FOREWORD
by
Sir Beville Stanier Bt
I can remember, very clearly, at the age of six, the moment when my mother said to me, ‘Your father’s safe and he’s back from Boulogne.’ Of course at such a young age, I had no real idea of what he and the men of 2nd Battalion, Welsh Guards, of whom he was in command, had been through in those latter days of May 1940. The battles that took place then, around both Boulogne and Calais, have been a somewhat forgotten episode for the greater British public by comparison with Dunkirk and indeed in subsequent years have tended to recede still further from our collective memory.
My father held the dual distinction of being one of the last British commanding officers to leave continental Europe in 1940 before the Fall of France and one of the first to return four years later on D-Day as a Brigade Commander. He landed on Gold Beach on 6 June 1944, near Arromanches, where his personal memorial lies next to the sea wall in the town square. His 231 Infantry Brigade fought right through France and, ironically, back up to the northern channel ports from where he had been so unceremoniously ejected over four years earlier.
He did not talk much about the war afterwards, although he wrote occasional articles for the regimental magazine. It was only at a late stage in his ninety-six year life that he was eventually interviewed and a tape was recorded in which he gave an account of his personal experiences in Boulogne and his recollections of those frantic hours. It was only then that I began to understand the tension and the drama of the withdrawal and subsequent evacuation, under fire, from Boulogne harbour.
Now, with this book, Jon Cooksey has illuminated the whole episode for his readers. He shows how this battle was fought with much discipline in the face of overwhelming odds and without adequate support and resources. He writes from both Allied and German perspectives, bringing the action to life in a fast moving and dramatic style. It is much enhanced by the first-hand memories of both British and German veterans.
The audacious advance of General Guderian’s XIX Panzerkorps is described in a thrilling way, reminiscent of Rommel’s feats in North Africa. Equally exciting are the experiences of the men of 20 Guards Brigade as they are forced back into the town of Boulogne from which most, but not all, escaped back to England. This book adds a new dimension to those uncertain days and complements his account of the 1940 battle for Calais previously chronicled.
It is almost two years since the publication of Calais – A Fight to the Finish – May 1940 and in many ways this book could be seen as its companion volume. Some of the events which unfold on these pages were taking place at the same time as the bitter fighting for Calais, then not much more than a forty minute truck ride away. Whenever the military history of those dark days of late May and early June of 1940 is recounted, the stories of Boulogne and Calais will be inextricably linked, for the decision to save the British troops in one of those ports almost certainly led to the sacrifice of those in the other. The story of the battle for Boulogne has many parallels with the story of the battle for Calais but the parallels start long before May 1940.
Both are ancient and important ports and both are steeped in history. Boulogne, like Calais, has played host to some of history’s most illustrious figures. It was from the cliff tops near Boulogne that both Julius Caesar and Napoleon Bonaparte looked out with an acquisitive eye across the English Channel towards the coast of England. Both set up large military camps in Boulogne and both developed the port, sheltered from the north by Cap Gris Nez, to assemble a formidable fleet in readiness for an invasion of the British Isles. Caesar succeeded, Napoleon, for various reasons, did not. Nonetheless it is Naploeon’s statue, not Julius Caesar’s which still looks out towards the English coast from its location just north of the town atop a column more than fifty metres in height.
Just under a century after the French Emperor’s final defeat on the fields of Waterloo some of the first units of Sir John French’s British Expeditionary Force landed in Boulogne on August 14, 1914, on their way to engage the Armies of the Kaiser also on the fields of Belgium. For the next four years Boulogne became the main route for supplies and troop movements into France and one of the main exit ports for the evacuation of wounded. Boulogne like Calais became a bustling British base and tented camps were strung out along the cliff tops between the two ports. At the end of ’the war to end wars’ the body of the British Unknown Warrior lay for one night in a Boulogne chapel before it was borne across the Channel to its final resting place amidst English kings in Westminster Abbey.
Boulogne at peace. The beach near the Digue Ste. Beuve.
The Port of Boulogne in use by the British during the Great War of 1914-18.
The Port of Boulogne in use by the British during the Great War of 1914-18.
The Port of Boulogne in use by the British during the Great War of 1914-18.
