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#4402252 - 01/28/18 05:40 PM OT - visit to the front UPDATED 29/3 WITH BEAUMONT-HAMEL  
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Many years ago when I was just beginning my working life, I received a paper from my employer outlining the terms of my pension. It said I could retire on full pension at the end of the month in which I turned 65, on 30 June 2018. My boss remarked with a laugh that 2018 sounded like ^$%##@ science fiction.

Well, I'm pretty much there, although the company I worked for back in the 1970s -- and its pension plan -- have long ago ceased to be. I'm celebrating the milestone starting next week by visiting my older son in England, where he is the head of History and Politics at an independent school north of London. A fellow WW1 buff, he and I have planned a military history tour.

Our plans are to take the Eurostar to Brussels, then

Day 1: Quatre Bras and Waterloo (Mont St Jean). I'm a bit of a Wellington fan. Then drive to Verdun in late afternoon (possible side trip to Bastogne).
Day 2: Verdun all day. Drive to Amiens in evening.
Day 3: Cambrai sector aerodromes, Somme
Day 4: Vert Galand, Filescamp Farm, Arras
Day 5: Arras, tunnels, Vimy, and Ypres
Day 6: Channel area to Ghistelles and Ostend. Evening in Bruges
Day 7: Sightseeing in Bruges. Beer could be involved. Return to Brussels.
Day 8: Back to London.

If anyone has any suggestions or recommendations, I'd welcome them. My son has a number of connections and ideas up his sleeve, having done this several times. I'll post some WW1 related photos here if you're interested.


#4402256 - 01/28/18 05:50 PM Re: OT - Suggestions for visit to the front [Re: Raine]  
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Sante
shredward

ps. and Frituur Peter if his stand is in the market - best fries on the planet. He also has a shop. And, there's mussels to be had in the pub or at the Halve Maan - I forget which


We will remember them.
#4402257 - 01/28/18 05:54 PM Re: OT - Suggestions for visit to the front [Re: Shredward]  
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Shredward: Too great. It's officially on the agenda. Thank you!

#4402261 - 01/28/18 06:14 PM Re: OT - Suggestions for visit to the front [Re: Raine]  
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Photos? By all means!


In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But in practice, there is.
#4402271 - 01/28/18 06:48 PM Re: OT - Suggestions for visit to the front [Re: Raine]  
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Oh, have fun Raine! I did a tour of the key Canadian battlefields back in 2008. Arras was one of my favourite towns. Please, please share some photos when you return.

#4402288 - 01/28/18 09:30 PM Re: OT - Suggestions for visit to the front [Re: Raine]  
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Raine, if you don't post the pics I will be very very disappointed! Oh, and manage to sneak in a pic of you and your son quaffing a pint at a local bar or sidewalk cafe!

Have a great trip mate!


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#4402293 - 01/28/18 09:54 PM Re: OT - Suggestions for visit to the front [Re: Raine]  
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Raine, your trip sounds great! I've not been to those parts in 40 years, would love to get back. And you certainly better post pictures here of your travels. yep

.

#4402336 - 01/29/18 02:13 AM Re: OT - Suggestions for visit to the front [Re: Raine]  
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Jealous!


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And assemble the engine again."
#4402342 - 01/29/18 03:12 AM Re: OT - Suggestions for visit to the front [Re: Raine]  
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Stow Maries Great War Aerodrome near Maldon, Essex

http://www.stowmaries.org.uk/


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#4402430 - 01/29/18 05:04 PM Re: OT - Suggestions for visit to the front [Re: Raine]  
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Stache, thanks. Stow Maries has been on my list for a little while, but I can't make it on this trip. I arrive on a Thursday and we leave for Brussels on Saturday morning, so Friday is the only possibility and my son is working that day. Plus it's nearly four hours round trip and I want to spend some time with my grandson. I think we're heading for the Natural History museum later Friday afternoon to give the little fellow his biweekly dinosaur fix. I'll save Stow Maries for next trip, though.

#4405168 - 02/14/18 05:34 PM Re: OT - Suggestions for visit to the front [Re: Raine]  
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I'm more than halfway through my week at the front. Unfortunately I can't seem to access my photos at day's end to post them. Next week I'll share the most interesting ones.

