YOUR VISITS TO THE WESTERN FRONT .

[Jon Miller]

Thanks to the enthusiasm of a friend, I found out how spectacular sunrise at Hawthorn Crater Cem No 1 can be. Another worthwhile experience, and a great view of so many famous landmarks.

[salientguide]

Steve sorry for not replying have been away and Jon has correctly supplied the details. The only addition is that the double video "The Battles of the Somme and Ancre" and accompanying explanatory notebook, used to be available from the Imperial War Museum, dont know if they still sell them -perhaps visit their on line shop or contact them, Regards SG

[Jerrymurland]

Saddest for me was the exit at the WW1 museum, in Ieper. They had a wall of old photogrphic prints from soldiers who never came back to pick them up. Their faces still haunt me.

I have to agree, it is quite a haunting display.

Jerry

[GTS]

Other than the most obvious ones for me, which is my great grandfather's name on a plaque at Thiepval & La Boiselle, the place that I like ( if that is the correct word ) most on the Western Front is the dual cemetries at Waggon Road & Munich Trench. These are about a mile up a cart track north of Beaumont Hamel and are beautifully located in the Somme countryside. They are very seldom visited, indeed on my last visit a couple of years ago the first entry on the current page of the visitor's book was dated 1975 ! As is always the case, and in spite of their unpopularity, they are beautifully maintained by the CWGC. Honestly to spend some time here, on a summer's afternoon, enjoying the quiet and solitude and knowing that these tiny cemetries are still so lovingly maintained, is a profoundly moving experience.

As someone else mentioned the Bois des Caures is always worth a visit, as is Montfaucon if you fancy something a bit different. Also the last post ceremony at the Menin Gate is very emotional and is a must do.

[Guest Simon Bull]

I mention WW2 if only because, of all the moving places dotted along the old Western Front, surely the most chiling and emotional is the Mur des Fusilades at Arras?

I agree. My wife agrees the more so! She has been there with me once and simply will not go back. Last time I visited she stayed on her own elsewhere. She is not at all superstitious or "spiritual" but she says she feels the presence of unpleasant and cruel death very strongly.

I have a similar feeling but go back out of a feeling of duty -- it seems to me that the people who died there are every bit as deserving of commemoration as those killed in the Great War, probably even more so. I am sure that what they did took the most enormous courage, in a situation in which it would have been all too easy to do nothing. They must each and every one of them have taken a very conscious decision to stand up and be counted in circumstances of the most appalling personal risk.

I also visit the spot for another reason. My grandfather's tank set out on the first day of the Battle of Arras from a spot just a little bit further round in the dry moat beside the Citadel.

[Guest Standtoo]

My thoughts are these

I have visited Belsen & Ravensbruck consentration camps and you are aware of the humane misary that took place there. However taking the trip to Ypres driveing past the countless cemeteries on either side of the road you know something dreadfull has happand in this place. These white grave stones stand testiment to the brave men of many nationalitys who simply said "NO"

Bob

[Owen D]

Nowhere makes me uneasy from a Great War point of view. I've come to visit the Dead and I hope they are there saying "Thanks for Remembering us." First time I went (1989) my mate and I camped in Polygon Wood, there was nowhere else . We were on our bikes and hot and sweaty. He was a bit dubious saying about we were sleeping in a huge graveyard. I felt we were visiting them so they'd look after us.

Also in 1991 I slept in my car next to Regina Trench cemetery, I felt safer there, but bloody cold.

It's the modern world that holds the nastiness and unease.

[Graeme Fisher]

I first went in '95 alone, with very little research.

I wasn't looking for a grave, or a particular site.

I just wanted to see the landscape and imagine the events.

I came away recognising the bravery of the boys and the futility of their actions.

Many fell, and are clearly recognised.

Many came back, traumatised by what they had seen, and lived for another sixty years, tortured by what they saw.

I came home understanding the horror of the survivors more than any concrete trench or granite headstone could suggest.

Perhaps we concentrate on the fallen way, way too much.

The survivors suffered for years. The fallen perished in seconds.

Let's just remember that, too.

Graeme

[healdav]

Standing in a field at Hoesdorf, Luxembourg at 5.30 a.m. on 16th December 1994 and hearing three survivors of the German assault there singing 'Ich hatte ein Kamarade'.

They were among the very few survivors from the entire regiment which ran into two heavy machine guns there and lost over 300 men.

Then the church bells started to ring to mark the start of the Battle of the Bulge.

December 16th 2004, laying a (WFA) wreath at a memorial in a small village in the north of Luxembourg on which are listed the names of the US soldiers who died there.

One US veteran laying a wreath was asked if he had known the men named there. 'Know them? I was the one who survived. We ran into a machine gun as we came out of the forest and I happened to be last in line'.

