Heading back

Weather is being kind again, cool but sun shining and blue skies. Leave Cambrai at 09:30 and head over to the Cambrai Memorial at Loureval.Ferry not until 13:35 so time for a meander cross country to avoid the Peage, and also to visit one or two more sights.
You can't come to Cambrai and not visit the Cambrai Memorial to the Missing at Louverval.
Its yet another memorial for missing soldiers of the Uk and South Africa, this time for 7048 of them who died at the Battle of Cambrai 20 Nov to 3 Dec 1917and have no known graves.

Louverval is only just down the road from Cambrai towards Albert, so I plot a route from Albert to Arras and come across signs for the village of Wailly.

There's Orchard Cemetery CWGC but not much else - there's some pics in previous posts of Flirt II here .This is where the Tank Training School was prior to the battle and there are a number of pictures in the IWM collection showing tanks in training here, including many of Flirt II (F4).(Dog and officers!)

Flirt II at Wailly Tank Training School 21 Oct 1917, in preparation for the Battle of Cambrai (http://www.iwmprints.org.uk)

Compare that with this pic taken of Flirt II abandoned in Bourlon a few months later

 

 

Its then Arras to St Pol - this is the place where the unkown soldier in Westminster Abbey was brought from. It's a very busy town traffic wise and I stop for Frites in the town centre.

 

 The weather is turning for the worst, really grey skies and the A26 is a dozen or so miles away so I opt for 2.70euro toll for the final stretch to Calais. Five mins of heavy rain followed by hail which lies in drifts on the road surface - interesting, but I follow a truck which breaks a path. Only a few minutes of this, just as well seeing as I didn't suss out what was happening straight away when the handling went a bit squirrelly.

Get to the ferry with 40mins to spare but there was a 30 min delay, just long enough to stand there and get another soaking for 5 mins.

 

Last off - not even pointing the right way either

One last visit on the way home and its into Ashford to have a look at their tank in the high street.

Another MkIV WW1 tank - only eight left in the world and I've seen three of them on this trip.

 

So thats the tank trip over. A good interesting couple of days following FlirtII as best I could.

 

However all is not as it seems and Flirt II in Lincoln may not be FlirtII after all but some other tank - apparently an announcement is imminent as its real identity has recently been confirmed.(so Philippe tells me but would divulge no more than a gallic shrug).

It means a return trip may be on the cards in the future tracing the Lincoln tank's 'real' activities.

**Update on the tank in Lincoln known as Flirt II is that during filming of the interior in November 2013, a serial number was discovered barely visible under the paint (Philipe told me about this as he was asked to check Deborah at the time to confirm her serial number was in the same position). The number didn't belong to Flirt II but to a tank called Daphne also built in Birmingham at the Metropolitan Carriage Works. Daphne was first used for training by F Battalion of the Tank Corps, and then transferred to 12th Company D Battalion who provided her with the name Daphne.

On 21/22 August 1917 whilst waiting to go into battle at Ypres, Daphne was hit by a shell, damaging her roof and was handed over to the Salvage Company.( D Battalion war diary.) Little more known after that, but in 1919 she was used as one of the Presentation Tanks and ended up in a park in Gloucester. In 1945, she was transported to Bovington and at some point painted to look like Flirt II and set up as a static exhibit at the gates to Bovington camp until the 1970's when Lincoln Tank Group managed to get her to Lincoln on permanent loan ending up in the Museum of Lincolnshire Life in 1989 still believed to be Flirt II.**

 

Hello, I know this really is a lot to ask, but I wonder if you would consider removing the information posted on your blog about the origin of the tank "Flirt II" at Lincoln. There is a huge amount of research going on trying to pin down the true story and some of the current stories doing the rounds are mere supposition which are muddying the water. An announcement will be made in due course, when the people who identified the tank will be given the credit they deserve and the full story can be told. Until then, things are a bit 'up in the air' but I assure you, I'll be in touch as soon as possible. Thanks very much and all the very best, Richard Pullen Chairman Friends of the Lincoln Tank

 

Seeing as I had inadvertently stumbled on a very close version of the tank's real history, I was more than happy to immediately comply with Richard's request and pulled the update info straight away, only adding it again to this page once the announcement had been made and after I had met the gentleman in question.

