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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In the autumn of 1914 neither of the warring parties had the advantage over the other and this stalemate resulted in a continuous line of defence being established from the Vosges to the North Sea.
During this ‘Race to the sea’ the German Army set up positions on every piece of high ground that bordered its newly conquered territory. One of these was Aubers Ridge. Its dominant position gave the Germans a major strategic advantage, not the least because of Fromelles Church.
From the top of its bell-tower, their lookouts had an uninterrupted view of Lys Plain from the hills of Flanders to the Pas-de-Calais coal basin. Consequently, the church soon became a target for Allied artillery and by the spring of 1916 it lay in ruins. When peace returned it was rebuilt on the same foundations but in the Neo-Romanesque style. It was consecrated in 1924.
Photos credits: Collection Jean-Marie Bailleul
As the conflict changed from a war of movement into one of position, the armies began to install fortifications to defend their lines. In 1915 the pioneer battalions of the German Army began to erect concrete bunkers along the front. They were placed in echelon and designed for a variety of purposes.
Dozens of these positions are still visible today in the area around Weppes. One of these is the Abbiette Bunker which stood about 1,000 yards behind the front line. It was a command post. The middle parados bears an inscription indicating that it was built by the 13th Bavarian Pioneers, a battalion of the 6th German Division. The bunker features a wide firing step that allowed riflemen to shoot over the top of the bunker. History notes that from March 1915 to September 1916 a corporal named Adolf Hitler, a dispatch rider for the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment, carried messages between the bunker and the German command at Wavrin. He would return to Abbiette in 1940.
Photos credits: Collection Jean-Marie Bailleul / Jean-Marie Bailleul
Erected in October 1922, this memorial is dedicated to Captain Paul Adrian Kennedy who was lost in action on 9 May 1915 during the Battle of Aubers Ridge. Wounded by a solitary sniper as his company advanced through the German lines in the Rouges Bancs sector near Fromelles, Captain Kennedy told his men to leave him to his fate, which they did, and he was never seen again. After the war his mother Lady E. A. Wilbraham, who had lost three of her four sons in the war, purchased a plot of land at the spot where Paul was last seen and had a memorial erected there. The original Christ of the memorial was later transferred to the chancel of Fromelles Church where it can be seen today.
Photos credits: Collection C. Heddy – Kennedy
The Fromelles offensive was launched on 19 July 1916 to draw German soldiers away from the Battle of the Somme, which had been raging since 1 July. For the Australians, it was not only their first battle on the Western Front of the Great War, but also one of their bloodiest.
Preliminary shelling started at 11 a.m. and targeted a portion of the German front that was two and a half miles wide. At 6 p.m. the order was given for the 5th Australian Division and the 61st British Division to attack. Their objective was to take a salient position known as the Sugar Loaf that lay opposite the hamlet of Rouges Bancs on the outskirts of Fromelles. Heavy rain in the days running up to the attack meant the terrain was sodden. The initial bombardment failed to destroy the German machine guns and, inevitably, the successive waves of soldiers who advanced through the mud succumbed to their fire (some of the concrete bunkers that sheltered those guns can be seen in the grounds of the Memorial Park today). Australian soldiers on the northern flank of the attack succeeded in crossing the German front line but were unable to hold out against the ferocious counter-attack. The following day at around 9 a.m. the operation was halted. No ground had been gained. Casualties in the Battle of Fromelles were colossal. The 61st British Division lost 1,500 men while more than 5,500 Australians were either killed, wounded or missing. On the German side, over 1,600 Bavarians were put out of action.
In the next three days, despite no official truce being proclaimed, Australian soldiers went out into no man’s land to succour their wounded comrades. The bravery and humanity of their gesture is remembered in the memorial that stands in the centre of the park. It was unveiled in July 1998 and dedicated to the ‘cobbers’ of the Great War. A replica of Peter Corlett’s statue can be seen in the gardens of Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance.
