DAY 2 SEPTEMBER 9TH 1997
As usual I woke up early, having children means that your body clock has you up and at it early no matter how shagged out you are, this was the case for me. Breakfast is 8AM, and is usually massive, we plan to put quite a bit away therefore negating the need for lunch except a chocky biscuit. the itinery for today was to do a long walk, this means that David doesn't have to drive and we see the Somme first hand at eye level and places that the car never normally goes to. I love the walking, I normally come back much thinner (not hard!!) yet I eat more when I do eat.
Having
Togged up we walked to Beaumont Hamel and took the footpath behind the civilian
Cemetery and walked up it. This was a footpath before 1914 and appears on trench
maps so I was able to orientate myself as we walked it, we walked up and over
the Battlefield
(see pic, staion alley is the line coming into the road center picture)
which I had studied so much . I got a feel for what was there and the shape
of the battlefield, the evience was everywhere, unexploded trench mortar
shells and several types of grenade!!!, empty shell cases and shrapnel. This
path takes you to just
behind
the Ancre Military Cemetery. You stand on the spot where there was a redoubt
which massacred Hawke Battalion on 13th November and held out till a tank
appeared the following day. Standing there you could see the field of fire
the Germans had, truely awesome. From there we crossed the railway and the
river by the mill and walked into St Pierre Divion, then up the footpath
to the Ulster tower. The gradient is quite steep, in terms of front line,
we just moved from behind the German to the British, passing the remnants
of a bunker. we stopped at the cemetery opposite the tower. then walked up
to Mill road cemetery which was in 1916 between the
British
front line and the Schwaben redoubt. In the cemetery was a real mixed bag
of 1st July Irishmen, men who made a stand here in early 1918 and many men
from Kent who took this area in late 191. One gravestone stood out, Pte Message
of the R.W.Kent Regt. We have a friend of that name who kept telling us about
his uncle Frank who was killed with the 7th R.W.Kents at the Thiepval ridge,
so we took the photo of our Friends uncle Franks grave. It was a good
time to have a quick nosebag, and whilst looking out of the
gate,back towards where we had just come from, you could clearly see chalk
trench lines in the ploughed earth. These we not visible whilst walking across
the land but now only apparent from a distance. Strangely they corresponded
exactly to the positions as I had marked them on our map
to where
they should have been (see pic). We signed the book, and saw some old friends
had been there recently, even Tom Morgan (Had to plug you mate!!). From
that point we walked off to the Thiepval Memorial and had a quick drink.
Our rucksacks were a bit weighty by now with several empty shell cases which
were digging in the back somewhat!!. From that poit we walked to the site
of the Leipzig redoubt which is very much in evidence todat, marked as a
tree filled hollow. I found a lovely nosecone still attached to the cone,
very heavy, but it went into my sack. At this point I was carrying about
55LB's, not to heavy just that things were digging in my back. From here
we could see the Germans eye view of the attack of the Lonsdales and the
terrific field of fire the defenders had. At this pont we turned left and
walked towards Ovilliers,after a mile we turned right and walked up a dirt
track past some woods called Bois de Haie. This was the site of a large raid
made by the Germans in May 1916 on the 1st Dorsets. This was recently written
up in Stand To and Fresh in our memory. We walked past this and came to a
sharp bend, we turned right towards Authville, the sun was hot and the sacks
were heavy, it was now 2 PM. We carried on walking and got up to the site
of Blighty Valley and visited the cemetery. We continued through Authville
and took a left over the river and railway and then headed towards Hamel.
These points were very much in existence in 1916 and have seen photos ,
to actually put my feet in the foot steps of those men is strange. This was
the start of the home straight. We crossed the railway and walked up the
road along the main railway line to Paris. There was a gradually increasing
graient, and walking along road for about 1.5 Km was starting to have an
effect on me, the weight in my rucksack was begining to hurt, not neccessarily
the weight, just the distribution, if I had 57 pattern webbing I would be
happier. After 25 mins we started to go up hill steadily as we entered Hamel,
the first thing you come across is Hamel Military Cemetery on your left.
It is one of my favourites, and we were in need of a breather. Buried here
are two Lt.Cols of the RM, killed on 13th Nov 1916, along with other notables
from the RND and other regiments. It is a peaceful cemetery, I had to pay
my respects to a Pte Hills of 1RM who was killed in Oct 1916. A spell with
the weight of my back and a quick drink and I was upfor it again. We continued
through Hamel which was quite steep and onto the road that leads to
Auchonvillers. Along this road is the Newfoundland park, it runs behind the
British front line. A few hundred metres along this road is a footpath on
out left which takes you across the Ancre battlefield, a different way .
There was a crop of maize up obscuring the British positions, but as we walked
across I was trying to picture what happened on the 13th November 1916. The
path takes you down to the bottom of Y ravine and into Beaumont Hamel itself.
It was then a 20 minute walk back to Les Galets. It was shoes off, beer down
the throat time. It was 4:15 PM, we had been out 6 hours and covered 16miles.
But I swear to all , you see the real Somme this way. Still with time to
kill we decided to go for another walk, we went up the sunken lane and up
to the cemeteries around Munich Trench and back behind the sunken lane. We
walked from the sunken lane, over the top towards the German Positions of
the 1st July, George Ashursts description very much on my mind. We then returned
, related our adventure over dinner, walking doesn't seem to feature much
on anyone elses itinery, so many we keen to hear. We then took part in more
beer consumption and a lovely football match on SKY.