TOUR 2
Allow a day
This tour, which follows the line of the outer perimeter and the initial positions held by 2 Irish Guards, whose task was to block and cover all routes into Boulogne from the south and south-west has, like Tour 1, been set out as a tour by car due to the distances involved. Again there is no reason why keen cyclists or walkers cannot undertake it however, and again ‘getting out on the ground’ either by cycle or on foot will provide a unique appreciation of the terrain covered by the Irish Guards during their initial deployment and subsequent withdrawal. Tracing the Irish Guards line today takes the visitor from unlovely industrial zones close to the banks of the Liane out onto exposed undulating upland and then on towards the coast overlooking the Petit Port, Boulogne’s second harbour near Le Portel. It is a tour in complete contrast to Tour 1.
From the Tourist Office at 24 Boulevard Gambetta drive south on the D940, the Boulevard de la Poste and the Boulevard Diderot, along the eastern bank of the River Liane until you approach the new bridge over the River Liane, the Viaduc Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Take the right hand lane and drive up the ramp taking the exit before the underpass and turn right following signs for Abbeville, Arras, Le Touquet, Montreuil and Z I de la Liane to go over the bridge. Take the left lane as you approach the roundabout and turn left onto the Boulevard Montesquieu signposted ‘Outreau, Centre Salengro, Garromanche, Equihen Plage, Camping.’ At the traffic lights the road ahead splits into three. Take the extreme left lane onto the D52, the Rue Roger Salengro. This is the lower approach road into Boulogne. Drive under the railway bridge past some terraced cottages on your left and an apartment block next to the road on your right. Follow the road as it bends to the right and you will begin to pass a wooded bank to your right with the railway close by on your left. After some 400 metres or so the wooded bank ends and a concealed drive, signed ‘no through road’ heads uphill at right angles to the road. It is possible to park with care here on the raised verge on the right hand side of the road.
This was the site of two of the anti-tank guns of Eardley-Wilmot’s anti-tank platoon under the command of Sergeant Arthur Evans. Evans’s task, as second in command of the platoon, was to cover the low road which led into the village of Outreau and Boulogne beyond. Note how the road, one of only four which led through Outreau into Boulogne, is hemmed in by the steep sided ridge to the west and the railway and the river to the east. If the Germans wished to approach Boulogne by this route their armour would by necessity become funnelled down this road with little room for manoeuvre once on it. Note also the bend in the road some 200 metres ahead which would have helped to conceal the location of Evans’s anti-tank weapons from the advancing panzers. Sergeant Evans eventually rejoined his men at this spot after being split up from them just after disembarkation. He arrived in position not long before the Germans launched their first assault on the forward platoon of 1 Company just in advance of his position towards the village of Manihen a short distance round the bend.
The view down the road towards Manihen. Sergeant Arthur Evans would have observed in this direction in May 1940.
The men of 1 Company under Captain Conolly McCausland had arrived in Boulogne later than their comrades after sailing on a later boat and had barely begun to break the ground to dig their trenches on the left flank of the Irish line when the Germans hit them at around 3.30 pm on the afternoon of 22 May. By 5.30 pm German field artillery brought onto the high ground you can see in the distance began to shell the Irish positions and down the road behind the barrage came the leading tank of Oberleutnant Rudolf Behr’s platoon.
Arthur Evans heard ‘the distinct rumbling of tanks’ and then saw Behr’s leading tank round the bend with the commander upright in the turret looking through binoculars. Evans ordered his team to open fire and they hit the tank with two rounds as the crew baled out and abandoned the panzer. A bullet struck and killed the wireless operator as he made his escape. He was one of four killed and six wounded from Behr’s platoon during the afternoon of 22 May.
