SOMME BRITISH Sector - Pozières
duda-wsm • 31 March 2019
Years of visit: 2005, 2007
Returning to the D 929, from Albert to Bapaume, a stop at Pozières, Gibraltar Point, the Australian Memorials, and the Tank Corps Memorial, near the field, where the introduction of tanks took place.
We start at th Pozières War Cemetery, whic contains 2,760 burials of 1916, 1917, and 1918. 1,380 of the burials are unidentified.
The cemetery is enclosed by the Pozières Memorial Wall, which relates to the period of crisis in March and April 1918.
In March 1918 the Allied Fifth Army was driven back by the Germans in overwhelming numbers across the former Somme battlefields, and the months that followed before the Allied Counter Offensive to Victory of 8 August 1918.
In July 1916 the Australians used the Chalk Pit for their field artillery guns, ...
... during the capture of Pozières village.
After the Chalk Pit, we continue to a few hundred meters before Pozières, to the Gibraltar Pillbox.
The Australian 1st division called this place the Gibraltar Strongpoint.
Pozieres was attacked on 23 July 1916 by the 1st Australian and 48th (South Midland) Divisions, and was taken on the following day.
Continuous artillery fire and repeated German counter-attacks followed.
Until August 6, the Australians had almost 12,000 casualties in this sector.
On the 7th, fresh auxiliary battalions endured again a heavy artillery bombardment, ...
... but they stopped the following German counterattack.
On the horizon right of the Australian memorial: Thiepval Memorial.
Afterwards it appeared to be the last German attempt to recapture the village of Pozières.
Left of the Albert-Bapaume road: the ruins of the old windmill marks the high point of Pozières Ridge.
Nowadays it is the Australian Memorial, commemorating the 1st, 2nd, and 4th Australian Divisions.
In July and August 1916 the Australians launched nineteen attacks on the ridge in 45 days.
During these attacks the Australians lost 23,000 men.
In the whole war the Australians had 215,000 casualties.
Just after Windmill: the former frontline of 1 September 1916.
The 4th Phase of the Battle of the Somme
Now we enter the 4th Phase of the Battle of the Somme; from 15 September -19 November 1916. This phase opens with the introduction of tanks between Flers and Courcelette from 15-22 September,then next the British attacks at Morval from 25-28 September, at Thiepval from 26-30 September, and the last operations at Le Sars, Warlencourt, and Gueudecourt from 7 October-19 November.
At the other, southern side of the Albert Bapaume road, ...
... and about 2 kilometres north of Contalmaison we visited this monument, ...
... commemmorating the Tank Corps, and the introduction of the first tanks in this sector on 15 September.
Initially the tanks had quite a psychological impact on the German troops.
The tanks were British and in the beginning not very reliable.
The Germans however were quick in learning how to fight these tanks.
Pozières was lost on 24 March 1918, during the German advance, and recaptured by the 17th Division on 24 August 1918.
We continue along D 929 to Martinpuich. Continue
to the next chapter: " Martinpuich
"
Inleiding: Franz Von Papen & Werner Horn; schaker en pion Onlangs stuitte ik in een oud boek (1) van 1919 op een opmerkelijk verhaal over een Duitse Luitenant, die in begin februari 1915 een half geslaagde bomaanslag pleegt op een spoorbrug over een grensrivier tussen de Verenigde Staten en Canada. Ook al staat de bekentenis van de dader, Werner Horn, deels in het boek te lezen, de naam van zijn opdrachtgever zal Horn blijven verzwijgen. Na wat verder zoeken vond ik ook de naam van Horn’s opdrachtgever, Franz von Papen, een van de aangeklaagden van het latere Neurenberg Proces in 1946. In een Grote Oorlog als de Eerste Wereldoorlog is Horn’s aanslag op de brug uiteraard slechts een bescheiden wapenfeit. Toch vermoed ik dat dit relatief onbekende verhaal, dat de geschiedenis is ingegaan als de “ Vanceboro International Bridge Bombing ”, nog interessante kanten kent. Het is onder andere een spionageverhaal over hoe in een groter plan een sluwe schaker zijn naïeve pion offert. Beknopte situatieschets Canada en de Verenigde Staten in 1915
This trip we start at the Léomont near Vitrimont and we will with some exceptions concentrate on the Battle of Lorraine of August-September 1914 in the area, called, the “Trouée de Charmes”, the Gap of Charmes. After the Léomont battlefield we continue our explorations to Friscati hill and its Nécropole Nationale. Next we pay a visit to the battlefield of la Tombe to go on to the Château de Lunéville. There we cross the Vezouze to move on southward to the Bayon Nécropole Nationale. At Bayon we cross the Moselle to pass Charmes for the panorama over the battlefield from the Haut du Mont. North-west of Charmes we will visit the British Military Cemetery containing 1918 war victims. From Charmes we go northward to the battlefield of the First French Victory of the Great War, the Battle of Rozelieures of 25 August 1914. North of Rozelieures we will visit the village of Gerbéviller. From there we make a jump northward to visit the ruins of Fort de Manonviller to finish with an interesting French Dressing Station bunker, west of Domjevin.