When war came to this part of France again in May 1940 in the shape of the rampant German panzer divisions of General Heinz Guderian’s XIX Panzerkorps, the British response to the threat to these two channel ports was remarkably similar. In both cases a brigade consisting of some of the finest troops that Britain could muster were hastily dispatched across the English Channel in an effort to block and secure an ancient port through which the British government might reinforce and re-supply its beleaguered Expeditionary Force in the field.
In both cases the garrisons were asked to defend a perimeter far in excess of the strength of the force available. In both cases the troops went into combat against battle hardened German veterans with very little transport, inadequate weaponry – few anti-tank guns, few effective mortars, no mines, no barbed wire – inadequate maps, inadequate communications and inadequate orders which, during peacetime manoeuvres, would have raised gales of laughter from both officers and men. But this was not peacetime and the speed of the German Blitzkrieg had so overwhelmed Allied intelligence sources that the orders simply characterised the chaos and confusion abroad at the highest levels of command.
In Boulogne as in Calais, the initial positions taken up by the British troops were eventually driven in and they were forced to withdraw into the town to face every infantryman’s worst nightmare – street fighting in a built up area. In both ports the French garrisons fought heroically during these later urban phases of the fighting, but any attempt at coordination on the part of the Allies was sadly lacking in both cases.
That said there was much bravery, real discipline under fire, determination and stoicism on the part of those who took part in the fighting, but the dénouement of the story of the battle for Boulogne differed sharply from the story of its northerly neighbour. In the case of Boulogne the British government decided to cut its losses and sent in destroyers to pull its men out before they were engulfed by the advancing German tide. It was this act which, more than any other, condemned the British in Calais to certain death or capture.
The desperate scenes at the harbour of Boulogne as the destroyers engaged machine-gun positions and German vehicles over open sights whilst they evacuated hundreds of men would never be forgotten by those who witnessed it. The British, however, had not consulted the French and their garrison was left to fight on as best it could until it could resist no longer. The French were furious. They felt betrayed and said so. Churchill, who had already decided on the evacuation of Calais ‘in principle’, now had to choose between saving the men in Calais, as he had saved those in Boulogne, or serving the greater cause of ‘Allied solidarity’. He chose the latter course and the decision almost made him physically sick. He later recorded that it was the only time he felt thus during the entire course of a war in which he was to hear many sickening pieces of news.
This then is the story of the battle for Boulogne, the story of a battle which, although short in duration, was an intense struggle against overwhelming odds. It is a story of remarkable discipline amid the utmost confusion, of reckless courage and devotion to duty, of blazing destroyers, of final stands and the bitter taste of captivity told in the words of those who were there.
Jon Cooksey, READING 2002
THE PORT OF BOULOGNE
Boulogne is split in two by the considerably altered and widened course of the River Liane as it flows on its way through the port to the English Channel. To the east, within easy walking distance of the busy port, is the Basse Ville, the main shopping and business district gathered around the thoroughfares of the Grand Rue, Rue Faidherbe, Rue Thiers, Rue Victor Hugo and Rue Nationale. Here the visitor will find the majority of hotels, restaurants and shops enclosed in busy oneway streets and pedestrianised precincts. From the Basse Ville the streets rise steeply up towards the Haute Ville, the charming, self contained Old Town, a rough 1,400 metre square of cobbled streets enclosed by the high ramparts, seventeen turrets and four gatehouses of the thirteenth century Citadel. It is largely due to the architectural importance and beauty of the old town with its magnificent domed Cathedral, the Basilique Notre Dame, that Boulogne has been awarded the title Ville d’Art et d’Histoire. The fortifications, along with the chateau, are amongst the best preserved in northern France and a walk along the ramparts offers outstanding views of the town. Beyond the Haute Ville the ground dips before rising up again to the village of St. Martin- Boulogne and the semi-circle of high ground which stretches from Terlincthun in the north to Ostrohove in the south, almost encircling the eastern half of Boulogne. Dominating the town to the east is the long spur of Mont Lambert rising to a height of 189 metres, a formidable and much prized feature for military leaders. Whoever held Mont Lambert would almost certainly hold Boulogne. The line of high ground is easy to follow on the map; the A16 Autoroute scrawls its way across the uppermost slopes following almost exactly the old route known as the Chemin Vert.
