Battlefields you have visited (3 Viewers)

Great pics Doug, thanks for posting.

Rob
 
Great pics guys

Doug- those clear blue skies and lush green grasses sure have me wishing it were spring!!

UKSUBS- I think your pics were cool too- neat that you have a "niche" specialty of items you like to look at- like bunkers. :)
 
Of all the many places on the Western front this is my favourite. Its the famous Sunken Lane on the Somme. Unlike many other sites there are no big memorials, no Pill boxes etc (there is a cross at one end) its an ordinary, unassuming country lane that hundreds of people drive by probably without realising what happened here. But it was here that one of the many terrible events took place on that awful morning of 1st July 1916. The Lancashire Fusiliers who can be seen smoking their pipes and smiling at the camera went over the lip of this lane when the whistles blew and were cut to pieces by German machine guns in the woods opposite. Three times they tried to advance and each time they were cut down with few men getting more than a few feet from the lane, even men trying to reach this lane were cut down in the attempt.

By 7.30am on that morning this lane was full of dead or dying or wounded men, sobering and heartbreaking to think that most of the men in this picture were killed just a few minutes after the pic was taken. Everytime I visit (every two or three years) I always place a small wooden cross and Poppy on the lip of the lane.

The British Generals in WW1 may have had many questions to answer, but the British Tommy was amongst the bravest in the world and did their duty and much more.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2524/3969410277_b529490f6f.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3160/2742688334_39a48ab75e.jpg?v=0

Rob
 
Rob said:
Of all the many places on the Western front this is my favourite. Its the famous Sunken Lane on the Somme. Unlike many other sites there are no big memorials, no Pill boxes etc (there is a cross at one end) its an ordinary, unassuming country lane that hundreds of people drive by probably without realising what happened here. But it was here that one of the many terrible events took place on that awful morning of 1st July 1916. The Lancashire Fusiliers who can be seen smoking their pipes and smiling at the camera went over the lip of this lane when the whistles blew and were cut to pieces by German machine guns in the woods opposite. Three times they tried to advance and each time they were cut down with few men getting more than a few feet from the lane, even men trying to reach this lane were cut down in the attempt.

By 7.30am on that morning this lane was full of dead or dying or wounded men, sobering and heartbreaking to think that most of the men in this picture were killed just a few minutes after the pic was taken. Everytime I visit (every two or three years) I always place a small wooden cross and Poppy on the lip of the lane.

The British Generals in WW1 may have had many questions to answer, but the British Tommy was amongst the bravest in the world and did their duty and much more.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2524/3969410277_b529490f6f.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3160/2742688334_39a48ab75e.jpg?v=0

Rob
Click to expand...
Very poignant picture of the lane. The peacefulness sure belies the tragedy of 1916. It's is amazing how nature can turn a scene of bloody mayhem into such a pastoral setting. Nice juxtaposition of shots. -- Al
 
lancer said:
Very poignant picture of the lane. The peacefulness sure belies the tragedy of 1916. It's is amazing how nature can turn a scene of bloody mayhem into such a pastoral setting. Nice juxtaposition of shots. -- Al
Click to expand...

Very well put Al.

Rob- the english soldier of 1916 was far far far braver than I could have ever been- no amount of alcohol, prodding, threatening or screaming could have made me ever go over the top. I know my limits and I would have broke.
 
Currahee Chris said:
Very well put Al.

Rob- the english soldier of 1916 was far far far braver than I could have ever been- no amount of alcohol, prodding, threatening or screaming could have made me ever go over the top. I know my limits and I would have broke.
Click to expand...

And if you looked at the far Horizon and saw a figure running like a bat out of hell-thats me mate!;) I don't know how they did it, stones of steel those young men.

Rob
 
Gentlemen, it was a unique generation, all around. I have always been in awe of the sense of duty, dedication, trust, and just plain guts that it took to respond to the whistle to go over the top. -- Al
 
Hi
I`ve been very lucky to have been to the following battle fields.

Dieppe Raid,Fort York,Lundes Lane,Queenston Heights,Quebec City,Gettysburgh,Ypres,Mons,Normandy(Pegasus Bridge) for the 40th Ann of the Liberation of Holland.Zeeburgh,Falaise Gap,Strirling Bridge,Battle of Bannock Burn,Culloden,Battle of Presten Pans,Waterloo,Arnhem area for the Nijmengen March.We stayed at Harscamp.Bunker Hill.All through the Lake George area.Ticonderoga,Vimy Ridge and all through that area.Fort Ann Nova Scotia,Brugge,Edingurgh Castle.Flanders Fields where LCOL John McCrae wrote the famous poem.

