SOMME BRITISH Sector - Redan Ridge
- by Pierre Grande Guerre
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- 04 Apr, 2019
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Years of visit: 2007, 2008
View from the Hawthorn Crater lip in the direction of Redan Ridge at the horizon. Right on the horizon: the Cross of Sacrifice Of Redan Ridge Cemetery no. 2, and behind it the typical trees of Redan Ridge Cemetery no. 3.
On the 1st of July the 4th Division with 2 battallions of the 48th South Midlands Division attacked Redan Ridge.
Source: Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Nor far away from here and some 500 m. to the south-east at Redan Ridge lies the New Műnich Trench British Cemetery.
Source: Commonwealth War Graves Commission
View from the New Münich Trench Cemetery southward to Thiepval.
View in the direction of the Newfoundland Memorial Park, Hawthorn Ridge, and the village of Beaumont Hamel.
View from New Münich Trench Cemetery northward to the Cross of Sacrifice of the Frankfurt Trench British Cemetery.
We continue to a site near the village of Beaumont. Waggon Road was the name given to the road running north of the village of Serre.
Source: Commonwealth War Graves Commission
During the twilight we continue to the Münich Trench British Cemetery.
Source: Commonwealth War Graves Commission
After sunset we left this impressive site. We continue to the Newfoundland Memorial Park near Beaumont Hamel, south of Redan Ridge and Hawthorn Ridge. Continue to the next chapter: "Newfoundland Memorial Park".
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
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.
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.
