Our home for the next week is a fantastic house on Rue Jean
Boen in Amiens, a “row house” built just after the First World War. We are
within walking distance of the city centre and the fabulous Amiens Cathedral,
which miraculously escaped total destruction during two wars in the 20th
century. All around us are the sites of major battles on the Somme between 1914
and 1918.
Our flight to Paris on China Southern Airlines, via
Guangzhou, was just fine, although a bit of a challenge for us, as we were both
in the grip of “le Rhume” or common cold, one of us having the far more severe
strain, “le Rhume de l’homme”.
We have travelled China Southern before and shake our heads in wonder at those who, mostly, never having flown with a Chinese airline, are totally convinced that their planes are falling apart, the service is poor, they constantly cancel flights and, worst of all, the staff don’t speak English. In truth the planes are mostly brand new, the Chinese Airports just amazing, the pilots, some of whom are Australian, are professional and highly skilled and the staff indeed speak English.
We have travelled with China Southern before and shake our
heads in wonder at those who, mostly not having flown with a Chinese airline,
are totally convinced that their planes are falling apart, the service is poor,
they constantly cancel flights and, worst of all, the staff don’t speak
English. In truth the planes are mostly brand new, the Chinese Airports just
amazing, the pilots, some of whom are Australian, are professional and highly
skilled and the staff do indeed speak English
Our transit through Charles de Gaulle Airport took about an
hour, most of which was travelling from one terminal to another and collecting
bags. Driving out of the airport in our hire car was a little more of a
challenge. The helpful Hertz counter staff pointed to a towering ramp over
their car park in the centre of the airport and said, “Just get up there and
take the Autoroute to Lille”. After a lap or two of the airport freeway ramps,
we found our way to the correct one and, amid congratulatory honks from fellow
motorists, made our leisurely progress out of the airport complex.
At this early point in our travels, we should issue a word
of caution about the accuracy of comments on travel blogs and services. Having
read many comments online about the difficulties of paying with credit cards on
French autoroutes, we approached our first toll pay point with some trepidation,
gingerly inserted our card, which might well be gobbled up by the toll machine
and... no problem at all. We think most
of these reported issues may be from Americans, yes them again, whose cards are
being rejected because the highly sophisticated US banking system has been so
slow in producing cards with the chips that have been common in the rest of the
world for almost a decade.
29 August, Hotel
Campanile, Lille
It was a long day on the road today as we headed north-west
to Etaples on the channel coast and on to Flanders and Fromelles, part of our
pilgrimage to battlefields, cemeteries and points of interest linked to
relatives. We plotted a course through small towns and villages, avoiding the
tolls on the autoroutes, but it was such a miserable rainy day that we could
have just as well coughed up for the tolls, because the rural scene was rather
dismal.
We were visiting the large Commonwealth War Graves
Commission Cemetery at Etaples to find the grave of Michael English, Paul’s
grand-mother’s cousin, who was killed near Pozieres in September 1916. Michael
had enlisted under an assumed name to avoid the consequences of fathering a
child out of wedlock. Just before he embarked for Europe, he did the right
thing and married the young woman, just weeks before the birth of their
daughter. Paul had done a lot of research on Michael, his family and his life
before the war and as a result of this research, had convinced the War Graves
Commission to change the inscription on his tombstone to his real name. It took
many months to get them to agree and many more to have the work completed, so
it was nice today to see the real Michael recognised on his tombstone.
When William Armstrong, Janita’s great-uncle, first landed
in France in 1917, he joined his battalion in Lottinghen, near the Belgian
border. Keeping faith with our commitment to trace William’s journey to his
death at Mont St Quentin, we detoured to Lottinghen in the hope of getting some
feel for what the village might have been like in 1917. Sadly, there was
nothing left that William might have seen during his stay near the village.
As we were in the area, we visited Fromelles, a well-known battlefield
for Australians. In just a couple of days in July 1916 the Australian 5th
Division suffered more than 5500 casualties. Several battalions were all but wiped-out
and, in the end, nothing was gained. It was an early taste of what was to come.
Just outside modern Fromelles is Pheasant Wood Cemetery where around 250
soldiers, left in no-man’s land, buried after the war in an area known as
Pheasant Wood and forgotten, have been reburied. They were found in a mass
grave in 2009 and modern DNA technology allowed many to be identified.
