Battlefields - Cardiff, United Kingdom
Cardiff, United Kingdom
Absolutely brilliant day. Will write this one up later. I am in Cardiff and cannot stop grinning. See next entry OK. I am on the train back to London from Cardiff....Friday 11th October. Here is The Battlefields Day. Up at 4.45am. Out the front of the house at 5.35am ready for the 6am pickup. Mike arrived 2 minutes later. He's an early type too! Lovely man. English about 60. Hopped into a beautiful 4 wheel drive. ( Make : Silver ) We chatted all the way to where we were to catch the train under the Channel.... The Eurostar. People over here also call it the 'Chunnel.' This was amazing. We were early... ( No surprise there, Klara ) So we caught the earlier train. You join a queue. ... A, B, C, D etc and when your queue is called you drive your car into the train. Really funny experience, driving INSIDE a train. Then, it's 35 minutes to the other side.... France. ( Katrina, tunnels under water! I'm on it.) You stay in the car the whole time. It was like floating on air.... Smooth as silk. Mike and I slept the whole way. Then an hour on the motorway .... Lamp posts flying past so fast they looked like a picket fence! We arrived in the small village of Vignacourt. A lovely French lady stopped her car and asked, In French, if we were looking for the cemetery. We had stopped to get bearings as Mike had not been to this cemetery before. Down the narrow, narrow lane... Fields of round hay bales on both sides... And we were there. Wow! Absolutely beautiful. You read about these small cemeteries in the midst of a field, but nothing can prepare you for the sight. A small cemetery in comparison to so many others ... Only 524 men buried here. How sad to say 'Only'. Vignacourt Military Cemetery. Hundreds of white headstones. Beautiful garden beds in front of each row. Perfectly manicured lawns throughout. All surrounded by a beautiful 3 foot high stone fence. In the middle of fields that had just been cut and baled ... And a 5 foot high crop growing in the field to the back. Very, very moving. Mike pointed out where Uncle Albert's grave was and I wandered down. Your Australian Flag and Poppy were just where you left them, Greg, Leanne and Meagan. Very emotional time. I placed the little wooden kangaroo next to your poppy. After spending some time at the grave I walked around, looking at inscriptions on some of the headstones and looking at the monuments. I signed the Guest Book. Saw your entry there as well. Spent about an hour here. So then... Time to re group. Poor Mike...but I think he may be used to how these trips affect his charges. So we had quite a chat and then into the car and on to Villers Bretonneux. After finding roadworks blocking the normal route to the Monument, we went via the town and stopped in the Main Street. I went for a lovely wander around the town and the park. Walked into the pub and asked to use the toilets ... In French! At least, I thought it was French.... Anyway, she let me. Lovely lady.... Only one man at the bar and I think he was drinking coffee. Beautiful park in Villers Bretonneux and memorial. Met 2 Aussies there from Brisbane, in their 60s. In England to visit their son who married an English girl .... Now they have grandchildren over here. Mike had packed a picnic lunch so we had something to eat sitting on a bench in the park. Wikipedia ..... "In the First World War, on 24 of April 1918, the small town of Villers-Bretonneux was the site of the world's first battle between two tank forces: three British Mark IVs against three German A7Vs. The Germans took the town, but that night and the next day it was recaptured by 4th and 5th Division of the AIF at a cost of over twelve hundred Australian lives. The town's mayor spoke of the Australian troops on 14 July 1919 when unveiling a memorial in their honour: "The first inhabitants of Villers-Bretonneux to re-establish themselves in the ruins of what was once a flourishing little town have, by means of donations, shown a desire to thank the valorous Australian Armies, who with the spontaneous enthusiasm and characteristic dash of their race, in a few hours drove out an enemy ten times their number...They offer a memorial tablet, a gift which is but the least expression of their gratitude, compared with the brilliant feat which was accomplished by the sons of Australia...Soldiers of Australia, whose brothers lie here in French soil, be assured that your memory will always be kept alive, and that the burial places of your dead will always be respected and cared for..." Then, I went to the school. Toured the museum. Wandered on the Assembly Hall. And looked at the sign. DO NOT FORGET AUSTRALIA in the playground. I only looked through the doors as there were children playing in the playground. But it was wonderful. Ok....still working on this one.... Will take some time... Back now.... Monday 14th October.... Continuing the Battlefields blog..... Then onto the Villers Bretonneux Monument and Cemetery. Roadworks again as they are widening the road to cope with the huge amountst of visitors they get now on ANZAC Day. Walked the last 400 metres of the road and there it is. There is a rise so you are walking up a hill, white gravestones on each side, then the ground flattens out and you see the vista of the whole monument spread out before you in the distance. 11,000 names of the missing. 