt, Cléry-sur-Somme and Deniécourt, Vermandovillers and, further to the south, Chilly. But the German front remained unbroken. The third German line, from Gueudecourt to the Somme, was captured at the beginning of October, but the British were halted at the Butte de Warlencourt (Western Front Association memorial). The French were held at Sailly-Saillisel and in the woods of St Pierre-Vast, where they suffered heavy losses (Souvenir Français memorial chapel at Rancourt). Beaumont-Hamel did not fall to the British until mid-November, four and a half months after the first launch of the offensive. Incessant torrential rain turned the ground into a morass in which men, animals and weapons were trapped. The battlefield became a “foul brown mush which swallows everything” (Pierre Loti). The waters overwhelmed the warfare, the armies took to their winter quarters and reformed their units. The British advance, after four and a half months of battle, was approximately 12 kilometres, and between 5 and 8 kilometres for the less numerous French. Of approximately 3 million men in the line during this period, some 1.2 million were killed, wounded or missing in action, and the Allied objectives set out in December 1915 remained out of

reach. The only reason for the Allied occupation of Péronne and Bapaume in March 1917 was the decision of the German High Command - determined to remain in control of its terrain, as in 1914 - to order a general withdrawal to the “Hindenburg Line” (Arras-Soissons), a manoeuvre enabling the German army to reduce the length of its lines by some 70 kilometres and 8 divisions. It was a remarkable strategic coup. The chief events on the Western Front were : - the tragic French offensive of the Chemin des Dames in April, and its ensuing disturbances ; - the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) which engaged the British and Dominion forces from July to October ; - the disastrous Italian retreat after Caporetto, in November ; - the Battle of Cambrai, also in November, with 381 tanks engaged in the first British mass tank attack.

1917

The German army was reinforced by the arrival of divisions transferred from the east, after their defeat of the Russian Army and Russia's withdrawal from the war at the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (March 1918). This was the year of the final German offensive on 21 March, the British retreat, and the appointment of Foch (Doullens Town Hall), as the sole commander of the Allied forces. The German breakthrough and advance towards Amiens was halted by the Australian forces at Villers-Bretonneux (Australian national memorial), and the intervention of American troops (Cantigny memorial). The memorial to the 14,700 missing British soldiers from 21 March-7 August 1918, in Pozières cemetery, the memorials to the 31th French Army Corps at Moreuil, the 2nd Australian division at Péronne Mont-SaintQuentin and the Canadians at Le Quesnel, and the many British cemeteries in the Santerre area, mark the Allied counter-offensive which led up to the Armistice signed on 11 November at Compiègne (Oise). By the end of the war, the British presence was strongly marked on the landscape of these murderous battles, studding the landscape with cemeteries and memorials, while the French encouraged families to take back the bodies of their soldiers. Those that remained were collected together for burial in vast cities of the dead. Your visit will therefore enable you to explore the British zone, with its manifold and sometimes spectacular reminders, in the north, while in the south the more specialised visitors can discover the French sector where the remains and memorials are more modest though still highly evocative. Jean-Pierre Thierry.

1918

German observation post. Collections belonging to the Historial de la Grande Guerre - Péronne.

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Exploring the British front… All the villages along our route witnessed the battles of the August invasion and the “race to the sea” in September 1914, the Battle of the Somme in July-November 1916 and the Picardy Battles of March-September 1918. All were destroyed and some have even completely vanished from the map. In some places it is possible to pick out the plain little temporary houses so typical of the reconstruction period of the 1920s. It may be helpful to follow wartime developments along two geographical axes : - the north-south orientation of the Somme front line ; - the general direction of the offensives and counter-offensives of 1916 and 1918 : east-west or west-east.

Collections belonging to the Historial de la Grande Guerre - Péronne.

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PERONNE Historial of the Great War

rom the moment when it was occupied by the Germans in August 1914, Péronne became a crowded centre of military activity and logistical support, particularly during the Battle of the Somme. Despite eight months of heavy French artillery bombardment it was held by the Germans until their withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line in March 1917. Occupied once again in the final German advance, in March 1918, the town was finally recaptured by the 2nd Australian Division on 2 September 1918 ; the divisional flag is kept inside the Town Hall. Daily at noon and 6 pm the bells of the Town Hall ring out “La Madelon”, a popular French song of the 1914-18 war. In November 1916, in the ocean of mud created by weeks of torrential rain, the French offensive died out at the foot of the fortified hill of Mont-Saint-Quentin. This imposing mass, which is visible from the Bouchavesnes road, was finally - and bloodily - taken by the Australians on 31 August 1918.

The modern part of the museum has been inserted into a very imposing fortification which, like the rest of the town, was damaged during the fighting. Here can be found the military or personal reminders of soldiers of the main combatant nations, the possessions of those wretched men who, like the writer Louis-Ferdinand Céline, “enriched the land”. Here you can discover the daily life of the British, German or French civilians who were quickly drawn into the first “Total War”, of which the Historial illustrates the immense efforts of industrialisation, propaganda and social effect. The Historial runs 56 period films, from the visit of Poincaré to Russia in July 1914 to the return of the German troops who paraded through the Brandenburg gate in 1918 to the wild acclaim of the crowds. The Historial's collections are outstanding : posters, pictures, objects from civilian and military daily life, carefully selected to offer the visitors a precise and faithful understanding of the war, at the front and behind the lines. There is also the filmed narrative of the British poet and war veteran Harry Fellows to be seen, as with the aid of archive images he recounts the voluntary enlistment of his fellow-citizens. The subtle and ambitious museography shows the extent to which the horror of such a war is truly beyond words, and the extent to which the suffering was shared by all nations. In fact the Historial is more than a museum : it is a focus of universal meaning which soberly and plainly narrates the history of a period which shaped the whole of the century ahead.

Poets and writers of the Great War Among all the warring parties, mobilisation was something that united people from all walks of life, including ‘intellectuals’. In the British Isles, where poetry is a very special phenomenon, we see writers and poets such as Wilfred Owen, Robert Graves, and Siegfried Sassoon. And in France we have Georges Duhamel, Blaise Cendrars, and Jean Cocteau. Germany had Ernst Jünger, Alfred Lichtenstein, and Reinhard Johannes Sorge. All their works are famed for different reasons. Of particular interest are the ‘Poems’ of Owen, ‘Good-bye to all that’ by Graves, ‘Memoirs of an Infantry Officer’ by Sassoon, ‘Civilisation’ by Duhamel, ‘La main coupée’ by Cendrars, ‘Thomas l’imposteur’ by Cocteau, and Jünger’s ‘In Stahlgewittern’ or ‘The Storm of Steel’. 9

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In the area : The Church of Saint Jean-Baptiste, gothic building, still bears the scars of the battle on its façade and one of its side walls. Fixed to the front of the Town Hall, a commemorative plaque recalling Péronne’s liberation by Australian troops in 1918. An interesting war memorial , “Picardy woman cursing the war” (with her threatening fist), created by the sculptor Paul Auban. It stands on the site of the Foy barracks which accommodated 3,000 men at the beginning of the war. On the Paris road out of Péronne (RN17), military graves in the cemetery of la Chapelette testify to the contribution of India and Egypt to the war.