Though we depart from Badonviller in the Northern Vosges , we make a jump northward to the east of Lunéville and Manonviller . We start at Avricourt on the border of Alsace and Lorraine. From the Avricourt Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof we explore the southern Lorraine battlefields ; the mine craters of Leintrey , the Franco- German war cemetery and Côte 303 at Reillon , and some German bunkers near Gondrexon , Montreux , and Parux .
We depart from Raon-l’Etape to drive northward via Badonviller to Montreux to visit the " Circuit du Front Allemand 14-18", the Montreux German Front Walk 14-18, with its trenches , breastworks , and at least twenty bunkers.
North-east of Nancy, east of Pont-à-Mousson, and south-east of Metz we visit the battlefields of the Battle of Morhange of 14 until 20 August 1914. We follow mainly topographically the route of the French advance eastward over the Franco-German border of 1871-1918. During this visit, we try to focus on the day that the momentum of the battle switched from the French side to the advantage of the Bavarian side: the day of 20 August 1914, when the Bavarians rapidly re-conquered the territory around Morhange , being also the day of the start of their rather successful “Schlacht in Lothringen”. We will visit beautiful landscapes of the "Parc Naturel Régional de Lorraine", memorials, ossuaries, and cemeteries. Sometimes we will divert to other periods of the Great War, honouring Russian and Romanian soldiers, who died in this sector. We start our route at the border village of Manhoué, and via Frémery, Oron, Chicourt, Morhange, Riche, Conthil, Lidrezing, Dieuze, Vergaville, Bidestroff, Cutting, Bisping we will finish in Nomeny and Mailly-sur-Seille, where the Germans halted their advance on 20 August 1914, and where they constructed from 1915 some interesting bunkers.
South of Manhoué we start this trip at Lanfroicourt along the French side of the Franco-German 1871-1918 border, marked by the meandering Seille river. We visit some French bunkers in Lanfroicourt, near Array-et-Han and in Moivrons. From there we go northward to the outskirts of Nomeny and the hamlet of Brionne to visit the ( second ) memorial, commemorating the events in Nomeny of 20 August 1914. We continue westward to finish at the Monument du Grand Couronné at the Côte de Géneviève, a former French artillery base, which offers several panoramic views over the battlefield.
North of Pont-à-Mousson and south of Metz, we explore the relics of German bunkers and fortifications along the Franco-German 1871-1918 border. We start at Bouxières-sous-Froidmont to visit the nearby height of the Froidmont on the front line. This time we will show only a part of the Froidmont, focusing on its military significance. From the Froidmont we continue via Longeville-lès-Cheminot and Sillegny to the “Forêt Domaniale de Sillegny” to explore some artillery ammunition bunkers. Next we continue to Marieulles for its three interesting bunkers and to Vezon for its line of ammunition depot bunkers. From Vezon we continue to the “Deutscher Kriegsgräberstätte Fey – Buch”. From Fey we go eastward, passing 6 bunkers near Coin-lès-Cuvry to finish our trip at the top construction of the “Feste Wagner” or “Fort Verny”, north of Verny.
From Badonviller or the Col du Donon we continue north-eastward for a visit to an extraordinarily well restored sample of German fortifications: the Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II, or Fort de Mutzig, lying on a height, some 8 km. away from the 1871-1918 Franco-German Border.
We concentrate on the German side of the front around "Markirch", Sainte Marie-aux-Mines, the so-called "Leber" front sector . We first pay a visit to the Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof, and next to the southern side of the Col de Ste. Marie for the many interesting bunkers of the German positions at the Bernhardstein, at the north-eastern slopes of the Tête du Violu. On the next photo page about the Haut de Faîte we will continue with a visit to the northern side of the pass and the "Leber" sector.