Amiens, Northern France Allied Battlefields

We traveled by train to Amiens from Paris from Guard du Nord Station which is the same station as where the Eurostar travels to/from. The train only took a little over one hour and was a very good trip.

In summary of the trip to these areas I was staggered by how flat the land was, when you hear of battles over ridges and hills you have to travel a long way to find a really decent hill that would puff a cyclist (le Hamel is the odd one out really). The geography is very gentle, not what I expected given the cost in lives to attack during the war - I assumed difficult to assault country side in the modern sense. There were 2 distinct periods of the first world war that we 'toured' - the Somme (the Poziers/Monquet Farm area) and the Summer 1918 German Offensive around Villers Bretonneux (VB) where the Australians stopped the German onslaught on Anzac Day 1918 (not by design!). The staggering part for me in the first instance is that it took people 4 months to realise that men v. machine guns was a bad idea !

Many of the towns have reminders of the past and the Australian connection, the beautiful town we stayed in, Peronne, had a street that was called 'Roo de Kanga' - thas was a sign erected by the diggers after taking it back - the towns folk kept the name (French streets are pretty well 'Rue de something'); there were Rue de Australia, Rue de Monash; many businesses used Australian symbols in their marketing. VB had the local school paid for by the people of Victoria and they show their thanks in a very special way.

[the following is in no real order so I apologise if it does not easily flow chronologically or otherwise. We could not do everything in 2 days plus occasional cold wind and rain as well as my gamy knee made it hard to do a lot of walking around so somethings are abbreviated in this blog. ]

We had two days in the area and stayed in nice hotel in a small town called Peronne. Peronne was very nice, it seemed to have a limitless supply of small and cosy bars all with different beers that got served up in a unique glass.



We did the tour with a company that specialised in tours of the area. Our tour guide was a small pohmy bloke called Brian. He had served in the British Army for 3 years plus some chocco service so we jabbered on with Army talk quite a bit - I imagine it drove Emily crazy.

This is Brian at the Newfoundland monument area.



Operation Jericho

This was the WWII operation to attack the walls of Amiens Prison where it was believed that the Gestapo were going to execute many prisoners - mainly French resistance. The belief was that it might be better to try to blow a whole in the prison so they could escape and many did. The aircraft that flew the raid were Mosquito fighter bombers and there were casualties some of whom are buried in the cemetery next door the prison. The image below shows the repaired walls of the still used Amien Prison although I am sure the gaolers use different methods than those of Germans !



Newfoundland Memorial - Beaumont Hamel

It seems the Newfoundlanders got a hard day on the first day of the Somme as well. This area is for the Newfoundlanders (not Canadians) is like our Gallipoli - they were sent onto an extremely poorly prepared battlefield and as such paid heavily. The had some very well preserved trenches at this site as you can see by the images below.








Ulster Tower



This tower is erected on a site of another Somme day 1 disaster. This time it was the Ulster Division that suffered. They had lots of shrapnel and other battlefield bits lying around at this site.

Crater Mine

The pohms had special tunneling companies (as did the Australians) that tunneled under German lines and then deposited explosives. The one in the picture below was dug from about 1/2 a mile away, they used 29,000 pounds (yep - that is right) of explosives when they blew it. The tactic failed due to it not being positioned directly under the German lines (although it did kill around 100 Germans), not taking into account the defense in depth the krauts had employed and also it creating a high ground around the lip (about 15m above its previous height) that became the new focal point for bloodshed. They built lots of these mines and some failed to go off, apparently in Belgium a farmer has subsequently built his house on one !



The image below is taken with my back to the crater facing the direction of the British lines. They would have attacked over this ground post the detonation of the mine. The tree line to the right of the frame is the location the miners dug the mine from.



Albert Church - Fanny Durack

There is a famous picture of the statue on top of the Albert Basilica that was dismantled by Allied artillery leaning over from its spire, almost falling off, looking like it was in a dive. It is called the Madonna or something or other.

The Australians, apparently, called her Fanny Durack after a well known swimmer of the era.




















Here is the Basilica that was rebuilt - probably from German reparations money until Adolf stopped paying !




1st Division Memorial



Gibraltar site at Poziers

This was the name given to a German pillbox that had to be taken at Poziers. The Australians did end up taking this at horrific loss of life. It was quite moving when I was told that many soldiers were still missing who had fallen within metres of the site where the image below was taken - it was like standing among them.



The images do not do justice to just how hard this position looked to assault.