In the area : M O I S L A I N S

he end of August 1914 : the French army is in retreat. The 307th Infantry Regiment from Angoulême and the 308th Regiment from Bergerac are retreating southwards from Douai through Péronne on 28 August. A German army corps, reaching Manancourt, Moislains and Bouchavesnes the previous day, intercepts the French to the north of Moislains. Taken unawares, the French suffer disastrous losses : of the 2,200 men in the 307th Regiment, only 580 exhausted survivors reach Arras late on 28 August, and the 308th Regiment has lost more than 1,300 men. Moislains Parish Church : too often locked, this is a fine example of the Art Deco style which was a feature of architecture during the reconstruction period of the 1930s. The work of architect Lucien Faille, it contains handsome stained glass by Gérard Ansart and in particular an outstandingly well-planned decorative scheme (mosaic Stations of the Cross and High Altar, pews, confessional, etc.).

Memorial to the 2nd Australian Division The monument on the RN 17 road (Avenue des Australiens, on the road to Bapaume and Arras), inaugurated on 2 September 1971, replaces the memorial set up in 1925 which was dismantled in 1940 under the German occupation in the Second World War. Today it consists of the figure of an Australian “Digger” (a gold miner) in uniform.

At the end of Moislains military cemetery, on the Sailly-Saillisel road : Charentais’ monument.

RANCOURT

T B O U C H AV E S N E S - B E R G E N

s with Rancourt, the French capture of Bouchavesnes was a prize of great strategic importance. On 12 September 1916 the Light Infantry brigade under the command of Messimy, the former Minister of War, seized the German position after close combat, near the present highway - but when the Battle of the Somme foundered in the November mud, Bouchavesnes still marked the limit of the French advance. Progress since Maricourt on 1 July was some 10 kilometres. An eye-witness account of Péronne under German occupation (“L'arrondissement de Péronne sous l'occupation allemande”, by Fasol) tells how, after the war, Bouchavesnes became symbolic : “The francophile Mr Haackon wished to express his sympathy and admiration for our nation, and to help a devastated community. He asked Marshal Foch to indicate what, in his opinion, had been the decisive point of the Battle of the Somme. Without hesitation the Marshall named Bouchavesnes.” This was how Bergen, in Norway, became the generous benefactor of the community that now bears its name.

he capture of this village was crucial to the overall eastward progress of the Allied offensive : it would break the important line of German communication along the Bapaume-Péronne road. The assault was carried out by the 32nd French infantry corps on 25 September 1916. Today, Rancourt has the sad privilege of three war cemeteries, French, British and German. It also has the shrine, and indeed the only site, commemorating French participation in the Battle of the Somme.

Chapel of the “Souvenir Français” and French war cemetery (RN 17) This memorial chapel, built of dressed stone, was not the result of official initiative : the du Bos family, originally from this region, wished to commemorate their son and his comrades who were killed in action on 25 September 1916. In 1937 the Souvenir Français association took on the task of maintaining the monument, and organises an official ceremony here annually, on the second Sunday in September. Rancourt cemetery is the largest French war cemetery on the Somme. The remains of 8,566 men, in an area of 28,000 square metres, testify to the violent battles in the final three months of the offensive, from September to November 1916.

In the area : another feature worth visiting is the German cemetery on the RD 20 road, near Combles.

Statue of Foch This bronze statue, on the left at the edge of the village, representing Marshal Foch, facing towards the German lines. In the area : the Mairie, two medallions on the façade depict the town of Bergen, and a portrait of Mr. Haackon.

Co m Ph Im

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COMBLES ry re A es a7th nd

French monument : it recalls the murderous encounters of August 1914 and pays homage to the “glorious soldiers of the 265th Infantry Regiment”.

s at Thiepval, this large village was strongly fortified by the Germans, using the cellars of the houses and the underground area of the château, on the site of the present-day town hall. Surrounded by British and French troops, the German garrison held out until 26 September before losing this key position.

In the area : Two concrete entrances to an underground German bunker which have survived the destruction of war and its aftermath.

To the left of the road entering the village, close to the A 1 motorway, a memorial honours Sub-Lieutenant Dansette, a French officer killed on 25 September during the recapture of Combles.

16th Irish Division Cross This stone cross near the church, bearing the Irish shamrock, is dedicated to the 16th Irish Division, which was victorious at Guillemont and Ginchy on the 3rd and 9th September 1916, and to all Irishmen who lost their lives during the First World War.

The Dickens Cross : located on the edge of the village, about 300 m to the right of the road to Guillemont, this simple wooden cross is dedicated to Major Dickens, grandson of the famous author.

s’

20th British Division memorial

GUILLEMONT

lthough Longueval, so near at hand, was liberated in mid-July 1916, Guillemont did not fall until 23 August. It was taken by a brigade of the 16th Irish Division and the 20th British Division.

gof he 25 ar nd he

Storm of steel - Ernst Jünger Extract:

'The only thing that distinguishes the village of Guillemont from the rest of the area are the whitish coloured craters created by the pulverised stones of the buildings. Opposite is Guillemont station that was razed to the ground, and a little further back, the Delville woods, that were torn to shreds.'

The village of Guillemont

Continuous troup movements Photograph courtesy of the Imperial War Museum - London

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South African National Memorial Delville Wood, the 63-hectares site of the South African infantry division engagement in July 1916, was bought by the South African government in 1920 to build the national memorial. The memorial, inaugurated in 1926, stands at the end of an oak-lined avenue grown from acorns from South Africa. The arch of the monument bears a bronze statue representing Castor and Pollux with a single steed between them, symbol of all the nations of South Africa.

South African National Museum Nancy, the mascot of the 4th South African Regiment

Standing behind the memorial, designed round the Cross of Sacrifice and opened in 1986, the museum is a replica of the Cape Fort. It commemorates the South African contribution to the First World War (on the Western Front and in Germany’s African colonies), the Second World War, the Berlin Air-Lift (1948-1949) and the Korean War (1950-1953).

L O N G U E VA L

he capture of Delville Wood was essential to any further advance eastwards. It was assigned to the South Africans, who underwent their baptism of fire on the Western Front on 15 July 1916 ; under ferocious artillery fire - up to 400 rounds a minute - and barely protected by hastily dug trenches, their experience there was an unimaginable nightmare. When they were relieved after six days, of the 4,000 men who launched the attack on 15 July only 143 came out of the wood unscathed. Longueval is also a place of remembrance for New Zealanders. On 15 September 1915 the New Zealand Division, supported by tanks, surged out of its front lines between Longueval and the Bois des Fourcaux (known to the British army as High Wood). They reached their objective, Flers, the same day. High Wood (Bois des Fourcaux) was captured by the 47th (London) Division on 15 September 1916.

The village war memorial, work of the Picardy sculptor Albert Roze, consists of the statue of a uniformed French soldier (“poilu”).

New Zealand memorial This commemorates the New Zealand Division participation in the Battle of the Somme in 1916. Gloucestershire Regiment Cross Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, containing the memorial to the missing of New Zealand in the Battle of the Somme, 1916. Consisting of 11 Portland stone panels, it bears the names of 1,205 New Zealand and Maori soldiers who have no known grave. Scottish memorial of the 1st Cameron Highlanders and the 1st Black Watch, who launched a dramatic attack here on 3 September 1916. 47th Division Memorial commemorates the soldiers of the 47th Division who were killed in the fighting to capture High Wood on 15 September 1916.

The village of Longueval

Cairn, consisted of 192 Scottish flintstones, stands in memory of the 192 men of the 9th Highland Light Infantry, known as the Glasgow Highlanders, who died here on 15 and 16 July 1916. The picturesque London cemetery is on the left.

New Zealand memorial

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A present from Madame Von Sidow to her husband at the front. The German tradition of the Christmas tree started in France during this war. Collections belonging to the Historial de la Grande Guerre - Péronne.

