SOMME - Mametz Archeological Excavations - Centre for Battlefield Archeology - Devonshire Cemetery
- by Pierre Grande Guerre
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- 11 Apr, 2019
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SPECIAL Photo Impression - Year of visit: 26 May 2010
| A special impression, a photo report, of our visit to the Archeological Excavations of a team of the University of Glasgow “somewhere near” Fricourt and Mametz, to end this impression with a visit to the Devonshire Cemetery with it’s impressive backgrounds near Mametz. |
| Introduction and backgrounds of the archeological site Some of my loyal guests already know, that I have an interest in battlefield archeology. I admire these battlefield archeologists, who are having "their heads in their files and their rubber boots in the sucking clay". Battlefield archeologists, who are digging and brushing carefully, according to painstakingly made plans, in the sometimes still dangerous soil of the battlefield. The Centre for Battlefield Archeology |
This year in May I followed with much interest on Facebook.com the reports of the three weeks during project of archeological excavations. A team of archeologists, lead by Tony Pollard and Iain Banks, of the Centre for Battlefield Archeology (CfBA) of the University of Glasgow was excavating British trenches and dug-outs. The team includes amongst other friendly people the Centre's long term friend, the battlefield historian, and the by me much appreciated author, Peter Barton. (*) "Somewhere in the Somme" For very understandable reasons, like to prevent looting of the artefacts, during their work the team of battlefield archeologists, kept their exact location, “somewhere in the Somme”, a secret. After a talk with a well-informed inhabitant of the Somme, we were able to locate the exact whereabouts of these modern “Trench Forensic Detectives”. Our visit to the archeological site On a rainy day in May 2010 we decided to pay the team a visit. At our arrival we were silently, but also very friendly welcomed. Silently, because at the moment of our arrival there was a television team of Channel Four filming a “Time Team Special”, with Tony “Baldrick” Robinson (Blackadder-comedy-series) as the anchor-man. The excavations are over now, the soil is covered again. So I may tell you a little more specific, but not too specific, about the location of the excavations: somewhere near Fricourt. Though being vague out of respect for the wishes of the CfBA, the more experienced Somme battlefield visitors will perhaps as yet recognize the site. Some of the photos in this impression have been made by my always patient assistant, my late wife, Christine (+ 8 May 2018). Pierre (*) For example: “Beneath Flanders Fields”, “The Battlefields of the First World War”, “The Somme”. The Front Sector of Fricourt and Mametz - 1 July 1916 |
... which runs from the south, with the wartime name, "71st. Street".
... including a detachment from the Royal Engineers, the 36 Training Squadron Royal Engineers.
The television team has stopped filming and it is re-viewing the rushes.
On the archeological site we met the historian and author, the friendly Mr. Peter Barton.
Peter takes all the time to explain the site, and to answer patiently all our curious questions.
A quote from the CfBA's Facebook:
"The front line trench is revealing duckboards, we have a small underground shelter of posts and sandbags."
Another quote from the CfBA's Facebook:
"Sandbags are in places incredibly well preserved, including on the parapet on this part of the line."
From the CfBA's Facebook:
"We found a wide range of artefacts from weaponry, to more mundane objects such as mess kits. Nothing to worry about, but no room for complacency; these fields can still kill!"
Peter Barton continues to explain us more about the area direct around the excavations site.
The team marked the location of the trenches with flags. The yellow flags represent the location of British trenches. In this case; communication trench "71st Street", running from the south to the site.
Yellow flags, marking the British front line trench, running from the site further north-east.
Some 120 m. away, or perhaps even more, we detect the end of the tunnel.
View from the "first British trench" over No Man's Land to the "German trench".
As the red flags are not well visible on the photo above, I re-edited this photo for a better explanation.
Tunnel warfare or mine warfare was intense in this sector of Fricourt and Mametz. 178 Tunneling Company R.E. laid in this sector, at the end of 10 m. deep tunnels, charges of 30.000, 15.000, and 8.000 Lb.. Two of these larger mines in this front sector of XV Corps failed to explode on 1 July.
