On the Road Again!

Finally arrived in Corbie having passed the once elusive Red Baron crash site. This time I didn't stop. Once off the autoroute the new 80kph limit does seem to extend journeys. I parked across from the cemetery and then went across.  Corbie Municipal Cemetery Extension William Devall. After putting my RBL cross by the stone, I took a photo and then retired. I sat in the shade of the big trees to cool down.  I was hungry and after some reflection I set off for Albert and the non-toll route home.  Lunch in town at the Hygge cafe. Plat du Jour. Potatoes with Lyon sausage. The sausage is loaded with pistachios.  Oh yeah. There was lettuce with a nice dressing.  As I was riding I had Diet Coke rather than beer.  Checking the time as I relaxed in the sun I realised I needed to abandon the non-toll route and revert to toll route. Time had got away with me and TomTom was showing an arrival time too late for my booked shuttle.  On the way back to the bike, park...

Some refining needed doing.  The original route out looked a bit in need of optimising. And that's what I have done. Taking the A26 route will be a toll route.  I am fully aware that "experts" reading this will be horrified that I have even suggested using a motorway/autoroute when I could use back roads. There. The elephant in the room is loose. Sod the "experts".  It will give me a chance to use my T-Liberté tag, also known as Emovis Tag.  It works perfectly in the car. Approach the toll booth barrier and "bing", the barrier goes up. Payment later on account.  It is also supposed to work on the bike as with the car.  I emailed Emovis to check on the procedure. It seems to know the length of the vehicle, so when a bike approaches the barrier it needs to be clear behind. No tailgating.  They also said to check my account a few days later to make sure I was charged the bike toll not the car.  I'll get it out of the car and it has to face forward, a...

As I am off for a few weeks over the summer I have decided to have a day on the bike.  My vain attempts to ride the bike more and from MoT to MoT and get more miles under the wheels than last year seem to have been somewhat blunted. So later in August I have planned and booked a trip across to France. Although the ferry is cheaper than the Shuttle it is less convenient.  When the Shuttle isn't plagued by delays and cancellations that is! So. The date will be August 21st. Midweek might have less of a crush! I have planned a route that will take me down the motorway as near as possible to Corbie to visit William Devall and then have lunch.   My plan is to ride back via Bazentin le Grand to see where the KSLI 7th Bn attacked and came a cropper on the undamaged wire. I have chosen a no-toll route back  Out via A26 In - no tolls William Devall

July 1st will be the 99th anniversary of the start of the Battle of the Somme. The battle on the Somme started with a week long artillery bombardment of the German lines. Over 1,738,000 shells were fired at the German lines. The logic behind this was so that the artillery guns would destroy the German trenches and barbed wire placed in front of the trenches. In fact, the Germans had deep dugouts for their men and all they had to do when the bombardment started was to move these men into the relative safety of these deep dugouts. When the bombardment stopped, the Germans would have known that this would have been the signal for an infantry advance. They moved from the safety of their dugouts and manned their machine guns to face the British and French. The British soldiers advanced across a 25-mile front. By the end of the battle, in November 1916, the British had lost 420,000 men, the French lost nearly 200,000 men and the Germans around 500,000. The Allied...

Sunday dawned quite early as it was very warm and humid overnight. I had the windows open but had to tie them together with my belt to make sure they stayed open but not blowing about. I packed and then went down a little too early for breakfast so took my bag out and loaded the panniers.  It was still alternating between warm and sunny and drizzle. When I went back in, David was up. He'd had a ground floor room facing the street so was unable to open a window. Amiens Hotel Breakfast at the Central & Anzac Hotel is dubbed continental, but it is far better than that might suggest.  So much to eat! Once Lainy came down we were ready to get going. The first stop of the day was to be the Australian Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux.  The run wasn't too far from Amiens and once again we were in waterproofs.  When we arrived there was a coach from Slovakia and a large group of tourists ahead of us. Tourists sounds a bit "sniffy" but no meant that ...

Yesterday was the 97th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme.  I was amazed that with interest building for the Centenary of the start of the Great War, that no one picked up on it for their news programmes. Claire and I have been across a number of times to visit the cemeteries and war graves of our relatives killed fighting on the trenches between 1914 and 1918. So I thought maybe in 2014 we could have a weekend there as a family commemoration and also mark the Centenary. There's plenty of time yet but an outline of the trip is forming in my mind. Our Somme connection is that one of my Grandfather's cousins is buried in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery at Corbie near Amiens in the Somme region. William Devall was born in south London but was sent to join the Shropshire Light Infantry. The 7th Battalian was a service battalian, created for the war only. A notable comrade was Siegfried Sassoon the famed war poet wh...

To mark the 95th Anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, and more especially the Battle of Bazentin Ridge that kicked off the second phase of the battle, on July 14th 1916, Claire and I are off the France to visit the grave of my Great-Cousin William Devall. We went on the 90th anniversary and left a British Legion poppy cross to show that someone in our small family had remembered. Trying to find out more about how William came to be in the Kings Shropshire Light Infantry for a bloke that was born and bred in Vauxhall in South London has proved to be a little more complicated.  An email to the regimental museum didn't really help as they don't have many records any more, and what is available are on Ancestry.com. A visit there seems to have got nowhere really. It is a shame that national records that should be owned by the country and managed by the UK Government have been let go to a commercial site. From the regimental history book, I can see how the 7...

William Devall For most of this years battlefield visitors the date they will be heading to the Somme will be July 1st.  This is the 95th anniversary of the first battle of the Somme back in 1916. My visit is slightly different. I will be making the trip to visit the grave of my Grandfather's cousin William Devall.  Although born in London, William was sent to the Kings Own Shropshire Light Infantry.  This regiment is better known as the posting of the war poet Sigfried Sassoon. The KSLI missed the opening day of the slaughter and arrived to take up their position as part of the second wave.  We don't know where William was wounded but he died of his wounds on July 16th 1916. He is buried in the Extension for the Corbie Communal Cemetery.

I am planning a day trip on the bike across to France to visit the war grave of one of our family that died from wounds during the Battle of the Somme in 1916. This year will be the 95th Anniversary. I expect to leave early on the ferry or Shuttle to get to Corbie before lunch. We are a small family and someone has to remember the sacrifice.