Below are the itineraries that were followed by students on their 2004 (4 day) and 2005 (5 day) Remembrance Trail visits to First World War battlefields and memorials in France and Belgium. On each occasion further venues were visited en route, and the 2004 visit included two Second World War venues.
Downloads
Menin Gate Itinerary
Menin Gate Itinerary
If you would like to find out more about the places to visit on educational tours of France and Belgium, please see the ‘Places to Visit’ sections below.
Day 1
Outward travel:
- Travel to Dover
- Battle of Britain Memorial, Capel-le-Ferne, near Dover
- Eurotunnel crossing Folkestone to Calais
- Visit to Poperinge British supply base and ‘death cells’
- Continue travel to hotel in Lo-Reninge, Belgium
OR
Outward travel:
- Travel to Folkestone
- Eurotunnel crossing Folkestone to Calais
- Visit to Memorial Notre Dame De Lorette (French cemetery)
- Visit to Musée Vivant 1914, Memorial Notre Dame De Lorette
- Continue travel to hotel in Arras, France
Day 2
Vimy Ridge and the Somme area:
- Vimy Ridge tunnel visit
- Vimy Memorial (currently undergoing restoration work until 2007)
- Arras Memorial and Arras Flying Services Memorial
- Neuville St Vaast German Cemetery
- Sheffield Memorial Park at Serre
- Family memorial for Lt. Braithwaite MC
- Newfoundland Memorial Park at Beaumont Hamel
- Ulster Tower
- Thiepval Memorial and visitors centre
- Lochnagar Crater at La Boisselle
OR
Ypres Salient area:
- Messines Peace Tower
- Sanctuary Wood Museum and Hill 62
- Tyne Cot Cemetery
- Vancouver Corner
- Langemark German Cemetery
- In Flanders Fields Museum, Ypres
- Visit to Ypres town centre for shopping / sightseeing
- Last Post Ceremony at Menin Gate at 20:00
Day3
Ypres Salient area:
- In Flanders Fields Museum, Ypres
- Tour of Ypres to include the Menin Gate, Lille Gate, St. George's Church
- Messines Peace Tower
- Hill 60 mine crater
- Sanctuary Wood Museum and Hill 62
- Tyne Cot Cemetery
- Vancouver Corner
- Langemark German Cemetery
- Essex Farm Cemetery and advanced dressing station
- Visit to Ypres town centre for shopping / sightseeing
- Last Post Ceremony at Menin Gate at 20:00
OR
Somme area:
- Sunken Lane
- Hawthorn Ridge Crater
- Newfoundland Memorial Park at Beaumont Hamel
- Ulster Tower
- Thiepval Memorial and visitors centre
Day 4
Homeward travel:
- Brandhoek New Military Cemetery
- Visit to La Coupole site of V2 rocket development, near St Omer
- Shopping in St Omer
- Eurotunnel crossing Calais to Folkestone
OR
Arras and surrounding area:
- Arras Memorial and Arras Flying Services Memorial
- Tour of the underground tunnels at Arras
- Neuville St Vaast German Cemetery
- Visit to Sucrerie Cemetery, Epinoy, for a personal commemorative ceremony prepared by students
Day 5 (for 5 day tour only)
Vimy Ridge and homeward travel:
- Vimy Ridge tunnel visit
- Vimy Memorial (currently undergoing restoration work until 2007)
- Shopping in Calais
- Eurotunnel crossing Calais to Folkestone
Places to visit in France and Belgium
If you are planning a visit to France and Belgium to learn about the First World War, you could visit some of the places described below (two Second World War venues are also listed).
You could also visit the following websites for further information:
Last Post Association (Menin Gate ceremonies): http://www.lastpost.be
Western Front Association (battlefields): http://www.westernfront.co.uk
First World War website with useful information on battlefield sites and memorials: http://www.webmatters.net/france/ww1_introfrance.htm
N.B: To get the most out of your visit, we strongly recommend employing an expert guide for First World War battlefield tours unless your group leader knows the area well.
Disclaimer:
All the sites listed are checked regularly. However, the changing nature of the Internet means that some sites may alter after we have visited them. Their Past Your Future is not responsible for the content of external websites.
