World War Battlefield Tour Autumn 2014

This something that I should have done years ago, but it's better late than never. At last, I headed off on a tour of the northern French battlefields of both world wars. First of all, WW2.

The “tour” began at Utah beach, the westernmost of the five beaches used to land allied troops and equipment on the 6^th June 1944, otherwise known as “D-Day”. The beach itself is just a beach, but there are several monuments and other artefacts to remind the visitor of what took place and who was involved. This was one of the two American beaches. Around 200 were killed on this beach during the D-Day operation. 

Two unidentified people at Utah Beach

A few miles inland is the little town of Sainte Mere Eglise, which hosts the Airborne Museum. It features in the film “The Longest Day” where a paratrooper (John Steele) gets attached to the church steeple by his parachute. The church still sports a parachute with attached dummy hanging from the roof. Despite being surrounded by German soldiers, Steele lived to tell the tale. The paratroop drops took place inland from the beaches, a few hours before the scheduled landings, in the hope of smoothing the passage inland for the beach landings. Thousands of aircraft, including gliders, dropped tens of thousands of troops, but most of them landed in the wrong place for many reasons, including weather and pilot error.

The dummy paratrooper on the church where erroneous drops took place on D-Day

A Sherman tank outside the Airborne museum in Sainte Mere Eglise

The following morning, having first viewed the famous Bayeux Tapestry, we visited the Battle of 

Normandy museum in Bayeux. This provided a useful overview of the entire Normandy campaign, which began with D-Day, but lasted for months, and incurred huge casualties on both sides, perhaps 200,000 killed on each side.

Omaha, the other American beach came next, in the afternoon, and this was where the greatest casualties occurred, with 2000 or so killed on the first day. Having endured a sleepless night in rough seas, wet through and seasick, the soldiers then had to scramble ashore while facing German machine guns and artillery. The area overlooking the beach is a quite beautiful place, and it is hard to reconcile this to the carnage of 70 years ago. The huge American cemetery, in Colleville-sur-Mer, where nearly 10,000 are buried, is very impressive, laid out in ten lots, with an imposing monument and lake at one end. The names of 1500 missing are inscribed on the monument. The visitor centre nearby is also really informative, with films, videos and other displays describing what happened, with many accounts of individual experiences. There are also interviews with survivors and with relatives of some who fell on 6/6/44. 

The American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer

The Memorial at the American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer

We also took in the Pointe du Hoc, between Omaha and Utah. This was the scene of a heroic and successful attack by the American Rangers on D-Day. In order to overcome the German strongpoint, the rangers had to scale a 100 foot cliff under fire. 225 made the foot of the cliff, but after overcoming the defenders and sustaining counter-attacks for two days, only 90 survived.

The cliff face at the Pointe du Hoc scaled by the US Rangers under fire on D-Day

Next morning was the turn of Gold Beach, the first of the British beaches, where the famous portable floating harbour was put into commission. Two harbours, nicknamed “Mulberrys” were built in sections in England, for towing to France, but only one made it across the stormy channel. Several pieces are still visible from the shore, and the museum has a working model and a person who explains how it worked. It was quite ingenious in concept and design, and was very successful in practice with thousands of tanks and other vehicles landed using the Mulberry. Over 400 men were killed on this beach during the landings. The town of Arromanches houses the landing (“debarquement”) museum and also a 360 degree cinema, which recreates the sound and fury of the landings with a presentation projected on all sides. A little train provides free travel between the two, which is just as well, as the cinema is at the top of a very steep climb! 

Gold Beach is use as a normal beach with part of a Mulberry harbour in the background

Statue overlooking Gold Beach at Arromanches-sur-Mer

We also inspected the great German gun battery at Longues-sur-Mer. On returning to our camper, we discovered a flat battery, which needed replacement, so much time was unavoidably lost to breakdown, and Juno beach had to be postponed until the following morning.

Unscathed German gun and surrounding casemate at Longues-sur-Mer

Next morning, the new camper battery worked perfectly, and off we went to explore Juno, the Canadian beach. This beach also saw significant casualties, with some 1200 brave Canadians killed during the landings. Here, we were given a tour of two bunkers, a command post and an observation station, by a bi-lingual Canadian student. Since 1944, the sands here have shifted, so the observation bunker, which was on the beach in 1944, is now behind a sand dune. It was used by the Germans to scan the sea for possible landings. The other bunker was a command centre, and much less heavily fortified. (The walls of the observation bunker are 2 metres thick!). The command post was connected by telephone to numerous other installations along and close to the sea front. Each bunker had a maze of tunnels with compartments or rooms for various purposes, including an escape tunnel. The Juno Centre museum was also interesting, detailing the Canadian involvement in WW2. They lost at least 45,000 in the war, having provided almost a million personnel, from a population of 11 millions. Many Canadians signed up due to poverty and lack of employment opportunities at home.