MARTINPUICH

his village was among the objectives of the tank attacks in midSeptember, here in support of the 47th (London) Division infantry. In the area : Close to the church and opposite the mairie, this British donation consists of a stone porch which is a memorial to the 47th Division and of a courtyard with benches serves as a local meeting place.

German commemorative plaque, which was placed at the foot of the war memorial by an official delegation of German veterans in 1964, bears the inscription : “1914-1964, to brave comrades, 109 Reserve Infantry Regiment”. Stone shelter, in a field out of Martinpuich, on the Bazentin road, a very rare semi-circular concrete German shelter still survives.

In the area : Western Front Association stele On the RD 929 road, on the right, the Butte de Warlencourt is visible. Heavily fortified by the Germans, this knoll constituted one of the limits of the British offensive in mid-November 1916. The Western Front Association, which now owns the site, set up a memorial here in June 1990.

COURCELETTE e

he two Canadian divisions involved in the Battle of the Somme occupied the sector stretching from Mouquet Farm to the north of Courcelette. Supported by tanks, they distinguished themselves in the capture of the village on 15 September, and in taking the renowned “Regina” trench.

Canadian Memorial To the right of the RD 929 road, in very large landscaped grounds, this granite monument bears a bilingual inscription : “The Canadian corps played a valiant role in forcing back the Germans on these slopes during the battle of the Somme, September 3rd-November 18th 1916”. The Canadian forces lost 24,000 men here.

A letter from the German officer Fuchs of the 17th Artillery Regiment written at Bapaume on 17 August 1916. Collections belonging to the Historial de la Grande Guerre - Péronne.

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POZIÈRES

ozières was the key obstacle which had to be overcome in order to capture first Mouquet Farm and then Thiepval hill. This encircling plan was largely assigned to Australian troops, the majority of whom had come to the Somme from Gallipoli. The village, lying along a ridge, was crossed by a double network of trenches that made up the 2nd German line, and flanked by two blockhouse/observation posts dominating the entire battlefield - at the Albert end, “Gibraltar” and at the Bapaume end, “The Windmill”. The Australians arrived on 23 July 1916 and captured Pozières then, exhausted by incessant artillery counter-attacks, were relieved by the Canadians at Mouquet Farm on 5 September. Three of their divisions serving in the Pozières sector had lost more than a third of their men, and the village itself was completely annihilated. The name of Pozières resounds so strongly in Australian memory that after the war it was adopted by a village in Queensland. On 15 September 1916, tanks appeared for the first time on the battlefield. Of the 32 British Mark I tanks which were deployed along the line from Courcelette to Longueval, only 9 reached their objective. Nonetheless, this date marks the beginning of a more balanced British advance on the Somme.

The horrors of war do not rule out moments of relaxation and good humour in the camps. Collections belonging to the Historial de la Grande Guerre - Péronne.

The village of Pozières “Gibraltar” Nothing now remains of this enormous 3-metre high blockhouse-observation point except its foundations. Now the property of the Conseil Général of the Somme, “Gibraltar” has been adapted to give a better understanding of the fighting here (orientation table at the top with a look-out tower ; parking space ; information panels, picnic area, etc.). Free open access at all times.

The Tank Memorial The four bronzes at the corners of this plain obelisk are small-scale models of the tanks that were used in 1916-1918. “The Windmill” : a windmill stood here from as early as 1610, but during the First World War a blockhouse was built here which has now almost entirely disappeared. The grassy site now bears a lead plaque, representing a memorial to the 2nd Australian Division, and a bench with the engraved dedication : “The Windmill at Pozières, of which you can see the remaining traces, lay at the heart of the battle which raged in July and August 1916 in this part of the Battle of the Somme. On 4 August 1916 it was captured by Australian troops but on this hill-top they lost more men than on any other battlefield throughout the war”.

Monument to the 1st Australian Division In the area : Cross of the King's Royal Rifle Corps Battalions Military Cemetery Memorial Australian Memorial, Mouquet Farm : on the road to Thiepval from Pozières, a small Australian memorial with a Bastiaan plaque stands beside the road on the right.

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T H I E P VA L

Ulster Tower or Helen's Tower

he hill, the village itself and the now vanished château, formed one of the two key positions on the German defensive line in the northern sector of the British front. The other one was Hamel. This veritable natural fortress was protected at its base by the marshes of the River Ancre, and by numerous very deep tunnels. It was known as “the Leipzig salient” and on 1 July 1916 was one of the principal disaster points of the British offensive on its left wing. The loss that day of 58,000 men, of whom 20,000 were killed, was the greatest tragedy in British military history, a tragedy henceforward indissolubly associated with the name of Thiepval. The battle for Thiepval began on 1 July 1916 and ended only on 26 September. N.B. The Australians created their own national memorial at VillersBretonneux, the New Zealanders and South Africans at Longueval, the Newfoundlanders at Beaumont-Hamel, the Canadians at Vimy and the Indians at Neuve-Chapelle. The last two are in the Pas-de-Calais département. The 36th Irish Division, whose operational line extended from the southern edge of Thiepval Wood to the village of Hamel, was the sole Allied unit to reach its objective on 1 July 1916. But the unfortunate Irish were trapped here between the British rolling artillery barrage and the German machine gunners who emerged from the underground shelters of the Schwaben Redoubt. Having lost more than 5,500 men in a few hours, the division had to be withdrawn the following day. Parish church : this brick and stone building with its disproportioned spatial volumes has a distinctive feature : the war memorial is an integral part of its structure.

The tower, financed through public subscription and built in 1921, in romantic Gothic style, is an exact replica of a tower near the 36th Division's training ground in Belfast. It is the memorial both to the Irish of the Battle of the Somme and to all Ulstermen who died in the Great War. Visitor Centre on site. A plaque placed in the grounds by the Royal Irish Rangers commemorates the soldiers of the 36th (Irish) Division and nine winners of the Victoria Cross. At the far end of the site, a small gate leads through to a small 1994 memorial commemorating the Orange Order of Northern Ireland.

Franco-British Memorial In 1932 the British government decided to build the great Somme memorial. This imposing monument, built of brick and stone, work of the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, 45 metres high and visible for many miles around, commemorates the 73,367 British and South African men who fell between July 1915 and March 1918 and who have no known grave. Their names are engraved on the 16 pillars that form the base of the structure. This great triumphal arch bears an inscription : “Aux armées françaises et britanniques, l'Empire britannique reconnaissant” (To the French and British armies, from the grateful British Empire).

Reception and study centre A reception and study centre has been open since 1 July 2004 near to the most symbolic and most visited memorial to the Great War. This project saw the light of day thanks to the combined efforts of Somme General Council and the “Thiepval Project” (which started a national fund in Great Britain to raise money), with the support of the European Union. In addition to various services (information office, shop, projection room, drinks machines, toilets), it offers a large educational exhibition space providing visitors with the necessary keys to understanding the Battles of the Somme and the history of Thiepval during the First World War. Other panels are devoted to the CWGC (Commonwealth War Graves Commission), Lutyens, reconstruction, and the duty of remembrance. This wooden, glass and brick hall, which symbolically is sunk into the ground, is accessible via a hollow pathway. 18th Division Memorial : this plain stone obelisk with bronze plaques commemorates the action of 26 September 1916 and the capture of Thiepval.

all

The franco-british memorial

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Scottish memorial, 8th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders : this tall white stone cross, with its many decorative features, stands on the way out of Beaumont, on the site where this unit captured the first German trench on 13 November 1916. Near it to the right and away from the road is a steep slope pitted with small hollows, the remains either of gun emplacements or, more probably, the entrances to dug-out shelters. War memorial (Auchonvillers) by Charles Gern.

