Happy Valley

[Fred W]

In researching my uncle's service in the Coldstream Guards I have come across mention of a rest camp called "Happy Valley," at Martlancourt between Bray and Fricourt Sept 1916. Can anyone tell me why it was called "Happy Valley."

Fred W

[Marco]

Fred,

Are you sure it isn't Morlancourt?:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~aur/Cemeteries/MORLOANCOURTBC1.htm

(I noticed my own spelling error too)

Wasn't every valley called 'Happy' or 'Death' one time or an other? To troops returning from the battlefield rest camps must have been a happy place, hence the name I would think.

Morlancourt BC1 and BC2 are both in a valley.

Regards,

Marco

[Fred W]

Marco

Just checked my data. You are correct Morlancourt it is. Thanks.

Fred W

[John_Hartley]

I can happily speculate on this one.

The Happy Valley which was on the Bray Road, was used by 89 & 90 Brigades during 1916 (particularly as a rest camp after the 1 July attack). Those Brigades came predominently from Liverpool and Manchester. A favourite holiday destination of the time, for folk from those cities, was the North Wales town of Llandudno which had (and still has) a very pleasant area known as Happy Valley - bandstand, tea room, deck chairs - that sort of thing.

John

[Fred W]

Thank you John. I am happy with you reply.

Fred W

[Ken Lees]

Perhaps it's all relative. There was another valley (further to the east, as I recall) which the 30th Division used. This was known as Death Valley and for good reason. I have read acounts of the horrors of the march up towards the front lines from La Briqueterie towards Guillemont, the soldiers passing remains of men and horses. This valley was known by the Germans to be used for movements to and from the front and was never free from shellfire as a result.

Ken

[John_Hartley]

Ken

Any idea exactly where this Death Valley was? No mention of it in 90 Brigade (manchesters) stuff that I have.

John

[Jim Gordon]

Could this be the "Happy Valley" in question.

Quote from "Life of a Regiment" (The Gordon Highlanders):

"Behind the lines the horrors were equally prominent. Caterpillar Valley, only a mile in rear of the fighting line at Longueval, was crammed with field artillery. It was the only possible site for the more forward batteries. The main reason why the Commander-in-Chief insisted that Longueval and Delville Wood must be taken at all costs was his anxiety lest a German counterstroke at this point should put all this artillery in peril. The enemy could not see into the valley here, but he knew the guns were there and took the obvious action, shooting up ammunition parties and littering the area with dead horses. Further west, where it was known as the Happy Valley, this depression carried an indifferent road which was the supply route of several divisions. In fine weather a cloud of white dust hung over it. Here the Germans did even more damage. They dropped a heavy curtain of fire along it at irregular intervals, using shrapnel and high explosive mixed. The dead animals could not be buried, or, if they were, were soon unearthed again. The appalling, sickly stench of carrion put some men off their food. The dense swarms of flies were an equally loathsome feature of this polluted world."

Some Rest Camp!

Regards

Jim Gordon

[John_Hartley]

The one I ws referring to was described in 17th Manchester documentation as on the Bray to Albert road.

[Ken Lees]

Ken

Any idea exactly where this Death Valley was? No mention of it in 90 Brigade (manchesters) stuff that I have.

John

John,

From "The 9th King's in France" by EHG Roberts:

"In the evening of the 3rd August the Battalion paraded and marched towards the fighting, leaving behind a small percentage to form a nucleus should all its fighting personnel perish. The march was wearying. The enemy guns were active, the weather hot, and packs heavy. After a long trudge the Briqueterie was reached, a dangerous and dreaded spot, for it was periodically swept with shell fire. At last the companies got to their allotted stations in the reserve trenches. Many had not yet experienced the terrors of heavy shell fire, which by its very nature was intended to produce an unnerving effect. The next day started fairly quietly. On the right the men could see what was known as Death Valley. This was rightly so called. Being obscured from the enemy's view, it was a covered means of approach to the infantry positions in front, and afforded at the same time cover for the guns. On this account it was never free from shell fire, and was littered with corpses of men and horses.

In the afternoon the Battalion had to take over the front line in the neighbourhood of Arrow Head Copse in front of Guillemont. Passing along Death Valley the Battalion got caught in heavy shell fire, and sixty casualties took place almost immediately. It required a stout heart to march cheerfully forward when seeing one 5 companions who had gone a little in front coming back on stretchers, or lying dead alongside the path."

The way that I discovered the location of this valley was to start at the site Maltzhorn Farm and look for a low-lying route back towards the Briqueterie and beyond. There is a quite obvious route along there that would afford protection from direct observation from the German lines.

Of course, many of the routes chosen up to the front in this area would have been in shallow valleys and could have been known as death valley for the same reasons.

I seem to recall that one of Lyn McDonald's books has an aerial photgraph in which shows the position of what she refers to as Death Valley in this area.

Regards,

Ken

[John_Hartley]

Ken

Yep. Thanks, mate. Think I've got on the map now.

John

[Retrac]

In "'Stand To' A diary of the trenches" by Captain F.C. Hitchcock (pub Naval and Miilitary press). he describes the 2nd Leinsters of 73 Brigade of 24 Div going to Happy Valley 'some 600 yards north-west of Bray-sur-Somme'.