Arras
Address: Tourist Information Office, Hôtel de Ville, Place des Héros, 62000 Arras, France
Tel: 03 21 51 26 95
Fax: 03 21 71 07 34
Email: arras.tourisme@wanadoo.fr
In the spring of 1916 the French handed over the town of Arras to Commonwealth forces. It became an important base for the Allies. The existing tunnel system upon which the town is built was developed and used in preparation for the major offensive planned for April 1917. The town was never far from the front line and many of the public buildings were destroyed. The Hotel de Ville on the Place des Heros was destroyed during the First World War, but was recreated in its original style, and it is from here that guided tours of the underground tunnels (‘boves’) begin. In the Second World War, the UK forces HQ was at Arras until the town was evacuated in May 1940 due to German occupation. Arras then remained in German hands until 1 September 1944. The underground British hospital in Arras is due to open to visitors in 2006. Arras is also a nice town to visit.
Arras Memorial and Flying Services Memorial
Address: Boulevard du General de Gaulle, Arras
Web: For details about the memorials visit the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website and search the Debt of Honour Register (search under ‘cemeteries’), at: http://www.cwgc.org
Faubourg-d'Amiens Cemetery at Arras contains 2,651 Commonwealth burials from the First World War, 30 war graves of other nationalities, mostly German, and 7 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War. It is the site of the Arras Memorial commemorating almost 35,000 servicemen from the UK, South Africa and New Zealand with no known grave who died in the Arras sector in the First World War. The Flying Services Memorial, also in the cemetery, commemorates nearly 1,000 airmen of many nationalities with no known grave, killed on the Western Front during the First World War. Air warfare was a dangerous occupation in the First World War, as illustrated by the fact that one third of all Canadian pilots died in combat for example. The Flying Services Memorial can be found just inside the cemetery, surrounded by the larger Arras Memorial.
Battle of Britain Memorial, Capel-le-Ferne: Second World War monument in the UK included in the 2004 Remembrance Trail visit.
Address: Battle of Britain Memorial, New Dover Road, Capel-le-Ferne, Folkestone, Kent
Tel: During opening hours: 01303 249292
After hours: 01303 276697
Web: Battle of Britain History website: http://www.raf.mod.uk/bob1940/bobhome.html
The Battle of Britain Memorial commemorates the 2,927 Allied airmen who defended Britain from German invasion in the summer of 1940, following the fall of France at the start of the Second World War. Many of the pilots were from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Poland and Czechoslovakia, as well as 2,353 from Britain. 544 of the airmen lost their lives during the Battle of Britain, and a further 791 were killed in action or in the course of their duties later in the Second World War. During the Battle of Britain the average life expectancy of an Allied pilot was just 6 weeks. The memorial, in white stone, takes the form of a lone pilot looking out to sea from the memorial’s cliff-top setting; he sits at the centre of three stone propeller blades originally carved into the chalk of the cliff top. Visitors have access to the Memorial at any time but the visitor centre and facilities are only open from 1st April until 30th September from 11:00-17:00 daily, and the closing time in Autumn is earlier.
Brandhoek New Military Cemetery
Location: West-Vlaanderen, 6.5 km west of Ypres centre
Web: For details about the cemetery visit the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website
and search the Debt of Honour Register (search under ‘cemeteries’), at:
http://www.cwgc.org
During the First World War, Brandhoek was within an area comparatively safe from shellfire. Field ambulances were posted there continuously and a military cemetery was opened early in May 1915 in a field next to the dressing station. It closed in July 1917 when the New Military Cemetery opened nearby. Brandhoek New Military Cemetery contains 530 Commonwealth burials of the First World War and 28 German war graves. The burials, dating from July and August 1917, include the grave of Captain Noel Chavasse VC and Bar, MC, Royal Army Medical Corps, one of only three men ever to have been awarded the Victoria Cross twice (the Victoria Cross is the highest medal for military bravery). Chavasse died from his wounds in August 1917, after showing ‘most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty’ when he continued to rescue injured and dying men from the battlefield, under heavy enemy fire.
Delville Wood
Location: East of Longueval village, 11km east of Albert, on the south side of the Longueval to Ginchy road.
(Site not included on Their Past Your Future visits due to time constraints.)