Newfoundland Memorial Designed by the landscape architect Rudolph Cochius, it covers l6 hectares and was inaugurated in 1925. The 29th Division memorial, which included the Newfoundland Regiment, stands at the entrance to the park. A track leads to an orientation table at the top of the Caribou mound - named after its crowning bronze statue of a caribou, emblem of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, designed by the English sculptor Basil Gotto - from where a wide overall view of the whole battlefield reveals the trench lay-out. Three plaques at the foot of the mound form a national memorial to the missing. A single petrified tree escaped the devastation of the site : this is the skeleton of the “danger tree”, named after its location at a particularly exposed observation point. The first German line crossed the far end of the park, close to the kilted Highlander statue of the 51st Highland Division which captured the enemy position on 13 November 1916. Young bilingual Canadian students provide guided visits from the beginning of April until the end of November. Information centre at the site.

The caribou, the insignia of the Newfoundland regiment.

B E A U M O N T- H A M E L

his commune covers the villages of Beaumont, La-Gare-deBeaucourt and Hamel. These villages lay immediately behind the German lines. At the time of the First World War Newfoundland was a British colony and, like all the other countries of the Empire, it raised a volunteer army. At 7.30 am on 1 July 1916 the men of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment had scarcely left their trenches before they came under intense German machine-gun fire. Half an hour later only 68 men remained unscathed, with all the officers killed or wounded. In terms of casualties relative to the number of men engaged, this battle was among the most murderous of the entire Battle of the Somme.

The Beaumont-Hamel sector.

Ancre cemetery

Additional Visit : Gueudecourt Newfoundland Memorial (RD 574 road). This commemorates the action of the Newfoundlanders at Gueudecourt on 1 October 1916 and also has one of Basil Gotto's caribou bronzes, set up on a rocky mound.

In the area : Naval Division Memorial (Beaucourt-sur-l’Ancre). War memorial (Beaumont) : located at the approach to the village and created by the sculptor Charles Gern, commemorates soldiers and civilian victims - and also men and women of the village who “died in captivity”.

In the area : French National Cemetery at Serre-Hébuterne, with chapel (RD 919 road to Puisieux). A brick and stone chapel was built opposite the French national cemetery at Serre-Hébuterne, to hold services in honour of the dead. A volunteer group looks after its maintenance and protection.

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t, 6. es

H A M E L (Commune de Beaumont-Hamel)

rom the commune cemetery on the way into the village, which lay immediately behind the first British lines, there is a panoramic view of the imposing and sinister Thiepval hill. In wet weather when the ground is clear of tall growth, trench outlines are frequently visible. War memorial : this white stone pietà, the work of Charles Gern, expresses bereavement and affliction. It stands opposite the mairie.

The village of La Boisselle -

Lochnagar Crater This mine crater, 100 metres in diameter and 30 metres deep, is now the only one open to the public. “Lochnagar”, where a simple and moving ceremony is held each year at 7.30 am on 1 July, is now owned by an Englishman, Richard Dunning.

AV E L U Y (Aveluy Wood)

n the left just after entering the wood, the view of the impressive Thiepval hillside makes it easy to imagine the efforts that it demanded of the “Tommies”, staggering under the weight of their equipment and ammunition, even to reach their front lines before the attack. Between Hamel and Aveluy the British army had to build a dozen bridges across the River Ancre to take men, munitions and food as far forward as possible. The great trees of Aveluy Wood prevented the German observers from seeing the troops in camp, with their vast stores of food and munitions and the heavy artillery which bombarded the enemy during the last seven days of June in preparation for the infantry assault of 1 July. Despite the years that have passed, many trenches still exist and are easily visible in winter. Access to the wood, which is privately owned, is forbidden. The picturesque “Aveluy Wood Cemetery” is on the left.

In the area :

LA BOISSELLE

19th Western Division Memorial, which seized the village on 4 July 1916.

he British front line was at right angles to the main road, crossing it level with the site of the memorial to the Tyneside Irish and Tyneside Scottish brigades. It was from here that the men of these units scrambled from their position at 7.30 am on 1 July 1916, ignorant of their imminent death. French and German soldiers had started to dig trenches here in October 1914 and then embarked on a long struggle of mine warfare ; the churned-up pasture land beside the Contalmaison road is a reminder of this distinctive phase of the conflict. On 1 July 1916, ten minutes before the infantry assault, several explosions intended to break the German front line blasted out deep craters identical to the “Lochnagar Crater” preserved at La Boisselle.

34th Division Memorial : the 34th Division, consisting of Scots and Irish troops, attacked the village on 1 July 1916. The statue on top of this white stone obelisk is known as “the Madelon”. To reach it, take the path to the left beside the watertower. (No signpost.)

Memorial to the Tyneside Irish and Tyneside Scottish brigades Inaugurated in 1922 by Marshal Foch, it is decorated with a bronze bas-relief of St. George slaying the dragon, the Cross of St. Andrew (Scottish) and the Celtic harp (Irish). A bilingual inscription carved into the stone recounds the battle of 1 July 1916.

In the area : The mixed military cemetery at Ovillers. .

Breton calvary (Ovillers) : the base of the cross with its figure of Christ bears the inscription : “I do not forget my Bretons. In memory of the brave men of the 19th Infantry Regiment”. Access is very often difficult because of mud on the track.

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Ninety per cent of the town of Albert was destroyed during the First World War. With the aid of the city of Birmingham it was rebuilt during the 1920s and '30s in Art Deco style. Today, the station, basilica and town hall are strongly characteristic of the reconstruction period.

ALBERT

ith a rich historical past and well-known as an industrial centre in the nineteenth century, Albert had 7,343 inhabitants in 1914. In January 1919 the total number was 120... Occupied by the Germans from 29 August to 14 September 1914, then evacuated after the Battle of the Marne, the town was subjected to ceaseless bombardment after the stabilisation of the front in October 1914 along the line La Boisselle-Ovillers-Thiepval. In January 1915 the base of the statue of the Golden Virgin on the basilica was hit by a German shell : the figure tipped over until it was horizontal until 1918, when it fell. Known as “the Leaning Virgin”, it gave rise to a belief among the troops that its fall would mean the end of the war. In July 1915 the British army relieved the French units in the town, which became a centre of intensive military activity, particularly during the Battle of the Somme - staff offices, billets, munitions and equipment depots, hospitals, as well as the incessant convoys of troops and supplies to and from the front. Albert still retains its symbolic importance for the British. After its recapture by the Germans in March 1918 and final recovery by the British in August 1918, nothing remained of the town but a vast expanse of ruins. The large French military cemetery and the military part of the civil cemetery, including a memorial to Breton soldiers of the Great War, reflect the great contribution of the Breton regiments in this sector from August 1914 to July 1915.

Notre-Dame de Brebières Basilica The basilica of Notre-Dame de Brebières is based on a legend. In mediaeval times a shepherd is said to have discovered in the fields a miraculous statue of the Virgin, which attracted regular pilgrimages. Neo-Byzantine in style, the church was designed by the Picard architect Edmond Duthoit and built between 1885 and 1895. After the terrible damage inflicted during the First World War it was rebuilt between 1927 and 1929 by the original architect's son and grandson. The Virgin and Child at its tip are the work of the architect Albert Roze (a reconstruction period replica). In modern times the Notre-Dame de Brebières pilgrimage takes place during the first half of September. The miraculous 11th century statue of the Virgin is on display in the apse chapel and the basilica also has a remarkably richly decorated interior, with frescoes and mosaics.