The Porte Gayole at the turn of the 20th Century.
An early photograph of the Basilque Notre Dame in the Haute Ville.
To the west of the Liane the flat land by the river is dominated by the industrial zone of fish processing plants, abattoirs and other industry but here, too, the ground rises to the south-west, although not as steeply as that in the east, up to the residential village of Outreau and beyond to Le Portel on the coast. Beyond Outreau to the south the ground rises to what, in winter, is a windswept spur of open fields, before it undulates on its way to a final steep drop at the Channel coast. On the map the shape of the town does not appear to have changed much over sixty years due to the limitations placed upon its growth by the local topography. The town has grown and new housing has pushed its way up the surrounding hills but lines and contours on a map cannot show the pace and development that has taken place during the last six decades.
On the ramparts of the Citadel at La Tour Françoise overlooking the valley of the River Liane to the south.
The Boulogne battlefields of today are unlike many of those of the First World War. There are no remains of trenches, gaping mine craters or shell holes here; no vast cemeteries like that at Tyne Cot in the Ypres Salient. Boulogne is the foremost fishing port and fish processing centre in France; it is a thriving industrial town with an agricultural hinterland responding to the changing needs of internal and external markets. Much has changed, even during the last few years, not least in terms of the infrastructure of the town and its surroundings. The siting of the Channel Tunnel terminal at Coquelles just to the south east of Calais and the ever increasing volume of cross-Channel traffic into that port since the closure of the ferry service to Boulogne, have been the prime factors in the extensive development of the motorway network in this part of the Pas de Calais.
The A16 Autoroute, opened in 1998, conveys travellers swiftly from Calais before swinging them around that arc of high ground which overlooks Boulogne from the east and over vertiginous viaducts on their journey towards Abbeville, Amiens and the Paris Basin.
The closure of a cross-Channel ferry service with Britain obviously posed a problem for Boulogne in terms of declining tourist revenue, but the opening of the Channel Tunnel and the extension of the A16 motorway provided other possibilities. In anticipation of the closure of the cross-Channel ferry link Boulogne secured the siting of Nausicaa, the French National Centre for the Study of the Sea, on the north-east jetty of the Avant Port. This visitor attraction, the foremost centre for marine study in France, if not northern Europe, brings more than 800,000 people to Boulogne each year. To service their needs and encourage them to explore the town and region further, there are hundreds of hotel rooms and scores of brasseries and restaurants to suit every taste and pocket. In addition to building new roads, other construction work has seen a rash of new industrial and commercial zones spring up to the south near the River Liane and east to utilise and service the passing motorway traffic. It is a town looking to the future with confidence.
For the visitor interested in the battles of 1940, however, many of the developments of the last decade have also swept away a good deal of what remained of the physical evidence of the fighting at key sites. There is little in the immediate vicinity of the Gare Maritime for example, scene of desperate fighting on Friday 24 and Saturday 25 May 1940, as a small mixed force of Welsh guardsmen and French infantry under the command of Major J C Windsor-Lewis of 2 Welsh Guards made their final stand after most of their comrades had been evacuated. If the imagination is allowed a little freedom, however, it is still possible to stand at the Gare Maritime and various other points in and beyond the town and reflect on what it must have been like for those involved in the battle for Boulogne. Although much of the area around the port was destroyed by Allied bombing in raids after the occupation and up to the liberation in 1944, it is still possible to find and explore certain features and fortifications which held particular significance for the British and French defenders and their German assailants.
A Note on Using the Guide and Advice for Visitors
I would venture that it is essential to understand the ‘now’ in the context of a guidebook if one thinks of the tremendous pace of change in Boulogne during recent years! It is all too easy to neglect unknowingly the site of some action due to the accumulated developments of more than half a century. I know, I have done it and have had to retrace my steps more carefully at a later date.
Personally I have always found it is essential to get out on to the ground and follow in the footsteps or tracks of those who made history here, hoping to increase my knowledge of what happened and why, to make connections and to try to understand. Certainly in the Haute Ville and the port area there is no great need to do anything other than walk. With a battlefield such as Boulogne, however, with quite long distances involved in visiting sites on the outer perimeter – the initial positions of 20 Guards Brigade involved a deployment along a front of almost twelve kilometres for example – it is essential to have some form of transport to get from one site to another. Experienced cyclists should not find the distances involved too taxing, but for most of us the means of transport will be a private car or mini-bus.
In preparing this guide I have assumed that many readers will at some point want to get onto the ground and walk and suggested routes can be found towards the end of the book.
For those who wish to walk I can do no better than reiterate the excellent advice to be found in other guide books in the Battleground Europe series, adding only that the application of a good deal of common sense should always be a guiding principle. In Boulogne itself you are never very far from a drink or bite to eat at any one of the many bars and restaurants or shops which line the streets in the lower or upper towns to the east of the River Liane. Neither is it necessary to take any special precautions other than those which require you to dress according to the weather conditions. Depending on your pace or interest, some of the tours may take several hours to complete and pounding the ground, whatever the weather, can be exhausting so strong shoes or a pair of the lighter, ‘urban’ walking boots are a good idea. In the summer it is a good idea to carry sun cream, a hat and something to drink with you.
Other tours take the visitor out into the countryside along footpaths, roads and tracks and through villages where there is little by way of food and drink so it is advisable to pack enough food and drink to last several hours. Again in summer it is wise to take sensible precautions to avoid excessive exposure to the sun in areas which offer little shade. Those hay fever sufferers amongst us should be well prepared with their medication. It is advisable, in any case, to pack a first aid kit, complete with sting relief. There is nothing worse than being bitten early on in a walk in the country and spending the next three hours scratching your legs rather than enjoying the tour. In winter, waterproof walking boots or Wellingtons are ideal for tramping through mud or wet grass and a spare set of socks may well come in handy.
A good quality map case which hangs around the neck leaving hands free to use a compass or a camera or to jot notes down in a notebook, is a very practical addition to the equipment list. It will ensure that your papers are kept clean and dry for the most part. (See A Note on Maps opposite) I have always found that a small pencil case with a selection of pens, pencils and highlighters is a useful item of ‘kit’ in order to mark up interesting locations or your own variations to routes. A dictaphone is also a boon to enthusiasts who may wish to record their visit in more detail than they would normally be able to do with pen and paper. In that case spare tapes are a must as are spare films for the camera. A medium sized rucksack or ‘daysack’ will enable you to carry everything on your back comfortably.
A Note on Maps
As well as the maps to be found in the guide, professionally prepared present day maps of the area are essential items. In my view one can never have too many maps but at the very least one should carry the French Institut Geographique National (IGN) map depicting the whole of the area plus another street map of the town. The list below identifies those which I have found most useful:
1) IGN Serie Bleue (Blue Series) entitled Boulogne-Sur-Mer, (2104 ET) ‘Top 25’. Scale 1:25 000 (1cm = 250 m). The IGN performs almost the same function as our Ordnance Survey. This map covers the whole of the designated area in great detail and includes contours and other topographical features. If you were only to buy one map then this would be it. Fortunately the map is also one of IGN’s ‘Top 25’ series which covers the coastline, forests and mountain regions of France and includes a wealth of additional tourist information which does not appear on most other Blue Series maps.
2) IGN Thematic France Series entitled Forts & Citadelles, Musees Militaires (907). Scale 1:1000 000 (1cm = 10km). Covers the military architecture of the whole of France from Vauban to Maginot and shows the location of all the major fortifications and military museums with some interesting information on the reverse.
A free IGNcatalogue is available from their British distributor, World Leisure Marketing and Map World (tel: 01332 343 332 fax: 01332 340 464) or from Hereford Map Centre (tel: 01432 266322 fax: 01432 341874, e-mail: mapped@globalnet.co.uk. The IGN has its own web site at http://www.ign.fr
3) Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) entitled Calais Lille Bruxelles. This is the Michelin Map (51), Scale 1:200 000 (1cm = 2km) overprinted with the locations of Commonwealth war cemeteries and memorials. A detailed alphabetical index is also provided. Available from the CWGC (tel: 01628 634221 fax: 01628 771208) The CWGC has an excellent web site at http://www.cwgc.org (email: cwgc@dial.pipex.com) with a page dedicated to its publications.
