The Buchans 2015: Arras, around and about

After Luxembourg we had quite a long drive. We had originally decided to stop half way, but we kept going. This meant we could stay longer in Arras.
Arras is famous for its two striking squares, made of 155 houses rebuilt in the original style of the 17th and 18th centuries. The squares were built in a Spanish and Flemish style and are classified as Historical Monuments.

In Northern France and Belgium the tradition of giants goes back as far as the 16th century. These giants are market gardeners from Achicourt.

The Wellington Quarry was opened in 2008. It is an underground museum which has been created in a section of the many kilometres of tunnels dug by the British Army in the 1914-1918 war. The First World War tunnels connect with original tunnels and quarries dating back to the Middle Ages and Roman times underneath the city of Arras.
Stuart ready to go.
Sue wouldn’t be photographed. Don’t know why!

Double click photos to enlarge.
Tunnel with some of the old trucks.

Exit tunnel from where the attack began.

This museum can be found on the edge of Arras and is well worth a visit. It is a guided tour, but not too long. Two of the display photos

From the campsite we drove about 12 miles to the Canadian National Vimy Memorial. During the Great War this was known as hill 145 because of its height 145 metres.
At the start of the Battle of Arras on 9^th April 1917 all four divisions of the Canadian Corps took part in the Battle of Vimy Ridge, attacking the German Front Line between Souchez and Écurie.

Extract from The Great War website
‘The Canadian National Vimy Memorial is a memorial to all Canadians who served their country in battle during the the Great War of 1914-1918. 60,000 Canadians were killed. Over 11,000 of those killed died in France but they have no known grave. The Canadian National Vimy Memorial bears the inscribed names of 11,168 missing Canadians, killed in action in France but whose remains have not been found or identified.’

View from the memorial over the Douai plain.

Canadian Memorial Park – preserved trenches and craters
The ‘sand bags’ have now been replaced by concrete so they will last for a very long time.

This is where the original trenches were, hence the unevenness of the ground

On the following day we visited 5 WWI sites. This was where the Front Line was in 1916 so they were all close together. As you drive along there are road signs marking the Front Line.
Our first stop was the Lochnagar Crater:
’The completed Lochnagar tunnel was 4.5 by 2.5 feet and had been excavated at a rate of about 18 inches per day until about 1,030 feet long, with the galleries beneath theSchwabenhöhe The mines were laid without interference by German miners but as the explosives were placed, German miners could be heard below Lochnagar and above Y Sap. Lochnagar was loaded with 60,000 pounds of Ammonal, in two charges of 36,000 pounds and 24,000 pounds, 60 apart and 52 feet deep. Just north of the village, Y Sap was charged with 40,600 pounds of Ammonal.’
The crater is almost 300 feet in diameter and 70 feet deep.

Visit two was to the Welsh Memorial of Mametz – this was a difficult memorial to find, but once there we found this impressive memorial

Mametz Wood viewed from the memorial

Thiepval Memorial

Historical Information - On 1 July 1916, supported by a French attack to the south, thirteen divisions of Commonwealth forces launched an offensive on a line from north of Gommecourt to Maricourt. Despite a preliminary bombardment lasting seven days, the German defences were barely touched and the attack met unexpectedly fierce resistance. Losses were catastrophic and with only minimal advances on the southern flank, the initial attack was a failure. In the following weeks, huge resources of manpower and equipment were deployed in an attempt to exploit the modest successes of the first day. However, the German Army resisted tenaciously and repeated attacks and counter attacks meant a major battle for every village, copse and farmhouse gained. At the end of September, Thiepval was finally captured. The village had been an original objective of 1 July. Attacks north and east continued throughout October and into November in increasingly difficult weather conditions. The Battle of the Somme finally ended on 18 November with the onset of winter.

The Thiepval Memorial, the Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, bears the names of more than 72,000 officers and men of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died in the Somme sector before 20 March 1918 and have no known grave. Over 90% of those commemorated died between July and November 1916. The memorial also serves as an Anglo-French Battle Memorial in recognition of the joint nature of the 1916 offensive and a small cemetery containing equal numbers of Commonwealth and French graves lies at the foot of the memorial.

The weather was so bad I even had rain on the camera lens!

The Ulster Memorial Tower is a Somme battlefield memorial to the men of the 36th (Ulster) Division. It commemorates the heavy losses suffered by 36th Division on 1^st July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

Newfoundland Memorial Park, Beaumont Hamel - The Newfoundland Memorial Park was opened on 7^th June 1925 by Field Marshal Earl Haig. Newfoundland became a province of Canada in 1949.

The Caribou Memorial An old trench line

Y Ravine Cemetery is within the Memorial Park -

‘This cemetery was started in the spring of 1917 by the British V Corps and was originally called Y Ravine Cemetery No. 1. By that time the British Front Line had moved further east beyond the 1^st July 1916 battle lines so it was possible to retrieve and bury soldiers who had been lying in this area for the best part of a year.
There are over 400 casualties commemorated in this cemetery, many of which are unidentified. There are 275 identified burials in the cemetery. There are also 53 individuals from the United Kingdom and 8 individuals from Newfoundland named on memorials in the cemetery who are believed to be buried in this site among the unidentified graves.’

Better weather prevailed on our last day in this area. We visited Cambrai which was about 14 miles away.
Cambrai was the Duke of Wellington’s headquarters, for the British Army of Occupation, from 1815 to 1818. Waterloo isn’t too far away. Cambrai was partly destroyed in WWI, but it hasn’t been rebuilt to the same standards as Arras or Ypres. We did a walking tour (map provided by the tourist office) and visited the more interesting places

Notre Dame’s Gate Porte de Paris

This goes with the photo below –
I’ll let you work it out.

The "gunners' house" in Cambrai is an example of 17th-century Flemish architecture

Vis En Artois British Cemetery – notice the Jewish headstone with the stones placed on the top. We have seen this many times in cemeteries, but not known why. It seems that there are quite a few theories, but no one theory is the definitive one.

Oldie Photos – In 1988 a group of teachers from Dortmund visited the WWI battlefields near Arras.
Some of you reading this might recognise a few faces

1988 – Lochnagar Crater – Luke W at the bottom

Newfoundland Memorial – LukeW to the rear and I think a Gibson in the front.