2000 graves. Walked up the rise towards the Monument. It really takes your breath away. Climbed the stairs in the centre to the top. The view is amazing from up there. Down over the white headstones and sweeping lawns onto the land they all fought over. Simply stunning. We went on to The Adelaide Cemetery. One of the soldiers was taken from here recently and is now the unknown soldier in Canberra. Onto Pozieres. Mike stopped and did a lot of explaining here. He pointed back towards the village.... Half a kilometre away Then out the other way.... Another half a kilometre. Then explained that fighting was fierce here for 6 weeks with massive casualties.... All for about a kilometre of land. The following is from Wikipedia .... "On July 26, 1916, during the epic Battle of the Somme, Australian troops taking part in their first offensive action on the Western Front battle the Germans at Pozieres, near the Somme River in France. Divisions of the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps, known as ANZAC, which had previously served on the Gallipoli Peninsula during the ill-fated Allied invasion there in 1915, were given the objective of capturing Pozieres Ridge, an early goal set by the British army's command for the ambitious Somme Offensive, which began on July 1, 1916. They began their attack late on the night of July 22, just two days after their arrival in the Somme region. The ANZAC divisions were aided in their advance by the British 48th Division, which launched a simultaneous attack to the west of Pozieres, towards the Germans' left flank. After the initial Allied bombardment, Australian troops moved forward under heavy fire, but were able to press ahead and capture the village of Pozieres itself within an hour. The attack's main objective, Pozieres Ridge, was heavily defended by the Germans, who had used the week preceding the attack to reinforce their positions with a network of machine guns placed in shell holes in front of their lines. The night of July 26-27 saw a 12-and-a-half-hour-long grenade battle between the Australians, with British support, and the Germans at Pozieres Ridge. The German army had produced multiple types of grenades by that point in World War I—including the Stielhandgranate (stick bomb), the Diskushandgranate (disc grenade), Eierhandgranate (hand grenade) and Kugelhandgranate (ball grenade, a popular type that could be thrown a great distance and that included a grenade dubbed the pineapple grenade by the British for its distinctive shape). For their part, the Allies launched some 15,000 Mills bombs—a weapon designed by William Mills and introduced in May 1915. A 1.25-pound grenade with a serrated exterior, the Mills bombs were designed to break into fragments upon detonation, inflicting the maximum amount of damage. Improved throughout the war, they quickly became the leading British grenade. Pozieres Ridge finally fell to the Allies on August 4, 1916, after two weeks of exhausting and costly fighting. Though brief, the attack at Fromelles resulted in 5,708 Australian casualties, including 4,000 dead, and an additional 400 prisoners taken by the Germans." This was amazing to see this little strip of land, tractors working.... To think of the toll here. Then onto Thiepval. The Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme is a major war memorial to 72,191 missing British and South African men who died in the Battles of the Somme of the First World War between 1915 and 1918 with no known grave. It is the largest British battle memorial in the world. That's 72,191. This is a huge memorial. The land was donated for this by the family who lived here before the war... At Thiepval Château. They lost their 4 sons during the war and could not bear to return. This is a lot to see ( and process ) in one day. You really just warn to sit awhile... And ponder. Which is what I did....in all the places so far. So we were running a little short on time. Next Mike took me to Polygon Wood. The wood is not that big...seemed to be a couple of kilometres wide. From Wikipedia.... "The battle of Polygon Wood was the I ANZAC component of a larger British and dominion operation staged as part of the third battle of Ypres. This operation was the second of the "Plumer battles", a serious of well-planned, limited advances supported by large volumes of artillery, masterminded by the British general Herbert Plumer. The name "Polygon Wood" derived from a young plantation forest that lay along I ANZAC's axis of advance. Scheduled to begin on 26 September 1917, the attack was almost derailed by a German attack on the British X Corps to the south of I ANZAC. A day earlier, Australian troops of the 15th Brigade, preparing for their attack, took part in fending off the Germans; however, their advance the next day began with continuing uncertainty as to the security of their flank. The British and dominion advance began on schedule at 5.50 am on the 26th, with the 4th and 5th Divisions, on the left and right respectively, taking the lead in the I ANZAC sector. The infantry advanced behind a heavy artillery barrage - the noise of this was compared to a roaring bushfire - and they secured most of their objectives without difficulty. To the south, the 15th Brigade, which after its efforts the previous day had been reinforced by two battalions from the 8th, secured not only its own objectives but those allocated to the neighbouring 98th British Brigade. The Germans launched several counter-attacks but these were thwarted by the heavy defensive artillery barrages used to protect the infantry consolidating on their objectives; this was a feature of the Plumer battles. The battle cost 5,770 Australian casualties." There is another beautiful memorial and cemetery here and across the road, the Butte Memorial. Wikipedia .... "Polygon Wood is a small wood which is about four miles east of Ypres. The wood was sometimes known as Racecourse Wood, as there was a track within it. Before the Great War, Polygon Wood was by the Belgian Army and within it stands a large mound, known as the Butte, which was used for musketry training. On the Butte today stands a memorial to the 5th Australian Division. During the War, Polygon Wood was totally destroyed, and the wood was replanted after the war. There are 'rides' or tracks running through the wood which can be walked, and in terms of the Great War, there is a large cemetery, plus a New Zealand Memorial to the Missing as well as the Australian Memorial within the wood itself. Just outside the wood is a small original wartime cemetery. In fact, the entrances to the two sites are directly opposite on either side of the road, at the north-eastern apex of the wood." Polygon Wood....200 