The fighting in and amongst the back gardens and hedgerows beyond the patch of open ground in front of you and up the bank towards the houses on the ridge to your right was a chaotic and confused affair, which dragged on intermittently all afternoon as the Germans tried to break 1 Company’s grip on the left flank. Towards 10.00 pm the Germans sent dismounted motorcycle infantry in against Evans’s guns but these were harassed by accurate and disciplined fire from Irish positions in amongst woodland to your rear. Eventually a platoon on the right got near enough to toss hand grenades in amongst Evans’s crew and Evans was knocked to the ground. Realising the gravity of the situation Evans ordered his men to withdraw back towards the town after first disabling the guns. He later realised he had been wounded in the ankle and was taken to a hospital in Boulogne where he was captured when the Germans finally took the town.
Return to the car and continue along the D52 into the village of Manihen. Turn sharp right when you see signs for Outreau and the D235 and drive uphill. You will pass a green information board signed ‘Outreau’ on your left and some iron railings on your right. If you look right you will see the industrial areas in the valley below whilst the ground to the left continues to rise. Look out for a row of roadside houses on your left as you approach a wooded area to your right front. There are parking bays opposite the houses. Park the car here.
On a clear day this point offers a superb view across the valley of the Liane and a different perspective of the initial positions of 2 Company, 2 Welsh Guards in and around Ostrohove, the village across the valley to the north-east. Note the A16 motorway snaking across the slopes of the valley opposite and up towards Mont Lambert, the highest point in the distance. Note the large house across the valley opposite. Scan to the left and you will see the golden arches of a McDonald’s; a little to the left again note another road which runs up through the village of Ostrohove. This was the line of a platoon of 2 Company, 2 Welsh Guards with antitank guns covering the approaches to the village from the east and south-east. Scan the horizon to the left. Note the church tower of St. Martin and further left still the distinctive dome of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in the Haute Ville.
View across the valley of the River Liane, from Outreau. The village centre left is Ostrohove, held by 2 Company, 2 Welsh Guards. Note Mont Lambert to the right.
Drive on taking the 90° left turn after some 200 metres and follow the road as it bends sharp right. Turn sharp left – almost back onto yourself – after a few metres and drive uphill onto a narrow one-way road. As you breast the rise and reach the junction at the top you will notice a road leading off to your left. Turn left and park the car carefully as soon as it is safe to do so – the roads are narrow here and large farm machinery does tend to move at speed around the corners.
This area is known as la Tour de Renard and you are now in position on the left flank of that part of the perimeter held by the men of 4 Company, 2 Irish Guards. Leave the car and walk out along the road to the south towards some grassy domes a few hundred metres distant. You are now walking towards the advanced positions held by the forward platoon of 4 Company under the command of Lieutenant Peter Reynolds. His sections held the ridge here around the reservoirs (the ones you see here are of postwar construction) and a trigonometrical point, the site of which has moved some 300 metres further on and to the left of the road from that marked on the maps issued in 1940!
When the Germans attacked on the morning of 23 May they began by assaulting 1 Company as they had done the previous day but then quickly switched the point of attack onto Captain Murphy’s 4 Company, concentrating particularly on the forward platoon led by Reynolds. Look down the road and note how the ground undulates beyond the reservoirs giving rise to patches of ‘dead ground’ with hidden folds and hollows to the south-west. In some places where the ground falls away from the summit to the west behind and to your right, 4 Company’s posts were below the level of the surrounding hills.
Reflect here on the open nature of the terrain and how control of the ridge and the surrounding high ground would allow the Germans to observe movements in the village of Outreau behind you. Note also how exposed this position must have seemed as the men first heard the sounds of firing drift up the ridge from 1 Company positions to the east and then found themselves bearing the brunt of the German assault as machine gun fire, shells and mortar rounds rained down on them at around 7.45 am. When the shelling lifted the panzers moved in to isolate the platoon and for more than an hour the Irish fought steel plate with rifle bullets. The situation was precarious when up one of the roads to your rear marched Lieutenant Simon Leveson with the leading section of his carrier platoon in order to reinforce Reynolds. He had been on his way to reinforce 1 Company but felt Reynolds was more in need of help at that time. By 8.45 am Captain Murphy felt his only option was to withdraw Reynolds’s men immediately if they were to be saved but by then it was too late; Reynolds and Leveson were surrounded. Captain Murphy and Captain Reid tried to reach them several times but on each occasion the hail of fire sweeping the hillsides beat them back. There was no doubt in Captain Murphy’s mind that any further attempt to reach them meant certain death. Both Peter Reynolds and Simon Leveson were killed in action here and only nineteen men out of 107 from 4 Company were present when the roll was called on their return to England.
