Chemin des Dames Monuments, cemeteries

[Garde Grenadier]

http://www.chez.com/picardie1418/index.htm

Just wanted to mention this French site, which might be known already, but is certainly worth looking into.

Regards

Daniel

[j.r.f]

DANIEL

Thankyou.THIS IS GOOD

john

[Frank_East]

Daniel,

Thanks for the direction to a first class historical Web Site.

The Chemin des Dames battle area must be one of the few Western Front battle areas which have seen the least industrial development .

I can imagine that the sugar beet fields of the present day are the same sugar beet fields that the British Army fought over in the autumn of 1914. Only the Sugar Beet Factory is missing at Cerny.I suppose the casements constructed by the Germans on the Plateau de Californie are still there but I have seen no reported evidence that they have survived. It is difficult to see that such substantial defence works could have been removed.

The French Military Cemetary at Craonnelle which contains British dead is most interesting.I remember passing through in November 1997 when the cemetery was being refurbished and the cemetery was "up to the eyeballs" in mud. Being on a steep incline,there must have been a past problem with the memorial crosses /tombstones collapsing.The contractor was solving this by laying a continuous fillet of concrete across each row with the memorial crosses/ tombstones then inserted into sockets in the fillet.The fillet was then backfilled and hidden.After thinking the worse at the state of the cemetery which resembled a building site at this time ,later visits revealed the quality of the refurbishment.

Regards

Frank East