Souvenirs

On 9 April 1917 at 5.30 am the Battle of Arras started with British troops emerging from the tunnels that had been bored in the chalk underneath No Man's Land east of Arras. My grandfather was one of them. The Royal Scots had been moved to Nelson Cave on 5 April in readiness. Today I stood at the entrance to a tunnel leading to the cave in Carriere Wellington. Dug by NZ soldiers (hence Wellington, Nelson and Blenheim) as well as Scots and Yorkshire miners they are amazing. It was moving to be there 101 years later.

After lunch N and I drove round some of the areas he would have known. Michael has the war diaries. He was awarded the MM for laying telephone lines, perhaps at the ridge overlooking Guimappe on 12 April. (Extra). We visited a couple of cemeteries including Chapelle de Feuchy. So many young men. But the land is very different now.

Then swimming in Vitry followed by another pilgrimage back to Duisans where the founder of the French family stayed after WW1.

And the weather was lovely, not like the snow in April 1917.