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Home , Authuille, Aveluy, Leipzig Salient, Thiepval, Thiepval Memorial, War memorial

Starting from the Velodrome At this crossroads take the A few metres further on, still on your Take the path to the right to the Next, turn left to the memorial to D 2 th 5 sports ground, set off towards sharpest right turn and, at the left, the churned up field surface 3 memorial. the 18 Division, then turn right Albert. top of the slope, take a path to the left. still shows traces of fighting. You will be on the German front line, along the D151 road. At the cross- THE Turn left again when you come to a roads, turn left along the D 73 road. 4 Immediately beyond the The Lonsdale Cemetery was esta- with a fine view over the battlefield : on 1 Velodrome café on the left, road further on. blished in 1917 for the dead from the the left is the dark mass of Wood On your left, if the fields are ploughed WALKING TOUR take the footbridge which crosses the A little later, on your left, you will find battles at and Aveluy and ori- from where the British fired on and clear of crops, you can see a white River Ancre. Go through the gardens the Nab. This valley, between Ovillers ginally contained 96 graves. It was the slopes of Thiepval hill, Authuille chalk line which marks the site of an to the tennis courts. Turn left and, at and Thiepval, led to Mouquet Farm extended after the Armistice, and today Wood, and Connaught old trench. DEPARTURE : the next junction, turn left along the and was used by the soldiers as they it holds a total of 1,515 men. Most are Cemetery with, beyond, the Soon after this, two British cemeteries Albert Authuille path to a road. went up the line. In it was British, but four Australians and two Newfoundland Memorial Park above are planted with Irish yew trees : (the Velodrome sports ground) The site known as the “Entre-Deux- almost on the front line and consisted French soldiers are also interred here. Beaumont-Hamel. Pozières and - Connaught Cemetery on your left. of a network of trenches. To the south RETURN : Chemins” contains what are probably Mouquet Farm lie to the right. Established in the autumn of 1916, this the remains of a blockhouse. of the Nab was the “Dead Man’s Bank”, Gradually you approach the great cemetery held only 228 graves at the Albert the site of numerous bloody deaths on (the Velodrome sports ground) memorial of the . By time of the Armistice but it was exten- 1 July 1916. approaching it in this way from the ded later to take in the bodies of men DISTANCE : west you will be following the direction from other cemeteries. Most of the 17 kilometres / 10,5 miles of the British attack. 1,278 men who are buried here now TIME : The Nab. 4 hours 15 3 WAY-MARKING : DON’T MISS ✯ The Town Hall DON’T MISS yellow Albert he vast Town Hall, rebuilt in Neo- Thiepval ✯✯ Basilica of Notre-Dame de Brebières TFlemish style, is surmounted by a ✯✯✯ The British National Memorial 64-metre high belfry. The richness of he decision to build the basilica of Notre-Dame de Brebières stemmed from a its Art Déco interior design (stained n 1932 the British government began to work on Maps IGN n°2407 and 2408 Tlegend. In mediaeval times, a shepherd is said to have found a miraculous sta- glass windows) and its size, which Ithe great Somme Memorial at Thiepval. This © IGN Paris 2001 n°6060.38 6 tue of the Virgin in the fields, which became the destination for pilgrimage. The may seem excessive, are a reminder imposing brick and stone , the work of 7 Neo-Byzantine church was built between 1885 and 1895, by the Picard architect of the prosperity of this industrial the architect Sir , is 45 metres high 1 cm : 350 metres Edmond Duthoit. Very seriously damaged in the First World War, it was rebuilt bet- town in the inter-war years (machine and visible for many kilometres around. It comme- ween 1927 and 1929 by the architect’s son and grandson. The Virgin and Child at tools and aeronautical engineering). morates the 72,085 missing British and South its top is the work of the architect Albert Roze, a replica created at the time of It was inaugurated by the President African soldiers who fell between July 1915 and reconstruction. The pilgrimage to Notre-Dame de Brebières is still undertaken March 1918, and who have no known graves. Their th of the Republic, Albert Lebrun, today, during the first half of September. The 11 century statue of the miraculous in 1932. names are inscribed on the sixteen columns which Virgin is on display in the apse chapel. In addition, the interior of basilica is richly A large commemorative plaque in form the base of the edifice. The inscription across the top of this triumphal arch LONDRES decorated with frescoes and mosaics. reads : “Aux armées françaises et britanniques, l’Empire britannique reconnais- TUNNEL the entrance foyer of the Town Hall 2 Anvers stresses the significance that the sant” (“To the French and British armies, the grateful ”). Two ceme- Gand teries - one French, one British - at the foot of the memorial, each with Calais BRUXELLES ✯✯ Somme 1916 Museum government wished to lay on the

