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Home , Chipilly, Dernancourt, Ginchy, Guillemont, Hangard, Somme (department)

adventure battlefield SOMME DAYS John Pearson joins a tour of tracks through ’s Somme region where 100 years ago bloody conflict raged PHOTOS: Bob atkins

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Heavy rain made Imposing Australian some tracks muddy Red Baron – shot National Memorial from the ground?

Somme area also has German cemeteries

Memorial to Charles Villers-Brettoneux: a Driving in France: Dickens’ grandson bloody battleground need to know ● LANGUAGE: The organisers are British, e’re on a greenlane Although it’s 100 years since ended, our commentator Keith Bowen. I first met Keith There’s been some heavy rain over the past fascinating to have this insight into where the but include fluent French speakers. between cereal fields there are many reminders out here – some when, along with son Tim Price-Bowen (who’s few days and some of the tracks are muddy. fighting took place, and quite surprising how ● COST OF FUEL: €1.35/litre (£1.19) – but in rolling French trenches still remain, there are bomb and shell Keith’s driver and trip leader on this adventure), Just east of village we turn off the D20 close the frontlines often were. more expensive on autoroutes. countryside, near craters pock-marking the landscape, and farmers he was organising the Help for Heroes 4x4 to a memorial for Major Cedric Charles Dickens, This track brings us out near the Point 110 old ● CURRENCY: Euro (€1 = 80p approx). the Somme river. The still plough up shells and grenades in their European Rally from 2010-2016. This hugely grandson of the famous novelist Charles Dickens. and new military cemeteries, near where there ● CAMPING: We camped both nights at sun’s shining and it’s a fields. More poignantly, there are numerous successful series of events raised more than £1m He was killed during an attack on German was a major German Luftwaffe air base. Point Camping le Vélodrome in Albert (camping- tranquil place. But 100 years ago things were Commonwealth War Graves Commission for Help for Heroes. To say he’s passionate and trenches in nearby Leuze Wood. After the war, 110 refers to the map contour. albert.com). W ● MAPS: Fully guided adventure, so maps very different. This whole area was a scene of cemeteries in this part of France, where the dead knowledgeable about wartime activity on the his mother bought the plot of land and created a Then we drop down on a track past the Citadel bottomless mud, muddy frontline trenches, lie under rows of white Portland headstones. Western Front is an understatement. memorial garden with an oak cross. cemetery, south of village, with its neat not required. If you want to follow the route barbed wire, constant artillery bombardment, I came here with the battlefieldsby4x4 team The other battlefieldsby4x4 members on As we drive along a track through stone walls, before heading off to our campsite or plan your own, IGN’s Serie Blue is the French equivalent of UK’s Ordnance Survey, machine-gun fire, injury, death and destruction: on their Somme adventure a few years ago, and the adventure are two of the founders, Carl Valley towards Mametz, Keith creates a vivid at Albert, which was an important railhead close 1:25,000. There’s even a Bataille de la the absolute horrors of World War 1. found it fascinating. This time we’re on their Liversage and Nick Gage. picture of what was going on in these rolling to the frontline in WW1. Somme – IGN map (stanfords.co.uk). Thankfully, the conflict – which had raged Somme Southern Sector tour, which deals with Carl’s day job is with the CWGC, and I’ve hillsides during the . Vibrant Later we sit outside a restaurant in the town’s ● DURATION: 3 days (half-day Saturday, over four terrible years from 28 July 1914 – was later wartime activity in the region, culminating learned a from him about the organisation’s red poppies wave poignantly in the breeze as main square, overlooked by the Basilica, which full day Sunday, half-day Monday). Nick coming to an end in 1918. The guns that had in the end of the conflict 100 years ago. work on previous bb4x4 trips. They have he tells us about the bravery of the men of the was destroyed during WW1 and later rebuilt. Gage meets participants in Dover and pounded this now peaceful scene, turning towns nearly 1.7 million graves of members of the Devonshire regiment, led by Captain Duncan The Golden Virgin on top of its tower was hit by convoys them to the starting point. and villages into rubble during a devastating Comonwealth who lost their lives in in WW1 Martin. Keith points out where their trenches a shell early in the war and leaned at an acute ● PAPERWORK: Passport and driving war that killed around 40 million combatants Day 1 and WW2, spread around 153 countries. The were by Mansell wood on a nearby hill, and angle until being finally toppled in April 1918. licence, of course. It’s essential to carry and civillians around the world, would finally fall cemeteries are maintained to a high standard by where the German front line was. Captain Martin Peronne to Albert your V5C. And make sure your insurance silent on November 11. Armistice Day has been skilled blacksmiths, carpenters and stonemasons was concerned about the position of a German Day 2 covers you for overseas travel. Overseas commemorated on that date ever since to mark I should be meeting the group at Péronne’s based at their HQ in France, with locally based machine gun post equipped with high velocity breakdown cover is wise. the peace treaty signed between the Allies and Museum of the Great War, housed in the town’s gardeners keeping the grass mown and plants Maxim guns that had a 2km range. But he was Albert to Albert, circular route ● ANYTHING ELSE? In France you need to Germany to end hostilities on the Western Front. castle. But busy Bank Holiday traffic and Channel tidy. Most have some traditional British flowers ordered to lead his men across no-mans-land to carry a breathalyser, spare bulbs, a warning I’m with a group of Land Rover owners on a crossings put paid to that plan and I join them such as roses, along with a mix of local plants. attack German lines. They died in a ferocious hail We go south out of Albert towards , triangle and hi-viz jackets for all of the French greenlaning trip with a difference. We’re on the outskirts of Rancourt, at a cemetery for Carl tells me that there has been a major of machine gun bullets and now lie in the nearby where we get onto a track that gives us views vehicle occupants. Headlights need beam on a battlefieldsby4x4.com adventure, driving German soliders. policy change in recent times regarding keeping Devonshire cemetery, along with their Captain. down over a major battlefield across the valley. adjusters, and don’t forget a GB sticker if the tracks where those soldiers marched, seeing We then set off to the south-west of Rancourt the headstones legible: ‘We’re conserving the We pass the cemetery while climbing a track In March 1918 the German forces launched a you haven’t got a Euro symbol and GB on the places where battles took place and getting on a track through cereal fields, a big shell crater original headstones, re-engraving them on site past the wood, then turn right along a ridge major Spring Offensive, pushing British forces your numberplates. an informed commentary over the CB radio. still obvious in an adjacent field, pointed out by rather than replacing them,’ he says. which is where the Allied trenches were dug. It’s back over ground they’d taken two years earlier.

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Museum at the narrow- gauge railway station

‘There are numerous CWGC cemeteries where the dead lie under white Portland headstones’

‘Sausage Valley’ as it was in WW1

Same location as above 100 years on

American forces were on their way to join the was Hill 104, held by the Allies. Two Australian After driving through Bois L’Abbé, the limit while I place a cross on the grave of one of FRANCE war and the German aim was to secure victory brigades were brought in to bolster the British of the German advance in spring 1918, and the Northants soldiers. The haunting notes of before they arrived. To halt this advance the troops and this proved successful. The Germans passing the site of the first tank-on-tank battle the pipes make it a very moving experience. BEAUMONT-HAMEL Allies brought in the Australian Corps, who were pushed back and the threat to was on 24 April 1918, we go south towards The band regularly plays at events that warlencourt sustained heavy losses in the intense fighting. ended. WW1 was taking a different direction. Wood. The beech trees here would have commemorate the centenary of the Great War. MAILLY -MAILLET beaulencourt It’s a gravel track, muddy in places with some On the site of Hill 104 now is a large CWGC witnessed many horrors and is the last resting A track takes us to Lancers Wood, another Flers deep ruts. We continue south-west towards cemetery, where those killed in that crucial battle place for many. It also has personal significance battle location. There’s a pile of rusting artillery VARENNES lesbŒufs Buire-sur-L’ and Ribemont-sur-L’Ancre, now lie, and there’s the Australian National for me because my grandfather Sidney Pearson shells by the trackside, dug up by the local farmer gueUdencourt following the direction the German forces were Memorial – designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens – with was fighting here for the Northants Regiment. an awaiting collection by bomb clearance teams. ginchy sweeping through, bolstered by troops brought a 75ft tower that provides panoramic views He survived the war, but many of his comrades East of Le Hamel we take a track across the top back from the Eastern Front. over the surrounding Somme countryside. There didn’t and some lie in the adjacent cemetery. of the Somme Valley. Flanked by cereal fields, Albert rancourt Mametz There are fields of cereals and rapeseed. Where are also walls bearing the names of the 11,000 The bb4x4 team have arranged something it’s rough in parts with some tricky cambers to there’s open soil, shell craters can still be seen. Australian soldiers who died in WW1 but whose special: Francois Bergez, a bagpipe player negotiate. At , north of the river, there’s fricourt - de-picardie maurepas Further south we pass a brickworks north of bodies were never found – a sobering reminder from the local Samarobriva Pipe Band leads a really good track; narrow, twisty, with some Dernancourt Hardecourt- Vaux-sur-Somme, near where Manfred von of just how horrendous conditions were. us in towards the cemetery. Then he plays technical sections to negotiate. becordel- aux-Bois Richtofen, the infamous Red Baron German Under the tower is something very special, the Buire-sur-l’ancre becourt carnoy maricourt fighter pilot, was shot down. Responsible impressive new Sir John Monash Centre, devoted for around 80 air combat victories, he was to Australia’s role in the war. Opened in April Battlefields4x4.com ANCRE eventually killed in April 1918. A Canadian 2018, a century on from that crucial battle on Bray-sur-somme Nick Gage (left) and Carl Liversage (centre right) ribemont-sur-ancre pilot is officially credited with the Red Baron’s Hill 104, it provides a multimedia experience of are two of the tour company founders. Carl la neuville- PÉronne downfall, although there’s a belief that he was how the war was for those brave men who came somme also works for the Commonwealth War Graves les-Bray Cappy actually taken out by an Australian soldier firing to fight from the other side of the world. The chipilly Commission, so his knowledge of the WW1 from the ground. 360-degree cinema is hugely impressive, with Froissy cemeteries we visited is unrivalled. Nick, also a Despite the loss of their charismatic air hero, sound, light and smoke assaulting your senses founder of the Four Wheel Drive Club, handles all the Germans pushed on, with the goal of and emotions. The film gives a very real portrayal battlefieldsby4x4 admin and well as guiding . Le HAmel reaching Amiens and then . Says Keith of what the action would have been like. Our commentator, Keith Bowen (centre left), and Bowen: ‘If they had got through the end result Sir John Monash was reputed to be one of the son Tim Price-Bowen (right) were organisers of the BRIE SOYECOURT would have been very different.’ most astute Allied Generals in WW1, helping Help for Heroes 4x4 European Rally between 2010 villers-bretonneux They captured the town of Villers-Bretonneux to bring the war to an end, and was Australia’s and 2015, raising more than £1m for the charity. in late April 1918, and their next objective most celebrated and decorated commander.

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A peaceful scene now – but not so 100 years ago

Wartime narrow-gauge track still is still in use

WW1 gun crew in ‘Death Valley’

Another track takes us to Froissy, where we’re Fricourt. The track climbs east towards a wood, place to be, standing looking at all those names. boarding the historic P’tit train de la Haut and Keith Bowen points out where the British They, along with the many others who gave their Somme. It’s a narrow-gauge railway line (60cm) trenches were to our right and the German ones lives in this conflict, and the ones who did survive that was built in 1916 by the to to the left, making it all seem very real. like my grandfather, helped bring about the supply the front line, and was subsequently used We stop at a wood near the crest of the peace that eventually came in November 1918. to help with reconstruction of local villages, Since hill, where there’s the solitary grave of Soldat This is my third Battlefieldsby4x4 trip, and I’ve 1971 it’s been run by volunteers for tourism. Thomassin, an early French casualty in 1914. learned a lot on each of them. The commentary The arable land around here was ploughed and paints a picture of what was happening during trenches filled in so life could continue after the those dark days, helping us understand what Day 3 war, but the wood was left with its shell craters went on 100 years ago. It’s a lot more than just Albert to Thiepval and trenches. The trees have grown but the scars a greenlaning adventure. LRO on the land remain. We set out on the morning of our third day At Carnoy cemetery there are many graves to the east of Albert, joining a track through of Royal Artillery soldiers, indicating what was Other WW1 locations what was known as Sausage valley – so named positioned here in an area that became known to visit in the area because of sausage-shaped observation balloons as Death Valley because of the slaughter. tethered along it. The track through Sausage We drive more tracks past Hardcourt-aux-Bois, ● BEAUMONT-HAMEL, NEWFOUNDLAND valley was a major supply route for the frontline. and stop for coffee at Longueville before passing MEMORIAL PARK: Trenches, shell and mine Heading east out of Becourt we join a sunken Flers, where tanks were first used in battle. craters, visitor centre, guided tours. lane which rises between cereal fields toward Then we loop past Gueudencourt and ● LOCHNAGAR CRATER, OVILLERS-LA- Warlencourt towards Courcellette, on a track BOISELLE: 300ft (91 metres) wide and 70ft that’s really muddy. Silt has washed off the fields, deep crater where British military engineers ‘The wood has and the sticky, gloopy surface is a reminder of tunnelled under the German lines and set the conditions those soldiers marched, lived, off a massive explosion. ● shell craters and fought and died in 100 years ago. ALBERT, MUSÉE SOMME 1916: Museum trenches. Trees The final destination on our adventure is at set in tunnels underneath the basilica in the the imposing 45-metre high , centre of Albert. Wide selection of military armaments and memorabilia. have grown but which commemorates the more than 72,000 ● DELVILLE WOOD, LONGUEVAL: Museum British and South African soldiers who died in dedicated to South African forces with the scars on the the Somme sector and have no known grave. exhibits from WW1 and other conflicts. land remain’ The Lutyens-designed memorial is a sobering

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