The village children all laying candles at the memorial with the church bells ringing and echoing from all the other villages along the line.

Breakfast in the café and meeting a Dutch man who said he went to every commemoration he could at whatever cost. Reason? His father had been in the resistance and disappeared in some camp somewhere. His sister looked Jewish and was arrested three times by the GESTAPO - at 5 years old - for interrogation. She has suffered psychiatric problems for the whole of her life.

In connection with another thread; don't talk about the nazis around here.

[Julian Whippy]

My answer for both Questions 1-Special place and 2-Sad or spooky spot

1-special for me is Chocolate Menier Corner on the Rue du Bois. Looking out towards the old front lines of May 1915. My Great Uncle was killed in those fields. Some of the Battalion were seen to get into the enemy line but never returned. I can see him charging over.

2-Sad/ spooky - In a car with 4 good friends, at night on the Somme, pitch black, NO lights, talking about belief in ghosts, shadowy figures etc then the driver stopped the car, turned off all ignition and we just sat.

We only lasted a few seconds. Someone said there was a tap on the roof !

Both memorable moments in their own way.

[willy]

best places visited?

Menin Gate, Polygon Wood.

Sunken lane beaumont Hamel, Serre, The Ancre valley, Lonsdale cemy.

Anywhere on the somme after dark, eerie, atmospheric, yes, but not spooky i just feel at ease and it's so peacefull now.

Lest we forget.

[Havrincourt]

Fricourt and Colincamps (Sucrerie) , Delville wood , all visited on the Somme misty mornings

[Guest grantaloch]

One of my most inspiring among many i might add is when my son and I stood on the tip of the leipzig redoubt,and looked accross towards authille wood where the Lonsdales debouched from towards where we standing,and thought of what they were heading for,barbed wire machine guns, and shell fire.There wasnt a soul to be seen for miles as far as we could see could not even hear a bird singing and we remarked to each other how errie it was when you think about what happend there on that terrible day(Gantaloch.)Bob

[staffsreg]

My most memorable/moving visits are always Delvlle Wood and Vimy Ridge.....Spooky!

The hair on the back of my neck stands up when in the woods surrounding the Memorial

and there are small pieces of memorabilia in the undergrowth...I rarely stray from the path though!

[Guest Jeric]

The Riqueval Bridge over the St. Quentin Canal where the banks were lined with soldiers listening to Brigadier-General Campbell in 1918. I first saw this photograph as a child. It makes me think of all those men in the photograph, the realisation that most, if not all of these men are gone saddens me. Living so far away, it was most satisfying to finally see the exact location in 1999. And most gratifying to see that it has not changed much over the years.

The enormity of Lochnagar Crater at La Boiselle.

And of course, The Last Post at the Menin Gate, as the notes from the bugler gently "touches" each name on the gate, and echoes through The Eternal Salient.

I hope to return.

[Colin P]

I thought I knew my answer to this until I really started thinking about the many places I've visited & re-visited being inspired intially by Rose Coombs "Before Endeavours Fade" & John Giles "Then & Now" Books on the Western Front, Flanders & The Somme.

First I suppose is the Ypres Salient (I know this covers a lot of places) which has so many poignant memories - Menin Gate, The Last Post - visiting Tyne Cot on one occasion & actually complaining of the rain, cold & wind!! Seeing the name of my wife's great great uncle commemorated there also (James John Thomas PRIOR 2/3rd London Batt) & then visiting the nearby location where he & the overwhelming majority of his battalion perished on 26 Oct 1917.

Also Delville Wood in the bitter cold with a blanket of snow as was Lochnagar Crater where it was too cold to take gloves off to use the camera which probably wasn't a bad thing as you cannot photograph your thoughts of the horrors faced by those earlier residents.

Also visiting the French cemetery at Craonelle (Aisne) where my great uncle (Paul Charles DUVIN - 127 Regiment d'Infanterie) is buried. Killed in July 1916 in what was described on the regiment history as a quiet period.

The awesomely overpowering visits to the German cemeteries at Neuville St Vaast & Langemark & others.

Plus of course (& for me particularly in Ypres) the hospitality and ability to chill out socially but also to reflect & imagine.

And of course so many other times & places.

[andigger]

I would have to say I connect with any place I can sit and read a detailed or personal account of the action there. I know some have panned the value of the first hand narrative writer's like Lyn MacDonald, but with so many of the veterans gone to sit with one of her books anywhere across the Salient and let the men speak threw her is moving.

Andy

[Turfy]

Stump Road Cemetery was a very moving place for me. I visited the grave of Private Herbert Leason (see signature) on a snowy day in December and it was so quiet and peaceful in that small place.

It's not a place that many people seem to visit, which seems a shame as it's such a fine little cemetery.

If any pals do decide to go there please say hello to Herbert and the boys for me

David

[David McDonald]

Although I have only visited the area twice these are the places that stay long in the memory.

1. Anneuex British cemetery. Visiting the grave of my maternal Grandfathers friend and fellow soldier John Burns for the first time in August 2004. This was on a Battlefield tour and was the realisation of a long held ambition.

2. Visiting the village of Moeuvres in June 2005 as this was where my maternal Grandfather was wounded on 19th September 1918. He was in the 1/5th R.S.F. which was part of the 52 (Lowland) Division which took the village on the 19th/20th of that month.

3. High Wood and in particular the Glasgow Highlanders cairn at the edge of the wood. This commemorates the 192 Glasgow Highlanders, 1/9th H.L.I., who were killed here on 15th/16th July 1916. One of whom was my paternal Grandfathers cousin William Sharp.

4. Guemappe Tank cemetery near Arras. My paternal Grandfathers uncle William Sharp, 10th Loyal North Lancashire Regiment is buried here. William was the uncle of the above mentioned William Sharp of the Glasgow Highlanders.

5. BOURLON Wood. The way its brooding presence seems to dominate the Baupaume to Cambrai road and the area around it.

[Owen D]

I memorable event happened last month. I took my three children to see their Great-Great Uncle Dave's name on the Arras Memorial. I first went there on me bike in 1989.

[Mudshark]

The most evocative spot on the Somme for me is Bois Francais above Fricourt. It's where Bernard Adams spent parts of 1915 and 1916 and which he described so vividly in his invaluable, but much-underrated memoir, 'Nothing of Importance.' Sassoon was also posted here in 1916 and witnessed the assult on Fricourt from here on the morning of 1 July. I'd suggest following the route that Paul Reed recommends in his 'Walking the Somme.'

[serreroad]

For sheer atmosphere, any of the Redan Ridge cems, Somme.

For sheer horror (not as in "spooky", just as in dramatically & deeply depressing), Neuville St Vaast German cem. I have seen a lot of "big" cems, but I was totally (and unexpectedly) overwhelmed by the simplicity and scale of St Vaast.

Mike

[auchonvillerssomme]

Atmosphere has to be getting up at dawn, walking up to Hawthorn Ridge through a low mist, complete silence, sitting with the men buried in Hawthorn cemetery, standing by the crater contemplating the distance we have come in time...the skin on the back of the neck tingling and an urge to look back down into the darkness of the crater. sliding and tripping down the slope and on to the sunken road, sit on a log, close your eyes and remember references about bodies piled there. move on up to Redan Ridge, silence and very cold, dog barking in the distance. I always wonder what hold this place has on me...then back for brekkie.

Worst place has to be Memorial des Fusilles, Arras...I have never been in a more depressing place and couldn't wait to get out...the 2 youths surrounded by bottles, one with a bleeding nose, sat in the bushes on the way in didnt help much either.

[Vista52]

Hello All,

I had a moment at Tyne Cot which was very sad and will never be seen again. During the first week of August, 1984, I pulled into Tyne Cot a few minutes behind 4 big Green Coaches. They had UK licence plates and an address from Blackpool. The Coaches gradually unloaded and I saw that the occupants were 90% very old ladies, with just a few old men and others.

As they got out and started to go in the Cemetery they broke into little groups helping each other along. There were pairs of old ladies but generally the groups were 5-6 ladies. Alot of the ladies held little bunches of flowers. I couldn't help but be in amongst the different groups and the first thing that struck me was the Northern accents. Before I left to live in the US, I came from London, so funny as it may seem now, I found these northern accents sort of interesting.

Anyway, I stayed there that afternoon and just watched as the groups moved around, stopping here and there. I knew I was watching the end of an era.

PS

[SFayers]

I first visited France and Belgium on a school history trip when I was about 14 or 15 back in the 1980's. Three places in particular that we visited have left a lasting impression on me.

The first, perhaps not surprisingly, was witnessing the last post being played under the Menin gate.

The second that was particularly poignant to me considering my age at the time was seeing the grave of Valentine Strudwick (age 15) in Essex Farm Cemetery (all the more so for being the place where John Macrae was inspired to write 'In Flanders Fields').

Finaly the third, was finding my great great uncle's grave in Bouzincourt Communal Cemetery Extension - being the first of my family ever to visit.

Something that has always struck me when visiting the 'Western Front' - of course the larger scale features such as the battlefields, cemeteries, etc. will always be evocative, but for me, particularly with regard to the last two examples, it's always been these small and obviously very personal incidents that have hit home the most.

cheers

Steve