“Somme 1916” Museum The “Somme 1916” museum displays life in the trenches at the time of the offensive on 1 July 1916. Some fifteen alcoves and show-cases are set out along a 230-metre underground passage which was used as an air-raid shelter during the Second World War. Sound effects, pictures and lighting plunge visitors into the soldiers’ daily life. 18 showcases display various objects and documents, frequently very moving, together with equipment and weapons from the war period.

The golden Virgin belonging to the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Brebières.

The Station The completely renovated ceiling of the station shows a Potez 36 aircraft. Henry Potez, a pioneer of aircraft engineering, was a native of Albert. In 1922 he set up an aircraft factory at Méaulte, which expanded and in 1970 became Aérospatiale and then EADS Airbus Industrie. He was the creator of Albert's development in the aeronautical industry.

The Town Hall The vast Town Hall, rebuilt in neo-Flemish style, is topped with a 64metre high belfry. The richness of its Art Deco interior design, and its somewhat excessive scale, recall the prosperity of this industrial town in the inter-war years (machine tools and aeronautical engineering). It was inaugurated by the President of the Republic, Albert Lebrun, in 1932. In the main hall of the Town Hall, restored in the Flemish style, a large commemorative plaque underlines the importance attached by the French state to the restoration of the war-devastated regions. Outside the Town Hall another plaque commemorates the 175,000 British men who served in the Machine Gun Corps.

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The Reconstruction t

Morel and Petit, began to build a new church in Neoromanesque style. Coullemelle is remarkable for its architectural design and its interior décor, the work in 1925 of Pierre and Gérard Ansart (hollow brick arches, stylised capitals, mosaic high altar, stained glass windows and Stations of the Cross and sgraffiti frieze by Gaudin). At Moreuil, reconstruction of the church began in 1929 under the direction of architects Duval and Gonse. The nineteenth-century nave and choir were given a deliberately modern façade built of reinforced concrete and cement with geometrical forms and vertical lines, and sculptures created by Couvègnes. Moreuil church also has interesting stained-glass windows created by the glass-makers Rinuy and Hébert Stevens. The church at Roye also has a very distinctive feature : the fifteenth-century apse now adjoins a conspicuously modern nave of reinforced concrete and brick. There are many discoveries to be made in this department with its treasures of the period (the churches at Moislains, Villers-Bretonneux, Brie, Authuille, Mesnil-Martinsart, Fresnes-Mazancourt, etc.). Sadly, almost all of them are locked - visitors should enquire at the mairie.

ost of the department of the Somme was occupied and devastated during the war years, 1914-1918. These four years were even spoken of at times as “the crucifixion of Picardy”. Albert, Péronne and Montdidier were reduced to a pile of rubble. The 1920s brought a rearrangement of land holding patterns, with the small fields of pre-war days swallowed up into large open areas. This was also the time of reconstruction ; all too rarely based on fundamental thought, houses and public buildings were rebuilt in haste to pre-war plans, although they made use of a specific architectural model. The small brick house is typical of this period. Houses consist of a kitchen/living-room, one or two bedrooms, an attic and a cellar, with larger farms built of rendered brick. Public health specialists of the day encouraged the construction of wider streets, and the move of cemeteries to the outskirts of towns. Some towns, however, adopted an overall design of town planning which reflected new architectural ideas. Albert is a fine example of the height of Art Déco style. Two types of building - churches and mairies or town halls - received particular attention. The town halls of Albert, Moreuil and Montdidier, all built in Art Déco style, show impressive scale and decorative design. Although some churches were rebuilt in haste in neo-romanesque or neo-gothic style, and have few features of interest, others received close attention. The basilica of Notre-Dame de Brebières in Albert was rebuilt as an exact reconstruction of its original neo-Byzantine style (see page 18). Others were commissioned from architects who developed new styles. The church of St. Nicolas at Coullemelle was three-quarters destroyed in the final German offensive of March-April 1918. In 1923 two architects,

The reclining Virgin 1915-1918 Collections belonging to the Historial de la Grande Guerre - Péronne.

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FRICOURT

One of the military aviation heroes

ike Thiepval and Combles, this village was heavily fortified in its cellars and subterranean passages, with concrete bunkers on the surface. It constituted a strong point of the famous “Fricourt salient” and the Germans saw Fricourt as a cornerstone of their defensive system. Their faith proved unfounded, for the village fell to the British on 2 July 1916. The village street-names (Major Raper, Clémenceau, Foch, Pithiviers and Ipswich) also echo the memory of the Great War, always present in Fricourt. It was near the Bois d’Engremont (known as “Bois français” by the British) that the poet Siegfried Sassoon won the Military Cross in June 1915.

Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron

In the area : “Point 110” : the site has traces of trenches and a mine crater. On the AlbertPéronne road, turn right up the track to the clay pigeon shoot (“ball-trap”'), then continue straight ahead. “Point 110” is on the left beyond a turning, in an open field. Private ground.

anfred von Richthofen was a pupil at the Silesian military school at Wahlstadt from the age of 12. From here he moved on to the Lichterfede military academy at Potsdam, from where he graduated as an officer in the Uhlan cavalry in 1911. When war broke out in 1914 von Richthofen was called to the French front and, like many cavalry officers, requested a transfer to the airborne troops. Initially an observer, he flew for the first time in July 1915 then joined the Jagdstaffel II, where he took command in 1917 before forming a new unit, the Jagdeschwader I, a mobile fighter group which shifted constantly along the western front. At the end of March 1918 the squadron was based at Cappy. On 21 April, engaged in action with two Canadian aircraft, von Richthofen did not realise that he was flying over the Australian lines : the Australian machine gunners found him in their sights. He was killed in full flight, his aircraft crashing near Corbie at the site known as the briqueterie, or “brick-works”. The Australians buried him at Bertangles with full military honours. The body was transferred to the German cemetery at Fricourt in 1925, buried later in Berlin, and found its final resting-place at Wiesbaden. The aristocratic Manfred von Richthofen became the terror of the skies between 1914 and 1918, being responsible for bringing down eighty Allied aircraft on his own. His nickname was derived from the blood-red colour of his triplane. His squad as a whole was also known as “the Flying Circus” because of the bright colours of their craft.

“The Tambour” : the site on the western edge of the village is marked by the craters of French and British mines, from 1915 and 1916. Access is possible only on foot. Take the unpaved track opposite the war memorial. Private ground. Church : the blue and white windows and walls create a curious shadowy light so that the five commemorative plaques are barely legible. The key can be obtained from the café-shop.

The village of Fricourt

MARICOURT

Von Richthofen at Cappy aerodrome before leaving on his final mission.

aricourt was one of the starting points of the Allied offensive of July 1916. Lacking great strategic significance, except for artillery emplacements, the village marks the point where the British sector to the North joined the French sector to the South when the battle of 1916 was launched. The road to the church is named after the 45th Infantry Regiment, 1914. Lieutenant Brody's Monument : outside the village on the Péronne side, a monument to the memory of the French lieutenant Brody of the 224th Infantry Regiment and his men, killed in action on 17 December 1914.