4) Plan Guide Blay Foldex entitled Boulogne-s-Mer et Environs. Approximate scale 1: 9 100 (1cm = 91m) This is a useful street map of the town with a more detailed map of the area around the Haute Ville on the reverse. The map shows almost the whole of the line of the outer perimeter held by 2 Welsh Guards except for a few hundred metres at the very eastern extremities of their line beyond St. Martin-Boulogne. Rather more annoying is that it does not, however, show the more southerly limits of the perimeter held by 2 Irish Guards to the south-east of the village of Outreau. Nevertheless it is worth purchasing for the information it provides on street names. Some useful addresses and telephone numbers are printed on the reverse along with additional tourist information in English. Obtainable from the bookshop on the Grand Rue just below Place Dalton or from Blay Foldex 40-48 Rue des Meuniers, F-93108, Montreuil, Cedex, France. (tel: 149 88 92 10)
German tank commander plans his route.
It is also worth bearing in mind that many companies publish free maps of the town of Boulogne as a way of advertising local products or services. These can be picked up from the Boulogne Tourist Office on the Boulevard Gambetta and from a number of shops. Many of these maps are restricted to showing the town itself or almost up to the outer perimeter but each one shows something a little different and in any case they are useful for scribbling on if nothing else. Before we leave the subject, do try to obtain the most recent editions of maps. Sometimes the numbers and routes of some of the footpaths shown on the IGN sheets for example, do not always equate to the actual route on the ground.
Travel suggestions
Whether in town or country it is advisable to observe certain common sense rules and courtesies with regard to safety and the local inhabitants who are busy going about their daily activities and earning a living whilst we are visiting the battlefield. Please park cars with care, particularly on roads and lanes in agricultural areas, and always lock valuables and bags that you do not need out of sight in the boot of the car. Observe any ‘propriete privee’ and other warning notices and exercise care in and around some of the old fortifications by sticking to marked paths and safe areas as indicated.
With the best will in the world accidents can and do happen, so make sure your tetanus jabs are up to date in case you cut or scratch yourself on a piece of rusty metal. In addition to any personal accident insurance you may arrange privately it is always a good idea to carry form E111 with your travel documents. This form is issued free and is attached to a booklet, obtainable from larger post offices, explaining your entitlement to hospital and medical treatment in France and other EC countries.
One of the most attractive features of the Boulogne battlefield from a visitor’s point of view is that it is very accessible. Although a direct ferry service is no longer available it is less than thirty minutes drive from Calais thanks to the completion of the A16 Autoroute from Calais to Abbeville. Depending on the departure point in the UK, it is possible to catch an early morning ferry to Calais and spend the best part of a day in Boulogne before returning to Calais and taking an evening crossing for the journey home. The various three and five day deals offered by the cross-Channel operators are also ideal for visitors to Boulogne and the surrounding area. Whether touring on foot, by cycle or in the car it is wise to make preparations as one would in advance of a visit to any other country on the continent. The possible downside of improved accessibility to Boulogne is the risk of increased familiarity which could trip up the unwary. It is tempting perhaps, and especially so on a day visit, to forgo the usual travel precautions of comprehensive personal and vehicle insurance, but it is wise to ensure that every member of the party and the vehicle is adequately covered. Some of the motoring organisations now offer free breakdown and legal expenses cover for up to seventy-two hours for the cost of a telephone call. It should also be remembered that Third Party cover is a minimum requirement when travelling in France. Green cards are no longer required as evidence of minimum cover as inspection of these documents has been abolished at the frontiers. It is advisable, however, to advise your agent or broker of your intended travel plans to ensure that your cover is extended to apply. The list of ‘compulsory’ items to be carried by motorists as required by French law is also an essential be it a day trip or a two-week stay. These include your licence and vehicle registration documents, a warning triangle, headlamp beam converters and the visible display of the GB plate. Children under the age of ten are not allowed to travel as front seat passengers in France. Carrying a spare set of bulbs, whilst not compulsory, is highly recommended.
