English version of a blog post first published here in French on 21st November 2022. Reading Anthony Seldon’s recently issued The Path of Peace, Walking the Western Front Way, (Atlantic, 2022) (see review published in 2023 in the Revue française de civilisation britannique) prompted this translation.
At the beginning of the autumn, I was fortunate to be present at a ceremony at which a First World War map, which had belonged to a British NCO in the 62nd Division, was donated to a museum in the Pas-de-Calais. The local press reported on the event the following weekend : ‘La famille d’un soldat anglais remet une carte de la bataille de 1917 au musée’, La Voix du Nord, Saturday 17 September 2022.
Map of the Bullecourt sector, battle orders for 3rd May 1917 for the 2/6th Battalion Duke of Wellington’s Regiment.
The map shows the German trenches around Bullecourt at the time of the Battles that took place there in April and May 1917, and, in blue – no doubt pencilled in by the NCO – the lines his section was to assemble at, depart from and attack along.
The welcome this British soldier’s grandchildren received from the people in charge of the museum and from local dignatories – the Mayor of Bullecourt, the Chairman of the Sud-Artois local district council – is a sign of the tenacious memories of the fighting which took place in this corner of a foreign field
Sam Mendès’ film 1917 was inspired partly by the events in and around Bullecourt, and the villages of Ecoust and Croisilles are specifically mentioned in the narrative. The regional television channel FR3 Hauts de France gave an interesting account of the links between the film and the village: « 1917 » favori des Oscars : on vous raconte l’histoire de la Bataille de Bullecourt qui a inspiré le film de Sam Mendes.
During the commemorations of the centenary of the end of the 1914-1918 war, the stories of French soldiers and their families were collected nationwide, a large number of events were organised, and the whole coordinated and carried forward by the Mission Centenaire 14-18. These contributions highlighted the impact of the war on French soldiers and civilians.
Once the front had stabilized at the end on 1914, French soldiers mostly took part in battles south of Amiens (see the map Cartographie des lignes de front) whilst the Allied armies (of British, Australian, Canadian, South African and Indian divisions) were concentrated north of this area. American troops were to enter the fray later and reinforce and take over from French troops in the lines further south.
It is understandable therefore that the commemorations, memorials and events concerning French soldiers and civilians were focused on the long front line – in length, this front took up four-fifths of the line) from Amiens to Saint Dié in the Vosges, via Soissons, l’Aisne, Reims and Verdun.
The lines held by the Allies to the north stretched from Amiens to beyond Ypres in Belgium, through four French departments heavily affected by the fighting and by military presence, Allied or enemy : the Somme (Amiens, Albert), the Aisne (St. Quentin), the Pas-de-Calais (Arrais, Vimy, St. Quentin, Cambrai) and the Nord (Lens, Lille).
Museums have been doing their best, but the story of this sector, a history shared between the mainly civilian French, Allied forces and enemy troops, and with the families, children and grandchildren, of these soldiers and these civilians, is less well-known in France.
The two main musems, L’Historial de Péronne et de Thiepval, have set out to portray the First World War in its totality: the everyday life of the soldiers on the front-line, the life of the civilians in areas affected by the war, and the social changes the war brought about, from the point of view of all the nations engaged in the war. To translate the presentation of the Museum freely, it was conceived as a museum of cultural history, showing the daily life of individuals: soldiers, civilians, prisoners, people living in occupied areas, those who had been displaced… Such an anthropological approach attempts to highlight humanity at war, a total war affecting the whole of society.
At a more local level, the Archives départementales du Pas-de-Calais have opened a series entitled Chroniques de la Grande Guerre, with a large number of online articles on a wide range of subjects which include the fighting, the bombing of towns (Arras), local industry, the impact of the presence of troops in behind the lines, the mixing of populations, the German occupation, and many other topics.
In Bullecourt, the Musée Jean & Denise Letaille – Bullecourt 1917 honours the memory of Australian, British and German troops who fought in and around the village in 1917.
It is here that are gathered artefacts found locally and patiently put together by the Letailles.
Thus are commemorated the fighting and life in the trenches, the individual stories of some of the soldiers sent here, who, by thousands, merely here in this locality in the Pas-de-Calais, lost their lives, their blood, their souls.
It was here too, at Bullecourt, that the British NCO in the 62nd Division fought in spring 1917, before being sent to other fronts, nearby and further afield. At the ceremony held for the donation of the map one of his grand-daughters reminded those present of that shared history.