I`ll find out in the next week or so I may be heading over to Vimy for an honour guard.Canadian remains have been found on one the battle fields.
Cheers
Dave
 
Lexington Green, Concord Bridge, Bennington, Vt, Fort Ticonderoga, Trenton, Monmouth, and Yorktown. Most of the Pennsylvania/Virginia CW sites and Chickamauga and the Atlanta sites. We have several AWI and War of 1812 raid sites right here on Cape Ann.
 
Currahee Chris said:
Thanks to Wendy for reminding me of Valley Forge too :) I have been there too.
Click to expand...

Oops, not technically a battlefield, but there were soldiers there. :rolleyes:

They were probably cranky enough to get into fisticuffs now and again. :D
 
Wendy said:
Oops, not technically a battlefield, but there were soldiers there. :rolleyes:

They were probably cranky enough to get into fisticuffs now and again. :D
Click to expand...

I wouldn't dount it- the way people drive on the Schuykill expressway- seems to have a rather aggresive feel to the valley there- perhaps some restless souls influencing all of us :D
 
Hi
The one place I forgot about.I was there in 2001.If you ever get the chance this`s one place to have a good visit.

Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial

Of the five memorials established in France and Belgium in memory of major actions fought by the 1st Battalion of the Newfoundland Regiment, the largest is the thirty hectare site at Beaumont-Hamel, nine kilometres north of the town of Albert. This site commemorates all Newfoundlanders who fought in the Great War, particularly those who have no known grave. The site was officially opened by Field Marshal Earl Haig on June 7, 1925.
 
nshighlander said:
Hi
The one place I forgot about.I was there in 2001.If you ever get the chance this`s one place to have a good visit.

Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial

Of the five memorials established in France and Belgium in memory of major actions fought by the 1st Battalion of the Newfoundland Regiment, the largest is the thirty hectare site at Beaumont-Hamel, nine kilometres north of the town of Albert. This site commemorates all Newfoundlanders who fought in the Great War, particularly those who have no known grave. The site was officially opened by Field Marshal Earl Haig on June 7, 1925.
Click to expand...

Been there many times, its a must see on the Western front and contains original Trench lines and is pock marked with shell holes. When I first went there there in the 70's there were still rolls of barbed wire in the Trenches, but these were gradually reduced by souvenir hunters. They now have a new education center there too. There is a cemetery in the grounds but perhaps just as moving is the 'Danger Tree'. This is the rotten remains of a Tree that marked the point where most of the Newfoundlanders were killed as they went forward on the 1st July. The events there that day were truly terrible, with the Germans apparently stood on the parapet waving the Newfoundlanders forward.

Rob
 
The one thing I really remember about Beaumont Hamel were the birds sing in the parking lot.But when you started to walk onto the battle field the strong silence that fell about you.There was not one bird singing not even that many people talking.You know that you were walking on sacred ground.We had alot of Newfoundlanders in are group and you could see the tears starting.Very moving for me.

Dave
 
I'm turning 26 next month, so I haven't been "around the block yet." But here's where I've been so far:

Civil War:
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Shiloh, Tennessee
Antietam/Sharpsburg, Maryland
Harper's Ferry, West Virginia
Perryville, Kentucky

French and Indian War:
Fort Necessity, Pennsylvania
Fort Ligonier, Pennsylvania

Little Bighorn/Custer's Last Stand, Montana
Fetterman Massacre, Wyoming

Alamo, Texas

Stirling Bridge, Scotland

Other not really battlefields:
Valley Forge, Pennsylvania
Williamsburg, Virginia
Fort Frederick, Maryland
Gen. Edward Braddock's Grave, Pennsylvania

Places I want to go someday.................
Europe:
Normandy, France
Bastogne, Belgium
Waterloo, Belgium
Culloden, Scotland
Thermopylae, Greece

Rorke's Drift/Isandlwana, South Africa

USA:
Fort Ticonderoga, Fort Edward, Fort William Henry, Lexington Green/Bunker Hill/Concord Bridge, Yorktown, King's Mountain, Cowpens, Monmouth, Trenton, Princeton, Saratoga, Germantown, and all other FIW and Rev War places; also a ton of Civil War battlefields, too many to name
And tons of others from other eras I haven't named.....
 
Visited Gettysburg, a number of times, Yorktown, Valley Forge (not a battlefield), Kings Mtn, Lexington & Concord, Fts Henry and Donnelson, Vicksburg, Chicamauga, Andersonville (not a battlefield but the prisoners would probably disagree), Manassas (including the Centenniel re-enactment), Antietam (re-enactment, 1962), Ft McHenry (passed the place Gen Ross was killed everyday to work one summer), Ft Brooke (Seminole War), Ft Sumter, Perryville, KY, Appomatox CH, Balls Bluff, Alamo.

In Europe: Remagen Bridge site (no bridge today), Verdun, St Mere Eglise, Omaha, and Monte Cassino, Bastogne.
 
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