Delville Wood (called Devil’s Wood by the troops who fought there) was part of the German defences on the Somme. On July 15 1916 the task of taking it was given to the South African Brigade following the successful capture of the nearby village. The assault began at dawn with artillery fire from both forces, but the Germans laid down a powerful artillery barrage, resulting in the loss of all but 700 of the original 3,150 South African soldiers in just five days. The South African National Memorial and museum now stand in the wood. Delville Wood Cemetery contains the graves of the men who fought in the wood, including men of the 9th Scottish Division and the South African Brigade. There are 5,493 soldiers buried in the cemetery; two-thirds of them are unknown. Included are three soldiers whose bodies were found during the building of the on-site museum.
Essex Farm advanced dressing station
Location: Near Boezinge village north of Ypres in West Flanders province, on the N369 Diksmuidseweg road.
Web: For details about the cemetery visit the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website and search the Debt of Honour Register (search under ‘cemeteries’), at: http://www.cwgc.org
The remains of concrete bunkers used to house and treat casualties from the battlefield from April 1915 to August 1917 can still be seen to the side of Essex Farm Cemetery, the site of a First World War advanced dressing station. It was here that a Canadian Army doctor, Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae, wrote a famous poem about the poppies that grew on the battlefields, ‘In Flanders Fields’ (May 1915). The cemetery grew as a result of the many men dying close by, so there was no ordered plan to the burials and men were usually buried next to others who had died that day. In total 1,199 servicemen are buried or commemorated, with 102 unidentified graves and special memorials to commemorate 19 casualties known or believed to be buried there. The nearby canal ‘trapped’ Allied troops by preventing them from falling back under pressure, and many casualties were sustained.
Family memorial for Lt. Braithwaite MC
Location: The village of Serre Les Puisieux is11km north-east of Albert. Serre Road No. 2 cemetery is about 1.3km after the village on the D919.
Lt. Val Braithwaite MC, of the 1st Somerset Light Infantry, was killed in action along with 15 other officers of the Somerset Light Infantry, on the first day of the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916. Braithwaite’s body was never found. After the war his father, General Sir Walter Braithwaite (later a commissioner of the Commonwealth War Grave Commission), bought a small parcel of land on the Somme battlefield where he believed his son was killed. He erected a private memorial in memory of his son – a stone cross that remains by the roadside just outside Serre Road No. 2 Cemetery. It is just one of a number of private family memorials to men who lost their lives in the First World War. Information about 33 private memorials, with directions, has been published in:
‘Private Memorials of the Great War on the Western Front’
by Barrie Thorpe (Reading: The Western Front Association, 1999)
Hawthorn Ridge Crater
Location: Near Auchonvillers village, about 300m west of Newfoundland Memorial Park at Beaumont-Hamel.
The attack on the first day of the Battle of the Somme began at Hawthorn Ridge on 1 July 1916 at 7.20am. The 252nd Company of Royal Engineers laid a huge mine of 40,000lbs of ammonal that exploded underneath German trenches, creating a massive crater 150 yards long, 100 yards wide and 80 feet deep. The area, part of the heavily defended German defensive line along the Somme, was one of ten mine targets. The other mines were to be set off at 7.28am giving German troops no time to react before the main offensive at 7.30am. The 2nd Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers was meant to capture the crater before the main attack but only managed to seize one side, with German forces holding the other. The explosion in fact gave a 10-minute warning of the main offensive giving German forces time to reach their machine guns. As a result, 23 officers and 538 Royal Fusiliers became casualties. A visit to Hawthorn Ridge can be accompanied by a visit to the Sunken Lane site, opposite.
Hill 60 mine crater
Location: Near Zillebeke, by the edge of the railway.
Hill 60 is an artificial hill that was created when a railway cutting was dug through the Messines-Wytschaete Ridge. It gave clear views down over the Ypres Salient and was therefore of great tactical importance throughout the First World War. In 1915 British troops exploded five massive mines at Hill 60 and succeeded in taking the ridge, but a few weeks later they were repelled by a gas attack by which time 2,000 men from each side had lost their lives. A lot of fighting took place underground in the area as British and German troops battled to take and retake the hill. Today it is still possible to make out shell holes in the woodland, and part of one of the massive craters made by a British mine can be seen. Nearby, at one end of the road bridge over the railway, there is a small memorial to French Resistance fighters killed by the Nazis for trying to sabotage German communication lines during the Second World War.
