SOMME BRITISH Sector - Flers - Gueudecourt

  • by Pierre Grande Guerre
  • •
  • 30 Mar, 2019
  • •

Years of visit: 2007, 2012

We start east of Delville Wood for a visit to a memorial for the French 18e R.I.T. in the Valley between Ginchy and Flers. 
We continue to visit the three interesting memorials in the village of Flers along the D 197. Remarkable perhaps is the rather recently inaugurated and second "Footballers Battalion” memorial in Flers. Next we drive to the north-eastern outskirts of Gueudecourt to one of the most advanced points of the British in 1916, and its Canadian Newfoundland Caribou Memorial.
For this short route we depart from the parking in front of the South African Memorial in Delville Wood.
We drive eastward to the village of Ginchy, where we turn left and northward on the road to Flers.
In the Valley of Flers, along the D 197 to Flers, we stop at a small copse on the right side of the road for a French 1914 memorial.
This private memorial, which commemorates the French 18e Régiment d'Infanterie Territorial, has been sponsored by the widow of soldier Georges Lejoindre.
This memorial takes us back to the period of the Race to the Sea, when the two sides were still engaged in mobile warfare on the Western Front. With the German advance stalled at the First Battle of the Marne, the opponents continually attempted to outflank each other through north-western France.
This memorial commemorates in particular the victims of the 18e R.I.T. , fallen in this area during the Battle of Flers and Ginchy of 26 September 1914. 
"IN MEMORY OF GEORGES LEJOINDRE - GEORGES PFISTER - AND THEIR COMRADES OF THE 18E TERRITORIAL INFANTRY REGIMENT - FALLEN ON THE FIELD OF HONOUR DURING THE BATTLE OF FLERS AND GINCHY ON 26 SEPTEMBER 1914."
The Battle of Flers and Ginchy - 26 September 1914
In this valley east of Delville Wood and in the adjacent villages this almost forgotten battle lasted only for one day.
 
In the evening of 25 September 1914 units of the German R.I.R. 109 arrived at the northern outskirts of Flers.
In the early morning of 26 September 1914 the Battle broke out for the possession of the villages of Flers and Ginchy.
The 18e R.I.T. was too weak to withstand the Germans.
 
The men of the R.I.R. 109 occupied Flers definitely on 26 September until the summer of 1916. In Flers the Germans detected large warehouses filled with eggs. They immediately started to "provide" themselves with large quantities of these eggs, until there were no eggs left.
 
The Germans took Ginchy on 27 September 1914 and occupied it definitely until 1916.
Georges Lejoindre, probably a father and a family man, ...
... died at the age of 36 years old.
The death certificate of Georges Lejoindre does not exist anymore in the French Army archives.  
In the archive I found a copy of the death certificate of the also on the memorial mentioned, Sergeant Georges Pfister.
View in the direction of Ginchy.
We continue northward to the centre of the village of Flers.
Right of the village church of Flers we find this "Poilu" statue to commemorate the French 17th and 18th Infantry Regiments.
Left of the church stands a rather recently inaugurated British memorial.
After the memorial near Delville Wood  this one is the second memorial to commemorate the "Footballers Battalion" of the 17th Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment.
This memorial has been dedicated on 10 July 2011. The granite monument was financed by donations from supporters of the Leyton Orient Football Club, which the former Clapton Orient Football Club is now called.
Supporters of the Leyton Orient Football Club left their supporters paraphernalia to honour their former club members. 
The "Footballers' Battalion"
In Great Britain there were over 5,000 men playing professional football in 1914. Of those, 2,000 joined the military services. Some of them joined up individually, but sometimes whole teams enlisted together.
Clapton (now Leyton) Orient was the first. After Fred Parker, the team captain, went into the army, about 40 players and staff followed his example.
They joined the 17th Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment, which became known as the "Footballers' Battalion" it had so many players in it!
Second-in-command, Major Frank Buckley, was wounded in the shoulder and lung in 1917. He recovered to become manager of Wolves after the war.
 