Poziers

This is a special area as the historian Bean calls it (in my words) 'the area mostly densely sown with Australian sacrifice on earth'. This is also the area of Monquet Farm or Moo Cow Farm as the Australians called. Death was issued wholesale at that site, this should have a monument of its own not only for us but the Canadians got a right pasting there as well.

The windmill

This was a bare site where nothing remains of the windmill that gives it is name. You can see the approaches to Poziers from here and the gently sloping hills that would have made fighting in this area fraught with danger if you did not hold the high ground (as the Allies did not).

The view from the Windmill into Poziers, towards the left of the image would have been the direction the Australians attacked from.



This is near the area that Jacka should have received his first bar to his VC for an action in retaking the lines after a German counter attack.



The aggregate that the Germans used to fortify the position is still visible, it is rough stuff, held together with cement - definitely built from local materials at hand.

Entry to town of Poziers

The water tower at the entry to the town of Poziers on the Windmill side has been painted with a reminder of the monumental days of WW1. The water tank has the names of VC recipients from the nearby conflict.




Poziers 'Brittish' cemetry (many diggers in this one)

This is a beautiful walled cemetery that is very well kept as they all are.



Graves of unknown soldiers






2nd Div memorial

This is an image of a model of the original 2nd Division memorial. Apparently when the Nazi's reoccupied the area in 1940 they found it offensive and removed it.



Nobody knows where it is, in 1971 a new one was put up:



3rd Div Memorial

We did not get much time for this as we were racing for the train on the last day.




Tommies

This is a pub in Poziers that has a lot of memorabilia on the walls. It is a great stop for lunch.



Villers Bretonneux

This town was saved from the Germans by the Australian's on the third Anzac Day. While it was destroyed in the fighting the local people still have a fondness for Australians. The Victorian people purchased a school building for the local community, it has a great museum upstairs. The local school children get a very telling reminder of what occurred in April 1918 every time they play in the yard.



The Museum is full of photos, maps and other bits and pieces. There is way too much to show, perhaps the most telling image in the museum for me was a partial of a very famous shot of an Australian (understrength) platoon ready for action, it is full sized in the stair way on the way up to the museum. The image below is of the left hand man in that line up, a Sgt. O'Brien. I like this image as the people to me were very recognisable and could be any Australian. The shot also seemed to portray cool calm professionalism.



He was killed soon after.

War Refuse



I found these casings very near an Australia battlefield site, they were just lying in a paddock no more than 6 feet from the road. When we were in the area we saw the French Police Explosive Ordnance Demolitions crews out and about - our guide said that they were usually kept quite busy in the area as 'duds' kept coming to the surface.


Australian National Memorial

The Australian National Memorial at VB had the names of the dead and missing from the area. It was very nice sombre place and like all monuments and memorials very well kept.



Not my best look ! This was a cold and wet day. I am wearing 3 layers and still freezing, it did make me give some thought that all I was doing was sight seeing - not fighting in this weather !



South African Memorial at Dellville Wood

The South African's also suffered from the lack of general staff imagination on how to fight a war, they have some sacred ground at a place called "Dellville Wood" - they called it 'Devil Wood'. They held the forest at a terrible cost. The monument at that site is very good - probably the best we saw on our trip, it incorporated a museum and featured dedication to all South African wars (including the one against the ANC!).





Interestingly is an early example of a Lee Enfield turned into something more like an SLR :



Le Hamel Australian memorial

Le Hamel was the first place that a combined arms attack was used and was the place that the stalemate on the Western Front was broken. Australian (and NZ) forces fought for first time under an Australian commander, they also operated with many US forces who recently entered the fight. Apparently Monash planned the battle to take 90 minutes, he stuffed up and it went for 93 ! The tactics used in this battle (clever use of artillery; tanks; surprise; smoke; aircraft for attack, signaling and resupply;brains in the general staff) were quickly adopted by the Allies in general and ended up in winning the war.

The ground they took just outside the village of Le Hamel is a dominating high ground, it could have been a bloodbath and is testament to the actions of the commanders to the conduct of the battle, preparation of the soldiers and the field that it occurred the way it did. The memorial up here is under repair and there are some preserved trenches.






The tour was fantastic. Doing it in summer (and without a gamy knee) would be better as you would get to see more. Staying in Perrone was a good, it was nice and central. If you wanted to see the Belgium battlefields (Fromelle and Yrpes) then you would have to go further north.

We head to the Caribbean on Thursday for the cricket and cruise - that will be a nice change from Europe coming out of winter.

Cheers,

Stephen and Emily.