graves Butte....3500 graves. This place was beautiful....inside the wood...totally enclosed. The entrance leading into the wood is a paved walkway enclosed by stone walls and flanked by trees leads directly to the Butte. Here, there are steps straight ahead to the top, where the Australian Memorial stands. To the right from the base of the Butte is the cemetery itself, at the far side of which is the New Zealand Memorial to the Missing. Onto Tyne Cot. Again, in the middle of fields. A simple large stone structure as an entrance and this vista of shining white headstones leads the eye to the enormous memorial at the back. This memorial lists 35,000 names of the missing....starting from October, 1917. Wikipedia ..... "Tyne Cot is the largest CWGC Cemetery on the Western Front with 11,953 burials. This includes those believed to be buried in the Cemetery, or whose graves had been destroyed. This would have occurred because the Cemetery was started in October 1917, after the taking of the nearby village of Paschendaele, but fighting continued in the region and the Germans retook the ground and held it between 13 April to 28 September 1918. It should be noted that 8,366 or nearly 70%25252525 of the burials are of unknown soldiers. This is testament to the intense fighting, the nature of the ground during the Third Battle of Ypres (Paschendaele), and the famed mud of the salient." Onto Menin Gate... And the ceremony at 8pm. Huge, huge memorial.... Wikipedia .... "The Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing is a war memorial in Ypres, Belgium dedicated to the British and Commonwealth soldiers who were killed in the Ypres Salient of World War I and whose graves are unknown. The memorial is located at the eastern exit of the town and marks the starting point for one of the main roads out of the town that led Allied soldiers to the front line. Ypres occupied a strategic position during the First World War because it stood in the path of Germany's planned sweep across the rest of Belgium, as had been called for in the Schlieffen Plan. By October 1914, the much battered Belgian Army broke the dykes on the Yser River to the north of the City to keep the western tip of Belgium out of German hands. Ypres, being the centre of a road network, anchored one end of this defensive feature and was also essential for the Germans if they wanted to take the Channel Ports through which British support was flooding into France. For the Allies, Ypres was also important because it eventually became the last major Belgian town that was not under German control. The importance of the town is reflected in the five major battles that occurred around it during the war. During the First Battle of Ypres the Allies halted the German Army's advance to the east of the city. The German army eventually surrounded the city on three sides, bombarding it throughout much of the war. The Second Battle of Ypres marked a second German attempt to take the city in April 1915. The third battle is more commonly referred to as Passchendaele, but this 1917 battle was a complex five month engagement. The fourth and fifth battles occurred during 1918. British and Commonwealth soldiers often passed through the Menenpoort on their way to the front lines with some 300,000 of them being killed in the Ypres Salient. Of these, 90,000 of these soldiers have no known graves. The carved limestone lions adorning the original gate were damaged by shellfire, and were donated to the Australian War Memorial by the Mayor of Ypres in 1936. They were restored in 1987, and currently reside at the entrance to that Memorial, so that all visitors to the Memorial pass between them." The idea of the daily sounding of the Last Post - the traditional salute to the fallen warrior - was that of the Superintendant of the Ypres Police, Mr P Vandenbraambussche. The Menin Gate Memorial on the east side of Ypres was thought to be the most appropriate location for the ceremony. Originally this was the location of the old city gate leading to the Ypres Salient battlefields and The Menin Road, through which so many British and Commonwealth troops had passed on their way to the Allied front line. The privilege of playing Last Post was given to buglers of the local volunteer Fire Brigade. The first sounding of Last Post took place on 1st July 1928 and a daily ceremony was carried on for about four months. The ceremony was reinstated in the spring of 1929 and the Last Post Committee (now called the Last Post Association) was established. Four silver bugles were donated to the Last Post Committee by the Brussels and Antwerp Branches of the Royal British Legion. From 11th November, 1929 the Last Post has been sounded at the Menin Gate Memorial every night and in all weathers. The only exception to this was during the four years of the German occupation of Ypres from 20th May 1940 to 6th September 1944. The daily ceremony was instead continued in England at Brookwood Military Cemetery, Surrey. On the very evening that Polish forces liberated Ypres the ceremony was resumed at the Menin Gate, in spite of the heavy fighting still going on in other parts of the town. Bullet marks can still be seen on the memorial from that time." There was a very large crowd here.... But I was lucky enough to be in the front. The sky was the deepest dark blue through the Archway after the sun had set. The Last Post was very, very moving as you can imagine. Then into the car, then train, then home. Wonderful day. It was a somber, yet exhilarating day. I am disappointed with the blog. It doesn't capture the mood I felt. However, for now, here it is. One more thing about this day. We drove through tiny villages, followed tractors along the roads, watched farmers working in their fields, passed so many .... oh so many ..... tiny, immaculate cemeteries just dotted beside roadsides and country lanes. All beautifully cared for and incredibly moving. The driving through the rural countryside is what I loved about the day. An amazing, amazing day. I will never forget it.