Being a large, modern town Boulogne has abundant services and a wealth of hotels and restaurants to suit every taste and pocket. Even at the furthest extremities of the battlefield you are never more than a few kilometres from the town and this makes the search for accommodation and sustenance relatively easy. With this in mind the guide has been prepared so that everyone can use it to suit his or her own itinerary and budget. There may be those who wish to make the best use of a day trip and focus on just one area of the battlefield, whilst others will wish to explore more of the battlefield in greater depth and at a more leisurely pace.
For the latter group, the following list of hotels, some with restaurants, may provide a useful starting point in the search for accommodation and although I have stayed at and eaten in a number of them, the list should not be seen as either definitive or exhaustive nor should it be implied that it reflects any order of merit. Tastes and requirements differ. It is possible to turn up at a hotel ‘on spec’ and find a comfortable room but for those travelling in larger groups or with people having special requirements that approach may be too risky. In all cases it is worthwhile checking on whether a hotel meets your specific requirements in terms of facilities, availability and budget before setting out from home, particularly during the height of summer.
The staff of the Boulogne Office de Tourisme at 24 Boulevard Gambetta are very helpful, speak good English and will send a comprehensive list of hotels, camp sites and restaurants on request. They can be contacted on, Tel: 321 10 88 10, Fax: 321 10 88 11 or via email: ot.boulogne@wanadoo.fr. To call the Tourist Office or for hotel reservations from the UK dial 00 33, followed by the nine digit number given. (If you come across a ten digit number during your searches dial the 00 33 code from the UK and knock off the first 0 of the French number.)
Hotels in Boulogne:
Metropole ***, 51-53,Rue Thiers, 62200 Boulogne-sur-Mer. Tel: 321 31 54 30 Fax: 321 30 45 72. Situated close to the harbour and shops in the heart of the Bass Ville.
Ibis Vieille Villes **, Rue Porte Neuve, 62200 Boulogne-sur-Mer.
Tel: 321 31 21 01, Fax: 321 31 48 25. One of a series of Ibis hotels in Boulogne directly opposite the Porte Neuve and just outside the thirteenth century ramparts of the Haute Ville. Close to where the Germans first breached the ancient ramparts during the latter stages of the battle.
Ibis Plage **, 170,Boulevard Ste.Beuve 62200 Boulogne-sur-Mer. Tel: 321 32 15 15, Fax: 321 30 47 97. Situated on the front a short walk from the Nausicaa marine centre and the harbour. Ten minutes easy walking to the Bass Ville and numerous restaurants. A ‘no nonsense’ hotel with a lift in the lobby and ample parking on the kerb outside or in the seafront car park opposite.
Formule 1, Z. I. de l’Inqueterie, Route de St. Omer, St. Martin-Boulogne. Tel: 321 31 26 28, Fax: 321 80 22 55.
Hotel Premiere Classe, Lot du Blanc Pignon, Route de St. Omer, St. Martin-Boulogne. Tel: 321 80 46 46, Fax: 321 31 04 03. These are cheap and cheerful yet clean and tidy, tourist motels situated close to the A16 interchange at St. Martin catering for passing business traffic. They are within two minutes drive of the initial positions on the outer perimeter held by 3 and 4 Companies of 2 Welsh Guards on 22/23 May 1940. No reception as such but you can turn up and get a room automatically, if available, by using a credit card at a ‘hole in the wall’ in the manner of a bank ATM.
Hotels Beyond Boulogne
Copthorne ***, Avenue Charles de Gaulle, 62231,Coquelles. Tel: 321 46 60 60,Fax: 321 85 76 76 e-mail:Copthorne@copthorne.com. Part of a multi-national chain. Built on the site of the Chateau Pigache position south-east of Calais which was held by the Germans and taken by the Allies in September 1944, and opposite a wooden windmill on the Coquelles Ridge. It is on the route taken by some of the tanks of 3 Royal Tank Regiment (3RTR) part of the Calais garrison, on their way to meet elements of the German 1 Panzer Division near the village of Hames Boucres. (See Cooksey. Jon, Calais 1940 – A Fight to the Finish, Leo Cooper, Pen and Sword Books, 2000.)