In Flanders Fields Museum, Ypres
Address: Lakenhallen, Grote Markt 34 B-8900 Ypres, Belgium
Tel: 32 (0)57 239 220 Fax: 32 (0)57 239 275
Email: flandersfields@ieper.be
Web: http://www.inflandersfields.be
Housed in the almost completely reconstructed thirteenth century Cloth Hall in the main square of Ypres, In Flanders Fields Museum takes visitors on a tour through life in the town and surrounding countryside before the impact of the First World War, and during it. The conflict completely destroyed most of the buildings in the town, and turned the fields around Ypres into a sea of mud strewn with dead bodies. Visitors are given a ticket on arrival at the museum that corresponds to an individual soldier, and can follow the progress of that individual through the war. Highlights of the museum include an emotive exhibition about the use of gas.
La Coupole V2 rocket development site: Second World War site included in the 2004 Remembrance Trail visit.
Address: La Coupole, BP 284, 62504 Saint-Omer Cedex, France
Tel: +33 (0) 321 12 27 27 Fax: +33 (0) 321 39 21 45
Email: reservation@lacoupole.com
Web: http://www.lacoupole.com
La Coupole, a Second World War site, is a massive concrete dome with 5m thick walls reached via chilly tunnels excavated by Russian and Polish slave labour, hidden in a hillside near St Omer in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France. The complex was part of the programme of ‘special constructions’ (Sonderbauten) carried out by the Todt Organisation in France. The constructions were heavily protected complexes for the launch of new German weapons. German ‘V2’ rockets were developed from La Coupole and would have been launched from there if the site had not been discovered by Allied forces and heavily bombed. The Nazis abandoned it in summer 1944, but the massive dome and tunnels remain and now house an interesting museum with films about occupied France, technical information about rocket science, and temporary exhibitions.
Langemark German Cemetery
Location: To the north of Langemark village (6km north-east of Ypres), on the northern exit in the direction of Houthulst.
Langemark Cemetery, the only German cemetery in the Ypres Salient area, contains 44,292 burials. The bodies of those buried there were moved from many smaller German cemeteries that appeared in the area during the First World War. At Langemark, flat stones are used as grave markers and each grave contains more than one soldier, some of whom are unknown. A mass grave in the centre of the cemetery contains 25,000 burials; many small stone crosses are arranged in the cemetery but they are symbolic and do not mark actual graves. A sculpture of four figures resides at the back of the cemetery. Sometimes referred to as ‘The Watchers’ the sculpture depicts four soldiers with their tin helmets off, as if they are looking over the cemetery; it represents the four branches of the German Armed Forces – the Army, Air Force, Navy and Logistics corps.
Lochnagar Crater
Location: Near the village of La Boisselle
Lochnagar Crater is the biggest surviving mine crater on the Western Front. It initially measured 300ft across and 90ft deep and was made by two charges of ammonal, of 24,000lb and 30,000lb. Debris from the explosion rose 4,000ft into the air. Fighting between German and Allied troops went on across the crater during the Battle of the Somme. German soldiers dug into the lip of the crater nearest the lane, and survivors of the Grimsby Chums and the Cambridge City Battalion used the far side of the crater for shelter. A wooden cross on one side of the crater, by the lane, is the site of a service of Remembrance at 07.30am every 1 July commemorating those who died on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. In 2004 the body of a British soldier identified as George Nugent came to the surface at the crater’s edge. The body was moved and reburied at Thiepval Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery.
Memorial Notre Dame De Lorette, French cemetery and Musée Vivant 1914
Location: Just off the D 937 road north of Arras.
Tel: 03 21 45 15 80
Notre Dame de Lorette is the site of the largest cemetery for French soldiers on the Western Front. Nearly 40,000 French troops who died during the First World War are buried here, some in individual graves and many in mass graves. It is also the site of a memorial chapel, a lighthouse tower and the Musée Vivant 1914. The hill was the scene of a long battle during the First World War. During the opening months of the war, with a policy of outright attack, the French lost about a quarter of their casualties for the entire four years of the war. Musée Vivant 1914 exhibits over 2,000 pieces of military paraphernalia from the First World War including photographs, uniforms and weapons. There is also a mock-up of a trench and a diorama of over 150 stereoscopic (3D) views from the First World War.