Russian Saps
In this specific sector, in the area near the archeological site, four 500 Lb. and one 200 Lb. charge mines were placed at the end of tunnels, called Russian Saps. Just before the attack the charge at the end of the tunnel, the sap head, blowed up, and it opened a crater and access from the tunnel to the open air, covered by the explosion formed crater lips. The purpose of a Russian Sap was on one hand to blow up the enemy’s position, and on the other hand to offer covered access for the attacking troops from the tunnel. Russian Saps allowed rapid contact with the enemy, and sheltered routes for access, and for regress for supports, runners and medics.
Sap Heads could also serve for quickly set-up machine-gun positions, mortar positions, or flame thrower positions.
The multiple explosions in this front sector near Fricourt and Mametz assisted the first wave of attackers to cross No Mans’ Land with minimal losses, because several dug-outs and machine-gun positions had been successfully neutralized.
Sources: Peter Barton: “Beneath Flanders Fields”, “The Battlefields of the First World War”, “The Somme”.
The location of the end of the tunnel or Sap Head. Now you might notice also the red flags, marking the German trench.
... how close to the German trench this Sap Head was. I estimate about 20 Metres.
The wood is impenetrable by thicket. But on the edge of it some relics lay around.
With our boots and Bobby,
covered with the fat, sucking, Somme clay, we express our gratitude to Peter Barton for his
information, to Tony Pollard and his archeological team of the CfBA for
their impressive work. This visit to the
works of this archeological site has increased
our already existing admiration for these diggers enormously! We wish the team good luck and much
success with the research during the next phase of this project; interpreting the collected data. We are impatiently looking forward to the results
and to the release of the “Time
Team special”-documentary.
Thank you very much again, CfBA-Team, for your hospitality, and for an interesting and instructive afternoon!
As we leave the site, we decide to visit next a nearby location, that reminds us of the horrors, this area knew, and where ...
... the attack of 1 July was at first not that succesful at all, as elsewhere in this front sector: ...
Devonshire Cemetery has a remarkable background.
Captain
Martin's
Warning
The 8th and 9th Battalions of the Devonshire Regiment, which were part of the 7th Division, attacked on 1 July 1916 from a point south-west of Mametz village, near a copse called Mansel Copse. Before the attack Captain Duncan Martin had warned his superiors that, unless he was supported by artillery or mortar fire, his Devonshire men were at serious risk of enfilading machine-gun fire from the north, from a German machine-gun nest hidden in a Shrine at Mametz Cemetery. Though no one listened to the Captain’s warnings, he still had to obey his orders. At Zero Hour Capt. Martin lead his men over the top to cross a No Man’s Land of not more than 100 metres wide to the first German trench. Within minutes Capt. Martin and 170 of his Devonshire soldiers died under the enfilading fire of the same machine-gun at the Shrine, which he had warned for before. |
Two fragments of the War Diaries, respectively of the 8th and 9th Battn. Devonshires. The handwriting of the 9th Battalion's journalist is rather difficult to decipher.
As we approach the cemetery, we pass this remembrance stone at the entrance.
Source: Commonwealth War Graves Commission
From "their own old front line trench", a view from the Cross of Sacrifice ...
Capt. Martin, who also, like other officers on this cemetery, shares his grave and headstone with two privates, resp. F. G. Oxford and M. Williams, both killed at 22 years old. Capt. Martin was only 30 years old, when he was killed. The grave of Captain Martin.
We end this Special Impression of Fricourt and Mametz with a landscape view from just outside Devonshire Cemetery to Gordon Cemetery.
Source: Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Many of the German adversaries, killed in this front sector, are buried at the “Fricourt Deutscher Kriegsgräberstatte”.
More info about Contalmaison and Mametz Wood? Click on Contalmaison and follow for the next page the link below the photo page to Mametz Wood.
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.