The agenda has been great. Sunday was Napoleonic day. We walked Quatre Bras and Waterloo. Monday we toured the hills around Verdun, and took a great tour of Fort Vaux. Tuesday was air war day. We began by walking Bertangles East and West, and visited the site of Richthofen's first grave. Then we went to Vert Galant, where the old farm still stands. Then we found Filescamp Farm, and discovered that the operator of the old Titus farm seems to have cannibalized an old Nissen as a tractor shed. Stopped at the town hall in Doullens where the Entente settled on a unified command under Foch. We ended the day by going to Vimy Ridge, where we toured the tunnels. Today we did the Somme fields, beginning at Lochnagar Crater, then I walked the path of my grandfather's advance with 7/8 KOSB on 1 July 1916 from Carney to Montauban, then we visited the Australian war memorial at Posieres. After that I found the site of Bertincourt - Velu aerodrome where Boelke built KEK North, after which we went to Thiepval and Beaumont-Hamel.

More to follow. Tomorrow we head for Ypres.

#4405217 - 02/14/18 10:52 PM Re: OT - visit to the front [Re: Raine]  
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Can't wait to see the photos Raine, and get all the details! Enjoy the rest of your tour Sir.

#4405220 - 02/14/18 11:05 PM Re: OT - visit to the front [Re: Raine]  
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Originally Posted by Raine
I'm more than halfway through my week at the front. Unfortunately I can't seem to access my photos at day's end to post them. Next week I'll share the most interesting ones.

The agenda has been great. Sunday was Napoleonic day. We walked Quatre Bras and Waterloo. Monday we toured the hills around Verdun, and took a great tour of Fort Vaux. Tuesday was air war day. We began by walking Bertangles East and West, and visited the site of Richthofen's first grave. Then we went to Vert Galant, where the old farm still stands. Then we found Filescamp Farm, and discovered that the operator of the old Titus farm seems to have cannibalized an old Nissen as a tractor shed. Stopped at the town hall in Doullens where the Entente settled on a unified command under Foch. We ended the day by going to Vimy Ridge, where we toured the tunnels. Today we did the Somme fields, beginning at Lochnagar Crater, then I walked the path of my grandfather's advance with 7/8 KOSB on 1 July 1916 from Carney to Montauban, then we visited the Australian war memorial at Posieres. After that I found the site of Bertincourt - Velu aerodrome where Boelke built KEK North, after which we went to Thiepval and Beaumont-Hamel.

More to follow. Tomorrow we head for Ypres.


You make me jealous Raine! I can't wait to see all those wonderful photos and when opportunity presents itself, chat with you about the adventure. Keep having a great vacation and personal time with your son.


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#4405565 - 02/17/18 12:54 AM Re: OT - visit to the front [Re: Raine]  
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Well, Raine, I hope you're having a wonderful time! Truly I do! Not jealous a bit, why would you think that?

Seriously hope you are having a great time! You can "figger out" this pics when you get back! pilot


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#4406860 - 02/23/18 12:43 AM Re: OT - visit to the front [Re: Raine]  
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Raine Offline
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Not quite the Western Front: Quatre Bras, 16 June 1815

Our first day was spent on two battlefields of Napoleon's last campaign: Quatre Bras and Waterloo. Having escaped from his first exile on the Isle of Elba and landed in the south of France, the Emperor marched on Paris and the armies sent by King Louis XVIII to stop him largely defected to their old commander. Over the spring of 1815, Napoleon -- once again the ruler of France -- set about building and equipping a new army. He was surrounded by enemies. To the east, Russia and Austria were scrambling to reestablish their armies. To the north, the Prussians under Bluecher and the Anglo-Dutch forces under Wellington were bivouacked in Belgium, Bluecher in the east of the country and Wellington in and to the west of Brussels.

On 15 June 1815, the French army crossed the Sambre at Charleroi and took the most direct route to Brussels. The Emperor hoped to shatter the Prussian army before it could join with Wellington, and then turn of Wellington and take Brussels. This, he hoped, would bring the enemy coalition to the peace table and secure France for him and his son.

He split his forces, attacking Bluecher at Ligny with two corps plus the Imperial Guard and much of his cavalry. He dispatched Marshal Ney, who had joined him only a couple of days before, to probe up the Brussels road as far as the crossroads hamlet of Quatre Bras. If Ney took and held Quatre Bras, Wellington's British, Dutch, Belgian, Hanoverian, and Brunswick troops could not move to assist the Prussians, and the plan to defeat the enemy in detail would be secured.

[Linked Image]
Looking south along the Brussels road. This is the view the first allied troops on the field had. The farm just left of the road is Gemioncourt, which was held by Dutch-Belgian light troops. In 1815 there was a substantial wood about 800 metres to the right of this road, the Bois du Bossu. It was held by other Dutch-Belgian troops and is, unfortunately, gone today.

[Linked Image]
Gemioncourt. It has not changed much in 202 years.

[Linked Image]
Looking north towards the direction from which allied units arrived as the day's battle proceeded. Quatre Bras is in the distance. Picton's 5th Division deployed to the right of the crossroads. Eventually the Guards' Division approached Quatre Bras from the left of the town. By late afternoon both sides had exhausted themselves and Quatre Bras remained in allied hands. The Prussians were defeated at Ligny, and Wellington had been unable to reinforce Bluecher, but the Prussians were able to avoid a rout and fell back to the north (not to the east, as Napoleon intended). This preserved the possibility of allied cooperation farther up the road towards Brussels. A tactical draw, the battle was a strategic victory for the allies, although a narrow one.




Attached Files Brussels road south.jpgGemioncourt.jpgBrussel road north.jpg
Last edited by Raine; 02/23/18 12:52 AM.
#4406863 - 02/23/18 01:06 AM Re: OT - visit to the front [Re: Raine]  
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Raine Offline
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Le Caillou, north of Genappe and south of the field of Waterloo. 17 June 1815

The day after Quatre Bras saw the allies trudging north in an apocalyptic downpour, the Prussians falling back on Wavre and ineffectively pursued by a third of Napoleon's army under Marshal Grouchy, which the Anglo-Dutch forces withdrew to Mont-St-Jean, a ridge astride the Brussels road just south of the village of Waterloo. The British fought a gallant rear guard action all day, with cavalry clashes and dashing horse artillery action holding back the French pursuit.

Napoleon made his headquarters on the night of 17 June 1815 at the farmhouse of Le Caillou, just north of the village of Genappe and several kilometres south of the Mont-St-Jean field. At breakfast on the 18th he met his commanders, laid a carpet over the breakfast tables and spread his maps, and then spelled out his plans to destroy Wellington's army and seize Brussels. Cautioned by Marshal Reille, Marshal Soult, and others who had faced Wellington in Spain and Portugal, he snapped ""Wellington is a bad general, the English are bad troops, and this affair is nothing more than eating breakfast."

[Linked Image]
Le Caillou, Napoleon's last headquarters

[Linked Image]
The tables where Napoleon ate breakfast and where he laid out his maps to brief his generals on the morning of Waterloo

[Linked Image]
The orchard of Le Caillou, where the Foot Guards of the Imperial Guard, the Emperor's personal guard, spent the night before Waterloo in driving rain.

More to follow next week -- don't worry, after Waterloo comes the Western Front!

Attached Files Le Caillou.jpgThe breakfast table.jpgLe Caillou field.jpg
#4406924 - 02/23/18 01:10 PM Re: OT - visit to the front [Re: Raine]  
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Those are some fine pictures. Looks like an enjoyable time was had!

#4407153 - 02/24/18 03:22 PM Re: OT - visit to the front [Re: Raine]  
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Raine, those are some gorgeous photos, thanks for sharing. And I must admit, I am more than a bit jealous at this point. smile2

.

#4407400 - 02/25/18 07:01 PM Re: OT - visit to the front [Re: Raine]  
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Waterloo, 18 June 1815: The opening phase at Hougoumont

The retreat from Quatre Bras to the ridge of Mont-St-Jean, the field of Waterloo, continued throughout the day of 17 June 1815. Violent thunderstorms and sheeting rain soaked the exhausted soldiers of both sides. There was no shelter to be had and men shivered in the open fields all night, huddled together for warmth. The British commissary wagons were still struggling down the road from Brussels. Wellington's men were tired and hungry. Across the shallow valley, Napoleon's army of the North struggled through cloying mud and rye the height of a man to find their positions. Many French cavalrymen slept in their saddles, which did no favours to their horses.

The sun began to break through after dawn on Sunday, 18 June. Peninsular veterans told their unblooded comrades that British victories seemed always to come after a good soaking. At Le Caillou Farm, Napoleon explained his plan to his generals. The Brussels road and the farm of La Belle Alliance would form his centre. Reille's 2d Corps would form left of the road, the western side. D'Erlon's 1st Corps, which saw no substantial action on the 16th, would form to the right of the road. Lobau's 4th Corps would be in Reserve to the right of the road, together with the cavalry. The Imperial Guard would be in reserve astride the road. More than 80 guns would form a Grand Battery right of the road, on a shelf in the shallow slope down from La Belle Alliance towards the Anglo-Dutch lines. Reille was to attack the walled chateau and farm of Hougoumont, which anchored the allied right. Wellngton would be forced to reinforce his right, weakening the centre, where the walled farm of La Haie Sainte formed a forward position on the Brussels road. The breakthrough would come in the centre, between Hougoumont and La Haie Sainte. With the forest of Soignes at his back, Wellington's army would be routed. Napoleon planned to spend the night in Brussels.

Off to the east, Marshal Grouchy was pursuing the defeated Prussians, keeping them from supporting Wellington's army. The ground was waterlogged, making it very difficult to move the heavy guns. Napoleon delayed the attack, waiting for the ground to dry. Shortly after 11 am, a gun sounded, signalling the start of the most significant day of the 19th century. Jerome Bonaparte's division of Reille's corps marched down the slopes to Hougoumont, the critical feint that would draw away Wellington's reserves, weakening his centre.

[Linked Image]
Jerome Bonaparte's men drove the Dutch-Belgians and British from the woods south of Hougoumont, and from the surrounding gardens and orchard, but the light companies of the British Guards regiment held onto the walled farm itself despite a succession of assaults. Hougoumont became a battle within a battle. Despite its importance to the allies' ability to hold their position, Wellington resisted the temptation to reinforce it to any great degree, trusting that the Guards would hold.

[Linked Image]
A particularly unattractive fellow contemplating the same scene. Must have been here for the past 202 years from all appearances. Interestingly, there are still a couple of very old chestnut trees that were once part of a more substantial small wood on the south side of the farm, closer to the French lines. The trees are still peppered with holes from musket balls.

[Linked Image]
The interior of Hougoumont. The chateau is gone, but the other buildings remain. The chapel at centre housed the wounded during the battle, many of who burned to death when howitzers set fire to the roofs of the buildings.


[Linked Image]
During the afternoon the French were able at times to complete surround the farm. A giant officer, nicknamed Le Gros, smashed open the north gate with an axe. Colonel MacDonnell of the Guards and a group of guardsmen counterattacked and were able to force the gates closed again and bar them once more. A British corporal grabbed a young French drummer boy and pulled him to safety inside where he would become the only survivor of the breaching party.

[Linked Image]
The north gate today. The sculpture was added for the bicentennial of the battle in 2015, when the British Government financed a large restoration project at Hougoumont. The casual visitor to Waterloo today would be forgiven for assuming that it was a great French victory with some vague Belgian involvement. The Emperor's name and face seem to be everywhere and Belgian monuments abound, while Wellington references are scarcely seen.