Hotel Normandy **, Place de Verdun, 62179 Wissant. Tel: 321 35 90 11, Fax: 321 82 19 08. Situated some twenty minutes drive by car north along the D940 coast road from Boulogne it is now run by Didier Davies the latest member of the Davies family to run the hotel. Didier is the son of David Davies who has now retired from the hotel business but still owns and runs the Atlantic Wall Museum housed in the German Battery Todt at Audinghen a little further along the coast. David’s father, a Welshman who served with the Royal Welch Fusiliers in World War One, stayed in France and married a French girl and went on to run the Hotel. As a boy David had been one of the last civilians to leave Calais before it fell in 1940, due to his father’s British citizenship. He is often in the hotel and has a wealth of knowledge about the history of the region and the German Atlantic Wall defences in particular. Most of the Normandy’s twenty-eight rooms offer sea views, and it boasts an excellent restaurant. It has the advantage of providing a seaside retreat after the bustle of Boulogne.
Museums
I have already mentioned some interesting web sites and e-mail addresses and, although not directly related to the battle for Boulogne, I would like to draw readers’ attention to the ‘39-45 Route’ developed by the Calais Tourist Office. This route brings together eight museums or sites of significant interest related to the Second World War, five of which are within easy striking distance of Boulogne. As opening hours and admission charges are subject to change I would advise contacting the sites direct for up to date information in order to save wasted journeys.
Musee de la Guerre, Calais, Parc St. Pierre 62100 Calais, Tel: 321 34 21 57. Situated in the middle of the Parc St. Pierre, opposite the Hotel de Ville, the Calais War Museum is housed in twenty rooms of the ninety-four metre long ‘Mako’ bunker built by the Germans as a central telephone exchange and HQ of the Port Commandant during the occupation.
Musee de Mur de l’Atlantique – Batterie Todt, 62179 Audinghen, Cap Gris-Nez, Tel: 321 32 97 33/ 321 82 62 01, Fax: 321 82 19 08. Owned and run by Mr. David Davies, the Museum of the Atlantic Wall is just off the D940 south of Audinghen. It is housed in one of seven bunkers built to protect a 380mm German naval gun and exhibits extend over ten rooms with vehicles and a 280mm K5 railway gun outside.
Historique de la Seconde Guerre Mondiale-Ambleteuse, 62164 Ambleteuse. Tel: 321 87 33 01, Fax: 321 87 35 01. Twenty minutes from Boulogne along the D940 coast road or exit 7 from the A16 motorway. The Second World War Museum is on the right hand side of the road in Ambleteuse when driving in the direction of Calais. Laid out over 800 square metres the exhibits and displays follow a chronological order from the Polish campaign to the Hiroshima bomb. Special features include a street in Paris during the occupation and a video film about the Normandy invasion shown in a ‘1940s cinema’.
Mimoyeques, 62250 Landrethun-Le-Nord, Tel:321 87 10 34, Fax: 321 83 33 10. Site of the famous ‘Canons des Londres’, the ‘London Guns’. Five bunkers were built each housing five, 150mm guns 130m in length, with the aim of firing directly on London.
V2 Base – The Bunker of Eperleques, 62910 Eperleques, Tel: 321 88 44 22, Fax: 321 88 44 84, web site at www. audomarois-online.com. This huge bunker in the forest of Eperlques was built as the first launch base for the German V2 rocket. Classified as a national historical monument in 1985, a laser CD takes the visitor through the history and technology of the site.
The three other sites which complete the ‘39-45 Route’ are a little further afield. They are the Musee de la Seconde Guerre Mondiale, ‘Message Verlaine’ – Tourcoing near the Belgian border, The Atlantic Wall Museum in Ostend and the Fort de Breendonk north of Brussels. Not part of the ‘39-45 Route’ but 5km from St. Omer is La Coupole, the V2 bunker of Helfaut Wizerne 62504, St. Omer, (Tel: 321 93 07 07, Fax: 321 39 21 45). Uniformed hostesses act as guides for a tour lasting up to two hours which takes in the underground galleries, ascent into the five metre thick concrete dome which protected the V2 launch pad and films or audiovisual presentations in two cinemas each with 100 seats.