Retrace your steps to the car. Note the proximity of the Channel coast over the fields to your left and the village of Le Portel which was held by 3 Company throughout the battle. On reaching the car continue to drive south past the reservoirs along the narrow metalled road until you reach a crossroads. Turn sharp right onto the ‘one-way’ road leading back into Outreau. Stop on the verge after some 500 metres and keep at least two wheels on the metalled surface in very wet conditions. Look out over the fields to the clumps of trees and bushes to your right. From this vantage point you can appreciate the fields of fire of the German machine-gunners as they set up their weapons overlooking some of Reynolds’ posts at the Tour du Renard during the fighting on the morning of 23 May.
Continue downhill until the road becomes a two-lane carriageway again and drive on until you arrive at a main crossroads with a school on the corner. Turn right onto the Rue Kennedy. Look out for a Union Jack flying up ahead on your left and after 200 metres or so you will see the entrance to a cemetery on the roadside to your left. Drive a little way past the cemetery and park in the car park on the left opposite a football stadium.
This is the communal cemetery of Outreau and the small CWGC plot, in the middle of the churchyard to the eastern side, is clearly identified by the presence of the Union flag. This quiet spot is the last resting place of most of the Irish Guards killed in the Battle for Boulogne – seventeen of the graves here are those of Guardsmen. The bodies of the twenty-four-year-old Lieutenant Peter Reynolds (whose father Douglas, a father he never knew, was awarded the VC for his actions at Le Cateau and Pysloup during August and September 1914. He died in 1916) and the twenty-two-year-old Lieutenant Simon Leveson lie here. Interestingly a number of the Irish Guards graves show the date of death as being between 23 May to 4 June; presumably the dates on which the men were last seen alive and the date on which their bodies were finally recovered. Two of the graves are of unknown soldiers and one of these belongs to an unknown soldier of the Royal Ulster Rifles killed in action in May 1940.
Leave the cemetery and return to the car. Turn left out of the car park and then take the left turn signposted Le Portel, Centre Ville. There is a one-way system in operation around the centre of Outreau so you have to drive on, crossing cobbles and past the Mairie on the Rue du Biez. You must turn left at the sign for ‘Parking’ in the Place Beregovoy onto the Rue Jules Michelet. At the next crossroads turn sharp right onto the Rue Auguste Comte.
A German machine-gunner’s view of the rising ground held by 4 Company, 2 Irish Guards around la Tour de Renard.
This area around the centre of Outreau was part of the new line held by men of the depleted 4 Company after they had withdrawn from their outer positions in and around la Tour de Renard. Lieutenant Colonel Haydon decided to readjust his line at around 9.00 am as both the forward platoons of 1 and 4 Companies had been all but destroyed as fighting units. Haydon’s new line approximated the line of the subterranean railway line which follows the Avé Maria railway tunnel. 1 Company held buildings near the present day école de Danse and the Centre Culturel Phénix covering the road leading down the hill into Boulogne and the road leading to Battalion HQ which was located near the present site of the ‘Ateliers Municipaux’ yard on the Rue Jean Jaures. 4 Company arrived in the area you have just driven through on their right flank at around 9.45 am after heavy fighting during the withdrawal.
Drive straight on until you come to a crossroads at the junction with the Rue Carnot. This is the approximate line of the junction between 2 and 3 Companies during the initial deployment on 22 May. From this point the road becomes the Avenue des Canadiens, so named in honour of the liberators of Boulogne in September 1944. You are now driving in the rear of 2 Company positions after Captain Madden had pulled his left flank back to conform with the withdrawal of 4 Company to his left. Drive further and cross another crossroads onto the Rue J P Gachere towards the Serres Municipals and park in the Parc de Loisirs de la Falaise. Park the car and walk out along the path towards the coast.