Photos credits: National Collection of the Australian War Memorial / National Collection of the Australian War Memorial / A.S. Flament
The attacks launched by the British in the sector prior to the Battle of Fromelles were brief but intense. They featured a number of individual exploits that were rewarded with the Victoria Cross, Britain’s highest military distinction, and this is reflected in the cemetery’s name: V.C. Corner.
Of all the war cemeteries in France, this is the only one to be exclusively Australian. It comprises two mass graves marked with a white cross and these contain the remains of 410 unidentified Australian soldiers found on the battlefield at Fromelles at the end of the war. A memorial wall facing the entrance to the site bears the names of the 1,299 Australians who were reported missing in action after the Battle of Fromelles on 19–20 July 1916. Recently, in 2009, the remains of some of these men were found in Pheasant Wood and have since been identified.
Photos credits: A.S. Flament
Designed by Sir Herbert Baker, this cemetery is considered by many to be one of the most beautiful remembrance sites of the Western Front. As its name indicates, it adjoined an aid post situated in a place called Le Trou (The Hole), near Fleurbaix, on the British Army’s support line of trenches. It contains the graves of 351 British soldiers who died in various battles in the sector: Le Maisnil (October 1914), the Battle of Aubers Ridge (9–10 May 1915), the Battle of Loos (25 September–14 October 1915) and the Battle of Fromelles (19–20 July 1916). Only 149 of the men buried in Le Trou have been identified.
Photos credits: A.S. Flament
The entrance to Rue-Petillon Cemetery in Fleurbaix is marked by a triple arch which opens on to a beautifully gardened graveyard where the bodies of 1,500 soldiers from across the British Empire rest in peace. Some Germans are buried there too. As with the nearby Le Trou Aid Post Cemetery, Rue Pétillon was situated on the British support line and adjoined an aid post; however this one was installed in the ruins of a house that soldiers jokingly called ‘Eaton Hall’ after the country home of the Duke of Westminster. The graves of thirty Australian soldiers killed in a German raid on 15 July 1916 are easily identifiable because they stand so close together.
Photos credits: O. Delory
In 2007 and 2008, following independent research by French and Australian historians, the Australian government surveyed a plot of land on the edge of a wood known to the Germans fighting in the Great War as Pheasant Wood. Sampling indicated the presence of five mass graves which had been dug by the Germans in the aftermath of the Battle of Fromelles.
In 2009 the bodies were carefully exhumed and DNA samples were taken to identify them. In total 250 bodies were recovered. After careful study by a team including archaeologists, anthropologists, medical experts and military historians, the bodies were finally laid to rest in the new Pheasant Wood Military Cemetery.
Using samples taken during the excavations, scientists are currently attempting to identify the bodies and their programme of research is expected to continue into 2014. The process involves comparing anthropomorphic data with administrative information relating to soldiers reported missing after the battle. Australian and British families who lost an ancestor during the fighting are also DNA tested to aid identification.
Photos credits: Image courtesy of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission / Collection Jean-Marie Bailleul
Standing close to the church, on a rise facing the Western Front, a Cross of Sacrifice overlooks the many gravestones in the hexagonal cemetery of Pheasant Wood. Every single one of the 250 bodies found in the recently discovered mass graves was reburied with full honours by representatives of the British and Australian Armies. Pheasant Wood Cemetery is the first cemetery to be built by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission since the 1960s. It was officially opened on 19 July 2010 in the presence of British, Australian and French dignitaries. To date ninety-four soldiers have been identified. As identification proceeds, the gravestones bearing the inscription ‘Known unto God’ will be gradually replaced with ones engraved with the personal details of the soldiers.
Photos credits: G. Funk / E. Roose
Overlooking the new military cemetery, the museum describes the fascinating work that was required to excavate and identify the bodies discovered in Pheasant Wood ninety-two years after the Battle of Fromelles. It tells the story of the battle and the lives of some of the soldiers who fought in it. In addition to the objects collected by a club of local historians, some of the artefacts on display were found in the mass graves and are currently on loan from the Australian Government.
Photos credits: Collection Martial Delebarre