Page 15 - police world Edition 3 2013
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South East Essex
Visit the Somme
In March, twelve IPA members of the South East Essex branch plus one guest travelled to
France for the branch’s annual ‘Battlefields Tour’. This time the destination was The Somme.
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photos from this
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Somme-Tour
Article
T
he group got a suprise whilst taking in
sights, such as the Lochnagar Mine
Crater at Boisselle, on their trip to the
Somme battle site in France. A couple of days
into the trip the group woke to a ‘Christmas
Scene’ as a couple of inches of snow had
fallen.
“It was a surprise to say the least”
, said
Steve Hunt, 10 Region Secretary. With more
potentially on the way the group decided on a
tactical retreat back towards Calais
abandoning plans that day in an effort to get
back to the UK before the weather got worse.
Not a problem as they had already had an
action packed few days prior to the bad
weather.
Their adventure began at the Agincourt
museum where they stayed for a couple of
hours before pressing on to the village of
Thiepval and its memorial. This memorial is
dedicated to over 72,000 missing British and
South African soldiers who died in the battles
of the Somme.
Steve said, “
This is a huge construction on a
massive site which brought home the scale of
the loss of life in WW1. 58,000 British soldiers
were killed, wounded or reported missing in
the first few hours of the start of the
campaign on 1 July 1916. Numbers that are
almost impossible to comprehend nowadays.”
Accommodation was an old château secured
by the tour organiser Phil Parker. Steve
explained, “This was a palatial building with in
excess of 13 bedrooms which allowed
everyone to have their own room – for the first
time ever might I add!”
It was at the château that Ian Rayner, the
group’s tour guide, delivered a fantastic
briefing - detailing where they were to visit.
Steve added, “As usual his detail and
enthusiasm left us all spellbound and in awe
of what happened all those years ago.”
The following day saw them visit the towns
and villages of Gommecourt, Sere, Beaumont
and Hamel - stopping at particular areas
where allied action had taken place. A
particular highlight was the Newfoundland
Memorial Park which was bought by Canada
after the war to commemorate the many
soldiers from Newfoundland who lost their
lives in that particular area. The memorial is
staffed by young Canadians who were busy
showing what seemed to be an endless line of
school children around the grounds - which
boast preserved trench lines and areas of ‘no-
man’s land’.
After a refuel at ‘le Tommy Café’ in Pozières,
which is a friendly French cafe and small
museum, the Group headed for the
Connaught Cemetery. Connaught was built as
a tribute to the many soldiers who died from
the 36th Ulster Division Northern Ireland.
Running out of daylight, the travellers
retreated to ‘The Three Pigeons’ public house
to ‘re-group’ and plan the evening campaign.
Steve joked,
“The landlord, in this sleepy
French town, as you can imagine, was grateful
to receive 13 thirsty visitors who were
effectively his entire customer base for the
evening!”
The next day the group descended on Albert
and visited the Musee Des Abris - which is in
Basilica Square in the town centre and is built
into a series of tunnels. “This is an excellent
museum and a must for any WW1 visitors to
the area,” explained Steve. He went on to say
that it was later that day that the Group visited
the Lochnagar Mine Crater at Boisselle. This is
the location of a huge explosion caused by
detonation of 60,000lbs of high explosive by
the British at the start of the Somme
offensive.
The group then travelled on to visit the only
German cemetery in the Somme area, at
Fricourt, where the remains of 17,000
German soldiers are interred.
Then on to the Mansel Corpse at Mametz. This
was the scene of the massacre of at least 116
soldiers and 6 officers from the 9th battalion
of the Devonshire regiment cut down by a
strategically placed German machine gun.
Comrades later claimed their bodies and
buried them in the trenches they had
occupied previously. Steve described this as a
very sobering location indeed. A plaque there
states that,
‘The Devonshires held this trench -
The Devonshires hold it still’
.
The group’s final location was the South
African memorial cemetery at Delville Wood in
Longueval. At this venue stands the only
original tree that remained following the
battle! It was at this point in the trip that the
weather changed. There was disappointment
in prematurely ended proceedings but it was a
truly enjoyable trip and everyone would highly
recommend it to other branches.
If your branch is considering a Battlefield Tour
similar to this - Timeout2enjoy offers IPA
members a discount through Leger Tours.
For more information visit:
-
uk.org/Latest-Timeout2enjoy-Offers
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Police World
Vol 58 No.3 2013
Lochnagar Mine Crater at Boisselle
Thiepval memorial