Menin Gate
Location: Entrance to Ypres on the road from Menin.
Web: For details about the Memorial visit the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website and search the Debt of Honour Register (search under ‘cemeteries’), at: http://www.cwgc.org
The Menin Gate Memorial, built at one of the town gateways, commemorates those who lost their lives in the Ypres Salient and have no known grave. It commemorates soldiers from all Commonwealth nations (except New Zealand) who died in the Salient (before 16 August 1917 in the case of United Kingdom casualties). United Kingdom servicemen who died after that date and New Zealand servicemen with no known grave are named on a memorial at Tyne Cot cemetery nearby, where a further 35,000 names are recorded. The Menin Gate is the site of a ceremony of remembrance every evening at 8.00pm (see below). In total 54,338 men’s names are engraved on the stone of the Menin Gate.
Menin Gate Last Post Ceremony
Web: Participation in a Last Post ceremony can be arranged through the Last Post Association website: http://www.lastpost.be/mainpage.htm
Every evening at precisely 8.00pm traffic through the Menin Gate ceases, a crowd of people gather to remember the dead, and buglers sound the Last Post followed by a two-minute silence, before the buglers play the Reveille. A crowd always gathers for the ceremony, whatever the weather, but the occasion is particularly moving each 11th November (Armistice Day / Remembrance Day) when many people pay their respects to those who died and whose bodies were never found, and the programme for the ceremony is extended to include musical tributes.
Messines Peace Tower
Location: South of Messines on the N365 to Armentieres, between Ypres, Wijtschate, Mesen and Ploegsteert.
A relatively new memorial, the ‘Island of Ireland’ Peace Tower, built in 1998 and opened on 11 November of that year, commemorates the Irish soldiers who died fighting for the Messines Ridge in the Ypres Salient. During the First World War Ireland was going through turbulent political times, but many Irishmen joined the army to fight. The Peace Tower commemorates actions in June and July 1917, when Irish (the 16th Irish Division) and Northern Irish (the 36th Ulster Division) troops fought side by side as part of the Allied forces that gained the ridge (the memorial is actually on the part of the ridge gained by New Zealand troops; there is a New Zealand memorial close by). The Peace Park is laid out in symbolic fashion incorporating a traditional tower, standing stones, poetry, and Irish Yew trees. It was jointly opened by Queen Elizabeth II and Mary McAleese the President of Ireland, with King Albert II of Belgium. This was the first public event undertaken jointly by a British monarch and the President of Ireland. The battle of Messines Ridge saw 24,000 British, mainly Irish, casualties. The tower was erected by the Journey of Reconciliation Trust.
Mill Road Cemetery
Location: Thiepval is a village on the D151 road 8km north of Albert. The Cemetery is about 1km north-west of the village on the north side of the D73 Hamel road.
Web: For details about the cemetery visit the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website and search the Debt of Honour Register (search under ‘cemeteries’), at: http://www.cwgc.org
(Site not included on Their Past Your Future trips due to time constraints.)
Mill Road Cemetery was created in the spring of 1917 when the German withdrawal to the Hindenburg line allowed the battlefield to be cleared. At the Armistice, it contained 260 burials but was enlarged when graves were brought in from smaller cemeteries and from the battlefields of Beaumont-Hamel and Thiepval. There are now 1,303 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in the cemetery; 815 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to three casualties believed to be buried among them and three others buried in Divion Road Cemetery No 1, whose graves were destroyed by shellfire. The cemetery is on top of the deep tunnels and dugouts of the Schwaben Redoubt and the land is liable to subsidence, so some of the headstones have been laid flat on the ground.
Neuville St Vaast German Cemetery
Location: South of the village of Neuville St Vaast on the D937 road towards Arras - next to a busy road.