Not far away was VC Corner Cemetery, a name given to the
area by British and Australian soldiers, because one apparently deserved a VC
just to move through the trenches on this part of the front. There are no
tombstones in the cemetery because the bodies, killed during the Battle of
Fromelles, weren’t exhumed until the early 1920s and by that time it was deemed
impossible to identify them. Today, 410 rose bushes mark the graves of those un-identified
men and the names of the 1299 officers NCOs and soldiers, killed during the
battle, but with no known grave, are recorded on a memorial wall.
Fromelles Memorial Park is located on no-man’s-land, between
the Australian and German lines as it was in 1916. It is only a small area on
land donated by a local farmer. The centre piece is the “Cobbers” statue,
depicting a digger carrying his wounded mate back to the lines.
Tonight we are spending the night away from our rented digs
in Amiens in a not-so-classy motel on the outskirts of Lille. Tomorrow we’ll do
the rounds of the important battlefield sites in southern Belgium.
30 August, Airbnb,
Amiens
We are back in Amiens tonight after a couple of very full
days through the Flanders battlefields. We have covered about 500km in this
time on a mix of tiny country lanes, highways, motorways and town and city
streets that have been so narrow that we have had to hold our breath to get
through. Everything we have read has told us that the French toll autoroutes
are extremely expensive. We haven’t found them so. Given the time and fuel
savings, paying AUD10 -12 to go 100kms isn’t that bad.
While on the topic of roads, we should mention French drivers.
On the whole, particularly on the autoroutes, they are very good. Mind you, one
slip at 130km/hr in three lanes of heavy traffic, including thousands of trucks
and you and several others would probably be toast. Most European drivers would
quickly come to grief on Australian motorways where passing on the wrong side
(ie the left) is common. In Europe it is never done, although, in slow-moving
city and town traffic, a bit of that stereotypical French rudeness comes out,
with drivers barging through tight corners and closing-up to prevent access
from cross streets in heavy traffic.
An early start this morning saw us in the small Belgian town
of Nieppe before 9:00am. Again there was little that William Armstrong would
have recognised from his time billeted here. The town was destroyed during WWI
and it also lay in the way of the Allies’ invasion of France in WWII.
The town of Nieuwkerke, described as Neuve Eglise a few
times in William’s diary, has some recognition of the Australian troops being
stationed here, if only in the small Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Cemetery attached to the town’s church cemetery. The graves are well kept. On
the day we were there a team in a CWGC truck was trimming the edges and mowing
the lawns.
Next on our list was Messines. William didn’t mention
Messines in his diary, but the battles fought around the town were important
ones from the ANZAC perspective. The town itself was finally liberated by the
New Zealand Division and an important monument to Kiwi soldiers with no known
grave is just outside the town.
In this area of the Front, an unofficial Christmas truce supposedly
took place in 1914. There is some question as to whether the soccer game
between the Tommies and the Huns actually occurred. Whether it is fact or
legend, it made for a very different monument on the side of a boggy farm road
where piles of soccer balls have been left to commemorate the event.
The monumental battles that occurred around the Ypres
salient were before William’s time at the Front, but we have come to realise
that only visiting those places mentioned in William’s diary would miss a lot
of important battlefield sites, so we expanded our programme today to include
Ypres and Zonnebeke, both of which have significant Australian connections.
The Menin Gate in Ypres commemorates all British Empire troops who died in Belgium, but have no known grave. Fifty-four thousand names line the walls of this triumphant arch, six thousand of them Australians. The town has been rebuilt close to its pre-war grandeur. The church, the spectacular town square and the historic Cloth Hall look just as they did prior to 1914. Much of the reconstruction here was done using materials scavenged from the rubble.
The Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres commemorates all British Empire
troops who died in Belgium, but have no known grave. Fifty-four thousand names
line the walls of this triumphal arch, six thousand of them Australians. The
town has been rebuilt close to its pre-war grandeur. The church, the spectacular
town square and the historic Cloth Hall look just as they did prior to 1914.
Much of the reconstruction here was done using materials scavenged from the
rubble.