E 300 graves, are a confirmation of the equality and the brotherhood of arms. Boulogne A LITTLE HISTORY… reconstruction of the devasted H Lille his museum lies at the heart of C VERS N Tthe Battles of the Somme (1914- regions. Outside, another plaque was A ALBERT COLOGNE Albert M placed in memory of the 175,000 lberts is a town heavy with history and which experienced substantial 1918), in an underground area adap- British soldiers who served in the ted as an anti-aircraft shelter in Péronne industrial expansion during the nineteenth century. The town boasted “THE THIEPVAL A 1939. It retraces the soldiers’ life in Machine-Gun Corps. MEMORIAL 7,343 inhabitants in 1914…and only 120 by January 1919. Occupied by the Le Havre Beauvais WALKING TOUR” Germans from 29 August until 14 September 1914, then evacuated after the the trenches during the offensive of Rouen ✯ Laon Battle of the Marne, it suffered ceaseless bombardment from the time that July 1916 along this front, which was The Train Station Aéroport Reims held by the British army. The entrance Charles the front line was stabilised along the Ovillers-La Boisselle-Thiepval line. In he station ceiling, entirely reno- De Gaulle to the Somme 1916 Museum lies VERS January 1915 a German shell hit the basilica belfry ; leaving the gilded sta- Tvated, is enhanced with a Potez PARIS STRASBOURG tue of the Virgin hanging horizontally until it finally fell in March 1918. close to the basilica. The 230-metre- 36 aircraft. Henry Potez, a pioneer of Known as “the Leaning Virgin”, it gave birth to a belief among the Allied long gallery is studded with alcoves aeronautical engineering, was a nati- D soldiers that its fall would mean the end of the war. The relief of the French showing realistic scenes of trench ve of Albert. In 1922 he set up an air- army by the British army took place in July 1915. The town then became a life. Eighteen display cases present craft factory of expanding importan- centre of intense military activities, particularly during the Somme offensive various objects and documents, often ce at Méaulte which in 1970 became 1 (staff headquarters, billets, material and munitions depots, hospitals, inces- very moving as well as war material Aérospatiale and then EADS Airbus sant convoys of troops and vehicles going up the line or returning, etc). and weapons of the period. Industrie. He pushed for Albert’s Albert has remained a symbolic town for the British. After its recapture by The gallery opens out into the expansion in the aeronautical indus- the Germans in March 1918, then its liberation by the British in August of delightful public gardens. A museum try. that year, the town was nothing but a vast pile of ruins. shop is located at the end of the Ninety per cent of the town of Albert was destroyed in the First World War. It was visit. rebuilt in Art Déco style during the 1920s and ‘3Os, with the aid of the city of Birmingham. Today, the perspective given by the train station, basilica and the town hall is entirely typical of the architectural style of the reconstruction period. were killed during the summer and A few metres further on, on your right, On reaching Saint-Pierre-Divion, At the next junction, take the Just beyond the cemetery, go autumn of 1916. A memorial set up at the remains of a German fortifi- turn left and then left again. 5 track facing you which runs 6 uphill to the left along a path the time, in honour of the men who fell cation stick out of the ground, As you leave Saint-Pierre-Divion, look along beside Authuille Wood. to the Bois de la Haie. at the Schwaben Redoubt on constructed with retrieved materials up to see, on your right, an electricity A large number of non-natural excava- La Turn right. 28 , is now in the City (railway track, brick, stone). pole with a helment and a shell tions, shell craters or the 7 of York. You can also enjoy a fine view over the at its top. , can be seen in Somme remains of trenches - Mill Road Cemetery on your Remains of a german fortification. valley of the River Ancre. On the oppo- A little further on, on your left, look for the wood. In particular, on the edge you 2 At Entre-Deux-Chemins, turn right, located on the old German trench site hillside, look for more zig-zags of the entrance to a redoubt (green can see a zigzag trench line on right and, at the next junc- lines, was created in the spring of 1917. On 1 July 1916, No Man’s Land lay bet- an old trench-line visible as a chalk gate - private property, do not enter). your left. tion, continue straight along on the It held only 260 graves but after the ween the sites of these two cemeteries. mark across a field (visible only when D 20 road to reach the village of Continue through the village of Aveluy. Armistice the bodies of 1,038 soldiers The British front line ran along the the ground is clear of heavy crop Authuille. were buried here. Most of them were foliage). Turn left to return to the Vélodrome edge of the wood, on your left. Authuille military cemetery is on victims of the battles around sports ground. The Ulster Tower is visible on the Fragments of brick can sometimes be your right. Beaumont-Hamel and Thiepval. Today right. seen in the fields. The Germans collec- it contains the graves of 1,304 British ted bricks from shattered houses to soldiers and sailors. At the end of the car-park, build their trenches. 4 turn right along the dirt track towards Saint-Pierre-Divion.

