Daniel.

I never knew Daniel.

If anyone had an idyllic growing up it was me. Many Friday nights I would sleep down at Nana and Da's because they lived down the harbour so it was less far to go on Saturday morning but Saturday evenings was bathtime, and bed unless I slept in Nana and Granda's at "Elhanan" 9a Bowling Green Terrace, in which case I was bathed at home, dressed in Sunday Best and with pyjamas wrapped in a dressing gown I walked down the road to their house.

Usually it was being allowed to beat Nana at checkers or dummies before being told that it was bedtime and asked, "what did I want for supper?"that I liked. I think it was the suppers that I most looked forward to.

One night a year was always different. She tended to look sideways at the TV in the corner as she glanced at it over her knitting rather than looked at it properly. But each November for "The Royal British Legion's Service of Remembrance live from The Royal Albert Hall" as the ever so formal BBC announcer began to intone she was right there in front of it.

I'd be sat next to her in a big brown high back chair with wooden flat arms that cut into you so I needed the shiny dark red cushions. I liked the Royal Navy Gun Carriage Teams racing about throwing tons of equipment around with such precision and control but the marching bands and stertorous voices were a bit of a bore, really. It didn't matter as I'd fall asleep and wake up in uncle John's bed even though he'd left home years before it was always his bed.

Later on, I guess by the time I was 6 or 7 the suppers had taken their toll so I'd wake up where I went to sleep but with the matching brown chair placed under my feet so making a bed between two chairs.

Only once that I can remember did I ask her what it was all about but I've never forgotten her reply. "This is for Daniel," she said nodding at the telly.

All I knew of Daniel was that he was killed in the war and little else. Nana said that he was "a breaa handsome boy" which was a bit odd because everyone who ever lived was " a breaa handsome cheeld" but I don't remember her mentioning "boy", a "maid" occasionally. Like "Maid Dorcas" who was Daniel's sister and lived up the road. Dorcas has always been in St.Ives. Jane, his other sister, lived in London and we visited once or twice but eventually she and Ted came back and now live down Gulval, I think. The last time I saw them was at uncle John and aunt Joan's 50th anniversary.

Nana's sister, Dorcas was Daniel's mum and lived down Carnglaze Place and from her front window you could see right down the quay.  Later she moved in with Maid Dorcas and her husband, Jimmy.

Mum said Daniel was quiet and really gentle, a lovely chap, others have said he was a fine mason so he had a trade. I also heard that he was killed by mortar fire in Caen.

Between Nana's fireplace and the telly in the corner was a large wood glass fronted bookcase cabinet. It  was huge, it was taller than me but that meant that it was really only about 4' tall and about the same wide. It had sliding glass doors and four shelves, three full of Granda's books and the top shelf full of trinkets, Granda's cufflinks, arm bands and hearing aids. And photos. One was of a smart uniformed young man, about a two-and-a-quarter square photo sandwiched between two bits of glass and held in a wooden base. That was Daniel. The other photo was of uncle John stood next to a headstone, I think with his left hand on it. That was Daniel, too.

I never knew what happened to Daniel, either.

Today I went to where uncle John stood and we've unravelled a bit more about Daniel. When I say "we" I really mean my research assistant who sits behind me waiting for me to stop tapping away but beside me is a sheaf of papers, official documents, photocopies and all sorts. Her methodical and intense way of going about finding stuff is amazing but, hey, I've done googling. And we went to the Turisme Information Centre yesterday, here in Caen. Maps. They have maps and I love maps.

So, this is what we have found out.

Daniel was part of 3 Brigade who landed on Sword beach. He was in 2nd. Batt. Kings Shropshire Light Infantry and would have landed at Queen Beach at 1000 . This beach is the western most end of Sword Beach. The Eastern extremity of Sword was the Port of Ouistreham, the western end was at or before the start of St.Aubin-sur-Mer.

They met fierce resistance as they fought to move inland but eventually Douvres, Hermanville and Colleville were taken but the rate of advance was slow. Most of the information comes from the armoured division personnel, they had 3 squadrons of Sherman Tanks and were the spearhead but progress was slow as they were up against SS troops and Hitler Youth Brigades.

Montgomery wanted Caen taken and decided to launch Operation Charnwood. This would last from 7th - 9th July. Over the night of 7th-8th heavy bombers struck in force at the northern edge of Caen, a strip about 2 1/2 miles long and a mile or so wide. So great was the destruction that it hampered the eventual march into the town . Today, on the tourist office map it notes the "unbecoming architecture" that now is found there.

 The armoured division and KSLI were tasked with taking "Libesey Wood"which was the last defended high ground between them and Caen. After the bombing at 0420 the ground assault began with a bombardment of the units 25lb guns and the tanks.

Tanks can not batter a way through established woodland so their strategy was to bombard the position with artillery and then the tanks would encircle it. If the bombardment didn't kill all the defenders or scare then off it was utterly imperative that once ground troops went in there was no possibility of further troops moving up from Caen to reinforce the position.

At 1000 the tank commander signalled that it was encircled and the KSLI went in to mop up the wood. This they did, emerging on the southern side of the wood at 1500. Now they were to advance on "Ring Contour 60". They were fighting the recently arrived infantry of the 21st Panzer Division.

At some time after that an 88mm field gun, deadly accurate and efficient opened up. The Shermans couldn't engage with the 88mm from their current position so they had to withdraw, which they did, but not before losing five tanks and their crews. It was at this point that the most senior KSLI officer was badly wounded. He was found beside a wrecked tank and was taken to the Forward Casualty Post at Bieville-Beuville. He is quoted as saying that he was unaware of how tired he was having been active for at least 48hours.

The enemy kept the infantry pinned down using observers from the chimneys on the outskirts of Caen. The infantry dug in"with the utmost rapidity."A tank gunner, Sid Moore in a Sherman of 144th Regt.Royal Armoured Corps and the rest of his squadron were advanced from 2 miles north of Libesey wood to give cover to the dug in infantry. Which they did. One tank commander said that the infantry had no where to go and just had to take it.

A member of The Royal Ulster Rifles reported that as night fell we heard the first mortars open up.
A short time later the enemy was "liquidated" and the mortars fell silent.

On one website there is a footnote to the effect that one Hugh Patrick Maguire single handedly took out the 88mm killing two of it's four man crew and capturing the others but no time for this action is given.

There are conflicting numbers of casualties given, one document says 80, one 107 and one 118. Daniel was dead when he arrived at the Casualty Post at Bieville-Beuville. Where he was buried. I know this because Dad knewThomas Berriman another St.Ives man, who was there as a medic, who told Dad that he was praying that Daniel would be brought in wounded. But he wasn't.

Daniel was later reburied in the cemetery at Douvres-la-Deliverande. 

Daniel died at the end of a hot and sunny Saturday, the 8th of July 1944 somewhere south of Libesey Wood during Operation Charnwood at the age of 22.

As near to the centre of Queen Beach as I could work it out to be

Believed to be the approach to Libesey Wood from the north. It was obviously much bigger and not full of houses in 1944.

A clue that we're in the right area

This is believed to be all that's left of Libesey Wood, the large trees, the small ones are obviously recent. None are likely to be there in a week or two.

Looking south towards Caen from Libesey Wood. There are concrete and steel units all the way in from here and the land rises gently before gently falling away right down into Caen itself. Contour Ring 60 may be the highpoint of the rise. It's just about where the trees are in the background. It's much easier to see on the road.

Poppies in Libesey Wood today, Sunday October 4th 2015

Poppy moved from Libesey Wood.

 I never knew Daniel but had he survived the war and lived his threescore years and ten I would have

 As Nana said, "this is for Daniel."

Notes:
The KSLI enbarked and disembarked in Newhaven on 3rd June. They embarked finally on the afternoon of 5th.

The KSLI entered Caen on 9th July but the town was not completely taken until 18th.

To give a sense of scale as we were driving back this afternoon it occured to me that it's like he landed at Marazion and Caen was home, there was a battle at Crowlas, he died up The Steeple and is buried down St,Erth. It really is that sort of geographic scale.

In the Museum of The Battle of Normandy in Bayeux the painfully slow advance on Caen is forcibly and dramatically displayed through maps of the first weeks of the invasion. These maps also show just how much importance Rommel placed on defending Caen. Of 9 divisions brough from the  Pas-de-Calais 7 were sent to Caen. Initally at least 4 divisions of SS Panzer Infantry were in place in a short time, the rest followed. The armour was sent by train and greatly delayed by the efforts of the RAF.

There is one map which pinpoints troop movements at Libesey but does not name any other settlements around it thus making a wholly reliable position of the engagement impossible but the general vicinity is where we thought.