German bunker at Juno Beach at Courseulles-sur-Mer

Inuit (Eskimo) INUKSUK and Canadian cemetery at Juno Beach

The fifth and final beach is Sword, the second British beach, and the furthest east, and we reached there in the afternoon. Again, it looks just like any other beach, with sand and bathing huts. But, more than 600 young men died here on 6^th June 1944. The museum here is contained in an actual German bunker, several storeys high. The building is surrounded by a range of equipment, including tanks, artillery, half-tracks and an anti-aircraft gun. The most interesting exhibit is a reconstruction of an actual landing craft. This was used in the filming of the movie “Saving Private Ryan”.

Sword Beach complete with sand and Bathing huts at Ouistreham-sur-Mer

The museum in a restored multi-storey German bunker at Ouistreham-sur-Mer

Landing craft at Sword Beach museum used in filming of "Saving Private Ryan"

A short distance inland lay one of the “objectives” of the Sword landings, Pegasus bridge. The actual bridge is preserved and is on display in the grounds of a museum in Ranville. Where the story of the action is detailed. For once, the paratroopers landed precisely on target, in two gliders, 30 in each. They took the bridge, assisted to some extent by some slack German defending. (Some of them had gone off with ladies of the night). A full-size replica of a glider is also in the grounds, built to the originals plans and using the original materials. It is bigger than expected, and sitting inside it gives some impression of what it was like to arrive by glider. Thousands of these were used, but none survived intact as the French used them for firewood and other farming purposes.

The famous original Pegasus Bridge in the grounds of the museum at Ranville

The full size replica of a 30-seater Horsa glider at the museum in Ranville

The final stop on the Normandy campaign of 1944 was the Caen Memorial, situated conveniently on the Caen ring road. The forecourt is dominated by a giant statue of an American navy man kissing a woman, presumably French. This centre takes several hours to explore, with a mixture of films and exhibitions, but it's worth the effort. It explains the wider context of WW2, but also covers the Normandy situation. Parts of the shattered city of Caen are enclosed in the museum. It was here that the Germans made their final effort to halt the progress towards Paris of the allied armies. They did halt progress for some weeks, but were eventually surrounded by the allied armies. But, the city was flattened, and thousand of civilians were killed. The exhibits presented some surprising statistics, such as the claim that as many as 20,000,000 Chinese died in the second world war. It was also a surprise to discover that nearly 6,000,000 Poles died in the war. The museum also contains some surprising exhibits, including a fully intact Russian MIG-21 fighter aircraft, and sections of the Berlin Wall. There is also a nice restaurant in the building where we had a delicious lunch.

The giant couple kissing outside the Caen Memorial museum in Caen

After Caen, we headed for Beauvais via Lisieux and Rouen. Rouen is a nightmare to traverse, even with a good GPS. The turns are so complex that following the voice prompts in difficult, and we made at least one wrong choice, which cost us some time. We stopped in Lisieux to view the huge Basilica to St. Thérèse, also known as the Little Flower.

The great basilica in Lisieux dedicated to Saint Thérèse also known as the Little Flower

After Beauvais, the following day we headed north towards the WW1 battlefields, starting with Ypres in Belgium. It was called Ypres at the time of WW1, and the soldiers called it Wipers. French was then the official language of Belgium, but that changed in the 30's when Dutch was elevated alongside French. The current name for Ypres is Ieper. The In Flanders Fields museum is housed in the Cloth Hall, a magnificent building devastated by shelling during the war, but now fully restored. This is an excellent museum and covers every aspect of WW1. It took a couple of hours to peruse it and to watch the many short films available. It covers the whole western front, but particularly the Ypres “Salient”. The nearby St. Martin's church close by is also worth a look. The other great monument here is the Menin Gate, designed and built by the British, and completed in 1927. Every night since then (except during WW2) the last post is played there at 8 p.m. Thousands of people turn up for this ceremony, many arriving in coaches. The names of 54,000 missing are inscribed on the monument. The last post is sounded by four buglers from the local fire brigade. We attended on two evenings. On both occasions, colour parties made up of military veterans were in attendance, and other people, mostly military laid wreaths. On the first night, a male quartet sang three very moving laments. On the second night, a woman sang a Scottish lament. Unfortunately, this was followed by a bagpiper who performed a dire wailing match - twice. Immediately after the Last Post, on both nights, a man read from Laurence Binyon's poem “For the Fallen”. An announcement was made at the start requesting that we refrain from any applause. It is a very dignified and moving ceremony.

The restored Cloth Hall building which contains the In Flanders Fields museum

The Menin Gate in Ypres (now Ieper) at night scene of the Last Post nightly

The four fire brigade buglers playing the Last Post at the Menin Gate at 8 p.m.

The following day we visited the Passchendaele Museum, in a former chateau in the village of Zonnebeke. Passchendaele was the scene of the third battle of Ypres, where huge numbers died on both sides, many by drowning in flooded trenches. The ground was so wet that tanks had to be abandoned. The allies eventually prevailed, but at a huge cost. I suspect that it was engagements like this that led to Earl Haig being labelled “Butcher Haig”. The museum has comprehensive information on the war, especially in this sector, and features a range of reconstructed bunkers and trenches. Many of these were built as semi-permanent structures, as this war was bogged down in one place for a long time.

