(with grateful acknowledgement to Guide to the Somme Battlefields by Tim Owen and Bartle Frere)

 

Britain declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914.  A British force joined the French army in an effort to halt the German advance which was moving rapidly through Belgium and into Northern France.  The Germans were finally halted at the River Marne, not forty miles from Paris, and then driven back.

 

A line which became known as the Western Front was established, with both armies digging themselves in as trench warfare began.  Desperate to defend their country, the French fought hard but, as the casualty figure rose, they realised that they would not be able to hold out indefinitely.  They appealed to the British to launch an offensive which became known as ‘The Big Push’.  It took place on 1 July 1914 and involved fighting over an eighteen-mile stretch that would be known as the Battle of the Somme. 

 

Year Eight pupils travelled to France to study the period of War and the poets who were concerned with the fighting.  They were accompanied by Oratory staff members and the experienced guide, Bartle Frere.  It was not long before pupils were going through the fields in search of shells, shrapnel and bullets.  Every year when fields are ploughed, an ‘iron harvest’ presents items such as an early French franc found by Paloma Robinson; a number of unexploded bombs waiting for bomb disposal teams; shrapnel unearthed by Bentley Halpin and part of a bomb collected by Trystan Atkinson.  Nikolai Langguth was keen to take home a detonator but was encouraged to change his mind when told a local barman had lost his hand whilst handling a similar item.

 

The Battle of the Somme began on 1 July and on that first day alone over 19 000 British soldiers died whilst over 35 000 were wounded and 2000 ‘went missing never to be found.  They were mostly blown to pieces or swallowed up in the mud’.  Just 600 were taken prisoner.  There are numerous beautifully kept memorial cemeteries in the area.

 

The first act of the battle was the exploding of the mines.  During preparations for the battle, sappers tunnelled under the German trenches and inserted large quantities of explosive.  The Oratory tour began at the Sunken Road which was in ‘No Man’s Land’ and ran parallel to the lines.  From there can be seen a clump of trees on Hawthorn Ridge where a huge mine exploded on 1 July, sending ripples through the ground and causing the British trenches to sway.

 

Nearby was the well fortified village of Beaumont Hamel which was held by the Germans for a further five months.  Oratory pupils walked to the Hawthorne Ridge cemetery where they visited the grave of Second Lieutenant Eric Heaton who died on the opening day of the war.  On the night before his first action he had written: ‘Tomorrow we go to the attack in the greatest battle the British army ever fought.  It is a great war and I am here to serve King and Country.  I hope I will have the courage and strength to lead my men well.’

 

 

From Beaumont Hamel the tour group moved to the Newfoundland Memorial Park where the main vantage point is next to the Caribou statue.  It offers a clear view of the trenches below.  On the 1 July, the Newfoundland regiment had formed the third wave of the attack on Beaumont Hamel and after the first two waves of attack were cut down, they were told to stay put until a white flare was seen.  Unfortunately, the Germans were also using white flares that day and a misunderstanding caused them to cross some 250 metres of fire-swept ground.  More than 300 men of the Newfoundland Regiment were killed and nearly four hundred were wounded.

 

Under Mr Frere’s direction, a small re-enactment was conducted to reflect the numbers lost.  This was staged outside the Y Ravine Cemetery.

 

Thereafter, the Oratory party left the battlefield and booked into their hotel, the Chateau de la Motte-Fenelon.  It is a splendid establishment and everyone was warmly welcomed.

 

The following day the tour resumed at the Lochnagar Crater.  Another mine exploded there just prior to The Big Push on 1 July.  It contained 60 000lb of explosive material and ‘the earthy column rose higher and higher to almost four thousand feet’.  Sergeant Benzing of the Grimsby Chums recalled the shock waves were such that a soldier, who braced his leg against the side of a trench, suffered a fracture below the knee. 

 

The next stop was Thiepval Wood where an informative talk was given on the part played by the 36^th Division, known as the Ulster Division.  Edward Hiscox was provided with a uniform and presented a remarkable recreation of a soldier from the 36th Division.  The local guide led everyone up a poppy-lined road and into the wood where he spoke about research being carried out on the trenches.  It was in one of the trenches that Private Billy McFadzean won the Victoria Cross.  A box of grenades had tipped up and fell to the bottom of a trench.  In four seconds they would explode.  Mcfadzean ‘deliberately threw himself on top of the grenades, thereby absorbing the blast and undoubtedly saving the lives of many of his comrades in the process’. 

 

On the edge of Fricourt is a German military cemetery.  The Red Baron, Manfred von Richtofen, was shot down nearby and buried at Fricourt for a short period before being returned to Germany.  It was interesting to compare this cemetery with those established by the British Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

From Fricourt the tour group moved south to an area known as Bois Francais.  They were able to enter another crater.  Robert Graves had written about his experiences in the area in his book, Goodbye to all that.   Mr Frere spoke of Graves’s involvement in the action alongside his fellow soldiers, Richardson, Thomas and Pritchard.  A visit was then made to Richardson’s grave where Charlie Baker read ‘Goliath and David’ by Robert Graves.

 

A short stop at Le Tommy Bar was much enjoyed.  The Australians had played a huge part in the liberation of Pozieres from the Germans and they were subsequently honoured through the bar’s sprawling museum which contains impressive re-creations of the battle scenes. 

 

The tour on the second day concluded with a visit to the small wood known as Mansel Copse.  It was there that Captain D.L. Martin had voiced concern as to his men’s line of attack in relation to the enemy machine-guns.  His viewpoint was ignored and, as he had predicted, his men were mowed down and buried in a large trench at Mansel Copse where it was stated:

The Devonshires held this trench

The Devonshires hold it still.

Amongst the Devonshires buried at Mansel Copse is a War Poet, Lieutenant William Noel Hodgson.  Mr Mackenzie read Hodgson’s poem entitled Before Action.

 

The next day a visit was made to Mametz Wood where the heaviest fighting fell to the 38^th Welsh Division.  Robert Graves and Siegfried Sassoon were there with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers and, at one point, Sassoon was ‘so angered by the death of one of his men that he single-handedly charged the German lines and drove the enemy from the entire section of the trench’.  According to Graves – who wrote about the incident – Sassoon then sat down in the trench and read a book of poetry.

 

The cost to the Welsh was high – about four thousand casualties and their sacrifice is commemorated by the Dragon Memorial.  It was there that Henry Cope read Sassoon’s poem ‘Counter Attack’.

 

Time was also spent learning about High Wood and Delville Wood where some of the fiercest fighting took place.  Of the more than 3000 South African troops that entered Delville Wood, only 766 emerged unscathed.  Scottish memorials and statues also appear to commemorate the deeds of the 9^th Division which captured a large section of the neighbouring village of Longueval.