None of the museums or monuments we have visited so far has
disproportionally represented the role of the USA in these battles. There is no
question that the waves of US troops arriving at the front in late 1917 made an
enormous difference to the final outcome, but the “Yankie-doodle” winning the
war notion is just not true. When the American troops came up to the front, fighting
alongside Australian troops, they were described as extremely heroic but reckless
and sometimes ill-disciplined. Little wonder that when some US and Australian
Battalions were integrated for a short period in mid-1918, the Australian
officers argued to limit the co-operation due to concerns about the discipline
of their new charges.
31 August 2018, Amiens
Today is the centenary of the death of William John
Armstrong. We had a much bigger day than we had intended because we were
directed way off course by our Satnav. This was not really “her” fault, because
we had set it to avoid tolls. Our toll-free path took us on a route close to a
lot of places we had intended to visit on another day so we just went with the
flow and roamed over most of the Somme Battlefields, picking up many of the
places William’s 24th Btn passed through in the months before his death.
The Australian presence on this, not insignificant part of
the front line, was more important than we had imagined. About 400,000
Australians fought in Flanders and on the Somme over the period 1916 to 1918. In
that period 60,000 were killed and many tens of thousands more were wounded. In
the scale of the carnage of the First World War this is just a drop in the
bucket. French losses were well over a million, British just short of that,
German and Austrian millions more. What these figures don’t effectively show is
the impact on countries like Canada, New Zealand and Australia, whose
populations were much smaller than those of the European Allies. France and
Britain had populations of around 40 million. Australia’s population was a
little less than 4 million - a factor of 10.
On a per capita basis, Australia put 4 million men in the field and lost
600,000. And it should never be forgotten that Australia’s army was all
volunteer and that the impact back home was just as devastating as it was for European
combatants.
William’s diary refers to several towns in which he was billeted
as the front moved and his battalion was taken in and out of the line. We
picked up more of these places today, Pont Noyelles and Millencourt, but again
there was little left after the 100 years that have passed since he was here.
Our roundabout route towards Peronne took us to Pozieres,
where the 1st Australian Division monument is located and the area
where Michael English fought with the 9th Btn in 1916. A couple of important
sites around Pozieres, the Windmill and Mouquet Farm, are legendary in
Australian Military history and now have Australian Memorials. Michael English
fought at both and was fatally injured at Mouquet Farm.
Just outside the small village of Thiepval is the main
British Memorial to those with no known graves. It is an enormous arch with
more than 50,000 names of the missing. The small museum on the site has an
impressive, cartoon-style mural showing British soldiers moving up to the front
line, engaging in combat and staggering away in the aftermath.
Today is what this part of our trip is all about. Today, 100
years ago, William John Armstrong was killed in Gottlieb Trench, at the foot of
Mont St Quentin. We placed a small laminated biography of William’s life, along
with a flag and a collection of remembrance poppies, hand-made by four
generations of his descendants. We also placed biography cards and flags on the
graves of two other soldiers who we knew had died with William, Charles Doble
and William Love.
 |
| Grave of William John Armstrong, 31 August, 2018 |
While we were at the cemetery, we met a couple of Australian
soldiers, one a Major attached to the Australian Embassy in Paris, who were arranging
a VIP ceremony at the cemetery. Chatting with them, we learned that the
official events to be conducted over the next couple of days required
registration to guarantee entry and that there would also be a civic reception for
the families of those who fought in the battle of Mont St Quentin. We were left
with the impression that it was almost impossible to register at this late
date. Right, Major Smarty-Pants, we thought, we’ll just see about that. Off to
City Hall we marched and after some hassles, caused by language difficulties,
or normal Friday afternoon Public Service lethargy, we managed to leave a
message for the Council Manager who sorted out registrations for us. So we’ll
be off tomorrow to the Civic Reception along with the Mayor and the Major
General commanding the 2nd Division Australian Army.
 |
| The exact location where William was killed |
Our last task for the day was to find the actual location of
the trench where William was killed. After a lot of research using Army burial
references, Australian and British Army Ordinance Maps and Red Cross data we
were very confident that we had the location within 20m. That’s all very well
on a computer screen, but standing in an open field it’s not as easy at it
might seem. However, using our phone GPS we were 90% sure we were on the trench
line and at the exact spot where a German High Explosive shell ended the lives
of William and close to a score of his comrades.