‘On behalf of our father, Kenneth Finding, we are extremely proud to be able to gift this map to the Jean and Denise Letaille Museum in Bullecourt today, September 13, 2022.
The idea came about four years ago. Present at the ceremony at Amiens Cathedral, in August 2018, for the official commemoration of the centenary of the last Allied offensive, I visited the villages where I knew that our grandfather had fought and I came to the museum here in Bullecourt.
On reporting my visit back to my father, now 97 years old, he recalled that many years earlier he had come to Bullecourt with the map to situate the action his father had taken part in. Someone who saw him told him to contact Mr. Letaille and our father was able to see the collection of artefacts in the barn. My father was very pleased to see the photos I had taken of the new museum.
Shortly after, my father decided he wanted to donate the map to the museum. This project took a few years to come to fruition due to Covid-related travel bans, but we are very happy that it is now happening. Our father, unable to be with us today, sends you his good wishes.
A few words about our grandfather will give you an idea of his military career and his presence in 1917 in Bullecourt and the actions in which he took part.
Born in 1878, he enlisted in the British Army in September 1897 at the age of 19. He spent eight years in India, and returned to the United Kingdom in 1905. He rose through the ranks of non-commissioned officer, and when he married in 1909, he was a sergeant. At the start of the war, he was appointed Company Sergeant Major, training recruits. He was promoted to Regimental Sergeant Major, the highest-ranking non-commissioned officer, in 1915.
R.S.M. George Finding, 2/6th Duke of Wellington’s.
His battalion, the 2/6 Battalion of the Duke of Wellington’s, a reserve regiment in the territorial army, was sent to France in early 1917. The regiment arrived in Le Havre on February 6, 1917 and reached the rear lines of the British Army, attached to the 62nd British Division. His battalion was at Bullecourt in April 1917 as second line attack troops and, in the days preceding the first battle (April 14-15), took part in attempts to break through the barbed wire and thus facilitate the attack, but his unit was not engaged in the battle, which, as you know, did not turn out well for the allied troops.
The battalion was in action in the second attack on May 3, and the attack plan for his sector was marked in blue pencil on the map he kept, which we are presenting today. To situate it for you, it is to the west of the village, from Ecoust the operational HQ, and the starting line was at the crossroads where the wind turbines are today, leading them beyond the road which leads to Fontaine-les-Croisilles, exposed not only frontally to the fire of the troops opposite in the trenches they were attacking but also exposed on the eastern flank, to fire from the village held by the Germans.
At 3:40 a.m. on May 3rd, his battalion was engaged. The losses were significant. In one day, the battalion lost a quarter of its strength – 267 out of the battalion’s thousand men were wounded, killed or missing. They were relieved the same evening at 10 p.m. and bivouaced at Mory. The next day, May 4, they were again sent to occupy and hold the 1st line for 48 hours under German shelling.
They were then sent to camps at Mory, Courcelles, Achiet le Petit, and Favreuil, taking part in engineering and logistics work, before being returned to the trenches at Noreuil, and, again, at Bullecourt, from 21 to August 29, 2017. Subsequently, the battalion took part in the attack at Havrincourt (Battle of Cambrai) at the end of November 1917.
In February 1918, his battalion having been disbanded as due to its losses it was no longer up to full strength, our grandfather was attached to the 5th King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry battalion, which had also taken part in the operations at Bullecourt in the spring of 1917. This battalion distinguished itself during the battle of Bapaume at Bucquoy and at Rossignol Wood in March 1918. In July 1918 they were sent to the Marne where it suffered further losses at the Bois de Courton south-west of Reims. They returned to Mory on August 25, 1918, to Havrincourt on September 12, then took part in the action to take the Canal du Nord (Ribécourt) on September 27.
The day before the Armistice, they recaptured Maubeuge. Our grandfather, after being sent to Germany (Cologne) with the occupying army in 1919, ended his military career as commandant of a demobilization camp in England. He left the army in 1920, his health not allowing him to re-enlist. This did not prevent him from reaching his 90s. He died in January 1967, a resident of the Royal Chelsea Hospital, a prestigious and historic home for old soldiers.
We are very happy to be able to donate this map to the Jean & Denise Letaille Museum and to commemorate the men with whom our grandfather fought in this very place.
On behalf of his son, Kenneth Finding, and his five grandchildren: Susan Finding (Poitiers), Andy Finding, Kate Poore, Judith Burgin and Anthony Finding.
The reader will have understood why this shared history is doubly important for the author.