During a recent group visit to the Arras battlefield we stayed at Boiry- Notre-Dame. One morning, before breakfast, I decided to take myself off on foot through the village heading west along a track (a continuation of the Route d’ Arras) towards Monchy-le-Preux. After about twenty minutes the ground began to rise slightly (Infantry Hill), […]
Archive | August, 2017
“High Hopes and Disappointments”
Last year, during the winter months, I was involved in the ‘WW100Scotland’ project. I was asked to write a short piece on the Battle of Arras for inclusion in a booklet to commemorate the centenary. The work is just one in a series of booklets covering Scotland’s part in the Great War. For anyone going […]
Guémappe and Cavalry Farm – Applying the Brakes
Guémappe did not lie on high ground, nor was it very far from Wancourt, which lay a mere thousand yards or so further up the Cojeul valley to the south-west. With the Wancourt Tower in British hands, Guémappe appeared extremely vulnerable from the south, whilst to the north, with Monchy gone, it was beginning to […]
Wancourt, Héninel and the art of flexible defence
When the Germans evacuated the villages of Wancourt and Héninel on the 12th April they did so out of necessity. By then, the Wancourt-Feuchy Line, including Feuchy Chapel, had already fallen. The Hindenburg Line to the north of Héninel, around Neuville-Vitasse and Telegraph Hill, was now in our hands and Monchy-le-Preux had also been prised […]