1 September 2018,
Amiens
We started late today after a couple of hectic, long days.
The Australian National Monument at Villers-Bretonneux is a must-do part of any
battlefields tour, as is the Franco-Australian Museum in the town itself. We
had been to the town museum before so we gave that a miss.
The Australian National Monument is a spectacular sight, built
on the battlefield where most of the soldiers buried here were killed. Our
visit here was also part of our William Armstrong pilgrimage. The brother of William’s
fiancée, Irene Macklan, Albert, was killed here in April 1918 in the battle
which finally liberated the village and secured this part of the line. William
and Albert were great mates and Albert is often mentioned in William’s diary.
We found his grave and left a flag.
The John Monash Centre has recently been opened in an
underground complex behind the National Monument. We had to literally run
through it as we were running late for our appointment for the Mayor and the
civic reception. We will be back tomorrow, because it looks fantastic.
We were a little early for the civic reception, so waited
around with a surprisingly large crowd of families whose relatives had taken
part in the battle. The reception started with a visit to the City Museum which
featured a display on the role of Australia in liberating the town. To our
surprise the quote from Percy Smythe’s diary, describing the scene in Gottlieb
Trench just after the explosion, was featured. We had come across Percy’s diary
in our research and it was an important find, as it confirmed the circumstances
of William’s death.
The speeches were a bit long in the sweltering council hall,
but very nice things were said about the sacrifices of Australian troops and
the gratitude of the local citizens. We had been told that there would be a
surprise for the families and there sure was. With great French flair the back
doors of the reception hall were flung open onto the town square, revealing the
Somme Battlefields Pipe and Drum Band playing a great medley of pipe favourites
including Waltzing Matilda. The band was encircled by performers dressed in WWI
period costume, soldiers, nurses and even mounted cavalry. We were lucky enough
to be standing right at the back of the hall and so were treated to the full
dramatic impact of the event.
Well done Peronne!
2 September, Amiens
Three Divisions of the AIF finally liberated the city of
Peronne 2 September 1918, after three days of fighting that cost 3000 lives,
including that of William John Armstrong. We had VIP access to the official
ceremony and a concert preceding it that commenced at 3:00 PM, so we had some
spare time to go back to the Australian Memorial in Villers-Bretonneux to spend
some more time at the fabulous John Monash Centre. We have visited hundreds of
museums of all kinds in many countries but very few would match the quality of
this museum. Nobody, Australian on not, who has any interest in military
history should miss this brilliantly designed and technically superb museum.
A short drive from the Australian Memorial is the site where
the German Ace, (The Red Baron) Baron Manfred von Richtofen’s plane crashed
after being shot down by Australian machine gunners. A few hundred metres up
the road from the Red Baron site is Le Hamel, the site of what is often lauded
as the first action of WWI in which the co-ordinated use of infantry, tanks, artillery
and aircraft was employed. The Australian Corps commander, Sir John Monash’s
meticulously planned attack saw the Australian infantry advance, shielded by
tanks, preceded by an advancing artillery barrage, all supported by aircraft.
Monash had predicted the operation would take 90 minutes. It took 93 minutes.
The thick undergrowth around the Australian Monument at Le
Hamel still contains some remnants of the old German trenches the Australians
occupied once the battle was over. This was also the point from which the
Australian machine gunners who shot down the Red Baron were located.
Back in Peronne by 3:00pm, we attended the concert organised
for descendant families by the city. An excellent military band belted out
French martial tunes and several popular American swing numbers, followed by
the mandatory Australian and French National anthems. Then it was off to the 2nd
Division Monument on the Rue Des Australiens for the official ceremony.
It has to be said that all this is really a big deal for the
city of Peronne and surrounds. The ceremony was very formal and very military
as might be expected, but due attention was paid to the families who, after 100
years, had come all this way to commemorate the contribution of their family
member. Janita was able to place a tribute on the monument to commemorate
William.
Not all that long a drive home to Amiens, but a burning car
on the autoroute slowed us up a little, so we are just getting dinner sorted at
9:30pm.
3 September, Amiens
Not totally “battlefielded-out” yet, but close. Just a few
boxes left to tick today before we drive back to Paris and fly to the UK.