Acknowledgements
The completion of a book such as this requires the help, support, advice and guidance of a great many people. First and foremost I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to the surviving veterans of the battle of Boulogne who all gave freely of their time to talk to me about their experiences or to loan precious photographs, memoirs, maps or other illustrations for publication. Of those who served with British units and fought in Boulogne I received encouragement, help and hospitality from Mr. Arthur Boswell, Mr. Joseph Bryan, Mr. Doug Davies, Mr. Arthur Evans C.B.E., Mr. Peter Hanbury, Sir John Leslie, Mr. Syd Pritchard, Mr. W. G. J. Rhys-Parry, Mr. F. E. Smith, Mr. Cyril Sutton, and Mr. Charles Thompson. I am grateful for permission to quote from the published memoirs of Mr. Arthur Evans and Mr. Peter Hanbury.
I received a great deal of help from the families of men involved in the battle. Sir Beville Stanier Bt., son of Sir Alexander Stanier who led 2 Welsh Guards during the battle for Boulogne, was unfailingly helpful and courteous during the early stages of my research and loaned many valuable family documents. I am grateful to him for permission to quote from his father’s published memoirs and lecture notes and for permission to publish hitherto unseen photographs.
From institutions I have received considerable assistance from Mr. Roy Lewis, General Secretary of the Welsh Guards Association, who helped put me in touch with many veterans and Captain Vince McEllin, Assistant Regimental Adjutant at RHQ, Irish Guards who gave permission to publish photographs from their archive. I owe a particular debt of gratitude to Regimental Adjutant Lieutenant Colonel Charles Stephens and Sergeant Morgan at RHQ Welsh Guards who allowed me access to paintings held by the Regiment of the fight of 3 Company, 2 Welsh Guards at Mont Lambert crossroads and the evacuation of 1 and 2 Companies from Boulogne. Without their considerable help it would not have been possible to photograph and reproduce illustrations from these unique pictures.
Members of staff at the Public Records Office have provided help and assistance during my research and it is always a pleasure to visit the reading room at the Imperial War Museum where the welcome is always warm and the assistance efficient. In particular I should like to thank Mr. Roderick Suddaby, Keeper of the Department of Documents, who very kindly let me have sight of several documents pertaining to the naval operations during the evacuation from Boulogne which helped shed new light on this important aspect of the battle. Miss Jo Lancaster and her colleagues at the Sound Archive have been most efficient in helping to trace oral accounts of the battle. At the Commonwealth War Graves Commission staff have again responded promptly to my many communications, as has Frau Martina Caspers of the Bundesarchiv in Koblenz, Germany. In France, M. Jean-Pierre Vilbonnet of the Institut Geographique National provided invaluable assistance as did M. Edmond Fauquez, M. Lucien Vasseur and M. Jérôme Bouly of the Mairie de Saint-Martin-Boulogne, whilst in Belgium Mr. Robert Dehon, one of the prime movers in the project to develop Fort de la Creche as an open air museum, proved to be of great help. I thank them all for their time and patience.
Friends have once again rallied to the cause. Ghislaine Pearce has helped to translate another pile of French documents and again I am indebted to my friend Hugo Stockter in Germany who has undertaken much research and, it has to be said, a great deal of travel on my behalf. Hugo has translated a veritable mountain of German material and that, together with his boundless enthusiasm for the project, his clarity, thoroughness and his knowledge of the German Army of 1940, has once more helped to provide an important balance in terms of the perspectives on the battle for Boulogne. Thank you very much Hugo.
Quotations from Crown Copyright Records deposited in the Public Record Office are reproduced by permission of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. Extracts from the papers of Major General J.C. Haydon, Captain G.J.A. Lumsden and Mr. Don Harris held by the Imperial War Museum are reproduced by kind permission of the Trustees and, respectively, the Estate of Miss Malise Haydon, Mrs. Daphne Lumsden and Mr. R. Summers.
Although a great many people have contributed to the book it should be pointed out that any errors or omissions are due entirely to me.
Finally, and most importantly I should like to thank my family. My wife Heather and my five year old daughter Georgia have been a constant source of encouragement as they too managed to juggle work and school around my ‘disappearances’ for hours, or, in some cases, days on end. For their continued understanding and support I am very grateful.