Rest Camps at Le Havre WW1

[Mike Huntington]

Also not wishing to crash into Paddy's enquiry, but he is researching a subject I have been working on for quite a little time. My father was a private (number 2172) in the 5th Leicesters and his original crossing to France was Southampton to Le Harve.  The 4^th and 5^th Battalions crossed over to France in February 1915. My Dad was in the right half of the Battalion and they eventually boarded the Duchess of Argyll.  After waiting around all day in the docks at Southampton, at 9.00 p.m. on the 26^th February the Duchess led the little flotilla out in to the channel. 

The Duchess of Argyll (a flat-bottomed Clyde steamer) was requisitioned by the Admiralty on the 11^th February 1915 so this must have been one of her first trips across the channel.  On the night of the 26^th the weather was terrible and the rest of the flotilla turned back, the Duchess kept going and after a terrible crossing arrived at Le Harve in the early hours of morning of the 27^th February.

Dad never spoke much about his service but luckily this was one of the things he did talk about.  His boat was the only one to cross that night, the rest of the flotilla turned back, there had been an order from one of the escorting warships but there was a bit of confusion, Sergeant Diggle a signaller in the Battalion was ordered to assist with signals, the member of crew he was assisting was a Swede and the signal that came was ‘No go’ according to Diggle and ‘No no’ according to the member of crew, the Captain John McNaughton (the peacetime Caledonian master who stayed with his ship) decided to believe his crew member and carried on.

Dad had never been on a boat before and I am pretty sure that many of his mates hadn’t either so they were feeling terrible, they disembarked and they crawled up a long and steep hill in the pouring rain, until they got to the ‘rest camp’. This was a very muddy field with soaking tents where they ‘rested’ for 24 hours waiting for the rest of the Battalion. As he said it was Welcome to France!!  

I have been trying to work out where the camp would have been, so all of this discussion has been very helpful. 

As always thank you for all who take part in the forums.

Thanks to all, Yours Mike Huntington 

 

[Lizzywhitt]

So many thanks to Phil for his map, it was invaluable and I think we have been able to identify where camp 8 was. It is so different now as the area is so built up but there is still an open space at the top which we think is what was known as "the pimple" "A large plateau overhanging the camp was an admirable ground for manouvres but getting there involved a steep climb.... Thirty thousand men learnt the advanced lessons of war on the pimple, they bayoneted, manouvered and trained from seven in the morning until four in the afternoon, with a midday meal of tea, cheese and biscuit"

[Lizzywhitt]

The 1st picture is looking East up at The Gendarmerie, its more of a Police college and had high security so didn't want to get too close taking photos! The Avenue d'Arromanches runs to the left, in the 2nd picture  I have turned 90 degrees and am looking South West down the slope to Rue Andre Sakharov and the 3rd picture is from Rue Andre S looking South down the slope towards the railway

Edited 14 April , 2018 by Lizzywhitt

[Lizzywhitt]

The 1st Picture is taken from Rue Andre Sakharov, looking North East, I think this is where the lower part of camp 8 was based and you can see the ground rising behind the houses towards the Gendarmerie where the 2nd part of Camp 8 was based ; the 2nd picture is the open space at the top of the hill shown on the modern map as the long green strip

[TeeJF]

On 29/12/2016 at 17:44, Phil Evans said:

It is roughly NE of Le Havre and allegedly 5^3/4 miles from Le Havre. I think that that is by road (see below)

 

Phil

 

Hi Phil,

 

I am currently researching the movements of a relative who served with 1st Glosters and went out with the BEF arriving at Le Havre on 13th Aug 1914. The war diary states that they first went to No.1 rest camp  near Ste. Adresse. It's great to see it showing on this map but I wondered if per chance you had any other maps of where the camp was, etc?

 

Many thanks,

 

Tracy

[Phil Evans]

Hello Tracy,

 

Is this of any use?

 

Phil

[TeeJF]

11 hours ago, Phil Evans said:

Hello Tracy,

 

Is this of any use?

 

 

Hi Phil,

 

That is absolutely brilliant! Thank you SO much!

 

Tracy

[Old Harry]

My father and both my uncles sailed from Southampton to Rouen via Le Havre on 31 Dec 1915, 19 Feb 1916 and 20 Sept 1916. Records show that, in each case, they left Southampton on the first day and arrived in Rouen on the second day, spending the first night at Le Havre.

 

I assume that they would have spent the night on the ship rather than march to the rest camp.

Roy.