Visiting the Battlefields
A selection of some of the battlefields we visit
The Battlefields of the Ypres Salient
Situated in the Belgian province of West Flanders, the town of Ypres, famous for its medieval cloth industry, was completely destroyed during WW1. The gently rolling ridges that surround the town, taken by the Germans earlier in the war, offered them deceptively good observation platforms to observe the Allies. Field Marshall Haig, commander of the British Expeditionary Force, believed the war would be won in Flanders. The static nature of the campaign from 1915 to 1917 and later slow moving campaigns on the battlefield that surround the town saw the ground pulverized by shell fire and resembling a lunar landscape of shell holes in which towns and villages were completely destroyed and men blown to bits. Four major offensives were fought on the battlefields around Ypres during the war with plenty of smaller actions taking place between the offensives. The town was the only Belgian cathedral town not to fall into the hands of the Germans in WW1. Roughly a quarter of all the fatal casualties sustained by the British Army in WW1 fell on the battlefields around Ypres. Today, Mother Nature has reclaimed the land, and the towns and villages have been rebuilt. The cemeteries and memorials that dot the beautiful Flemish countryside remind us of the cost of war.
The Somme Battlefields
The rolling, chalky Somme countryside is where the French Army brought the German advance to a halt in 1914. The British Army took over a vast swathe of the sector in 1915 and the next year on 1st July 1916, with the French Army, launched the Somme offensive. The first day of the offensive remains the bloodiest day in the history of the British Army, with over 57,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers being killed and wounded. But the battle raged on until November 1916, and it was through experiences gained and lessons learned in the battle that the British Army, made up of men from all over the Empire including Australians, Canadians, New Zealanders, Newfoundlanders, South Africans and Indians, learned to fight. The British Army of July 1916 was a large but inexperienced army. Many of its experienced soldiers were killed or wounded earlier in the war. But it was this inexperienced British Army, fighting alongside the French Army, that would break the back of the German Army on the Western Front in 1916 and go on to become a fighting force capable of leading the rest of the allied armies to victory in 1918. The Somme was a vital and costly training ground for the British Army in 1916, and it was here in 1918 that the Germans pushed back the Allies in the first phase of their final offensive of the war and then the Allies launching the final offensive of the war known as “The Advance to Victory". Even over 100 years after the war finished, vestiges of the trenches and scattered bunkers can still be seen on the battlefields and in memorial parks. The largest British War memorial in the world, the Thiepval Memorial that today commemorates over 72,000 men who were killed nearby and have no known grave, dominates the Somme and can be seen from almost everywhere on the battlefields. The Somme region is also where the Australians, New Zealanders, Newfoundlanders and South African nations commemorate their soldiers that were killed in France and have no known grave.
The Battlefields of Arras and the Artois Region
The town of Arras is the capital of the Artois region of France and was heavily defended by the French Army earlier in the war, surrounded by a series of ridges that were taken by the Germans as they advanced into France. A French attempt to recapture the ridges in a battle known as “The Second Battle of the Artois” was fought over a 40 day period in April/May 1915 and cost the French Army over a 100,000 casualties. The British took over the sector from the French in 1916 and the area was the scene for the next British offensive coming after the Battle of the Somme. The Battle of Arras was fought over a 39 day period in April/May 1917 and incorporated a lot of the lessons learned by the British during the Battle of the Somme. Artillery perfected great creeping barrages, providing a wall of steel for advancing infantry. On the first day of the battle, the British Army made its furthest single daily advance since the war’s beginning. The town and countryside sits on limestone geology, great amounts of which had been quarried since Roman times. Both sides made use of underground quarries and added many more tunnels, some of which can still be visited today. The battle was the first stage of a two-part battle with the French launching an offensive in the Champagne Region of France soon after. The battle is also remembered as the first time all 4 Canadian Divisions fought together under Canadian Command, attacking and taking Vimy Ridge. The memorial to the Canadian Corps and to its men who fell in France and have no known grave now stands atop Vimy Ridge and is a true masterpiece of architecture. The Battle of Arras remains the costliest offensive in terms of average daily casualties fought by the British Army in WW1; over 4000 men a day became casualties during the offensive. The ground to the east of Arras also saw heavy fighting in 1918 during the attack on the Hindenburg Line and the “Advance to Victory".
Verdun
Verdun is a town through which runs the River Meuse in the Department of the Meuse. Surrounded on both banks by high ridges, it became the target for the German 5th Army in 1916 in what would become the longest battle fought during World War One, over three hundred days and nights. The ridges around Verdun were dotted with large forts, a throwback to the military engineering mindset following the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 to 1871. The statistics of the Battle of Verdun continue to shock people over a hundred years after the end of the war. The Germans started the battle with an artillery barrage that fired 2.5 million artillery shells onto French positions and the town of Verdun in just 9 hours! It is believed that every square meter of the battlefield had about a thousand shells explode in it during the war. Many villages were blown off the face of the map. The casualties for the battle which raged from February to December were staggering. Both sides lost over 770,000 men killed, wounded and missing. It became known to the French as “The Mincing Machine” and it is a battle ingrained into the psyche of the French people. Today it is one of the most visually striking battlefields to visit on the Western Front. Much of the battlefield around the town is preserved as a memorial park with the ruins of the villages, vestiges of trenches, and bunkers still very visible. Where Mother Nature has reclaimed many parts of other sectors of the Western Front, the battlefield of Verdun has been left be. Some of the forts, including the corner stone of the French defenses, Fort Douamont, the heaviest defended fort in the world at the beginning of the war, are open to the public. Dominating the center of the battlefield and visible for miles around is the Ossuary, a memorial to those who fought and died at Verdun. It is also a mass grave and below the memorial are chambers containing the remains of over 130,000 sets of soldiers’ skeletal remains, from both sides, which were recovered off the battlefield after the war.
The Argonne
The Argonne region of France, just east of the Champagne, was occupied by the Germans in 1914 with little movement until 1918. Following the entry of the United States into WW1 and the deployment of the American Expeditionary Force to the Western Front, the German positions in the Argonne would be the target for the largest battle fought by the AEF in WW1 alongside their French Allies. To the west of the battlefield was the Argonne forest, sat atop a north/south running ridge not unlike a spinal cord; the forest hid a network of intricately designed defenses on the forward and rearward slopes of steep ravines, hidden from view by the thick nature of the forest. The Germans had perfected these defenses over the years, and the Americans fighting in the woods would find the going tough and the German positions difficult obstacles to penetrate. Running eastwards from the Argonne forest, the opposing trenches stretched out across the beautiful Argonne countryside to the River Meuse. The German positions were in depth, running across the front of a series of ridges and hills with each German strongpoint named after witches from Wagner’s operas. Many famous Americans took part in this battle, including former President Harry Truman and later WW2 Generals Patton and MacArthur. The offensive brought mobility back to the battlefields; today, as you drive around the stunning Argonne countryside, many of the villages and towns still display damage from the fighting in WW1. It is one of the most picturesque former battlefields of WW1 and the location of the largest American Military Cemetery in Europe at Romagne. Dotted around the battlefield are memorials to AEF Divisions and smaller units such as the Pennsylvania Memorial to the 28th Infantry Division at Varennes. Memorials include those to The Lost Battalion and brave individuals; a fine example is the memorial and walking trail that follows in the footsteps of son of Tennessee, Sgt Alvin York, MoH, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for action aside the village of Chatel-Chehery.
The Palestine Campaign
The Palestine Campaign was the second largest front fought by the British Army outside the Western Front. After crossing the Sinai Desert from Egypt, the British made two disastrous attempts to penetrate Ottoman Turkish defences around the city of Gaza. This failure saw the change of leadership of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force; fresh from the Battle of Arras on the Western Front, General Edmund Allenby took over the Force and with much preparation, on 31st October 1917, launched an offensive from Gaza across to the ancient city of Beersheba. A ferocious charge by Australian Mounted Infantry from two Lighthorse Regiments broke the Turkish defences around the town of Beersheba and ensured its capture, seizing the vital water wells, some of which date back to the time of Abraham. The push northwards continued, and six weeks later the holy city of Jerusalem was liberated with over 400 years of Ottoman Turkish rule coming to an end. General Allenby entered the old city, on foot, through the Jaffa Gate and, on the steps in front of David’s Citadel which dates back to 2BCE, proclaimed that all religious sites regardless of religion would remain open. He was the first Christian in many centuries to take control of this important city. The offensive slowed until late summer 1918 as troops were needed on the Western Front to combat the German spring offensive. Indian troops were moved from Iraq into what was then Palestine, with the northwards push and rout of the Ottoman Empire continuing in September 1918. Indian troops liberated the Mediterranean city of Haifa with Australian and British troops pushing north across the Plain of Esdraelon in the Jezreel Valley in front of the ancient ruins of Megiddo, where they inflicted a fatal blow into the retreating Ottoman Turkish Army. After moving up to the Galilee region and the Golan, Australian and British troops pushed onwards to Damascus, and the move northwards of Arab forces to the east of Palestine forced the Turks into an armistice on the 30th October 1918.
Modern Battles of Israel
Since the birth of the modern state of Israel in 1948, there has not a year gone by when it has not been threatened in some way by at least one of its Arab neighbours. Israel and its neighbours have fought a series of wars since 1948 that have shaped the land of Israel into what it is today. Memorials all over the land and especially those close to its borders remind us of the sacrifice made by modern Israelis in their fight to defend the State of Israel. From the Negev desert in the south to the Golan Heights bordering Syria in the north there are many stark reminders of the wars fought to maintain Israel. The dormant volcanos of the Golan Heights provide many observation opportunities to look into Syria and also southern Lebanon. Minefields laid during the 1967 and 1973 wars dot the landscape as do bunkers and the impressive memorial and former military position facing the Valley of Tears tells the story of one of the most ferocious tank battles in history when a single Israeli tank battalion equipped with British-made Centurion tanks held back hundreds of Syrian tanks and armored vehicles during the Yom Kippur war and saved Israel. This tour looking at the modern and also some of the ancient battles can be run together with the WW1 Palestine Campaign tour.