On the drive to Arras we visited Tyne Cot Cemetery where my Great, Great Uncle Francis Rupert Hercus fought but returned home and Caberet-Rouge British Cemetery for the grave of one of Roy’s relatives Edwin Cronk. We are in Arras for 5 nights.
We had an organised Australian Battlefields Tour of Flanders and Frommelles and were very fortunate it was just the four of us. We visited Pheasant Wood Cemetery and Fromelles Museum, Cobbers Memorial, VC Corner, Plugstreet, Messines, Hill 60, and the 5th Australian Division Memorial in Polygon Wood.
Yesterday we drove to Pozieres where a ceremony was being held at the First Australian Division Memorial for the 100 year anniversary and closed with the Australian National Anthem. We visited fields where Roy’s Great Great Uncle fought and returned to Australia. We strolled the Arras Square in the afternoon.
Yesterday, we toured the Carriere Wellington tunnels where 20,000 soldiers prepared for the Battle of Arras (April 1917) which was the most surprising and largest attack of World War 1.
Today we had an organised Somme tour which took us to Villers Bretonnex and the new Monash Centre, Gibraltar Block House, Le Hamel and the Lochnagar Mine Crater at La Boiselle which caused great reflection on the sacrifice these soldiers had made.