Preparations for a recent trip to Ypres took me back to an event referred to briefly in “Arras Memorials”. It appeared there by virtue of the fact that one of the men involved, Private Howard Clifford ODLUM, happens to be commemorated on the Vimy Memorial. The event in question was a two-pronged raid carried out […]
Archive | ARRAS MEMORIALS
Faith, Hope and Charity
“The First Battle of the Scarpe had been fought in sure faith of victory, the Second in good hope of success, but the Third Battle, on the 3rd May, was mere charity.” As summaries go, this is probably as good a verdict on the Battle of Arras as you are likely to find anywhere. The […]
Divisions, Brigades and Battalions – Arras and Bullecourt 1917
Somewhere along the line, I thought it might be useful to include the Order of Battle for Arras and Bullecourt on the website. “Military Operations, France and Belgium, Volume One, 1917”, which covers this period of fighting, only offers a skeleton Order of Battle. It does not set out which battalions made up each of […]
Some notes on attrition at Arras – 1917
The Battle of Arras undoubtedly took its toll on many of the divisions that took part in it. When the 2nd Division took part in the Third Battle of the Scarpe on the 3rd May 1917 it was only able to do so with a composite brigade consisting of four battalions designated ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’ and […]
Decisions, discipline and disobeying orders – Arras Memorials – Page 36 & Arras South – Page 321
According to “Military Operations – France & Belgium 1916 – Volume I”, the 46th (North Midland) Division sustained 2,455 casualties on the 1st July.Its attack that day was stopped in its tracks with many of those casualties lying dead or wounded out in no man’s land, but actually the picture was a bit more complicated than that. In his book, “The First Day on the Somme”, Martin […]
“Same story, different tale” – Arras Memorials and Arras North
It’s not uncommon to come across different accounts of the same event and in “Visiting the Fallen” there are several such instances. Sometimes it’s a case of an event viewed from a different perspective, sometimes different people have only partial information rather than the whole story; occasionally rumour becomes shaped as fact, at other times there is even what we might call selective […]
“One more burial at HAC Cemetery” – Arras Memorials – Page 73
Friday the 11th September this year was a gloriously sunny day, at least it was in Arras. I happened to be over there for three days leading a group around the 1915 battlefields of northern France, and ahead of joining everyone for breakfast I popped out to grab a copy of the “Voix du Nord”, the regional daily newspaper, and an early morning coffee. On page 15 the […]
Appendix – Arras Memorials – Page 248
Having just received my copies of ‘Arras Memorials’ from the publisher, I would like to draw attention to the appendix at the end of the book. Although the reference to aircraft identification number 59 (the remaining digits are not fully discernible from the photograph in the book) states that there are three possible candidates, there are in fact just two, […]
“Oh, What a Lovely War” – Arras Memorials – Page 76
Being a Grammar School lad myself I was drawn to the two part series, “Grammar Schools – A Secret History”, which was broadcast in July this year on BBC4. One of those talking about his experiences was Charles Chilton, broadcaster, writer and producer, who worked for the BBC for 46 years and who in due course was awarded the […]