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M O N TA U B A N - D E - P I C A R D I E

he capture of this village is a classic example of the British army's tactical success on its right flank on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. Montauban was taken by the 30th Division at 9.30 am, only two hours after the attack. Like many neighbouring villages, Montauban lay in the combat zone in August, September and October 1914. There are few traces of the war. The Mametz road, which dominated the battlefield, was strategically very important to the Germans. Further down, just outside Mametz, the eastern edge of the famous Mametz Wood lies behind the Danzig Alley war cemetery.

The football game

'During an attack that was taking place near Montauban against a detachment of the Prussian guard, captain Neville (his body lies at rest in the cemetery at Carnoy), from the 8th East Surrey, gave the signal to attack by kicking the ball out of the trench they were to set out from. The men set off after the ball, moving it enthusiastically towards the German trench under horrendous fire. This famous ball was later found in the captured positions by a number of survivors and brought back in triumph…' Illustration n 3830 29 July 1916.

Welsh Division Memorial

MAMETZ

kirting the Fricourt salient by the south, the British 7th Division took the village in the afternoon of 1 July 1916. The name of Mametz is also closely linked to the wood lying to the north-east of the village, where a pocket of German resistance blocked all Allied progress eastwards. Only after eight days of fierce combat, with very heavy losses, did the 3rd Welsh Division capture the wood on 12 July 1916. Manchester Regiment Memorial : close to the war memorial, this simple brick wall bears a commemorative plaque inaugurated in 1994 by the Western Front Association.

In the area : Welsh Division Memorial With its red dragon (the emblem of Wales) it was dedicated on 11 July 1987. It stands outside Mametz on the “Welsh Road” (Chemin des Gallois), but access is difficult when the ground is muddy.

ed or or -

An illustration of this event at the Somme 1916 museum (Albert).

Capitaine de Monclin's Cross is dedicated to “Henri Thiérond de Monclin, Captain, 69th Infantry Regiment, and the soldiers of the 5th Company who died for France on 28 September 1914”. It stands to the left of the RD 64 road as it enters the village. War Memorial : standing close to the mairie and the church, this impressive war memorial has a figure of an old woman whose facial expression is full of grief. Memorial to the Liverpool and Manchester Regiments, which took part in the liberation of the village on 1 July 1916.

Photograph courtesy of the Imperial War Museum - London.

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Exploring the French front… During the Battle of the Somme in 1916, the Franco-German front line ran through the south-eastern part of the department. At first this section of the “active” front ran from Maricourt to Estrées, but from August onwards it extended further south as far as Chilly. The sector described in this itinerary was held by the French army from September 1914 until December 1916, then by the British until March 1918 and by the Germans from April to August that year. It was finally recaptured by the British in August/September.

The Battle of the Somme in northern Santerre South of the River Somme, the French attacked at 9.30 am on 1 July 1916, to the consternation of the Germans who had interpreted the week-long preliminary artillery bombardment as a diversion. The break-through was dazzling, achieved by reservists from Brittany and Normandy and also, outstandingly, by French colonial troops (North African and Senegalese snipers, particularly Algerians, the Foreign Legion, and French-origin troops of the colonial infantry). By the evening of 1 July the planned objectives - to seize the first line - were achieved and in some places even surpassed ; but although the enemy was taken by surprise the French Command was equally taken unawares and took time to reconsider its forecasts. This indecision meant that from 3 July the Germans were able to collect their strength, bringing in reinforcements from Champagne and the Aisne and consolidating their positions. From mid-July, differences of strategical and tactical understanding became visible, even within the French headquarters and among the Allies : the British were pinned down on their left wing (Pozières, Thiepval, Beaumont-Hamel). Finally, from September, the French decided to push towards the east and the south to surround the Germans. The plans worked out in the Headquarters at Chantilly at the end of 1915 were thus completely and finally overthrown. From this period the names of Deniécourt, Soyécourt, Vermandovillers, Chaulnes and Chilly began to appear in press releases. From the beginning of October, after a few local successes, the battle became bogged down in the mud created by endless torrential rain. Gradually, all movement of men and equipment was slowed down and then brought to a complete stop. The Allied command decided to settle into winter quarters before a fresh attack in the spring. The General-in-Chief Joffre, however, was moved in December : he was promoted to the rank of Marshal and was to be the leader of a military mission to the United States.

Ex bo so Co Hi Pé

Aerial view of the battlefield at Vermandovillers.

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T H E S O M M E VA L L E Y

o reveal the beauty of the valley of the Somme, our route follows the footsteps of the poet Blaise Cendrars past the villages of Eclusier-Vaux (with a remarkable view from the Vaux belvedere) and Frise, all described in Cendrars' classic memoir “La main coupée” (“The Severed Hand”), and Feuillères.

he it n y

Vaux Belvedere This magnificent view-point over the valley of the River Somme, with its meanders and its marshes, was highly prized during the war and was used as an observation point by the French soldiers.

The village of Flaucourt

ns y d ne h 3 ne ing he n. n he n

FAY

O Footpath route, “The marshes at Frise” This route takes you in the footsteps of the writer Blaise Cendrars, who fought at Frise during the First World War. (See the local footpath guide, “La Somme : Le Pays du Trait Vert, La Haute Somme” - ref. : 801, circuit no. 8.) In the area : a few kilometres away, in the communes of Biaches and Flaucourt, you can visit : German memorial. Standing above the road, on the left, a brick monument is the sole remaining trace of one of the many small military field cemeteries. Its carved memorial stone states :”Zur Ehr der für Kaiser and Reich Gefallenen Söhne Deutschlands” (In honour of the sons of Germany who gave their lives for the Emperor and the Empire).

ef a

Extracts from the notebooks belonging to the soldier Barberon. Collections belonging to the Historial de la Grande Guerre Péronne.

nce the front line became stabilised in October 1914, the immediate surroundings of the village were shaken by the murderous war of mines in 1915. Located in the front line, Fay was taken in a ferocious struggle by the French colonial forces on 1 July 1916. Hidden away in pre-war days at the bottom of a valley and along the hillside, the village was rebuilt a few hundred metres further east, on the open plateau. Depending on the time of year, the visitor may be able to see traces of the village in the ploughed fields (bricks, tiles, etc.).

Traces of the old village of Fay The remains of the former church and a farm building have recently been laid out by the Conseil Général of the Somme (open visit, explanatory panels).

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SOYÉCOURT

Blaise Cendrars

he village lies in the southern section of the French sector that runs to Chilly (south of Chaulnes), the scene of fighting from August 1916 until the end of the offensive. It was liberated on 4 September after a period of intense artillery preparation. The troops seized it in a single rush towards Deniécourt after taking the German front line along the west of the village and the small Wallieux copse.

Wallieux Wood site Now the property of the Conseil Général of the Somme, Bois Wallieux has been developed to explain the battle which took place here. There are some extensive trench remains (car park, explanatory panels).

Remains of the old communal cemetery : these can be seen at the side and rear of the present-day church, which was built in 1926. The old church was destroyed on 28 November 1914.

rédéric Sauser was born in 1887 at Chaudde-Fonds, in Switzerland. At an early age he and his friend Guillaume Apollinaire were among the founders of modern poetry, in the search for a direct and emotionally touching style. On 29 July 1914, he signed on as a volunteer in the Foreign Legion after writing to his friends : “this war is a painful labour to give birth to freedom”. After many setbacks he set out on foot with his regiment to the front line in the Somme where, in common with the whole Western Front, the longdrawn-out trench war was established. From mid-December 1914 until February 1915 he was in the line at Frise (at La Grenouillère and the Bois de la Vache) where, with his squad of comrades, he set up the feats which he described in his famous books “La main coupée” (“The Severed Hand”) and “J'ai tué” (“I have killed”) : “At the Bois de la Vache, at the Corne au Bois, we held a small post only a few yards from a small German post. We could have run each other through with a bayonet from one trench to the other”. Next he moved to the trenches at Herbécourt, still in the Somme. His regiment was subsequently shifted to the Artois front, to the north of Arras at Souchez and Vimy Ridge. After this he returned to the Somme (at Tilloloy) at the beginning of May. It was during the bloody attacks in Champagne in September 1915 that Blaise lost his right arm at Navarin, near Souain, on 28 September. As a result he was of course discharged from the army. His writing until his death in 1961 was a literary epic of the modern adventurer.

