A Frenchman employed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission for over twenty years recently asked me why there had been such an increase in the number of visitors to the cemeteries in recent years. He explained to me that when he first started working for the Commission he might notice one coach a week touring the Somme battlefields, and if someone came to visit a grave the maintenance crew would normally stop work and stand aside whilst the pilgrimage was completed. Now, it is not unusual to see five or six coaches a day and if work stopped when a visit was made to a cemetery very little would get done in a day!
Since the days of the Battle of Crecy when the Earl of Northampton and Edward III’s son aged 16 – The Black Prince, The Prince of Wales, defeated the French, war has come to the Somme. When the Black Prince sent a message for reinforcements to his father who was watching the battle in reserve from the rear the reply was ‘let him win his spurs’.
So it was intended for Kitchener’s Army to ‘win their spurs’ on the Somme, but as we know the outcome was to be rather different.
The battlefields are found in the northern part of this Départment which takes its name from the river which flows through the region. Flow is, perhaps, not quite the correct description as the ‘river’ is most unusual in that it consists of a continuous series of lakes, lagoons and inlets all carefully worked by a network of sluices to control the water levels. There is a man-made navigation canal and on it both large and small boats ply what seems to be a lucrative trade. All this flows to the sea via the Bay of the Somme.
The river Ancre is a tributary of the Somme and flows down the valley through the northern part of the battlefield from Miraumont through Beaumont, Hamel, Aveluy and on to Albert finally joining the Somme near the pleasant town of Corbie with its fine abbey. The valley is very heavily wooded with lovely meadows and lakes adjoining its banks and is rich in fish so attracting many fishermen to its quiet waters.
Elsewhere, especially east of the Albert Bapaume road the countryside is open and rolling. Sadly many trees and hedgerows have disappeared but large tracts of woodland still exist today that existed before and during the war.
Many thought nature could never recover and that no-one could farm and live there again but for the most part life here on the Somme through the effort of man and nature has returned to normal so that to the uninitiated it is hard to realise that anything on the scale of the First World War happened here. Of course the cemeteries and memorials give the lie to that impression and the sight of the local farmers’ stockpile of unexploded shells awaiting collection are another reminder.
Winter time in the wood – then and now.
Deep dugouts and trenches were often filled in with the broken brick and general rubble of the shattered villages so it is not uncommon to see traces of red brick and slate across the middle of a field when it is ploughed or similar material falling away from the banks of ‘sunken roads’.
In the same way the villages were rebuilt where previous occupants lived. The villages in this part of Picardie are traditionally the familiar design that provides large barns fronting the roadside while in the rear the farmhouse is connected in a rectangle by accommodation for the animals at each side. Thereby people and animals live closely together. It is the exception to find a farm standing alone in the middle of the fields such as we are more used to in Britain.
I remember showing the Beaumont Hamel book in this series of Battlefield Europe to a resident of the village. He was very keen to see it but on opening it his mood changed ‘It’s in English, I can’t read it’, he said, clearly disappointed.
On another occasion a young woman from Beaumont Hamel who lives and works in Manchester told us of a visit she made to Edinburgh Castle, where she was amazed to see the name of her village on the memorial, ‘I never knew my village was so famous’ she told me.
This then is the briefest glimpse of the countryside of the Somme. ‘Where is everybody?’ visitors often ask. It is very quiet there is a sense of space and tranquillity strangely it seems, of almost inverse proportions to the violence of its past.
Many remark on its atmosphere without being able to explain it. Others come to visit and leave feeling compelled to return. As one visitor said to me ‘Once you have been to the Somme it touches you in a way that you can never let go’.
I have dedicated this book to my late father-in-law, Harold Llewellyn, born in Cwmbach, who after the premature loss of my own father became much a second father to me, but who was also lost to his own family prematurely.
Auchonvillers, Somme 1998
Map 1. The Somme, showing the area covered by this guide. (Official History Map)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Throughout the preparation of this book many people have contributed in some way on its journey to final completion.
I would especially like to thank Huw Rodge for his support from the outset. Sean Joyce gave his considerable expertise in preparing the maps. Trevor Tasker provided many examples of his collection of photographs and ephemera. David Petersen gave details of the design and construction of the Red Dragon Memorial. Peter Rolland of The Commonwealth War Graves Commission at Beaurains, France.
I thank staff at The Public Record Office, The Imperial War Museum, The Royal Welsh Fusiliers Museum at Caernarvon and The Museum of Rugby at Twickenham.
I acknowledge permission given by Mr George Sassoon to use abridged extracts from Memoirs of an Infantry Officer. To Faber and Faber for permission to reproduce extracts from In Parenthesis by David Jones. Brian Stokes, King’s College, Wimbledon for supplying a picture of Lionel Duncan Stanbury. Terry Rogers, Marlborough College; Rusty MacLean, Rugby School; M. K. Swales, Denstone College.
In addition I would like to thank the following: Edward and Elizabeth Dunston John Angus Evans, Julie Renshaw, Joan Lovatt, Michael Fellows, Mr Len Mullins of The Western Telegraph, Sandra Poulton, Frances Speakman, Glenys Williams, John and June Williams.
Lastly and most importantly, I pay tribute to the men who did it all. No words here can adequately reflect what they went through and what they were prepared to sacrifice.
Their diaries, letters and other records are reproduced by permission of The Public Record Office.
A collapsed trench mortar position - Beaumont Hamel.