A visit to Fromelles last weekend

[topsey1234]

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to finally visit Fromelles and the battlefield and see where my Great Uncle Leonard Twamley fought and died with 2/7th Royal Warwickshires.

I'd not been to that part of the Pas De Calais before and was surprised at how much it resembled Lincolnshire where I live, flat, wet and very agricultural. I had the chance to visit the very interesting museum above the Marie. What a fantastic collection of artefacts from the surrounding area and some magnificent recreations of bumkers etc inside. Well worth a visit in my opinion.

Also saw the new cemetery being built, and from a distance the centre for the recovery of remains.

Later on moved on to the momuments in no mans land and looked out into the battlefield. Finally arriving at the village of Fauquissart which the 2/7th moved up from before the battle. Drove up the road which was their right flank and looked across from what was the German lines towards the fields now on the battlefield. A very sad place to be but having studied maps from afar the lay out of roads are exactly as it was in 1916. You can therefore get a very good idea of the scale and the closeness of the opposing sides.

Having spend some times taking pictures moved on to see the bronze memorial on the north side of the Marie in Lavantie to the 61st Division.

It was well worth the visit and I learnt alot. I got a little more understanding of the conditions present at the time. I've read a couple more books about what happened and had a battle field guide with me at the time which made sense of it all.

Sadly I know more now about Len's story than ever his mother and sister (my grandmother) did. Its unlikely there is much more information that will come to light about him but at least I did get to see where he and the other 2/7ths fell on 19th July 1916.

Richard