Reconstructed trench at the Passchendaele museum in Zonnebeke near Ieper

The Passchendaele museum in the former chateau of Zonnebeke

Close by is the Tyne Cot cemetery, which gives a better idea of what the battle cost. The cemetery rivals the great American cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer, with 12,000 graves and a memorial to the missing with 34,000 names. It is beautifully laid out and maintained. In this peaceful setting, it is hard to imagine the horror and violence that took place here 100 years ago. This is the biggest of the British cemeteries, but there are smaller cemeteries everywhere in this region. They are all meticulously maintained and signposted by the War Graves Commission.

Tyne Cot cemetery where British victims of the Passchendaele battle are buried

We then headed south of Ieper to see the Messines Ridge cemetery. It contains the graves of some 1500 soldiers, as well as a memorial to the 800 or so New Zealanders who died in this area. It was the New Zealand Division who recovered this ridge from the Germans in 1917, but it was lost again a few months later in the German “final push”.

Nearby is the Peace Village, a kind of hostel for youth groups to explore the area and learn its history. It started off as an Irish/British project to bring young people from both factions in Northern Ireland together, against the background of a shared experience by their ancestors in fighting side by side in WW1.

The entrance to the Messines Ridge cemetery 10km south of Ieper in Belgium

Grave stone of Irish soldier in Messines Ridge cemetery

Behind it, and round a corner is the Island of Ireland peace park, featuring a round tower, for which stones were transported from Mullingar, the remains of a former “workhouse”. It is 32 metres tall, a metre for every county in Ireland. The park includes a series of nine stone slabs featuring quotations from WW1 soldiers like Francis Ledwidge, Tom Kettle and Patrick MacGill on the horror and futility of war.

The Irish round tower at the Island of Ireland peace park at Messines in Belgium

Poem by Patrick MacGill from Glenties in Donegal who fought in WW1 and survived

The final memorial in this area was that of the Berkshire regiment at Ploegsteert (known as Plugstreet to the soldiers). The monument is on one side of the road with the cemetery “extension”, while the original cemetery is on the other side.

Memorial at Ploegsteert to the members of the Berkshire regiment who died in this area in WW1

The other two great centres of slaughter in WW1 were Verdun and the Somme. We didn't have time on this occasion to make it to Verdun, but, after Ypres, we headed south towards the Somme. We stayed in a small village near Peronne, a town which featured heavily in the fighting, and which now houses the “Historial de La Grande Guerre” in an ancient castle. The main focus of our visit here was the Thiepval Monument. This huge structure, on top of a hill, was designed by Lutyens, and features the names of 72,000 of the missing. It is visible for miles around in every direction. Nearby there is a visitor centre with all the usual information in many formats. Thiepval Ridge, because of its position, was an obvious military target, and changed hands in September 1916 after a costly struggle. The Germans had held it since 1914, and had dug impressive defences in three lines. Some estimates put British losses in this sector at 400,000.

The monument to the missing on Thiepval Ridge with 72,000 names

The French and British cemeteries attached to the Thiepval monument

Nearby is the Ulster Tower, commemorating the contribution of the 36^th Division. It is a replica of a tower near their training ground at Clandeboye. A friendly couple from Northern Ireland live in the tower nine months of the year, and run the small shop/café and information centre. There is a room inside the tower displaying tributes from various organisations and communities, including the Orange Order and the many unionist political parties in Northern Ireland, as well as town councils and others. There are some tributes from southern Ireland, and poster displays on other Irish regiments including the Royal Dublin Fusiliers.

The Ulster Tower near Thiepval a replica of a tower at Clandeboye

Further on, also on the D73, is the village of Beaumont-Hamel. Near this village is a memorial park in honour of the Newfoundland Battalion. There is a small centre near the entrance, manned by friendly Canadian students. Free guided tours are provided on request. The Park is dominated by the statue of a caribou, and contains three cemeteries and several other monuments.

The caribou statue tribute to the Newfoundland battalion whose emblem was a caribou

It also features some original trenches. The cemeteries are the Y Ravine, the Hawthorn Ridge and Hunter's. The latter was actually a shell hole where those who perished were buried. The other two were named after the places where most the victims fell. Y Ravine is a geographical feature near the eponymous cemetery where serious fighting took place. Hawthorn Ridge was a German front line fortification, attacked by the British on the 1^st of July 1916. There is also a monument to the Scottish Highland Division, topped by a black-clad Scotsman in a kilt.

An actual trench from WW1 with added boardwalk in Newfoundland Park

Hunter's cemetery created from a shell hole in Newfoundland Park near Thiepval

The kilted scotsman monument to members Scottish Highland Division who died near here

The park also contains an enormous mine crater, created on July 1^st 1916 when a huge mine was exploded to frighten the Germans. It is not as big as the Loughnagar crater, which is close by, and which was created at the same time. Some claim that the explosion that created it could be heard in London.
Next time we hope to visit Verdun.