UNITED KINGDOM Wilfred Owen NORD BELGIUM FLESQUIÈRES HILL BRITISH CEMETERY Dunkerque Welcome Forty kilometres from Flesquières, on PAS DE CALAIS November 4, 1918, one of the great names Calais to the site of British poetry fell. A signed trail invites St Omer Armentières you to pay tribute to him. Boulogne-sur-Mer of the Battle Lille

Béthune of Cambrai “IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF WILFRED OWEN” Lens Douai Valenciennes Cambrai WALKING TRAIL Arras Cambrai Maubeuge From the Forest House in which he Flesquières Tank 1917 wrote his last letter to his mother to the cemetery in which he is now Cambrai Tank 1917 buried, this trail traces the nal days Rue du Calvaire – 59267 Flesquières of one of Britain’s greatest First Phone: +33 (0)3 27 78 36 15 World War poets, Wilfred Owen.

. Opening Times Open from March 15 to November 30 6,5 km 2hrs approx. From mid-June to mid-September, Start: Wilfred Owen open daily from 1:30pm to 5:30pm Forest House From March 15 to June 15 and from September 15 to November 30, open from 1:30pm to 5:30pm on Wednesdays, On November 20, 1917, at 6:20am, 476 British Mark IV Saturdays and Sundays. Walking trail tanks launched an assault on the Hindenburg Line. This is In the footsteps 6,5 km the start of the Battle of Cambrai, an oensive designed of Wilfred Owen Prices to breach this ‘impregnable’ German fortied defence line. Full €6 Concession €4 At dawn, the silence is broken by the sound of engines and Groups €4 the clatter of tank tracks moving across the chalky soil. Audioguide Family package €20 “In the footsteps In thick fog, the advance of these new machines of war of Wilfred Owen” was initially masked by the drone of patrolling planes and Information and guided tours the tumultuous roar of the massed artillery. To accompany you on your walk, use the audioguide. Phone: +33 (0)3 27 78 36 15 Planned for months, in the greatest secrecy, the oensive Download it for free on Cambrai Tourism O ce www.amazing-cambrai.com heralds the birth of tank warfare; tactics that will inuence www.amazing-cambrai.com E-mail: [email protected] Hitler’s Blitzkrieg and dominate the next century of watch the video warfare.

Deborah, a ‘female’ tank, was one of the 476. Discovered in 1998, when she was unearthed from the battleeld, where November 4, 2018 she lay 2.5 metres underground, Deborah now stands in Centenary of the death testimony to the cruelty and harshness of the ghting. This