The small village of Bertangles is almost a suburb of Amiens
these days, but in 1918, it was far enough away from the dangers of the front
to allow it to host the headquarters of the newly-formed Australian Corps
commanded by Lt General John Monash. Surviving video of events of this period
are rare, but there is a short segment of a film made in 1918 when King George
V knighted Sir John Monash on the steps of Chateau Bertangles. Standing at the gates
of the Chateau today, it was very easy to overlay the images of 100 years ago onto
the current scene.
A subplot of our travels in the Somme has been the “search for the Red Baron”, a character who is probably best remembered by baby boomers, through the 70s hit song “Snoopy and the Red Baron.” The Baron was of course a real German Ace pilot who was famous for the havoc he and his “Flying Circus” caused among allied pilots. He claimed 80 plus kills and was by far the most feared German fighter pilot.
A subplot of our travels in the Somme has been the “search
for the Red Baron”, a character who is probably best remembered by baby boomers,
through the 70s hit song “Snoopy and the Red Baron.” The Baron was of course a
real German Ace pilot who was famous for the havoc he and his “Flying Circus”
caused among Allied pilots. He claimed 80 plus kills and was by far the most
feared German fighter pilot.
Our interest in the Baron doesn’t just stem from our love of
the Royal Guardsmen, the group who sang the song, but from a close family
connection to the Baron’s demise. We are in possession of a small piece of the
Red Baron’s plane. In a framed tribute to the Baron on the wall in our study is
a piece of the wing fabric of the plane shot down by Australian machine gunners.
This souvenir was bought back to Australia by Paul’s great-uncle Lieutenant, later
Colonel, Frederick Rosenskjar and was lost among news clippings for close to
100 years until we found it by chance.
We have visited the crash site, the location where the machine
gun crew fired from and today, we visited the original grave site where the
Australian Army buried the Baron with full military honours. The Manfred was
not allowed to remain at rest here however. He was exhumed and moved twice
before he finally found peace in a family plot in Westphalia, Germany. Perhaps
one day we will find his final resting place.
This afternoon we wandered down to central Amiens and
visited the Cathedral which managed to survive the war relatively intact. We
noticed that the head of St John the Baptist was located here, and as those who
have followed our blogs over the years would know, we are big fans of bits of
saints’ bodies. Sadly, today is Monday and the saint’s head is not on view
today.
Of more real interest were the many plaques through the
cathedral showing the restoration of the building after the city was liberated
by Australian and Canadian troops in 1918. Apparently the Australian soldiers had
a big impact on the city and citizens of Amiens and also more widely through
northern France and Belgium. They played an important part in restoring the Cathedral.
One comment on a plaque stated that the Australians were “omnipresent in Amiens”.
We wondered if this was some sort of a comment on them being some sort of a
problem. Given everything else we know about how the diggers were seen, this
doesn’t jell. A couple of things came to mind. First and foremost is the belief
that “our boys” were willing to muck in and help. From what we see in
photographs of the time and from what we have read this is most likely true.
These were mostly country lads who enlisted and served with the mates they went
to school with or played sport against. There were no home leave options for
Australian troops, so their leave was in London or Paris if they were extremely
lucky, or leave was in a city like Amiens, near the front. These were practical
men with all sorts of skills that could be meaningfully employed to break the
boredom of life behind the lines.
We leave tomorrow, firmly convinced that the respect and
even reverence for the role of Australian diggers here is not just rhetoric,
but a genuine expression of gratitude and camaraderie. One hundred years on it
is a comfort that the sacrifice of so many Australian lives is so appreciated
and that the loss of William John Armstrong and Michael Joseph English and the
60,000 other Australian at peace somewhere in France and Belgium will never be
forgotten.
4 September, Ibis
Hotel, Paris CDG Airport
A glum morning greeted us as we drove off to Paris this
morning. Excellent timing. It has been warm and sunny all week. Other than
slightly more difficult driving conditions, we haven’t been overly stressed.
CDG is a monster of an airport with an extremely complex road network that we
had to negotiate to return our car. Finding the Hire Car return area is such a
challenge that some people prefer to return their vehicles to depots in
suburban Paris. Meticulous preparation was our key. We followed step by step
photographs from Google Maps.
Early start tomorrow for a 10:30 am flight to Heathrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment