Day 14: Thursday 10 April 2014

Two firsts for the trip today.  A middle aged gentleman bought his little dog into a restaurant and sat with it on his lap while he ate his dinner and chatted to his middle aged gentleman friend.  It used to be a usual occurrence to see dogs in bars in bars and restaurants in France, although this is the first time I have seen it on this trip.  Now for the other first; I was at a restaurant on the main city square and I had just ordered my dinner when some music started up and an excruciatingly bad singer started singing.  I looked at the table to my left and I noticed the lady there was looking at a catalogue of available songs!!  Oh no, I had stumbled into karaoke night in St Quentin!!  I couldn't leave as I had already ordered my meal and had drink in front of me.  Anyway, made the most of a bad situation and enjoyed my meal and the free "entertainment".


A big day out in the field today, including lots of walking.  Followed the 3rd division advance on the German Hindenberg line including some actions specifically relating to the 40th battalion.


It was another beautiful spring day, about 11 degrees when I was first out about increasing to about 18 degrees through the day.  There wasn't a breath of wind and all the turbines on the wind farms were stationary.  You could hear nuclear power plants all over France revving up to pick up the load.


First up was a visit to the 4th Division memorial.  This is the standard obelisk and involved a 1.5km walk each way as the track to it wasn't too flash and I am doing my best to look after the hire car (pity about the mud and dust, on both the outside and inside).

4th Division Memorial

 I then followed the 3rd division advance on Gillemont Farm and the town of Bony.  These were both actions in which the 40th battalion played a pivotal role.  Standing there today on a beautiful spring day it is hard to imagine the incredible violence that took place on the same spot nearly 100 years ago.  


The St Quentin canal runs pretty much north south on this battlefield and the Germans had included it as part of the series of defences that made up the Hindenberg line.  However part of the canal ran through a tunnel for 5km and although this area was heavily defended by the Germans, the Australian commander, General Monash decided he would use the covered part of the canal as a' bridge' to get his men across the canal."  The Germans had fortified the canal tunnel and were using the tunnel with barges secured in it as barracks, hospital and supply depots.  There was a rumour amongst the Australians that the Germans had a 'corpse factory' in the tunnel where they boiled down their dead for fat.  Thankfully the rumour turned out to be untrue.



St Quentin canal tunnel

I also visited the Pont de Riqueval across the canal.  The British 46 division forced a crossing of the canal at this point.  One of the great photos of TGW is of a British officer addressing thousands of his men (some still wearing lifejackets) from the bridge after the crossing.  (Google it if you wish).

There is also Somme American Cemetery and Somme American Memorial in this area.  Some very inexperienced American units were used to bolster the numbers of the understrength Australian battalions, however with mixed results. 

Somme American Cemetery

Still can't load photos, also experiencing trouble sending e-mails although I can receive them.  Such are the problems of life on the road.  C'est la vie.