of Wilfred Owen LINÉAL : 03 20 41 40 76 magazine • Réalisation Agence war Britain at Rob Pritchard, Tourisme. – Nord O ce du Cambrésis de tourisme Copyright: broken Iron Monster is the unforgettable centrepiece of the Cambrai Tank 1917. Explore Cambrai Nearby Visits Continue your visit Tank 1917 WALKS AROUND FLESQUIÈRES THE WILFRED OWEN FOREST HOUSE (ORS) In Ors, in the Bois-l’Évêque woods, the immaculate ‘The Route of the Tanks’. This 6.9 km circuit takes The Cambrai Tank 1917 centre whiteness of the Wilfred Owen Forest House stands out DEBORAH CENTREPIECE OF THE MUSEUM you from the church to various points from its surroundings. This contemporary structure is can be found in Flesquières, just of interest related to the November This walk can also dedicated to the poet Wilfred Owen, who died on the a few metres from the battle- 1917 battle: The Orival Wood Cemete- be followed 4th of November 1918 on the banks of the nearby eld where the Mark IV tank ry, where poet Ewart Alan Mackintosh by geocaching: Sambre Canal. His “Anthem for Doomed Youth”, ‘Deborah’ was hit by a German rests; the Flesquières Hill British Ceme- www.geocaching-cambresis.fr “Futility” and “Strange Meeting” are among the many poems in which shell in November 1917. tery; and the Cambrai Tank 1917, Owen recounted the fate of the soldier in a war that was marked by the horrors of ghting and mass killings, a subject which is still a sharp reality adjacent to the Monument of Nations, with views of the battle- Four of Deborah’s crew mem- for today’s citizens. elds. bers, killed in the engagement, Bois l’Évêque RD 959 - 59360 Ors - phone: +33 (0)3 27 84 10 94 www.rando-nord.fr. Search ‘Flesquières’ and download the itinerary. rest at the Flesquières Hill [email protected] / www.amazing-cambrai.com British Cemetery, alongside the THE BATTLE OF FROMELLES MUSEUM centre. Upon entering the ‘Sta CAMBRAI MEMORIAL, LOUVERVAL DOIGNIES In 2009, archaeologists uncovered the remains of 250 HQ’ room, you are immediately The Cambrai Memorial commemorates British and Australian soldiers reported missing after the thrown into the Battle of more than 7,000 servicemen from Battle of Fromelles on the 19th and 20th of July 1916. The Cambrai: vintage photographs Britain and South Africa who died in discovery reawakened the memory of this important and animated maps explain the the Battle of Cambrai and whose episode in the history of the Australian nation. By evoking the story of the Battle of Fromelles, the dierent phases of the oen- graves are not known. The names of the fallen are inscribed Museum enables its present-day visitors to trace the story of some of sive. Displayed on bare concrete, these soldiers who, 92 years after their disappearance, have now passed inside the Memorial. Located next to Louverval Military Cemete- so reminiscent of the walls from the shadows of history into the light of day. This introduction gives visitors PORTRAITS OF THE TANK’S CREW ry, in Doignies, where the remains of 124 British soldiers rest, the of a blockhouse on the Rue de la Basse Ville - 59249 Fromelles - Phone: +33 (0)3 59 61 15 14 Cambrai Memorial pays tribute to these 7,048 combatants from the background to understand Hindenburg Line, objects www.musee-bataille-fromelles.fr Outside, just a few steps the United Kingdom and beyond. November 1917. Continuing belonging to the combatants away, pay your own respects On the Route Nationale at the exit for the village of Boursies in the direction THE LEVEAU FORT (FEIGNIES) your journey, six metres deep, evoke the participants, tank- to George Foot, William of Bapaume (Hameau de Louverval). 59400 Doignies On the 25th of August 1914, the German Army you will discover Deborah, see ers, gunners, airmen, engi- her ‘in the esh’ as a virtual tour Galway, Joseph Cheverton that had been sent to conquer Paris laid siege to neers and nurses, the men the fortress town of Maubeuge. The forts and and Frederick William lets you explore her as she was and women involved in the CAMBRAI GERMAN MILITARY CEMETERY other positions that made up the town were Tipping, the four members over 100 years ago. ghting in 1917. From 1914 to 1918, Cambrai was a key subjected to an intensive bombardment that of Deborah’s crew who fell strategic headquarters, hospital and overcame the French defences. The town was o cially surrendered on on November 20, 1917. logistics location for the German Army. the 8th of September. Visitors to the Leveau Fort can learn about the At the end of your visit, in the organisation of the French defences in 1914, the events of the siege of auditorium, a 20-minute lm The wounded who succumbed there, Like their families, and that of Maubeuge and the history of the Avesnois region, occupied for the takes you on a journey to the and many soldiers killed at the front the tank’s commander, Frank duration of the Great War. heart of history in the region were, from 1917, buried in a new Gustave Heap, remember the Route de Mairieux - 59750 Feignies - Phone: +33 (0)3 27 62 37 07 - www.fortdeleveau.voila.net of Cambrai. necropolis, on the Route de Solesmes. From the outset, the

©Rob Pritchard soldiers who fell on the cemetery was designed to accommodate the dead from the THE SECLIN FORT battleelds of Cambrai. And hospitals and the Western Front; friends and foes alike. Part of the ring of fortications surrounding Lille perhaps, for you too, a great Route de Solesmes, 59400 Cambrai designed by the engineer A. Séré de Rivières DEBORAH IS MOVED Franco-British friendship will following France’s defeat in the war of 1870-71, AS HER CREW be born in memory of these the Seclin Fort was taken by German forces in MEMBERS famous events. October 1914. Situated close to the front line, it was used as barracks, REST IN PEACE inrmary and storage facility throughout the war. Now owned by the Boniface family which is patiently restoring it, it houses a museum featuring developments in artillery during the period of the Great War. Chemin du Fort - 59113 Seclin - Phone: +33 (0)3 20 97 14 18 - www.fortseclin.com