These regions are home to the many sites that bear the scars of two world wars. The sites commemorate the selfless sacrifice of those who took part and now, thanks to the regional Remembrance Trails, you can discover them at your leisure along local cycling and hiking routes. Each route develops a specific theme and is accompanied by an illustrated guide. Consult the guide on your mobile (or download it) to discover the human side of these conflicts and learn about the region and its history in an original and compelling way.
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The name of Neuve-Chapelle is today engraved alongside those of other battles on the impressive memorial erected to the memory of the 4,847 soldiers of the Indian Corps of the British Army who were lost in action. Designed by the architect Sir Herbert Baker, the memorial was unveiled on 7 October 1927. Circular in shape, it is closed on one side by a wall with ornamental apertures and sculptures depicting the insignia of the Indian Army; and on the other side by a solid wall bearing the names of the soldiers lost in action. A column bearing the names of the battles is flanked by two tigers and surmounted by an imperial lotus leaf, the imperial crown and the Star of India. It also bears the words ‘God is one, His is the victory’ in English, Arabic, Hindi and Gurmukhi. A large remembrance ceremony takes place at the memorial every year in November.
In early October 1914 the war reached the area between Béthune and Armentières. Neuve-Chapelle soon became embroiled in the fighting because it was a strategic point at the intersection between Béthune/ Armentières road and La Bassée/Estaires road. On 28 October 1914 the British Army deployed its Indian Corps but was unable to wrest the village from Germans hands. On 10 March 1915 the intentions of the 1st British Army were to retake the village, gain Aubers ridges and open the road to Lille. The attack extended from the site of the Indian Memorial to a point three kilometres to the north. The British deployed 340 guns and two army corps, about 40,000 men. After thirtyfive minutes of preliminary shelling the Indian Corps attacked the trenches opposite the memorial. The 4th British Corps attacked to the north. The village centre was taken at around 10 a.m.
German reinforcements and various pockets of resistance prevented the British Army from securing its initial gains. Bloody attacks and counter-attacks took place over the following three days. A strip of land about 800 yards deep was eventually taken at the cost of huge losses, almost 13,000 British soldiers and as many German.
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In 1924 Portugal decided to create a military cemetery at the heart of the sector held by the Portuguese from 1917 until the German offensive of 9 April 1918. It contains the graves of 1,831 Portuguese soldiers who died on theWestern Front. A remembrance ceremony is held there every year in April.
In February 1917 the Portuguese Expeditionary Corps (PEC), with General Tamagnini at its head, disembarked at Brest to support the Allied effort. Comprising roughly 55,000 men divided into two infantry divisions, the PEC set out for Marthes in Northern France where its soldiers were to be trained in military techniques specific to trench warfare, and especially in the use of gas masks. The British Army provided them with weapons and helmets and integrated them into the sector under its control. By April 1917 the first of the Portuguese units had moved up the line in Neuve-Chapelle, a relatively quiet sector since the fierce battles of 1914 and 1915. Upon their arrival they found a damaged statue of Christ which they subsequently erected in their position in the hope that it would protect them. The sector gradually extended towards Fauquissart. Headquarters were set up in Laventie, La Gorgue, Lestrem and Saint- Venant. On 8 April, the 2nd Portuguese Division
learned it was to be relieved the following day. But at 4 o’clock the next morning the Germans began heavy shelling in preparation for their ‘spring offensive’. The intention was to cut the British front in two and make a lunge for Calais. The attack focused on a stretch between Givenchy and Bois-Grenier which was held by the Portuguese and some tired British divisions. The 6th German Army breached the front and stamped out pockets of resistance. Many Portuguese soldiers were captured or fled. Only the 55th British Division succeeded in stopping the Germans, at Givenchy.
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The German Army occupied the sector around Piètre soon after war broke out. From an observation post installed in some tall poplars, its lookouts watched the British lines in the area of Fauquissart Church. Conditions were typical of the front line in the Netherlands.
The flat, damp ground was riven with numerous ditches and often marshy. Water seepage prevented the soldiers from digging deep trenches so, to protect themselves, they raised high parapets using bags of earth. The Germans were quick to erect concrete bunkers. One of these, a half-buried shelter near Laies River, is still
standing. It comprises a staircase which leads to a corridor connecting three chambers. Various apertures at ground level suggest that a pump was used to drain water out of the trenches and into the river.
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With the Battle of the Somme raging since 1 July 1916, General Haig ordered a diversionary attack on Aubers Ridge in the sector of Fromelles. At 6 p.m. on 19 July 1916 the 61st British Division and the 5th Australian Division, the former depleted and the latter inexperienced, attacked.
The diversion was unsuccessful. However the Australians briefly took the German front line. Losses were horrific. Exactly 1,557 British soldiers and almost as many Germans were killed or wounded. At the end of their first tour of duty on the Western Front Australian casualties totalled 5,533. A commemorative plaque on Laventie Town Hall pays tribute to the 61st Division which billeted there.