Also known as La Maison Blanche, the German cemetery at Neuville St Vaast is the largest German military cemetery in France. There are 36,792 burials marked mainly by crosses, with some headstones marking the graves of Jewish soldiers (during the Second World War Hitler ordered their removal but his order was never carried out). A mass grave along the front wall holds the remains of 8,040 soldiers, where the names of the 842 identified bodies are marked on metal plaques. In contrast to Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries, German cemeteries of the First and Second World War are often quite different to each other because there was no uniform design. However, a sense of loss and of the destruction of young lives is common to them all.
Newfoundland Memorial Park at Beaumont Hamel
Location: 9km north of Albert, the park can be reached by signs to Newfoundland Park, Beaumont Hamel, from the village of Auchonvillers.
Web: For details about the Memorial Park visit the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website and search the Debt of Honour Register (search under ‘cemeteries’), at: http://www.cwgc.org
In the first half of the twentieth-century Newfoundland (today the eastern-most province of Canada) was a separate British Dominion. On 24 June 1916 British artillery started to bombard the German front line across an area of ridges and valleys near the village of Beaumont-Hamel, in preparation for the battle of the Somme. At the time it was the heaviest bombardment of the war so far, and it was thought that German defences would be totally destroyed. The area is now the Newfoundland Memorial Park. The barrage failed to cut the enemy wire and deep dugouts protected German troops. As the artillery barrage moved on, the defenders moved quickly back into position, decimating British and Allied troops as the Allies proceeded with the planned advance on the first day of the battle of the Somme, 1 July 1916. When British commanders saw German flares they thought progress was being made, and sent in their next wave of soldiers. Communication trenches to the front line were already clogged with dead and wounded soldiers, and though a few men managed to reach German lines they were soon killed. One section of German defensive barbed wire was cut by German forces to draw Allied troops towards it; today it is still marked by the stump of a lone tree, known as the ‘danger tree.’ In just 30 minutes the 1st Battalion of the Newfoundland Regiment lost 310 men killed and over 350 wounded out of 800 soldiers. The land was given to Newfoundland ‘in perpetuity’, and trees from Newfoundland were transported to the park. The statue of a caribou (a large animal found in Canada similar to, but bigger than, a reindeer) surveys the park from the top of the Newfoundland Memorial.
Poperinge British supply base and ‘death cells’
Location: Grande Place, Poperinge Town Hall grounds
Open every day 9.00am to 5.30 pm
Poperinge, just under 10km west of Ypres, was an important military base for British forces during the First World War and a location for troop camps, supply depots and hospitals. Except for a brief spell in 1914 it remained in Allied control, but was frequently bombarded by nearby German forces. One of the supply bases housed a ‘shooting post’ where up to 17 British servicemen were sentenced to death by the British Army and shot, largely for desertion. Talbot House Museum (‘Toc H’) is another First World War venue worth visiting in Poperinge (see below).
Sanctuary Wood Museum and Hill 62
Location: Approximately 5km east of Ypres, on the Canadalaan road to Menin. Turn right after about 3km, on a road signposted to Sanctuary Wood museum.
Sanctuary Wood, named early in the war when soldiers separated from their units found sanctuary there, saw sections of both British and German frontline trenches running through it in 1917. After the war the land was reclaimed by the farmer who preserved a section of British trenches in a small section of the wood, and founded a small informal museum of battlefield relics. In the 1980s a tunnel was discovered and more recently parts of the trenches have been renovated. The museum contains photographs and a rare collection of three-dimensional photographic images in viewing boxes, among other objects. Visitors can walk through trenches that are perhaps more authentic than other trench preservation sites on the Western Front. The site has been cleared of any unexploded ordnance, but group leaders should be aware of health and safety issues such as tripping or slipping, especially in wet weather.
Sheffield Memorial Park at Serre
Location: The village of Serre Les Puisieux is 11km north-east of Albert. About 700m after leaving the village on the D919 lies one of three Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries in the immediate vicinity (Serre Road Cemetery No.1). The Sheffield Memorial Park can be reached by a sign-posted track 100m from the cemetery, going towards the village.
On 1 July 1916 (the first day of the Battle of the Somme) the Sheffield City Battalion were involved in heavy fighting in an attempt to capture the village of Serre from German forces. Extremely heavy losses were sustained, and the Germans retained Serre until their eventual retreat the following year. A small Memorial Park now stands at the site, where so many of the Sheffield Pals died. The outlines of British trenches and numerous shell craters can still be seen. The park contains a memorial shelter in memory of the soldiers from Sheffield who lost their lives, as well as the Accrington Pals memorial, and commemorative plaques for the Chorley Pals and Barnsley Pals among others.
