2018 Battlefield Tour post 19

France/Belgium Trip 2018. Post No 19

Our last visit on Day 2 was to the iconic Thiepval Memorial to the Missing to pay respects to two DLOY soldiers who have no known grave. Gaz and Ginger left poppy crosses on behalf of the Regiment.

110604 Tpr William McLure DLOY was killed in action on 30 March 1917 aged 48. He was originally from Kilmarnock in Scotland but enlisted iin Manchester. His name is on Pier & Face 1A...RIP

110482 L/Cpl Harry Whitaker DLOY was killed in action on 24 March 1917 aged 26. He enlisted in Southport, his home town. Harry was the son of Robert & Elizabeth Whitaker of Honor Oak, 41 Clifton Rd, Southport. His name is also on Pier & Face 1A... RIP

Erected in 1932 on the site of the Thiepval Chateau the memorial lists 72,355 soldiers of the British and Commonwealth Forces who have no known grave. The youngest is 15, the oldest 60, the average age is 25.

The joint Anglo French cemetery on the site has 300 commonwealth and 300 French war graves.

The fortress village of Thiepval was attacked on 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, by 32 Div. The village itself by 15th and 16th Bns Lancashire Fusiliers. The sector facing the pre 1914 Chateau by the 16th Bn Northumberland Fusiliers.

To the north of Thiepval was the Schwaben Redoubt which was attacked by the 36th (Ulster) Div and to the south the Leipzig Redoubt, attacked by 17 Bn Highland Light Infantry.

The German front position on the south face of Thiepval was about 300 yds in front of the village; about 1,000 yds back was the second line, Staufen Riegel ("Stuff Trench" to British troops and "Regina Trench" to the Canadians) and another 1,000 yds further back was the third line, Grandcourt Riegel (Grandcourt Trench).

The cellars under Thiepval Château had been extended into a complex of tunnels, used as storehouses and shelters. A sunken road running up the middle of the village to the cemetery, had been lined with dug-outs and in the original front-line to the west were 144 deep dug-outs. Almost a hundred buildings had been turned into fortresses by the Germans, with 30 machine guns covering all the approaches. On the first day of the battle, out of the 650 men of the 15th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers (1st Salford Pals), 470 were casualties.

The Great Cross is on the German trench line from where the Wurtemberg Regt stood on the trench parapet taunting the wounded Northumberland Fusiliers in No Mans Land and shot any who moved. Statements from survivors give accounts of the Germans entering no mans land at night and bayoneting wounded in the throat before they could crawl away to safety.

It wasn’t until 27 September 1916 that Thiepval was finally captured by 18 Div.