He goes on to say 'we were in clover in our camp, officers and men having pukka bell-tents'. The time spent there, from 2nd - 8th August 1916 does seem to have been relaxed with early morning inspections only and either swimming or lazing the predominant activities. No mention of being shelled although they were aware of the proximity of the front being able to count observation balloons and see 'the sky quite black from the shells'.

As part of the attack on Guillemont on 18th August Hitchcock describes 'an excellent view of the attack from the top of some old ruined walls near the Briqueterie. This place was about 1000 yards as the crow flies from the jumping off trenches before Guillemont. It stood up on another ridge smaller and separated from the Guillemont ridge by a wide valley known as "the valley of death"'.

[hill89]

The diary of RAMC Capt John A Pridham MC (written in typical GP scrawl) gives a similar location of 'Happy Valley' to 'Old Sweats' above. He describes riding on horseback from Morlanscourt with other officers two weeks later and sleeping in a tent at Happy Valley before heading into Trones Wood, and eventually the front trenches during the victorious assault on Guillemont of 3 Sept 1916::-

"20 Aug – left Candas...Arr. Mérincourt via Amiens...new billets in Morlanscourt. Dressed Cpl Nixon

21 Aug – Got up 5. Rode off 6.15 with Staff Capt. Finken & other officers. Ride over the downs to “Happy Valley”- Back to Morlanscourt & breakfast 9. Rode off again with Amb.[ulence] Went back half way to Morlanscourt. Then back to Happy Valley. Lunch...Watched Strafe near Pozieres. Can see Mametz Wood etc. Dinner. Watched strafe again. Bed in tent 10. [strafe - an attack, heavy bombardment, etc especially from the air. From the German Strafen, to punish.]

22 Aug – Got up 8. Breakfast. ... Visited? MO's of battalions...lunch. Marched off with A & C bearer sup. Divs. To BORNFAY (Bernafay?) Farm. Arr 4.30 Tea. Under command of Col. Osborn. Sent off Adam & Roberts & Mullin? Dinner 10. Bed in tent W

23 Aug – Got up 4.45. Went off in car with Col. Osborne etc CARNOY to Montauban. Then walked to bearer posts at the Briqueterie & Bernafay Wood. Also B...HQ nr Trones Wood. Back to Montauban. Car back. Breakfast. Washed. Saw Phillips Lieut? Ride into Bray. ...Bed 11.15..."

[hill89]

The 'two weeks later' in the above refers to the time between Captain F.C. Hitchcocks' 2nd - 8th August 1916 pleasant stay in Happy Valley and Capt John A Pridham's similar experience there from 20 Aug – 22nd Aug 1916. Clearly the Germans were unable to hit this target at that time.

[hill89]

Although why Happy Valley did not attract the kind of strafe being rained down from the air by the Germans at Pozieres is a mystery....

[delta]

On 28/05/2014 at 07:39, hill89 said:

Although why Happy Valley did not attract the kind of strafe being rained down from the air by the Germans at Pozieres is a mystery....

The area was under fire during early September 1916, when the First Tank Crews arrived. One crewman (sadly name not known) of female tank 510 (C16 Challenger of C Coy)  wrote in his diary for 9 Sep. "Arrived at our destination camp “Loop” between Bray and Mametz. We are now under artillery fire.".  

[A Lancashire Fusilier by Proxy]

My grandfather's unit, the 2/5th LF, was encamped at Happy Valley from 26 to 30 July 1916, initially sleeping under the stars in a field, then being provided with tents and bivouacs. He describes riding to Bray on 29 July 1916:

It was a glorious hot day. There were hundreds of troops bathing in the Somme at Bray – French, English, Colonials. The Garde Republicaine Band was playing, though it was only a few miles behind the fighting. But we did enjoy it. 

They left the comparative safety and comfort of Happy Valley at 9.00pm pm 30 July 1916, and made their way forward through Maricourt, Carnoy and Montauban, and on 1 August 1916 "at about 11 o’clock we received orders to occupy a Reserve trench near the Southern edge of Trônes Wood, looking across Death Valley to Maltz Horn Farm Ridge." 

From there on 2 August my grandfather and his commanding officer made their way still further forward to reconnoitre the position they would be taking over the following day, which excursion my gradfather describes as follows:

We went via Dead Horse Corner (so called because a poor beast lay on that crossroads – he had been hit by a shell, and there had been no time to bury him). We went up the track through the valley – called Death Valley – leading up to Trônes Wood. It was only too correctly named. There was no doubt which way led up to the trenches – such as they were. Poor fellows – scarcely recognisable as human beings in many cases.

The above is closely akin to the description by EHG Roberts in "The 9th King's in France", quoted by Ken Lees back in April 2004. My grandfather'also describes how his unit came under shellfire as they advanced through Death Valley up to the front on 3 August 1916, and again as they returned on 6 August, on the latter occasion suffering particularly heavy casualties.

[A Lancashire Fusilier by Proxy]

I have also noted a reference to Happy Valley in the diary of Sergeant T.H. Bisgood, the entry of for 5 September 1916. The entire diary has been transcribed by @Glostersin this threadhttps://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/29488-complete-diary-of-sergeant-th-bisgood-mm/#comment-231831