You are now slightly to the rear of the extreme right flank of the Irish Guards initial positions held by 3 Company which was not attacked directly during 23 May and held its line all day until the order came for the final withdrawal to the harbour. 3 Company’s task was to hold the village of Le Portel and block the approaches to Boulogne along the coast and the roads from Etaples.
‘Some corner of a foreign field.’ Irish Guards killed in the fighting of 23 May rest in Outreau Communal Cemetery.
Walk towards the south until you reach a point overlooking the now disused hovercraft port. It is interesting to note the contrast between the terrain here on the coast and that around the Tour de Renard held by Lieutenant Reynolds and, further east, the positions of Sergeant Evans near Manihen. From this point on the cliffs above the coast you have a good view of the second of Boulogne’s ports. Note the opening to the Avé Maria Rail Tunnel in the side of the cliff near the hoverport. You are now standing on the extreme right flank of the Irish line, the Guardsmen would have dug their trenches and foxholes on the cliff tops in this area with a good view of the coast below and the cliffs of the headland to your front.
Return to the car and retrace your tracks back along the Rue J P Gachere and the Avenue des Canadiens to the third crossroads which is the junction with the Rue Carnot. In 1940 this road linked Boulogne with Le Portel. Another of Eardley-Wilmot’s anti-tank guns was deployed on the right flank with 3 Company although its position is not shown on the Brigade map. It was probably deployed somewhere in this vicinity as the Rue Carnot, the present D 236, ran through the centre of Le Portel towards Equihen 12 kilometres to the south. It was the road nearest to the coast and was also at the junction of 2 and 3 Companies.
Drive on until you reach the next major junction and turn left onto the Boulevard de la Liberté signposted ‘Boulogne A16’. After 100 metres or so park the car on the hard standing on your right.
This road, now the D236E to Etaples and Le Touquet, is the exact route of the light railway which in 1940 ran from the docks in Boulogne to its terminus in Le Portel. Note how the road sweeps round to the left and begins to descend on its way down to the port. This road marks the line of the withdrawal of the Irish Guards though the streets of Outreau towards the port area.
Lieutenant Colonel Haydon sent Major Ross, his second in command to reconnoitre a new and shortened line of defence on the morning of 23 May. The section of the railway as it ran straight on downhill just after the left hand curve in front of you, formed the major part of the new line selected by Major Ross from which the battalion could cover the western and southern approaches to Boulogne on the west bank of the Liane. The Irish began the withdrawal to their new positions in gardens and houses on either side of this route at around 10.30 am and the bulk of the battalion was in position by 11.30 am minus 3 and 1 Companies which caught up a little later, 1 Company having had to disengage from close quarters combat without further serious loss. Captain McCausland’s leadership during this manoeuvre was later recognised with the award of the Distinguished Service Order. Excluding his officers, McCausland lost sixty of the one hundred men under his command either killed, wounded or missing during the Boulogne fighting.
The view from the cliff tops at Le Portal, slightly to the rear of the right flank of 3 Company, 2 Irish Guards.
During the two hours or so that the Guards made their stand astride the line of this street they were fighting almost continuously. At around 1.00 pm Lieutenant Colonel Haydon ordered a further retirement towards the docks and the Irish began to fall back once more towards the quays. Some of the Irish Bren guns had to be left behind as the barrels had warped due to the heat or they had become clogged with dirt.
Return to the car and follow the road down into Boulogne. You are now following the line of the final Irish withdrawal down a ‘fairly important street’. Some 800 metres beyond the bend the light railway joined a road which followed the same route as the one on which you are now travelling. Imagine columns of disciplined Irish guardsmen marching down the road in front of you with some of the street corners covered by Bren guns and Boys anti-tank rifles. Imagine the area being pounded by German shells and then listen for the rattle of tank tracks in the silence as the bombardment lifts.
