Tuesday 7 July 2015

Canadian Battlefields 2015 tour summary: Dieppe

The Canadian cemetery at Dieppe is south of the city, so it makes sense to stop there on the way to the beach if one approaches from the Amiens area as we did. This year we got a surprise. The headstones were in the process of being replaced, so things looked somewhat dishevelled. The headstones here are interesting for another reason: the dead were buried by the Germans, in German fashion, head-to-head, producing these double-rows of headstones.
After our stop at the cemetery, we headed for the lookout over the main beach, which is just beside the chateau on top of the west headland. Looking eastwards, this is the beach that was assaulted on 19 August 1942 by the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry (nearest the headland) and the Essex Scottish (nearest the harbour jetty which can be seen at centre-left). Furthest penetration was about to the right-hand edge of the grassy boulevard that parallels the beach. The metal dome in the right foreground is part of a German observation post.
This is the Canadian memorial park at the foot of the west headland, with the chateau clearly visible.












Here are a couple more views of the west headland, looking west from the beach. This photo gives some impression of the steep rise of the beach -- from this point, one cannot see over the rise to observe the town itself. The chert (fist-sized stones covering the beach) constituted a significant obstacle to Allied tanks during the Dieppe raid.

Again, looking west along the beach.














Part of our group assembled for a closer look at the beach before setting out for a rather long walk to Blue Beach at Puys.
Along the beach are located memorials to the RHLI...
...and the Essex Scottish.
We walked along the beach to the harbour, which we had to cross to find the way to Puys. From the harbour we got a good look at the eastern headland. The Germans had guns in the caves at the foot of the headland and concrete casemates on top, from which they were able to pour devastating fire onto the beach.
Between Dieppe and Puys you can still see the remains of a German anti-aircraft battery on top of the east headland. There were a number of casemated positions along the headland between Dieppe and Puys; three remain visible -- two on the clifftop from the AA battery, and another which has fallen onto the beach. On my first visit in 1996 I was able to inspect the position, but it is now fenced off for safety reasons.
Because you're not supposed to climb up to the casemates, of course I did just that.
When you get a look from the edge, you can plainly see why you're not supposed to go up here. This casemate is right on the edge of the cliff, and erosion is gradually reducing its support.








This is the third casemate, seen from the beach between Dieppe and Puys. It is even more obvious from here why the other two are now fenced off!







This is the beach at Puys where the Royal Regiment of Canada landed on 19 August 1942. Their objective was to climb the cliff west of the sea wall (to the right of the photograph) and take out the German battery on Dieppe's east headland. Most of the men were pinned down on this stretch of beach, seeking shelter from German fire directed from the cliff shown in the distance, on the eastern end of the sea wall. A few men made it to the top before surrendering.





The Canadian memorial was constructed on the remains of a German bunker which had been built after the raid. The pathway ascending the cliff leads to a house with an adjoining bunker (not visible in this photo) that was in action during Operation Jubilee.










The post-Jubilee bunker is visible at top-left.
The memorial reads: "On this beach officers and men of the Royal Regiment of Canada died at dawn, 19 August 1942, striving to reach the heights beyond. You who are alive, on this beach, remember that these men died far from home, that others, here and everywhere, might freely enjoy life in God's Mercy."


Tuesday 16 June 2015

Canadian Battlefields 2015 tour summary: the Somme

Our exploration of the Somme battlefields began at Beaumont-Hamel, well-known as the site of the destruction of the Newfoundland Regiment on the first day of the battle. 1 July 1916 was the costliest single day in all of British military history. Roughly 20,000 men were killed out of an approximate total of 60,000 casualties from the various British and empire units. The Newfoundland Regiment, part of 29th British Division, lost 324 killed and another 386 wounded here, leaving just 68 men to answer roll call the next day. After the war the Newfoundland government purchased the site, along with four other battle sites in France and Belgium, to commemorate the colony's contribution to the Allied cause. These sites are now marked by the caribou memorial. Newfoundland, of course, did not join Canada until 1949, and July 1 is still observed there as Memorial Day.

The 29th Division's front line trench at Beaumont Hamel. The Newfoundlanders had been forced to advance overland from their support position in the second line (the St. John's Road trench, as it was called). Few of the men made it beyond this point.


The ground in the Somme region features rolling hills, unlike the predominantly flat terrain around Ypres. The Newfoundland memorial park at Beaumont-Hamel features one of the largest and best-preserved sections of the battlefield remaining to us, so it is a little easier to envision the course of the battle here than at most other sites.

German lines at Beaumont-Hamel incorporated a formidable obstacle called the Y-Ravine, a feature which lent its name to this cemetery on the grounds of the park where many of the fallen Newfoundlanders were buried.










In November 1916, the 51st (Highland) Division finally captured the German trenches which were the initial target on the first day of the battle. The division is commemorated at the back of the park.










Hunter's Cemetery is one of the more unique Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries in Europe, and one of a relatively small number of mass graves.


























From Beaumont-Hamel we moved on to visit the Thiepval memorial to the missing of the Somme. Similar to the Menin Gate in  Ypres, the Thiepval memorial lists the names of 72,000 British Empire troops who fell in the Somme battles and who have no known grave.










The cemetery beside the memorial contains graves from both the British and French armies, thus honoring the wartime alliance.

We stopped for lunch in Albert, a key town held by the Allies throughout most of the war. The church was a notable landmark for British troops moving to the front, particularly because of the damaged statue of the Virgin Mary. The church had been damaged by shelling in 1915 and the Virgin leaned parallel to the ground. Soldiers being somewhat superstitious, it was said that the war would end when the Virgin fell. It finally did fall in April 1918 (a consequence of British shelling after the Germans took the town during their spring offensive), but the war of course carried on until November. The church and the sculpture were rebuilt according the original plans after the war.





























Our next stop was the Historial de la Grande Guerre, a museum in Peronne. The Historial has a good collection of artifacts that helps to illustrate what we read in the history books. One of the reasons why the French army lost so many casualties in the war's opening months was the high command's belief in the power of the offensive spirit, morale, and esprit de corps to conquer the enemy. Colourful uniforms were a reflection of their pride, and of course they illustrate perfectly the argument that the generals were fighting a 20th century war with 19th century ideas. These uniforms would not have been out of place in Napoleon's day, when soldiers needed to be highly visible to their commanders on a battlefield shrouded with smoke. Such visibility was fatal on battlefields dominated by machine guns like the ones at left.














The French had actually ordered the less-conspicuous horizon blue uniforms, seen here, before the war broke out, but they had not arrived before the Battle of the Frontiers cost them 329,000 casualties in August and September 1914.









The Germans, of course, had their feldgrau, or field grey, uniforms. They seem to have learned earlier than the French (so did the British), having adopted this colour in 1907.

 




When we talk about the Somme, we usually mean 1916. But of course there was fighting over much of the same ground throughout the rest of the war, and particularly in 1918. After the 1916 battles ended in late autumn, the Germans stepped back to prepared positions at the Hindenburg Line. In the spring of 1918, however, they retook all of the territory they had given up and more. They advanced beyond the old 1916 front lines towards the key rail centre of Amiens before exhaustion compelled them to stop, and it was the Battle of Amiens in early August 1918 that inflicted a defeat on the Germans from which they could not recover.

The British attack at Amiens was led by the Canadians and the Australians, and here at le Quesnel we saw another of the standard granite Canadian memorials. The Canadian Corps advanced eight miles on the first day of the battle, 8 August 1918, the greatest single-day Allied advance to that point in the war.

The Australian contribution to the fighting on the Western Front is commemorated near Villers-Bretonneux, on their startline for the Battle of Amiens. This is their equivalent of our Vimy Ridge memorial, with the names of 11,000 Australians inscribed who fell in France and have no known graves.




 








The Villers-Bretonneux Australian memorial includes a Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery, seen here from the top of the memorial tower.











Villers-Bretonneux is largely an Australian cemetery but it is also the resting place for a number of Canadians. Probably the most notable is Victoria Cross winner Jean Brillant of the Royal 22nd Regiment.
















Our hotel in Amiens was a very short walk from the magnificent cathedral, one of the largest in western Europe. During the summer months, the cathedral is the focus of a spectacular sound and light show which illuminates the statues on the façade, revealing what the painted face of the cathedral may have looked like in the medieval period. Unfortunately, our tour passed through Amiens in mid-May, too early to see the show, which only begins in June.











I took these next two photos in July 2014 during last year's tour.






Sunday 7 June 2015

Canadian Battlefields 2015 tour summary: Vimy Ridge

I like to begin Vimy day by going up to the French cemetery at Notre Dame de Lorette, not for the cemetery itself but for the view it affords over the Vimy battlefield.














I took this photo in 2000. This spot is now occupied by a new French memorial to the war dead, but from NDL one can still see very clearly the advantages offered to the side holding the high ground. From the heights of Notre Dame de Lorette, one can see the Zouave Valley -- where much of the Canadian artillery was located, and Vimy Ridge in the distance.









Though I took this photo from NDL, from the top of Vimy Ridge the Germans could observe the Canadian positions all the way back to the divisional and corps headquarters. 1st Canadian Division HQ was near Mont St-Eloi, marked here by the ruins of the abbey church.








Before heading to the Vimy Ridge memorial park, we stopped at Cabaret Rouge, one of the Commonwealth cemeteries in the area with a large number of Canadian dead from the Vimy battle. Canada's unknown soldier, now lying at the national war memorial in Ottawa, was originally buried here at Cabaret Rouge.









There are two cemeteries in the memorial park itself. This is Canadian Cemetery No. 2, a short distance from Hill 145, whereupon sits the memorial.










At Canadian Cemetery No. 2, I found this row of headstones which perfectly illustrated something I had read long ago about the platoon commanders having some of the shortest life expectancies at the front. Here are seven lieutenants from the same battalion (the 75th, from the Toronto area, part of 11th Infantry Brigade in 4th Division) all killed on the first day of the Vimy battle, 9 April 1917.






The view of the memorial from Givenchy Road Cemetery, a short walk from Canadian No. 2. In the foreground you can see some of the Canadian trenches. This was 4th Division's front, and the memorial sits atop Hill 145 in the distance.







These rebuilt and preserved trenches at Vimy were part of the 3rd Division's front line. This was a string of outposts on the Canadian side of a line of large craters which formed no man's land in this sector at the start of the battle. The 7th Infantry Brigade used the Grange subway to move from the rear areas into these trenches, sheltered from German artillery. Today, you can tour the Grange subway, the exit of which is in the upper left part of the photo, right in front of the trenches.




The obligatory group shot at the memorial.














I took these next few photos in 2007 but it all looks the same today. Walter Allward won the Canadian government's design competition in 1921 but the memorial wasn't completed until 1936. Allward wouldn't be rushed and insisted on doing things properly, rejecting large quantities of stone -- which was quarried in Croatia -- that didn't meet his high standards for perfection. The product, in my humble opinion, is the most moving and striking memorial on all of the Western Front.





The front of the memorial overlooks the Douai Plain, which stretches out to the right of the photo. This is the German side of Hill 145, with the remains of a German bunker at right-centre.