CHAULNES

ery heavily fortified, this cantonal centre was the key to the German defence system which the French were unable to destroy despite their numerous brave attacks from 4 September 1916. Memorial to American and French nurses : the monument was originally a public fountain, the gift of the French and American Red Cross societies. It consists of a plain wall illustrated with paintings and the relief sculpture of a nurse with the inscription : “A Chaulnes ressuscité, 1917-1919” (To Chaulnes revived, 19171919). German Memorial (rue Jules Lebas) : this cemetery monument, made of white stone and dedicated to the 16th Bavarian Infantry Regiment, was moved in 1992 by young German volunteers under the direction of the German war graves maintenance service (SESMA). A bottle was found inside it, containing a list of German soldiers which is now held in the Historial archives.

Collections belonging to the Historial de la Grande Guerre - Péronne.

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LIHONS

“Le P'tit Train de la Haute-Somme” and the military and industrial railways museum

n 21 August 1916, Quartermaster Murat, volunteer in the 5th Foot Cuirassiers, was killed here at the age of 20. He was the greatnephew of Napoleon I.

From Eclusier-Vaux go to Cappy and the station at Froissy, the departure point for the narrow-gauge tourist railway – the same as the line which supplied the battlefield. Inheriting these local narrow-gauge trains that were used by the infantry men of 1914-1918 to bring up supplies and munitions to the men, the little train of the Haute-Somme offers an ninety-minute round trip between Froissy and Dompierre. It is a delightful opportunity to explore the richness and variety of the Picardy landscape, with its deep valleys and spreading plateaux. The “Musée des Chemins de Fer Militaires et Industriels” at the departure point of the little train of the Haute-Somme displays one of the richest collections in the world devoted to narrow-gauge railways : steam and diesel locomotives, carriages, wagons, tracks, documents and a turn-table. Information panels explain the items on show and the history of these little narrow-gauge trains. The volunteer supporters of the APPEVA (Association Picarde pour la Préservation et l'Entretien des Véhicules Anciens, the Picardy Association for the Preservation and Maintenance of Historical Vehicles) are constantly looking for ways to bring material to life, and extend and improve the collection.

Memorial tomb of Prince Murat The white stone memorial bears the figure of an eagle. Heavily eroded traces of the battlefield can still be seen around the site. To reach it, take the small road running beside the civilian cemetery (towards Vermandovillers).

P R O YA R T

he German Army entered Belgium on 5 August 1914. After capturing Mons and Charleroi (the battle of the Frontiers, 21-23 August), the army moved on into France and spread across the north of the country, particularly in the department of the Somme (see the memorials at Flers, Guillemont and Ginchy). Having captured Péronne on 28 August it advanced to Bray-sur-Somme and Chuignolles and, on 29 August, to Proyart. Here the German forces clashed very violently with French troops which had been despatched in haste from eastern France. The engagement was short and deadly. Despite heavy losses, the German Army penetrated into Amiens on 31 August. A month later, at the end of September, Proyart was to suffer the brutality of war (the “Race to the Sea”). The front became settled after this, a few kilometres to the east of the village.

Triumphal Arch The municipal war memorial, remarkably large for a small village, takes the form of a great triumphal arch with a tall “poilu”, or French infantry-man, standing beneath it, rifle in hand, symbolising the courage and determination of the French soldier. Two bas-reliefs on the sides illustrate “the departure” and “grateful France”. The pediment and the front face are engraved with the names of the main offensive campaigns, and the motto Pro patria. The memorial was presented to the village by Monsieur Normand, a wealthy champagne trader whose only son was killed in action. It was inaugurated with great ceremony by the General and Deputy of Castelnau.

Civilisation 1914-1918 - Georges Duhamel. Extract

“The little old trains showed independence and shrieked with determination, low-set, their backs laden with millions of bullets, and between the crates the men themselves squatted and dozed…”.

he oy

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An extract from the notebook belonging to Barberon, a soldier who found and translated this poem which was inscribed on the grave of a German soldier near Dompierre. Collections belonging to the Historial de la Grande Guerre - Péronne.

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Elsewhere in the Department of the Somme… DOULLENS The “Unified Command”

n 21 March 1918 Ludendorff unleashed the most formidable offensive of the whole war from the Hindenburg Line, along a 70-kilometre front. His aim was two-fold : to separate the British and French armies, and to capture Amiens. The German push opened a large breach round Saint-Quentin with the rout of the British 5th Army which, if it had persisted, could have precipitated an irreversible military catastrophe. On 26 March, Presidents Poincaré and Clémenceau, Generals Pétain and Foch, Lord Milner and General Haig met in Doullens Town Hall, and decided to create a unified command. Clémenceau wrote : “The British, French and American governments have conferred on General Foch the strategic control of military operations”. On 18 July Foch launched his final counter-offensive which led to the Armistice of 11 November.

CANTIGNY and BONY American intervention

The hall of the “Sole Command” The large room in Doullens town hall presents an evocation of this key moment with a stained-glass window by Gérard Ansart, two paintings by Lucien Jonas, busts and photographs.

n 28 May 1918, as the Germans reoccupied the Chemin des Dames and Soissons, the Americans launched their first wideranging action on the Western Front with the 1st Division attack at Cantigny. Despite intense bombardment and fierce counter-attacks, the Americans took the village on 31 May. Strategically the engagement had only local importance, but its psychological effects on the combatants were unmistakable and diverse. The men of the various American units who fell in the battles of 1917-18 are buried in the large “American Cemetery of the Somme” at Bony (Aisne), not far from the imposing Bellicourt memorial, on the RN 44 bis road. This cemetery has a chapel, administrative staff and a visitor centre.

Cantigny American Memorial

The citadel housed a Canadian military hospital and was shelled on 30 May 1918. In the area : Valvion château, near Beauquesne, about 12 kilometres from Doullens, housed the British Army’s General Headquarters in the first months of the war.

Big Red One Division Memorial (Cantigny)

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AMIENS A city in the rear

he Great War left few traces in the capital city of Picardy, and even fewer remained after the damage of August 1944. And yet, what intensity of life was generated in Amiens by the four years of the war ! From the German seizure of hostages when they occupied the city from 31 August to 10 September, to the Thanksgiving Mass in the Cathedral on 17 November 1918, the city was full of many and varied activities - industrial work in the war factories, military staff work, medical care in the temporary hospitals, distractions and trade of every kind. There were tragic moments too, the arrival of refugees from the north, civilian evacuations, restrictions, bombardments.

The Cathedral of Notre-Dame The pillars of the south transept are studded with a dozen commemorative plaques : they honour Marshal Foch, General Leclerc de Hautecloque and the soldiers of all nationalities who took part in the battles of the First World War. Six flags of the Allied nations hang in the Chapel of the Sacré-Cœur. This outstanding Gothic monument, classified by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, is well worth a visit quite apart from exploring the Somme battlefield sites.