There is a book called "Sword" written by a Frenchman. I wish I'd got a copy but it's in French. However, in it there is a photo of a hand annotated map of the beachhead in which Queen beach is far more extensive than the  official map we saw in Caen and Queen beach is shown in three sectors, white, green and red. The photo above is still in the right area, maybe not exactly but not far away.

This book also mentions that the enemy in this sector was very determined being mainly brigades of Hitler Youth and SS Infantry.

In there, too, there is an incident recorded when Eisenhower told a gathering of the press corps that "the blood it cost for every foot of ground at Caen would have got ten miles anywhere else."

Dorcas Benny, eldest sister of Daniel. d.12th October 2015 St.Ives
Jane Allen, youngest sister of Daniel. d.                      2019 Gulval

Pondering On A Quiet Day

The executive management wisely decided against further battlefield visits today, instead it was suggested that because it was hot (20C) and not as windy a gentle bimble was called for.

Thus it was that we stopped for a look at Bray-sur-Somme, pleasant but hardly worth more than a second or two. Nope, one's enough. On to Cappy then. Delightful but brief pedal on the Bromptons. Stop for coffee. Grrrrr.

On to somewhere else via a no through road which caused numerous oooooohs and aaaaaaaaaghs as the multi point turn was ingloriously executed and eventually ... an oasis. Actually, Le Oasis at Chipilli where a beer and lemonade was had for €4.50. I was even pleasant and polite to the locals especially when one opened the door to a panoramic balcony for us to sit at whilst drinking.

Now I'd probably think I was being set up but that was before I knew that the Frenchman was a thief. Oh, well. I've been without a mobile phone before.

Anyway, from said window we spied a proper velo path. It went as far as Amiens and further but after about 15k we met a decent Englishman with his H&S lifejacket adorned wife/partner/mistress on a very smart and shiny barge who told us that Amiens was lovely but from here where we were to there was a bit industrial.

So we turned tail and began to aggravate the locals. This one repeatedly landed in front of me and then took off to do it again. You'd think he lived here.

The Kingfishers were amazing, as always but much slower than ours. Unfortunately I only had my Fuji with me and as that has taken to exasperating me as well it wasn't a great photographic experience. It'll have to go back. Great camera, though. When it chooses to respond to your shutter finger and where has all the viewfinder information gone? After all it's because of said information that I got it. That and the delightful shutter.

Did get time to consider though.

Two days of well planned and apposite visits have left one more drained than I'd have expected. At first the multitude of cemeteries that you pass with indecent frequency cause you to slow, look and think but today? It's not that the novelty has worn off it's just that you can't respond to all of them. We saw a sign yesterday to "Euston Road Cemetery" and looked but it contained "only" a few tens of graves. Only! See, that's what's happened. There are so many and some have very few, some a hundred or so, some many hundreds and some have many, many more.

Along Le Vallee Somme today there are no cemeteries but as soon as you ascend it's north bank they appear

The CWGC does a marvellous job. Each grave is clean and legible. Beautifully tended and landscaped. They are also all open. That is testimony to the high regard in which their sacrifice is held locally. Union flags abound. The "Lions led by donkeys" revisionist history driven by war poets of varied political persuasion is not held here. Yes, some British commanders were inept, incompetent and class riven. Fortunately most were weeded out fairly soon if they were not shot first. Officer attrition was horrendous below Majors. Majors and above were generally not "in the front" lower ranked officers were and they led by example and paid the price.

It's when you see the landscape that you begin to understand why the casualties were so great. This gently rolling countryside extends as far and beyond where we have been. It is a machine gunners delight. There is no cover. Thus trenches are inevitable. If you are going to defeat the enemy you have to kill more of his soldiers than he kills of yours. This is what both sides did. There doesn't seem to be any option and in 1914 they still rode horses into battle. They represented the height of mobility in a field at that time. Sadly, only a few years before 1914 all the combatant nations had invented the machine gun.

Gentle undulations with a white cemetery in the centre. So many like this adorn the countryside everywhere we've been.

I do think that we must be careful not to judge decision makers by our late 20th century experience.

However, my overriding impression is of the wisdom, a century later, of burying the dead where (or very close to where) they fell. It gives context but mostly it gives an idea of the scale of their deeds in a way nothing else can. To see the names inscribed on walls of limestone, the white limestone head stones arranged in vast lines and columns makes certain that it has an effect on you.