Sucrerie Cemetery, Epinoy
Location: Near the N43 road between Cambrai and Douai, 8km north-west of Cambrai
Web: For details about the cemetery visit the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website and search the Debt of Honour Register (search under ‘cemeteries’), at: http://www.cwgc.org
Epinoy is a small village captured towards the end of the First World War in September 1918. The battlefield cemetery contains the graves of men who fell during the fighting of just a few days. The cemetery contains only 99 burials (five of them are unknown graves) and one special memorial to a soldier believed to be buried in one of the graves. The cemetery is quiet and secluded, so it is a good choice of location for private remembrance ceremonies as part of a school trip.
Sunken Lane
Location: Near Auchonvillers village, about 300m west of Newfoundland Memorial Park at Beaumont-Hamel.
The Sunken Lane was in the middle of ‘No Man’s Land’, running parallel to the British and German front lines. Two companies of the Lancashire Fusiliers took up position in the lane before the main attack of the first day of the Battle of the Somme began, at 7.30am on 1 July 1916. The site has become famous because a movie cameraman called Geoffrey Malins filmed British soldiers there within a few minutes of the attack. Only 50 out of 400 Fusiliers who attacked from the lane reached as far as the next embankment a few yards away. The dugouts that were in the bank of the lane have been filled in but their outline is visible. A visit to the site can be accompanied by a visit to the Hawthorn Ridge Crater, opposite.
Talbot House Museum (‘Toc H’), Poperinge
Address: Gasthuisstraat, 43 B-8970, Poperinge, Belgium
Tel: 32 57 33 32 28
Website: www.talbothouse.be
(Site not included on Their Past Your Future trips due to time constraints.)
When Poperinge was the centre of British Army supply and organisation in Belgium in 1915 two army chaplains opened an ‘Every Man's Club’ for British servicemen. Talbot House became a place of recreation for British soldiers on a break from the front, where they could enjoy company, refreshments and relaxation. The site now houses a museum. Talbot House is also known as ‘Toc H’ according to its First World War Army code name.
Thiepval Memorial and visitors centre
Location: On the D73, off the main Bapaume to Albert road (D929)
Web: For details about the cemetery and Memorial visit the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website and search the Debt of Honour Register (search under ‘cemeteries’), at: http://www.cwgc.org
The Thiepval Memorial remembers thousands who died in the Battle of the Somme who have no known grave. The bodies of many of the dead were lost in the mud of the battlefield, and many others were not recovered until the battlefield could be cleared after the war. The Thiepval Memorial commemorates 72,085 men who died in the Somme sector up until 20 March, 1918, the eve of the German push back across the battlefield. Over 90% of the names on the Memorial are of men who died in the battle from July to November 1916. It includes British and South African soldiers, but those from Australia, Canada, India, Newfoundland and New Zealand with no known grave are commemorated on national memorials to the missing elsewhere. In addition to being a Memorial to the missing, Thiepval is also a battle memorial commemorating the Anglo-French offensive on the Somme in 1916. In recognition of the joint nature of the Allied endeavours in 1916, an Anglo-French cemetery is laid out in front of the Memorial with equal numbers of French and British burials (300 each). The Memorial is the largest ever built by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. A major remembrance ceremony is held there each year on 1 July (the first day of the Battle of the Somme). There is an excellent new visitor centre at the site, which opened in summer 2004.
Tyne Cot Cemetery
Location: 9km north-east of Ypres, on the Tynecotstraat, a road leading from the Zonnebeekseweg (N332).