Five German tanks lumbered slowly down a street in this area led by a man in civilian clothes who proclaimed that the tanks were French as the Irish watched from nearby houses. In one house a French civilian was reported to have entered the back door of a house and flung himself on the floor as tank rounds thundered through the house above the heads of the guardsmen who had also hit the deck.
Looking south from a position on the cliffs above the hoverport at Le Portel. Note the entrance to the Avé Maria railway tunnel in the centre of the picture. Here the men of 3 Company dug their trenches and fox holes.
Eventually all five tanks returned up the hill and disappeared. In this area too Lieutenant J D Hornung the intelligence officer, saw two ‘very small’ tanks – probably PzKpfw 1’s – sweep up a street as a guardsman managed to get off a quick shot with an anti-tank rifle. He scored a direct hit on the rear of one of the tanks, but as small as the tank was the shot appeared to have had no effect at all.
At around 3.00 pm on 23 May Lieutenant Colonel Haydon ordered a final move to the port. The Guards moved off and Sergeant William Gilchrist continued to protect the battalion’s ‘tail’ as he had during most of the afternoon. He held a post at a street corner in this area with an anti-tank rifle for the better part of two hours under heavy machine gun fire. On another street corner not far away Lance Corporal Ivan Burke also succeeded in holding off the Germans by operating both a Bren gun and an anti-tank rifle until he had collapsed, partly due to exhaustion and partly due to concussion from a shell landing close by. Both men were decorated for their actions that day; Gilchrist with the award of the Distinguished Conduct Medal and Burke the Military Medal.
Continue down the hill and pass the village boundary sign for Boulogne-sur-mer. At the major junction ahead the road bends sharp right as you follow signs for ‘A16 and A26.’ Turn left immediately onto the Boulevard Auguste Huguet. This continues the line of the old railway down to the port area. After some 500 metres turn right at the roundabout onto the Rue Huret Lagache and drive past the Findus factory as far as you can towards one of the inner harbour basins known as the Bassin Napoléon – once known as the Bassin a Flot. You will see the Gare Maritime across the water and the Basilica of the Haute Ville in the distance. Turn right – the enormous Findus France factory is still to your right – at the end of the road onto the Boulevard du Bassin Naploéon. It is possible to park the car after 200-300 metres and to walk onto the Quay R Masset. Please beware of industrial traffic crossing the quays and roads here.
This was the final destination of 2 Irish Guards after they had completed their withdrawal through Outreau. It was in this area on the quaysides that Lieutenant Colonel Haydon’s men barricaded all the approach roads with vehicles and barrels and set up posts to cover them with automatic weapons whilst the majority took cover inside sheds and warehouses and waited patiently. When the destroyers finally arrived to evacuate 20 Brigade on the evening of 23 May the Irish impressed many of the naval officers on board with their discipline whilst waiting to board. There was no panic or rushing the gangplanks as the Irish boarded the Venomous and the Wild Swan. Imagine the scene on the Quai Chanzy as a number of the Irish fell into the water and had to be fished out by the sailors. Imagine the Bren gun squads which had been covering the embarkation thundering toward the ship at the double as HMS Wild Swan made ready to cast off at around 9.30 pm, whilst the ship’s gunners fired over open sights at anything that moved on the quays where you are standing.
View across the Bassin Napoléon to the Gare Maritime from the quay R. Masset.
For a German’s eye view of the final positions of Major Windsor-Lewis at the Gare Maritime look across the Bassin. Two German tanks were positioned on this quay and fired across at the small force defending the harbour station. It was also from here that a small force of Germans attempted to attack the Gare Maritime by using small boats to cross the water in front of you on the evening of 24 May. The effort was repulsed.
Return to the car and drive on passing the Rue de Nemours on your right. Take the next right into the Rue Ferdinand Farjon. At the junction turn sharp left – you will see a concrete barrier in front of you. You must obey all the road signs at this point which was the site of the old Central Railway Station in 1940. After driving across the railway line filter into the traffic but keep to the left lane and after some 100 metres turn left and cross the Pont de l’Entente Cordiale, taking the left at the traffic lights on the other side of the bridge to return to the tourist office on the Boulevard Gambetta.