MikeyH Posted 2 September , 2015 Share Posted 2 September , 2015 Any accounts of the final days of the conflict emphasise the complexity and depth of the defences of the Hindenburg Line. Does anything of what must have been very extensive fortifications remain? Mike. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedley Malloch Posted 2 September , 2015 Share Posted 2 September , 2015 Peter Oldham's book 'The Hindenburg Line' in the Pen and Sword Battleground Europe Series is a very comprehensive guide to the battlefield and what remains today. Chapter 4 'Driving the Hindenburg Line' gives details of 21 car routes in the area. If you are interested in seeing some on foot try the FFRandonée publication 'Dans les traces de la Grande Guerre en Picardie ... à pied. Walk 14 'Le mémorial américain de Bellicourt' and Walk 15 'Le mémorial australien de Bellinglise' are especially good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank_East Posted 2 September , 2015 Share Posted 2 September , 2015 Wasn't the US Somme military cemetery at Bony created postwar on the Hindenberg Line? the cemetery lies just north of Bellicourt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedley Malloch Posted 2 September , 2015 Share Posted 2 September , 2015 Here's a walk in and out of the Hindenburg Line you can do taking in many of the sites mentioned in Oldham's book (see above) car drive M Banteaux and Masnières. Park up at Vaucelles Abbey and follow red signs (balisage) which mark the walk. Vaucelles Abbey is on my reckoning the largest surviving front line structure on the Western Front. The walk along the canal is particularly good. If you look carefully in the gardens of the houses fronting the east side of the canal you will see German blockhouses now used as garden sheds. Swords into ploughshares indeed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Michelle Young Posted 2 September , 2015 Admin Share Posted 2 September , 2015 Also parked at La Vaquerie and did a circular walk past Good Old Man Farm up to the Hindenburg line in March. Found a rather nice bunker Michelle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeyH Posted 2 September , 2015 Author Share Posted 2 September , 2015 Very many thanks for your replies. My curiousity aroused by reading Nick Llloyd's excellent 'HUNDRED DAYS'. Mike. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trenchtrotter Posted 2 September , 2015 Share Posted 2 September , 2015 Surprisingly little to see to the untrained eye but as the above show there are traces to be found. Not easy though. TT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Bent Posted 31 August , 2023 Share Posted 31 August , 2023 On 02/09/2015 at 16:25, Hedley Malloch said: Here's a walk in and out of the Hindenburg Line you can do taking in many of the sites mentioned in Oldham's book (see above) car drive M Banteaux and Masnières. Park up at Vaucelles Abbey and follow red signs (balisage) which mark the walk. Vaucelles Abbey is on my reckoning the largest surviving front line structure on the Western Front. The walk along the canal is particularly good. If you look carefully in the gardens of the houses fronting the east side of the canal you will see German blockhouses now used as garden sheds. Swords into ploughshares indeed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Bent Posted 31 August , 2023 Share Posted 31 August , 2023 I will be visiting Abbaye de Vaucelles in October following in the footsteps of a soldier that was with the 4th Coy of the NZ 2nd Battalion Otago. They were involved in the fighting at the bridge over the canal on 30th September, 1918. Is the bridge still there? I assume that the location is the northerly bridge, near the abbey. I am looking forward to doing the walk you recommend. Thanks. Chris. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedley Malloch Posted 31 August , 2023 Share Posted 31 August , 2023 The bridge still there. The Abbey is a cultural hotspot. More to be found here: https://abbayedevaucelles.fr/agenda Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Bent Posted 1 September , 2023 Share Posted 1 September , 2023 Thanks Hedley. We will definitely spend some time there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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