Thursday September 10th - The Return

Thursday September 10th, Bar-le-Duc to Boulogne-sur-Mer, via the Somme

Arose early so we could find the Auchan again and stock up with Wines & Beers and Cheeses etc for our return home the next day. Loaded up Can’ardly and set off on small roads for Reims & then Laon, where we decided to have a short stop. Laon is a town perched on a hill-top amid flat countryside & is very pictureskew.

Photo’s of Cathedrals etc etc, then off to the Somme, via St Quentin on typical French roads.

The SatNav was once again affected and insisted that it take us up the smallest of roads with grass in the middle that eventually turned into cart tracks – bow and arrow country for sure (remember Agincourt?).

We finally figured out where we were, about 300 yds from Mesnil Martinsart CWGC Cemetery in Aveluy Wood – The resting place of my Great Uncle, Thomas Batty – Great Uncle Tommy, who was killed on the first day of the battle of the Somme, 1st July 1916. We found his gravestone, where a photograph was left and pictures taken. We toasted Tommy with a beer before we left.

A moving time.

(Poor young Tommy was a Sapper in the Royal Engineers, who got caught out when the Irish 36th Ulstermen were too successful and forged through the German trenches while their colleague units on either side did not. This meant that Tommy and his regiment, the 49th West Riding were called up to support the Irish and they found themselves surrounded on 3 sides by German machine gunners, with the retreat cut off by German artillery barrages. Not many survived including poor young Tommy.)

Then off for a spot of lunch atop the British trenches where Tommy was killed, in front of the Schwaben Redoubt, within a stone’s throw of Thiepval Wood. Wandering around close to Can’ardly munching cheese rolls we both found bits of shrapnel on the ground without really looking.
(Ironic really that Tommy was killed attacking the Schwaben Redoubt, when we had had such a good time in Tubingen with Gunter - Tubingen is in Schwabia).

Once again – moving.

Then, off to find Chris’s relatives at the Thiepval Monument and the Duisans Cemetery.
The Thiepval monument is to the missing of the Somme and contains the names of 72,000 missing soldiers.
Once again – moving.

We found Chris’s man, J Winchester of the Royal Sussex Regiment.

(We went to look at the Ulster Tower, a monument to the 36th Ulstermen, but were quite honestly shocked & disgusted to see a restaurant and café in the tower heavily advertised at the gate to the cemetery. We both agreed not to go in.)

Then across country to Arras, to the Duisans CWGC Cemetery where Chris’s 2nd relative was buried, Bombadier W E Hardcastle, Royal 

Field Artillery, killed October 1918 just a day or 2 before the war ended. A pretty bleak place in open country with the wind whistling through the tightly packed headstones.

Once again – Moving

Finally a sprint cross country to Boulogne-sur-Mer for our final Hotel, Etap, Centres les Ports and a meal in the cheese restaurant, which serves Cheese, Cheese, Cheese or Cheese. Good thing we like cheese.

A couple of local beers washed down the cheese, and we then repaired to the hotel room for a few more beers while we watched the video’s of the rally that we had taken. This revived our Sommebre (pun intended) day, which had been Awesomme (pun intended), so we had a few more beers.

Once again – Moving.

Sleep at about 00.45 ZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz