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Note:
        Due to the popularity of this tour - the Sgts Mess ventured once again back to the Somme in 2004.  Images from this tour are shown at the foot of the page.  Go direct to them by clicking here.

 

SERGEANTS’ MESS BATTLEFIELD TOUR OF THE SOMME – 18TH & 19TH OCTOBER 2003


Twenty members of the Sergeants’ Mess took part in a tour of the Somme battlefields over the weekend of 18-19 October. We left the Mess at 0430hrs after a hearty breakfast and caught the 0730hrs ferry from Dover to Calais. Unfortunately the ferry was delayed owing to engine trouble, so once on French soil we motored down to Albert where we were booked in for lunch.

Here we learnt that the town was pretty much flattened during the First World War, but it was famous for its golden statue of the Virgin Mary which sat atop the Basillica. As the war progressed the statue toppled and a legend was born which stated that when the statue fell the war would be lost. Therefore the authorities wired it onto the top of the Basillica thereby ensuring that it never fell. Albert was rebuilt after the war in largely the same style as it had been prior to 1914.

After lunch the major event of the weekend began with the England v South Africa World Cup rugby match. We retired to a local bar where the Landlord was a very vociferous supporter of South Africa – that is until England took the lead and he quietened down considerably!

Next was the more serious part of the weekend; the reason we were there. We drove up to the part of the Somme battlefield where the Guards Division was engaged.

The Battle of the Somme is infamous for the First Day on 1st July 1916 when the bulk on Kitchener’s New Army went into action for the first time. It was intended that a massive simultaneous assault along many miles of the British line would punch a hole through the German defences and so shorten the war. The assault was preceded by a massive artillery bombardment which lasted for a week, and just before the attack nineteen massive landmines were detonated at points where the British and German lines were close. Unfortunately there was a period of several minutes between the barrage ending and the infantry ‘going over the top’, and this lapse gave the Germans ample time to man their defences and machine-guns and the infantry were decimated. There were over sixty thousand casualties on that day, with over twenty thousand being killed.

Our first stop was the Lochnagar Crater. This is a crater from a mine detonated on the first day which has been preserved as it was in 1916. Prior to detonation, it contained 18 tons of explosive which blew a crater approximately 70 feet deep and 300 feet across. There were 23 mines dug and primed for the first day, but only 19 detonated. One of the remaining four detonated during a thunderstorm at 2 O’Clock in the morning in 1952. The other three remain out there somewhere!

The Guards Division didn’t join the battle until September as they were serving on different part of the line. On the 15th September 1916, the Guards Division took to the line at Ginchy where another large attack was planned. This was the first battle in which tanks were committed and the Division was allocated three. Unfortunately, despite initial success, the tanks were prone to mechanical failure and soon broke down. This was also the first occasion in which three Coldstream Battalions fought side-by-side in line. The 4th (Pioneer) Battalion was also present in support.

The initial assault soon became muddled as a German machine-gun on the flank was causing much trouble. It was here that Lt Col J V Campbell, Commanding the 3rd Battalion, rallied the troops of various battalions, who had by now become completely mixed up, and led them to take these German positions and protect the flank. Once this was achieved he led them on to their objective. For his valour on that day, Colonel Campbell was awarded the Victoria Cross.

On the actual battlefield which has changed very little since 1916, our guide, James Power (www.battlefield-tours.com), explained the ground and showed where the various trench lines were and showed us the actual site of the German machine-guns which caused so much trouble that day. On the actual objective stands a memorial to the Guards Division, and further down the road we visited the Guards Cemetery at Les Boeuffs where many who fell on that day are buried.

The evening was spent at a hotel in Ameins, where we had a meal, a cup of cocoa and early to bed!!!

Sunday morning saw us at the Thiepval Memorial to the missing on the Somme. This impressive memorial holds the names of over 73,000 men from the Somme battles who have no known grave. It was hear that CSM Spencer Jones was able to locate the name of his wife’s great-grandfather, 22/1040 Sgt Thmas Rippon, 22nd (Tyneside Scottish) Bn, Northumberland Fusiliers, who died on the Somme and is commemorated on the memorial. LSgt Keenan sounded the Last Post and Reveille, and the Sergeant Major laid a wreath for fallen comrades on behalf of the Sergeants’ Mess. On leaving Thiepval we moved on up into Belgium to visit the battlefields on the Ypres Salient.

When the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) were withdrawing in 1914, a stand was made in the town of Ypres. The area formed a small salient into the German lines and was bordered on three sides by the Germans. The town was tenaciously held by the British throughout the war, and there were three major battles for Ypres. The town was virtually flattened but after the war, a decision was taken to rebuild it as it was in 1914, and today the town is very much as our forebears would have known it.

The visit to the town began with a visit to the Menin Gate Memorial. This is another vast structure listing the names of over 56, 000 men who have no known grave. This site was chosen as a memorial as virtually all troops who came to the town would have passed through it. It is here that the buglers from the Belgian Fire Brigade sound the Last Post every evening.

Whilst in the town we visited the infamous Cloth Hall, the ruins of which were probably the only recognisable building in the town during the war. It has been completely restored and was completed in around 1950. Also in the town is St George’s Chapel. This was built in the 1920’s as a place where grieving relatives could visit and pray when visiting the battlefields between the wars. Virtually every regiment that fought at Ypres in represented in the church, and one of the main features is the Guards Division window above the altar displaying the regimental badges of all the Guards regiments, including the Household Cavalry and the Guards Machine Gun Regiment.

On the way back to Calais, we stopped off at the grave of Captain Noel Chavasse VC and Bar. Although he was a doctor and had never served with the Guards, he was the only man to win the Victoria Cross twice in the First World War,* and it is the only grave on which you will find carved two VCs.

* Two other men have won the VCC and Bar; Lieutenant Colonel Martin-Leake won the VC with the RAMC during the Boer War and the Bar to the VC in the First World War. Captain Charles Upham of the New Zealand Forces won both the VC and Bar during the Second World War.


The tour was thoroughly enjoyable and very well organised. To organise an event like this speak to James Power on: e-mail: Jamespower@btinternet.com

Or visit his website, located at: http://www.battlefield-tours.com

IWL Tindall
Coldstream Guards


Related Images from the Battlefield Tour below (in no particular order)

2004
Images below are from the 2004 Battlefield Tour