The rear side of the memorial offers also some interesting inscriptions.
The texts are honouring three former members of the Clapton Orient Football Club:Georges Scott, William Jones and Richard McFadden.
Some 150 m. northward along the main street of Flers we find this "Tommy" statue, which commemorates the British 41st Division, ...
... which deployed also in this area the first tanks ....
... to liberate the village of Flers on 15 September 1916.
We continue north-eastward to the village of Gueudecourt, ...
... on our way to its eastern outskirts to find this Canadian Newfoundland Caribou Memorial.
On the base of the Memorial we find traces of the last captured trench.
The Newfoundland Caribou stands on the last British lines of 17 November 1916, ...
... the nearest point to Bapaume, reached throughout the offensive.
There are three other similar Caribou Memorials in France: at Beaumont-Hamel, Masnières, and Monchy-le-Preux.
 
A panorama view, standing with my back to the Caribou, in the direction of the D 929, the Albert - Bapaume Road.
The left side of this panorama, left the village of Gueudecourt.
The right side of this panorama, left le Sars and the Butte de Warlencourt.
The village was taken on 26 September. But....
... it would take the Newfoundlanders until 12 October, before they secured this area.
To end this chapter about the British sector of the Battle of the Somme, we continue with a visit to another most advanced point, the Adanac Canadian Cemetery at Miraumont.
 
 Continue to the next chapter: "Adanac Canadian Cemetery Miraumont"

AISNE - Chemin des Dames

by Pierre Grande Guerre • 29 Nov, 2019

De Vanceboro Bridge Bomaanslag

by Pierre Grande Guerre • 14 Nov, 2019

Inleiding: Franz Von Papen & Werner Horn; schaker en pion

Onlangs stuitte ik in een oud boek (1) van 1919 op een opmerkelijk verhaal over een Duitse Luitenant, die in begin februari 1915 een half geslaagde bomaanslag pleegt op een spoorbrug over een grensrivier tussen de Verenigde Staten en Canada. Ook al staat de bekentenis van de dader, Werner Horn, deels in het boek te lezen, de naam van zijn opdrachtgever zal Horn blijven verzwijgen. Na wat verder zoeken vond ik ook de naam van Horn’s opdrachtgever, Franz von Papen, een van de aangeklaagden van het latere Neurenberg Proces in 1946.

In een Grote Oorlog als de Eerste Wereldoorlog  is Horn’s aanslag op de brug uiteraard slechts een bescheiden wapenfeit. Toch vermoed ik dat dit relatief onbekende verhaal, dat de geschiedenis is ingegaan als de “ Vanceboro International Bridge Bombing ”, nog interessante kanten kent. Het is onder andere een spionageverhaal over hoe in een groter plan een sluwe schaker zijn naïeve pion offert.  

Beknopte situatieschets Canada en de Verenigde Staten in 1915

ALSACE-LORRAINE - The Gap of Charmes - La Trouée de Charmes

by Pierre Grande Guerre • 01 Oct, 2019

This trip we start at the Léomont near Vitrimont and we will with some exceptions concentrate on the Battle of Lorraine of August-September 1914 in the area, called, the “Trouée de Charmes”, the Gap of Charmes.

After the Léomont battlefield we continue our explorations to Friscati hill and its Nécropole Nationale. Next we pay a visit to the battlefield of la Tombe to go on to the Château de Lunéville. There we cross the Vezouze to move on southward to the Bayon Nécropole Nationale. At Bayon we cross the Moselle to pass Charmes for the panorama over the battlefield from the Haut du Mont. North-west of Charmes we will visit the British Military Cemetery containing 1918 war victims. From Charmes we go northward to the battlefield of the First French Victory of the Great War, the Battle of Rozelieures of 25 August 1914. North of Rozelieures we will visit the village of Gerbéviller. From there we make a jump northward to visit the ruins of Fort de Manonviller to finish with an interesting French Dressing Station bunker, west of Domjevin.

LORRAINE - Avricourt - Leintrey - Reillon - Domèvre - Parux

by Pierre Grande Guerre • 18 Sept, 2019
Though we depart from Badonviller in the Northern Vosges , we make a jump northward to the east of Lunéville and Manonviller. We start at Avricourt on the border of Alsace and Lorraine. From the Avricourt Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof we explore the southern Lorraine battlefields ; the mine craters of Leintrey , the Franco- German war cemetery and Côte 303 at Reillon , and some German bunkers near Gondrexon , Montreux , and Parux.