✯✯ Ulster Tower (Helen’s DON’T MISS ✯ The Church Tower) A LITTLE HISTORY… A LITTLE HISTORY… A LITTLE HISTORY… rt Déco in style, it has the dis- uilt in 1921 through public sub- Thiepval Saint-Pierre- Aveluy tinction of having its roof cove- scription, this Gothic-troubadour A B he hill, the village itself, the château (now vanished), along with Hamel he village was originally in red with copper tiles. It also has style tower is the exact replica of a Divion Tformed one of the pillars of the German defences on the northern part of Tthe French sector, but the some beautiful green and blue stai- tower near Belfast, on the training n 1 July, Saint-Pierre-Divion the British sector. This veritable natural fortress was protected at its foot by British held it from July 1915 ned glass windows by Gérard Ansart, ground of the 36th Division. The Irish was one of the objectives the marshes of the River Ancre and by a large number of very deep tunnels. O until March 1918. It was in fact illustrating the Way of the Cross. memorial of the Battle of the It formed the and was, on 1 July 1916, one of the main set- of the 36th Division, but the never occupied by the Germans, Somme, it is also the memorial to all Allied troops were unable to tings for the disaster of the British left wing. The loss of 58,000 men that which is very unusual for a vil- ✯ Salford Pals Memorial the soldiers of Ulster who died day, including 20,000 dead, was the greatest single day’s loss in British his- reach it that day. Because of lage in this sector. his brick wall, built by the during the Great War. It has a visitor tory, to which the name of Thiepval is indissolubly attached. both its location and its fortifica- Lancashire and Cheshire branch centre at its base. On its grounds, the Traces of the battle, still visible in the undergrowth of the site, are evidence tions, it was an important posi- T of the Western Front Association and Royal Irish Rangers placed a plaque of the particular attention that the Commonwealth War Graves Commission tion. Indeed, the land between Authuille Wood th bearing a bilingual text (French and in honour of the 36 (Irish) Division gardeners give to its maintenance. The struggle to capture Thiepval, which Saint-Pierre-Divion and the n 1 July 1916 the British English), is dedicated to the memory and the nine men who were awarded began on 1 July, continued until 26 September 1916. Allied line contained a network Osoldiers entered Authuille of the three battalions of the the . At the end The 36th (Irish) Division, whose operational sector extended from the edge of of old and new trenches and Wood from the south-west to “Salford Pals”, the 15th,16th and 19th of the grounds, a gate Thiepval Wood as far as the village of Hamel, was the only unit to attain its above all, on the southern banks shelter there. However, as they of the 32nd leads to a small memo- objective on 1 July. The unfortunate Irish, however, were caught in the fire of of the Ancre, an underground were preparing to leave it they Division which held the trenches at rial to the Irish soldiers the British artillery’s rolling barrage as well as the fire of the German machine- labyrinth known as “the tun- were caught in enemy artillery Authuille at the beginning of 1916 of the Orange Order, gunners who emerged from the underground shelters of the Schwaben nel”, with entrances on the fire. A veritable massacre follo- and which valiantly attacked the inaugurated in 1994. Redoubt. Having lost more than 5,500 men in a few hours, the Division was Saint-Pierre-Divion hillside and wed, with soldiers killed by redoubts at Thiepval on 1 July 1916. evacuated the next day. which was used as a shelter by machine-guns before the the Germans. Several exits from advance could even begin. The the Schwaben Redoubt came survivors tried in vain to escape out here. Further, the marshy from the wood, which was enti- ✯ 18th Division Memorial ground of the valley of the River rely surrounded by barbed wire. his plain obelisk with bronze Ancre made the capture of the Tplaques commemorates the village even more difficult. action of 26 September 1916 and the None the less, the 39th Division The route of this walk was planned and way-marked by the Association Départementale de la capture of Thiepval. managed to capture it on Randonnée (Department’s Rambling Association). The texts in this booklet were prepared by the 13 November and the Black CDT team, with additional contributions by Jean-Pierre Thierry. THE THIEPVAL MEMORIAL ✯ The Church Watch of the 118th Brigade cap- AD-Rando SOMME 10, rue Damour 80250 AILLY-SUR-NOYE. Tel. : 03 22 41 03 26 large building of brick and tured a large number of priso- Comité du Tourisme de la Somme Astone, it has the distinction of ners inside the tunnels. WALKING TOUR PICARDIE 21, rue Ernest Cauvin 80000 AMIENS. Tel. : 03 22 71 22 71. Fax : 03 22 71 22 69 having its as an inte- In 1918 the village was retaken E-mail : [email protected] · Internet : www.somme-tourisme.com gral part of its structure. by the Germans in March - and liberated once more by the DISTANCE : 17 KM / TIME : 4H15 British in August.

INTERREG II Rives-Manche

Avec la participation du Fonds européen SIX : imprimerie du Conseil général de la Somme. Juin 2001 CDT Somme. Impression Ogier, Photos : Cheuva, Laroussinie, The battlefields of the Somme de développement régional