Devall Travels

This trip has been on the back burner for a while and I waited until I had something concrete to write about. November 11th 2018 is the centenary of the formal ending of the First World War and there has been very little written about what commemorations there will be. I saw a note on one of the battlefield travel tour operators for a trip to the Somme that included either a visit to Thiepval or to the Australian monument at Villers Brettoneux. I checked with the British Legion and they didn't seem to know anything about organised event at Thiepval at this time. I took a punt and checked out the Aussie sites and found that they were taking applications for ticket and so I filled in the forms for Claire and myself.  At the moment it looks like we have been successful and accepted.. So need to wait a while before booking anything... Oh. I forgot. I have booked the hotel we always stay in at Amiens....

Each year for our wedding anniversary we have been going away for the weekend or a week even. Sometimes to Spain to the timeshare and sometimes across the Channel to France. With Reggie in tow last year we had him inoculated against "la rage" or rabies as we call it in English, and he got his passport. We went across to France and Belgium and visited some family war graves on their centenary. This year we looked at holiday rentals (gites) in France and also in England. It's become apparent that France has more to offer and at more pocket friendly rental cost than at home! So I started looking seriously at cottages and mobile homes. Gradually moving northwards to remove the need for overnight hotels where Reggie is less happy. Finally settling on the north of France. Another consideration is that under the terms of the pet passport Reggie has to be wormed between 120 and 24 hours before he arrives back at the port to return to England. So before booking an...

These are the places that I have added to the weekend. I expect I have over-engineered it as I normally do, so there may be places that we can remove "on the hoof" if we are running out of time. I'll have the route for TomTom ITN and a .GPX copy available soon. Some links. Pals at Sheffield Park Ocean Villas - Auchonvillers really! Newfoundland Memorial Ulster Tower Tank Memorial / Australian Memorial Pozieres Pozieres British Cemetery / Memorial to the Missing Froissy-Dompierre Light Railway Historical Peronne Souvenir Francaise Rancourt

Earlier, Cal mentioned the ferry deal that he is looking at with P&O. Everyone, that  we know is going. will have received an email asking whether you want in or out, and if in, the details of the bike you will be taking; make and regno. Please let him know by March 19th.

Once having been through the Holt's Pocket Battlefield Guide a few times, I've added a few points of interest to the original plan. We are now officially on Plan B.

The Somme and the surrounding area will be pretty packed with trippers going over for the Centenary so I thought I'd have a look on our favourite hotel booking site and book now. The date is now 19th and 20th July. I wanted a place within easy reach of Corbie, at a decent price, not a chain and with free cancellation. I ended up with Hotel Central Anzac in Amiens.  It's about 25 miles from Thiepval and maybe 15 from Corbie. Hotel Central Anzac

To mark the 95th Anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, and more especially the Battle of Bazentin Ridge that kicked off the second phase of the battle, on July 14th 1916, Claire and I are off the France to visit the grave of my Great-Cousin William Devall. We went on the 90th anniversary and left a British Legion poppy cross to show that someone in our small family had remembered. Trying to find out more about how William came to be in the Kings Shropshire Light Infantry for a bloke that was born and bred in Vauxhall in South London has proved to be a little more complicated.  An email to the regimental museum didn't really help as they don't have many records any more, and what is available are on Ancestry.com. A visit there seems to have got nowhere really. It is a shame that national records that should be owned by the country and managed by the UK Government have been let go to a commercial site. From the regimental history book, I can see how the 7th Battalion made ther...

The Battle of the Somme began in the early hours of the 1st July 1916. "The Big Push" that would throw the German Army back towards Belgium from the line running across Picardy. The offensive started with a huge bombardment to drive the enemy back from his forward trenches and cut the miles and miles of barbed wire that lay across no mans land. A partly successful barrage left many of the brave men that climbed out of their trenches that morning with nowhere to go and they were mowed down before reaching their objective. At that time, the reserve and the next group of troops to move towards the line were still arriving. They moved by night so that air recon couldn't pin them down. My Uncle William was 26. Although born and bred in South London he found himself a private in the 7th Battalion Kings Shropshire Light Infantry. They arrived on the Ancre River near Corbié on the 12/13th July. On the 13th, they moved into the line and then were to assault Bazentin Ridge. Once ag...