Kaiser Wilhelm, considered eccentric at best (some say psychotic) and Moltke, his Christian Scientist secretary of war who was utterly determined to take France using a plan that he'd drawn up for the Franco-Prussian War 30 years earlier were never reasonable in the first place so reasoning with them was never going to happen. Thus WW1 was inevitable and France stepped up to defend itself and Britain undertook to stand by its' treaty defending the neutrality of Belgium.

That was a morally right thing to do. It was a terrible war, obviously not the war to end all wars but a brave and responsible reaction against a nation whose leaders were seeking to overwhelm and subjugate their neighbours. The right response was considered to be more important than to count the cost. Just as well.

I'm so glad that Germany didn't take over France in 1914 because had they done so they'd have taken Britain, too. Eventually.

This has been an experience and I shall never look at Black Adder goes forth and see it quite as I did the first few times.

Caen, 300kms away tomorrow and no Leffe Blonde left.

"we never heard him speak about the war"

These are on a wall behind a screen in a corner of the Newfoundland Regiment Information centre at Beaumont Hamel and this, below, is in the underground Somme 1916 Museum in Albert.

Scale.

Thursday 1st October 2015.

Faubourg - D'Amiens Memorial, Arras. Thomas Kilpatrick, miner from New Cumnock, Scotland, carved in limestone along with nearly 40,000 others with no known grave.

Lochnagar Crater. Blown at 0728, Saturday 1st July 1916. One big hole in the ground. You can walk around it but it's too steep to go down into let alone get out again.
24 tons of HE placed under the German trenches. The explosion was heard in London.

Thiepval British and French Memorial to The Missing of The Somme.
Nearly 80,000 names carved in limestone.


Beaumont Hamel. Google it.

Left as it was.
You can walk through the trenches, albeit grassed over and at least 2' shallower than they were.
You can look across a piece of ground no more than two football pitches in size and probably less.
That piece of ground was no man's land and the German lines are easily visible.

You can walk around to them in a few minutes.

They blew their mine at Hawthorn Ridge at 0720 on Saturday 1st July 1916 because the divisional commander, a British MP wanted to be first. This is the mine explosion that was filmed by a film unit and frequently shown in documentaries.

The troops were required to go over the top at 0730.

Those 10 minutes allowed the Germans to clean the soil from their weapons, bring up reserves and accurately site machine guns so that when the first attack began the Newfoundland Regiment was decimated.
The second attack took place at 0845 but failed because there were too many bodies from the first to allow any meaningful progress under machine gun fire.

Further attacks were mounted throughout the day.
By day's end the Newfoundland Regiment numbered 86 men and no officers.

As you stand in the front line trench it's hard to describe how small it all is but straight ahead  the Germans lay in "Y-Ravine" which curves around to your lower right and ends at what now a cemetery called "Y-Ravine Cemetery."
Along the crest to your left is another cemetery called "Hawthorn Ridge Cemetery."
It is where the mine was detonated and was the Newfoundlanders objective on Saturday 1st of July 1916.

Hawthorn Ridge was taken by The Highland Regiment in November 1916.

 A Caribou looks out above the Newfoundlanders trenches and from his position you look directly along the Ridge through a beautifully manicured avenue of trees at Hawthorn Ridge Cemetery.

It took us less than five minutes to stroll from Hawthorn Ridge Cemetery to The Caribou.

Yesterday I was struck quite forcibly by the fact that the front moved over a mere 12kms between July 1st and Mid-November but this, this is something else.

The area between the lines is roped off as the Canadians are unsure if it has been completely cleared of munitions or of the fallen. And, yes, I know that The Newfoundland Regiment was not Canadian. They were Newfoundlanders. I learned that yesterday, too.

Sheila's Grandad joined The Newfoundland Regiment on active service on The Somme on 12th July 1916.
His brother, Percy, had been wounded with them at Gallipoli.

Foreground stakes marks front line trench. Red board in centre of frame marks German front line. On the left you can see the memorial to the Highland Regiment. That monument lies behind the German lines. Extreme right is the edge of "Y-Ravine Cemetery."

Taken from outside "Hawthorn Ridge Cemetery." Just off to my left is the Highland Regiment Memorial in the photo above. This position is the site of the objective for The Newfoundland Regiment on 1st July 1916.. In the exact centre of the frame is the Caribou which lies behind the forward three trenches that they occupied.