LORRAINE - Montreux - German Front Walk 

by Pierre Grande Guerre • 13 Sept, 2019
We depart from Raon-l’Etape to drive northward via Badonviller to Montreux to visit the  "Circuit du Front Allemand 14-18", the  Montreux German Front Walk 14-18,  with its trenches , breastworks , and at least twenty bunkers.

LORRAINE - The Battle of Morhange - 1914

by Pierre Grande Guerre • 08 Sept, 2019
North-east of Nancy, east of Pont-à-Mousson, and south-east of Metz we visit the battlefields of the Battle of Morhange of 14 until 20 August 1914. We follow mainly topographically the route of the French advance eastward over the Franco-German border of 1871-1918.
During this visit, we try to focus on the day that the momentum of the battle switched from the French side to the advantage of the Bavarian side: the day of 20 August 1914, when the Bavarians rapidly re-conquered the territory around Morhange , being also the day of the start of their rather successful “Schlacht in Lothringen”.
We will visit beautiful landscapes of the "Parc Naturel Régional de Lorraine", memorials, ossuaries, and cemeteries. Sometimes we will divert to other periods of the Great War, honouring Russian and Romanian soldiers, who died in this sector. We start our route at the border village of Manhoué, and via Frémery, Oron, Chicourt, Morhange, Riche, Conthil, Lidrezing, Dieuze, Vergaville, Bidestroff, Cutting, Bisping we will finish in Nomeny and Mailly-sur-Seille, where the Germans halted their advance on 20 August 1914, and where they constructed from 1915 some interesting bunkers.

LORRAINE - Lanfroicourt – Nomeny - Monument du Grand Couronné 

by Pierre Grande Guerre • 05 Sept, 2019
South of Manhoué we start this trip at Lanfroicourt along the French side of the Franco-German 1871-1918 border, marked by the meandering Seille river. We visit some French bunkers  in Lanfroicourt, near Array-et-Han and in Moivrons. From there we go northward to the outskirts of Nomeny and the hamlet of Brionne to visit the ( second ) memorial, commemorating the events in Nomeny of 20 August 1914. We continue westward to finish at the Monument du Grand Couronné at the Côte de Géneviève, a former French artillery base, which offers several panoramic views over the battlefield.

LORRAINE - Bouxières-sous-Froidmont - Verny - Feste Wagner

by Pierre Grande Guerre • 28 Aug, 2019
North of Pont-à-Mousson and south of Metz, we explore the relics of German bunkers and fortifications along the Franco-German 1871-1918 border. We start at Bouxières-sous-Froidmont to visit the nearby height of the Froidmont on the front line. This time we will show only a part of the Froidmont, focusing on its military significance.  From the Froidmont we continue via Longeville-lès-Cheminot and Sillegny to the “Forêt Domaniale de Sillegny” to explore some artillery ammunition bunkers. Next we continue to Marieulles for its three interesting bunkers and to Vezon for its line of ammunition depot bunkers. From Vezon we continue to the “Deutscher Kriegsgräberstätte Fey – Buch”. From Fey we go eastward, passing 6 bunkers near Coin-lès-Cuvry to finish our trip at the top construction of the “Feste Wagner” or “Fort Verny”, north of Verny.

VOSGES - Mutzig - Fort de Mutzig - Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II

by Pierre Grande Guerre • 25 Aug, 2019

From Badonviller or the Col du Donon we continue north-eastward for a visit to an extraordinarily well restored sample of German fortifications:  the Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II, or Fort de Mutzig,  lying on a height, some 8 km. away from the 1871-1918 Franco-German Border.

VOSGES - Ste. Marie-aux-Mines - Tête du Violu / Bernhardstein

by Pierre Grande Guerre • 23 Aug, 2019
We concentrate on the German side of the front around "Markirch", Sainte Marie-aux-Mines, the so-called "Leber" front sector . We first pay a visit to the Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof, and next to the southern side of the Col de Ste. Marie for the many interesting bunkers of the German positions at the Bernhardstein, at the north-eastern slopes of the Tête du Violu. On the next photo page about the Haut de Faîte we will continue with a visit to the northern side of the pass and the "Leber" sector.
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