Tracing footsteps of the Past : A pilgrimage

When war was declared on 1st September 1939 Britain reluctantly sent another Expeditionary Force to France & Belgium as we had in August 1914 and men who had served as part of the first force would have been quite familiar with their surroundings the second time around ! There followed a period of inactivity which was known as the “Phoney War”, or the “Bore War” during which Britain’s army dug-in and built numerous defensive bunkers across France, based on an assumption that an attack, when it came, would come broadly from the east. France in the meantime had placed her faith on the defensive position known as the Maginot Line but there was one fatal flaw with that plan – it did not defend the border around the Ardennes Forest. French military war games had calculated that it would take any attacker ( Germany ) a minimum of 9-10 days to penetrate the dense woodland with sufficient force to become a threat, and that this would give France ample time to place anti-tank guns in position to counter this. In reality it took Guderian’s panzers just 57 hours! On 12th May 1940 the phoney war became a nightmare reality.

The subsequent fighting was of a vicious and confused nature, with woefully inadequate communications between allies, and even between our own army units. The British Commanding Officer on the ground was General Lord Gort, VC. In the face of opposition from the war cabinet, in the forceful persona of Churchill, Lord Gort had difficult decisions to make. By 6pm on the night 25th May 1940 he had decided to withdraw the BEF to Dunkirk for evacuation to England, a brave personal decision to which the force owed its eventual survival.

Mont Cassel has a long and distinguished military past. Dominating the surrounding countryside as it does it was an obvious site for military defences and headquarters throughout the ages. Both Joffre and Haig had quarters here during the Great War, indeed there is a statue to Marshal Joffre atop the mount, and Lord Gort established a temporary HQ here during the retreat.

Men from the 2/Royal Warwicks, the 4/Cheshires and elements from the Royal Artillery were herded into a remote cow byre and brutally massacred by men from the SS Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler ( LAH ). No-one was ever brought to book for this atrocity.

Later in the war the site became a temporary Luftwaffe airfield and the little barn was knocked down. Largely through the efforts of the Warwicks Regt. Museum in conjunction with a local group the barn has been rebuilt as it was that fateful day. A garden of remembrance has now been started behind the barn with a small tree planted to commemorate each executed soldier.

The bodies of those executed had originally been buried in the field adjacent to the massacre site. Later they were dug up and transferred to the local war cemetery that had been started during the Great War. Included here are the graves of CSM Augustus Jennings and Sgt. Stanley Moore who both threw themselves onto grenades to reduce casualties.

I had the great privilege to conduct a tour for a family who were seeking to see where their husband/father had fought, and sadly perished. After some research, and many hours spent poring over maps, unit histories and letters, we were able to re-trace his footsteps from Mont Cassel to Ledringhem where he fought with the 5/Glosters. We were able to "walk the ground", finding places mentioned in his letters home and seeing the village square here he fought a desperate rearguard action. After visiting the Mairie and speaking to the Mayor there was an emotional visit to the Cemetery where he was buried. The family laid personal tributes and there was hardly a dry eye in the place - even I confessed to having a slight draft in the corner of my eye ! I felt myself honoured to have been instrumental in enabling this lovely family to close the circle on part of their own history, and they confessed they were the first members of the family to visit the grave.

What price can you place on such a trip ?

Written by  Ed Church.

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