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Benefitting from the Russian defection, Germany launched several major offensives in the spring of 1918 in an attempt to breach the front and seal victory. One of these, Operation Georgette, began on 9 April 1918 between Givenchy and Bois-Grenier and culminated in the Battle of the Lys. The 6th German Army, using a combination of massive shelling, poison gas and, at strategic points, the elite soldiers of its Sturmtruppen (storm-troops), succeeded in breaching the Allied front. The 40th British Division was driven out of Fleurbaix and the 2nd Portuguese Division, from Laventie. By evening the Germans had crossed the Lys at Bac-Saint-Maur. During the following day the scope of the attack increased. The towns of Armentières, Merville and Bailleul fell to the invader. But the battle ground to a halt in late April on the edge of Nieppe Forest. The German Army established several military cemeteries,in particular in Laventie and Sailly-sur-la-Lys, to bury its soldiers who died in the fighting of April and the summer of 1918. After the war the 1,978 graves from the small temporary cemeteries set up by the German Army in the sector were concentrated on a single site in Laventie. Some of the crosses bear up to four names. Today the cemetery is maintained by the German war graves commission, the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge.
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For the four years of the war, the entrance to the communication trenches which led to the British front lines was situated near Rue du Bacquerot, about half a mile from the site of the Battle of Neuve-Chapelle. A nearby farm was used as an aid post to treat the wounded exiting the trenches. Soldiers who could be treated and moved were evacuated to the Casualty Clearing Stations in Estaires and Merville. Those of the wounded who died at the aid post were buried in the adjoining cemetery. Indian soldiers killed in the first two years of the war were buried in a special plot.
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Many soldiers from the Royal Sussex Regiment were buried in this cemetery subsequent to the Battle of Boar’s Head on 30 June 1916. The battle took its name from the German salient, situated near Rue du Bois and the Indian Memorial, which resulted from the Battle of Festubert in 1915. The operation of 30 June 1916 was a diversionary attack prior to the Battle of the Somme. The 39th Division’s objective was to take the German front lines. After several hours of fierce fighting, the attack withdrew. Losses were heavy, more than 1,000 men. Most of the wounded passed through the aid post set up in the farm next to the cemetery.
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In 1914 Richebourg was in fact two separate villages: Richebourg-l’Avoué, cleft by the front, and Richebourg-Saint-Vaast which was behind Allied lines. In the hamlets furthest from the front, such as Bout del Ville, local families lived alongside the soldiers and suffered greatly from the violence of the war. After the Armistice the villagers, returning to discover a ravaged landscape, pooled their efforts to rebuild what they had lost. A war memorial depicting a fallen soldier commemorates the ninety-seven men of Richebourg who were killed in the war. On the wall of the church facing the cemetery hangs a mutilated statue of Christ, a poignant reminder of the destruction.
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In 1917 and 1918 the Allies established a line of resistance consisting of fortified points and defensive works which linked La Couture with the villages situated in the back area. Portuguese troops under the command of Colonel Bento Roma held the position during the Battle ofthe Lys on 9 April 1918. To commemorate
their achievement the Portuguese government decided to erect a memorial in La Couture and this was unveiled on 10 November 1928. Portuguese sculptor Teixeira Lopes used stone and bronze to depict an allegory of the Nation holding the sword of Nuiv’Alwarez,
hero of Portuguese independence. By her side a Portuguese soldier strikes down Death in the setting of a ruined Gothic cathedral.
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More than 13,000 British soldiers killed at the front between Givenchy and Neuve-Chapelle in 1914 and 1915 have no known grave. Le Touret Memorial, designed by the architect Truelove and unveiled on 22 March 1930, pays tribute to them. A long gallery leads to an internal courtyard where the names of the soldiers are displayed. The Battle of La Brassée, which ran from 10 October to 2 November 1914, brought a halt to the race to the sea and marked the start of the war of position. The other battles were the result of large localized operations to breach the front and played a diversionary role for the French operations in Artois in 1915. Many
soldiers died in the fighting in Neuve-Chapelle, Givenchy, Aubers, Festubert and Cuinchy. From October 1914 to March 1915 the village of Neuve-Chapelle was the site of numerous bloody engagements. In December 1914 and June 1915 Givenchy was the scene of horrific fighting between the British and Germans, each in turn the aggressor. Major attacks took place in Cuinchy in February 1915. On 9 May the British opened the Battle of Aubers across two sectors. In the southern zone, situated along Rue du Bois in Richebourg, the soldiers of the 2nd Munster, whose minister was renowned for giving absolution on the eve of the attack, suffered heavy losses. Fighting in the northern sector took place
between Fromelles and Fleurbaix. Shortly afterwards, British and Canadian troops endured huge losses to take a section of the front during the Battle of Festubert (15–25 May 1915). The sector was relatively quiet in 1916 and 1917.
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The memorial to the 55th West Lancashire Division was unveiled on 15 May 1921 in the presence of the Lord Mayor of Liverpool and Field Marshal Joffre. The rose symbolizes the county of Lancashire.
War veterans were the driving force behind the project to commemorate the resistance of the West Lancashire in Givenchy during the German offensive of 9 April 1918. Throughout the war the village was the scene of fierce fighting. In December 1914 the Germans took the village and held it for several hours before the British drove them out. Mine warfare was rife in 1915 and 1916. The nearby memorial erected in 2010 commemorates the tunnellers who died in the sector, most of whom were British.
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