Attached Files Hougoumont.jpg20180211_152923 (Large).jpg20180211_152041 (Large).jpg20180211_144917 (Large).jpgNorth gate at Hougoumont.jpg
#4407408 - 02/25/18 07:56 PM Re: OT - visit to the front [Re: Raine]  
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18 June 1815: Waterloo -- the second phase -- D'Erlon's attack

Jerome's "feint" at Hougoumont drew in ever greater numbers of men. Napoleon sensed that the time had come for the main blow at the centre. At the Grand Battery pounded the opposing ridgeline, D'Erlon's 1st Corps of infantry stepped off. Their objective was the fortified farmhouse of La Haie Sainte and the sunken Ohain road that ran along the top of the ridge on the British side of the valley. Most British troops were in a reverse slope position, vulnerable only to shot rebounding over the crest. Wellington commanded his men to lie down, and many of the shots passed over them. One Dutch-Belgian battalion (they were soldiers of the recently unified Kingdom of the Netherland) had formed on the front slope. Torn apart by French shot, they routed.

[Linked Image]
The view loooking south from the Ohain road at the top of the British ridge. The tree-lined road on the right is the Brussels road. In 1815 there were no houses along the road in the valley, save for La Haie Sainte, which is out of the scene on the right. The white building on the road at skyline (above the left side of the light-coloured field) is a recent extension to La Belle Alliance (the original building is still there - it's a nightclub), where Napoleon set up a table and watched the battle unfold. You can see the fold, or shelf, in the far slope, just at the back of the large ploughed field at centre. This was where the 80-gun grand battery was set up. Plancenoit lies just to the left of this view, about 2 km away over the far ridge.

La Haie Sainte was held by the King's German Legion, German soldiers in British service. Its south-facing gate was gone (someone had unwisely burned it to keep warm during the night) and was barricade with farm carts and debris. The French surrounded the farm, but the KGL troops inside held the position. Riflemen of the 95th (remember Sharpe?) occupied a gravel pit across the road from the farm. They were forced back. The French pushed through the holly hedges that then lined the Ohain road and emerged onto the open fields of the reverse slope. British General Thomas Picton (dressed in civilian clothes and carpet slippers since his luggage had gone missing) pushed his Highlanders forward to exchange volleys. Then, at the pivotal moment, General Uxbridge ordered the British heavy cavalry forward. The heavy horses of the Blues and Royals, the Enniskillings, and the Scots Greys advanced at the trot, passing through the hedge and down the slopes into the mass of French infantry, turning D'Erlon's corp into a fleeing mass. Carried away by their success, the British horse ignore the Rally calls and continued as far as the French Grand Battery. Their horses blown and men exhausted, they milled about in the mud of the valley. Then it was the turn of the French light cavalry, the dreaded Lancers, together with several battalions of heavy cuirassiers. The French shattered the British survivors.

[Linked Image]
[Linked Image]
La Haie Sainte is today a working farm in private hands. Just behind me as I took this shot there is a small copse and a dip in the ground among the trees. This is the gravel pit where companies of the 95th, the Rifles, kept up a killing fire until forced back across the Ohain road. We wandered down the Ohain road to the east (Wellington's extreme left flank), where a convent now stands. There the view is similar to 1815. The lane is still slightly sunken and bordered with holly hedges as it was during the battle.


By this time, men in dark uniforms were emerging from the woods to the east of the battlefield. It soon became clear to Napoleon that Grouchy had failed and the new arrivals were men of two corps of the Prussian army. He dispatched Lobau's corps and the Young Guard from his reserve to hold his right flank, near the village of Plancenoit, against the Prussians.

A later second French attack took La Haie Sainte and pushed up to the sunken road, but advanced no farther. The crisis of the battle was at hand.

[Linked Image]
Here we are walking westward along the Ohain road, the top of the British ridge. On this side of the Brussels road, the ridge is no long as dominant as it was in 1815. In 1820, the Belgians sent a small army of workmen to dig up much of the ridge and build the massive Lion Mound, seen here in the centre of the picture. The Mound marks the place where the 20 year old Prince of Orange fell to a French sharpshooter. The Prince was nominally in command of the Anglo-British forces, but actual command was passed to Wellington since the Prince lacked any real experience. Wellington's comment when he first saw the Lion Mound was "They have ruined my battlefield."

Attached Files 20180211_132923 (Large).jpg20180211_135414 (Large).jpgKnotel_-_The_storming_of_La_Haye_Sainte.jpg20180211_132921 (Large).jpg
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