SOMME BRITISH Sector - Thiepval Memorial - Dorsets Memorial - Mouquet Farm
- by Pierre Grande Guerre
- •
- 07 Apr, 2019
- •
Years of visit: 2005, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011
From every hill in the Somme Region you can see the Thiepval Memorial as an impressive landmark.
... you can detect the Memorial on the former location of the "Château de Thiepval".
Before we visit the Memorial, we approach Thiepval village again from the west, from the Mill Road.
The small village and the location of the Memorial used to be the German Leipzig Salient.
The Württembergische 26. Reserve Division
After fighting at the Grendelbruch in the Alsace in early August 1914, the Württembergische 26. Reserve Division arrived in the front sector around Thiepval on 27 September 1914. The Division was redeployed from Bapaume, and it was immediately involved in heavy battles with the French troops. The 26th R.D. drove the French back at Albert. The trench line consolidated at the end of September 1914 on a line running roughly from Beaumont via Thiepval to Contalmaison.
The Württembergische 26. Reserve Division consisted of the 51. Reserve-Infanterie-Brigade, composed by the I.R. 180. and R.I.R. 121, and the 52. Reserve-Infanterie-Brigade, composed by R.I.R. 119, R.I.R. 99, the Württembergische Reserve Dragoner Regiment, Res.-Feldart.-Regt. 26, R.F.A.R 27, 4 companies of Pionier-Bataillon Nr. 13, Württ. Reserve-Sanitäts-Komp., and reserve train units and communication units.
From 28 September 1914 until 7 October 1916 the 26 R.D. was based along a front line running roughly from Beaumont via Thiepval to la Boisselle, later to Flers.
The Division’s artillery support of F.A.R 116, the Regimental staff of 26 R.F.A.R., and the Staff of General von Soden set up Divisional Headquarters at Miraumont.
Facing for a long period the British 4th Army, General von Soden was fully aware of the British build-up of
troops. Von Soden was relying on the
fact that most of his men were veterans of trench warfare.
Leutnant Armin Stäbler
Soden's Division and some Bavarian Regiments, like B.R.I.R. 6 and B.R.I.R. 8, held the Thiepval Plateau, which formed a key strongpoint in the German defenses.
This high
ground dominated the entire,
northern sector of
the Somme front. It
included the ruins of
the village of
Thiepval and a
stronghold west of
it,
called by the British
the Schwaben Redoubt,
and by the Germans the Hansa Stellung.
Von Soden’s troops had turned the place into a fortress.
In Thiepval we found some memorials on the walls of the church.
This plaque commemorates Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart, who won his Victoria Cross at La Boisselle, commanding the 8th Gloucesters on 2 and 3 July 1916.
Lieutenant-Colonel
Carton de Wiart
On 2
July/3
July 1916, at nearby La Boisselle, Lieutenant-Colonel Carton de
Wiart's
dauntless courage,
and
inspiration
averted
what
could have been a
serious reverse.
He
displayed
the
utmost energy in
forcing
the attack home
and,
after
three
other
battalion
commanders had
become
casualties, he
controlled
their
commands
and made
sure
that
the
ground was held at
all
costs. In
organizing
the
positions
to
be held, he
exposed
himself
fearlessly
to
enemy
fire.
Thiepval Memorial
Centrepoint of the Battlefield, the Thiepval Memorial commemorates over 72,000 men, ...
... who have no known grave, and who fell on the Somme between July 1915 and February 1918.
Behind the Memorial is an Anglo French Cemetery, overlooking Thiepval Wood on the horizon.
As a symbol of their bonds as Allies, the French and the English buried 300 soldiers of each nation here.
Source: Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Thiepval, 1 July 1916, the British infantry attacks
After the bombardment and the detonation of 17 mines, at 7.30 AM, the British infantry troops had to go over the top to attack the 16 German Divisions under General Prinz Eitel Friedrich von Preussen.
In the north near Gommecourt General Allenby’s 3rd Army attacked the German Kern Redoubt with a bloody diversionary attack.
General Gough’s 3 Cavalry Divisions were kept in reserve to exploit successes.
General
Rawlinson’s 4th
Army
attacked over a 30 km. front
with 15
divisions
near
Hébuterne,
south of
Gommecourt,
near Serre,
Beaumont Hamel,
Thiepval,
Ovillers,
La Boiselle,
Fricourt,
Mametz,
and
Montauban in
the
south
east.
In
the
morning 60,000
British men went over
the top, in
the
afternoon
again
another 40,000 men.
South of the Somme General Fayolle’s 6th Army, reinforced with the 35th Division and the 1st Colonial Army Corps, reached all it’s goals for the first day by conquering the villages of Dompierre and Fay.
On this spot, near the Obelisque for the 18th Division, used to be the tip of the Leipzig Salient.
The 18th Division succeeded to capture Thiepval and its surroundings, 3 months later, on 30 September 1916.
To give you an idea of the Leipzig Salient, which these observers saw in 1916, two British army panorama pictures of the maze of trenches, barbed wire, dugouts, bunkers, and machine gun posts.
These pictures (resp. left and right) had been made from la Boisselle northward to Thiepval.
The Dorsets Memorial
| In 2011 we went southward, in birdsflight some 1.500 m away from the Leipzig Salient and the Thiepval Memorial, to visit the new memorial near Authuille and Thiepval, inaugurated at 7 May 2011, dedicated to the Dorsetshire Regiment. |
In front of the footpath to Lonsdale Cemetery, opposite the Thiepval Memorial, ...
... the Dorsets Memorial is standing on the jump-off lines of the Dorsets.
On 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, the 32nd Division, which included the 1st Dorsets and the 11th Lonsdale Battalion of the Border Regt. attacked the German line at this point and stormed the Leipzig Salient, but were compelled to retire later in the day.
The four sides of the obelisque showing all Great War Battles, in which the Dorsets participated.
We return to the eastern outskirts of the village of Thiepval to Mouquet Farm.
View from the Thiepval Memorial to the east in the direction of Mouquet Farm.
The shattered farmhouse was located to the left of the farm road on the crest. View north-eastward from the road from Thiepval to Pozières, the D 73.
Mouquet Farm was a central bastion in the second line of the German defense system, during the Battle of the Somme from July to October 1916.
It’s deep cellars and tunnels were connected to
a complex network of German trenches in the fields.
On 5 August 1916 the Australians were first to attack this stronghold, having just incurred a devastating loss of 17,000 men in the capture of Pozières, only 1 km. away.
After a month and 6,500 casualties, the Australians were relieved by the Canadians.
On 27 September, Mouquet Farm fell to the British.
Under the trees right there is still a huge mine crater, the field left is covered with shell holes.
This farmer does not even allow to let his sheep enter this shell hole covered field!
View from Mouquet Farm Road to the Thiepval Memorial, and right to the tower of the church.
Continue to the next chapter: "Thiepval Wood - Ulster Tower"
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.