Web: For details about the cemetery and Memorial visit the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website and search the Debt of Honour Register (search under ‘cemeteries’), at: http://www.cwgc.org
Tyne Cot Cemetery is the biggest British military cemetery in the world, built around the remains of five or six German gun emplacements (blockhouses, or pill-boxes) near a barn that resembled a cottage on the banks of the River Tyne (hence the name bestowed on the cemetery by Northumberland Fusiliers). There are 11,953 First World War Commonwealth servicemen buried or commemorated at Tyne Cot, and 8,366 of the burials are unidentified. The Tyne Cot Memorial is a wall stretching around the back of the cemetery that contains the names of almost 35,000 men with no known grave who died in the Ypres Salient area. The names are a continuation of those on the Menin Gate in Ypres, and commemorate British soldiers killed after 16 August 1917 as well as New Zealand soldiers killed in the Ypres Salient. The Tyne Cot barn was captured by the 2nd Australian Division on 4 October 1917. At the suggestion of King George V, who visited the cemetery in 1922, a Cross of Sacrifice was placed on the largest pill-box (which was used as an advanced dressing station after its capture). The inscription on the cross commemorates the Australian soldiers, and three other pill-boxes can also be seen in the cemetery.
Ulster Tower
Location: Near to Thiepval Wood, now known as Authuille Wood and not open to the public.
The 36th Ulster Division made the furthest advances of any of the units going ‘over the top’ on the first day of the Battle of the Somme (1 July 1916). Unfortunately, as troops along the rest of the front made a slower advance the Ulstermen were surrounded by German troops and many died fighting their way back to regain their original position. The Ulster Tower is a memorial to those who lost their lives. It is a copy of Helen’s Tower at Clandeboye, near Newtownards, County Down, where the men trained before travelling to France to fight. There is a small cafe and museum, and a small chapel in the tower itself. A plaque bearing the names of nine men of the division who won the Victoria Cross during the Battle of the Somme is positioned at the entrance to Ulster Tower.
Vancouver Corner
Location: In the village of St Juliaan, north of Ypres, on the main road from Ypres to Bruges.
The simple yet moving ‘Brooding Soldier’ memorial at Vancouver Corner is a 35-foot high granite statue of a Canadian soldier with head bowed and hands resting on the butt of his upturned rifle. It commemorates the first German gas attacks of the First World War in April 1915, initially against the French, and the ensuing loss of life as German troops advanced and again used gas, this time against the Canadians. Gas masks were yet to be invented. The statue was designed by Frederick Clemesha, a Canadian sculptor who was runner-up in the competition to design the Canadian National Vimy Memorial at Vimy Ridge. In this, their first major engagement of the war the Canadians suffered 6,035 casualties.
Vimy Ridge and the Canadian National Vimy Memorial
Address: Vimy Ridge National Historic Site of Canada 62580 Vimy, France
Tel: 03 21 50 68 68 Fax: 03 21 58 58 34
Email: Vimy.Memorial@vac-acc.gc.ca
Website: http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/general/sub.cfm?source=
memorials/ww1mem/vimy
Vimy Ridge was the scene of fierce fighting in 1917 when Canadian troops tried to force German troops from their position. Heavy losses were suffered on both sides, with 3,598 dead out of 10,602 Canadian casualties. The site, on land owned by the people of Canada forever, contains preserved First World War tunnels and trenches (guided tunnel tours can be booked in advance), two Canadian cemeteries and the Canadian National Vimy Memorial. The Memorial is a massive white stone structure made of two massive ‘pylons’ representing Canada and France, with a central figure of ‘Canada’ mourning her dead. Inscribed on the ramparts are the names of 11,285 Canadian soldiers listed as ‘missing, presumed dead’. A new visitor centre has been built at the site although it was not yet open at the time of the Their Past Your Future visit in November 2005.
Ypres
The Ypres Salient was an area near the town of Ypres in Belgian Flanders, that was fiercely contested during the First World War, and which was fought over particularly on four occasions known as the four Battles of Ypres. As a result the medieval town was totally and utterly destroyed. After the war, following great debate, Ypres was rebuilt according to the original plans so now only a few signs of the terrible destruction that occurred there remain. The In Flanders Fields Museum (see above) in the old Cloth Hall commemorates the terrible events that took place in Ypres during the First World War. The Menin Gate Memorial and the daily Last Post Ceremony (see above) also bear witness to the destruction and loss of life in the area. Other sites to visit in Ypres include the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Lille Gate Cemetery by the town walls, and the British Memorial Church of St George’s, on Elverdingsestraat. The town itself is pleasant to walk around, but it is difficult to imagine its appearance before its impressive reconstruction.