Australian soldiers with their mascot.

The Australian memory

Villers-Bretonneux

illers-Bretonneux saw action in August 1914 and the incessant movement of British and French troops over the next four years ; but the name of this large village entered the history of the war on 24 April 1918 when Australian troops finally halted the German offensive of March 1918. Since the construction of the Victoria School in 1927 and the inauguration of the memorial in 1938, public and private links with Australia have grown steadily stronger. The twinning with Robinvale and the exhumation in France and reinterment in Canberra of the Australian Unknown Soldier in November 1993 have sealed this close relationship. Its history, the annual visit of the Australian ambassador to commemorate Anzac day on the Saturday nearest to 25 April, and the many Australian visitors throughout the year, give the village an image and identity in Australia that are not easily grasped here.

NOYELLES-SUR-MER Hameau de Nolette The Chinese contribution

Adelaide Cemetery In 1993 the body of the Australian Unknown Soldier was exhumed in Adelaide Cemetery and taken to Australia for burial at Canberra. A carved stele commemorates this event. As you approach from Amiens on the RN 29 road, it lies on the left on the outskirts of VillersBretonneux.

corps of Chinese labourers was established under an AngloChinese agreement, and the first contingent reached France in April 1917. Its task was the construction of British military infrastructures. Numbers grew from 54,000 men at the end of 1917 to 96,000 at the Armistice, and eighty thousand were still at work in May 1919, primarily engaged in clearing the devastated regions of the north. At the crossroads leading to the cemetery, two marble lions record the twinning of the village in June 1985 with the small Chinese village of Tungkang.

Australian Memorial This imposing white stone memorial (on the RD 23 road to Fouilloy) consists of a tall central tower and two corner pavilions linked to the tower by plain walls that bear the names of the missing-soldiers who have no known grave. Inaugurated in 1938, it is the location for an annual celebration of ANZAC Day.

Cimetière chinois de Nolette The 849 men buried here died of illness in the hospital for “native labour” near the large camp at Noyelles-sur-Mer. The cemetery entrance porch constitutes a memorial.

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Victoria School - Franco-Australian Museum

The Australians in the Somme

The first floor of the school building, “the gift of the children of the schools in Victoria to the children of Villers-Bretonneux”, contains the Franco-Australian museum. It illustrates the role of the Australian troops during the First World War (photographs, models, uniforms, weapons,…). It also has a documentation centre and a video room.

nt ; 4 ve 7 ks h ra is sl, n

ike all the other countries of the British Empire, Australia immediately came to the support of the “mother country” at the outbreak of the war in August 1914. This marked the birth of the Australian Imperial Forces (A.I.F.), under the command of the British General Birdwood and consisting entirely of volunteers. With its neighbours from New Zealand this force set out for the front, making up the famous Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, or “ANZAC”, whose first important mission, together with French, English, Newfoundland and Indians troops, was to mount an attack on the Turkish army, Germany's ally (the troops disembarked on 25 April 1915 on the Gallipoli peninsula). The first bloody battle in France was at Fromelles (Nord), on 19 July 1916, designed to provide a diversion for the Franco-British offensive that had been launched on 1 July on the Somme. On their arrival at Pozières on 23 July 1916, the Australians’ goal was to “unlock” Thiepval. After intense fighting (at “Gibraltar” and “the Windmill”), they overcame the village but were unsuccessful at Mouquet Farm where the Canadians relieved them on 5 September. Sent to rest after Pozières, the “Diggers” returned to the Somme in October, in the Flers-Gueudecourt sector where they suffered the rigours of an exceptionally severe winter. With the end of the Battle of the Somme in midNovember, they settled into their winter quarters like the British, the French and the Germans. Back in the Somme again in 1918, the Australians tried to halt the offensive at Sailly-Laurette on 28 March, at Villers-Bretonneux on 4 April and at Dernancourt on 5 April : but they distinguished themselves at VillersBretonneux on 25 April - the third anniversary of Gallipoli. The Allied counter-offensive, known by the Germans as “the black day”, began on 8 August ; the Australians liberated the area from Villers-Bretonneux to Montbrehain (Aisne), after first liberating and striking through the Hindenburg Line with the people of Amiens, on 2 September at Bellenglise and the tunnel of the Saint-Quentin canal. In October they went into a rest area, not thinking that the armistice would be signed a month later. Apart from its financial and industrial contribution, Australia provided the greatest military contribution of all the British dominions : 331,000 volunteers (out of a population of 4,875,000) - but she also suffered the greatest loses, 64.8 per cent, or 58,500 men, including 16,000 dead. Paradoxically, however, it was Australia's participation in the First World War and her own terrible losses which became a contributing factor in the birth of this new nation.

Le Hamel

his village and its surrounding area are important feature in Australian military history. On 4 July 1918, with the support of American forces, General Monash launched a spirited and victorious attack which for the first time combined infantery, artillery, tanks and parachute troops - a fore-runner of modern war tactics.

Australian Memorial Park This park was laid out by the Australian government. Apart from a memorial brought from Australia (the Australian Corps Memorial inaugurated on 7 August 1998), the site's panoramic displays and explanatory panels explain the strategic significance of the site during the battle. Some trenches have been preserved here. This site is open all the year round, with free and open access (parking space, toilets, picnic area). English-speaking tourists can obtain the brochure of the VillersBretonneux/Le Hamel special tour route from the Villers-Bretonneux museum (audio-cassette).

Close to the church, an Australian commemorative plaque describes the battles which took place at Le Hamel.

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Elsewhere in France and Belgium Ypres (Belgium)

Vimy (Pas-de-Calais - France)

The “In Flanders Fields museum” and the Ypres area with a large number of memorials, cemeteries and traces of battlefields.

- The battlefield itself, which still has many visible remains (trenches, mine craters, etc.) - Canadian National Memorial, “Tunnel Grange” and historical information centre These sites (free access) are open to the public throughout the year.

Compiègne (Oise - France) The Armistice Wagon, in the Rethonde Clearing, is a replica of the one that was used for signing the Armistice in November 1918. Display rooms with information on the two World Wars are open to the public.

Verdun (Meuse - France) • On the battlefield: - the memorial to the Battle of Verdun - the Ossuary at Douaumont - the forts of Vaux and Douaumont • In the town: - the Citadel - the World Peace Centre • Separate from the circuit, the Eparges Ridge battlefield with its remains of trenches, small forts and memorials.

The Chemin des Dames (Aisne - France) - The newly way-marked circuit with explanatory signboards (the Basque memorial, etc.) open throughout the year, free access. - The Caverne du Dragon. These two sites have recently undergone development and improvements installed by the Department of the Aisne.

The Many Nations at War

• France and its former empire : Burkina-Faso, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Vietnam, Madagascar, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco. • Great Britain and its former empire : South Africa, Australia, Canada, Newfoundland (then independent), New Zealand, India, Burma, Pakistan, Barbados, Rhodesia, the Republic of Ireland. • Russia, Belgium, Italy, United States, China, Egypt. • Individual volunteers also came to the Somme from other countries to fight (from Spain and Catalonia, Romania, Switzerland, Sweden, Montenegro, etc.)

Coloured in black : the countries in war beside the Allied nations. 3 0

Collections belonging to the Historial de la Grande Guerre - Péronne.

everal of the countries involved in this First World War still had colonial empires. Now that these countries having gained their independence, the list of modern nations who took part in this conflict is impressive. The Battle of the Somme alone shows a tally of at least thirty nations represented among the Allied armies :

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