The person who has confirmed the identity of the Lincoln tank following some substantial research is a gentleman called Gwyn Evans. He did a very interesting talk at Lincoln regarding this and I was fortunate enough to meet him and Richard Pullen at that event.

 







Following F battalion - or nearly

After getting back to the hotel after seeing Deborah D51, its back out again on the bike to do a tour of F battalion's areas of activity. I made a circular route, which was not in chronological order but I got to visit most of the places mentioned 20th Nov to 27th  Nov 1917.
Starting from Bourlon where Flirt II was abandoned on the 27/11/17 which is the end of our particular story. Then Havrincourt,Flesquires,Ribacourt, Villers Plouich, Gouzeaucourt, la Vacquerie, Bleak House, Bonavis & Pam Pam Farm, Le Quenet, Masnieres, Marcoing, site of Flot Farm and back to Cambrai.

In chronological order, from the Bovington Museum Vehicle Record;

 Flirt II in1917 was the fourth tank of Number 1 section, 16th Company, Sixth (or F) Battalion. Both 16th and 18th Company detrained at the railhead known as New Heudicourt and advanced through Gouzeaucourt and crossed the Blue and Brown lines before returning to the Battalion Rallying Point near La Vacquuerie. The following day the surviving tanks were ordered to Marcoing, on the St Quentin Canal. F4 was late in starting due to a mechanical fault but got away in due course and appears to have crossed the canal before becoming involved in an incident near Flot Farm which resulted in the unditching of another tank. At the end of this day it again went back to the rallying point. Nothing more happened until the evening of the 26th when twenty tanks, including seventeen from F Battalion (one of which was Flirt II) were prepared for action against Bourlon Village on the following day. During that action F4 attempted to tow F13 ‘Falcon II’ but in doing so stripped some gears and was also disabled. With the enemy closing in the crew were forced to abandon the tank, taking their Lewis guns with them, and make their way on foot to the rallying point. During the subsequent fighting Flirt II received a considerable amount of damage, particularly on the left side in rear of the sponson. Even so it was earmarked to be towed away by its German captors. What became of it after that is unclear. Given the state of the hull and some of the gears it seems unlikely that it was restored to running order by the Germans and the chances are that it was cannibalised for spares to keep other tanks going. This tank was marked as Flirt II when it was displayed at the front of the Bovington Tank Museum but whether it was the real Flirt II is unclear, though it is difficult to know why it was given that name if it was not; nonetheless its identity remains open. (Source: Bovington Museum Vehicle Record

 20 November 1917
From the war diaries,

16 and 17 Companies were to assault the Blue Line, 16 Company on the Right, 17 on the Left. Sections 1 to 6 deployed South of La Pave Road, sections 7 and 8 to the North. 17 Company were to remain to cover the consolidation of the Blue Line, 16 Company were to re organise whilst the Brown Line was being captured then send 12 tanks to the Bridge Head at Masnieres.

F4 (Flirt II) engaged enemy retiring along the communication trenches then crossed the blue line and dispersed about 60 to 80 Germans hiding in a trench. Silenced two MG on the Brown line, one of which caused casualties in the tank with AP bullets. Tank rallied.

Detail from info board at Flesquires memorial - gives excellent simplified overview

 

Road out of Gouzeaucourt towards Blue line

Bleak House just beyond Blue Line



View from Bleak House to Laleau wood(in distance on right at end of road!) near Bonavis. Between here and there, the Hindenburg line, 3 lines of trench systems, pillboxes and rows of barbed wire up to 100m deep.
 

Looking back from Le Quenet, Bonavis on left and Pam Pam Farm on right

Brown line

View from Le Quenet down to Masnieres



21st November 1917

F Battalion, with 87^thBrigade, 29^th Division, III Corps

Marcoing

One "F" battalion tank broke down and failed to attack (F4 Flirt II). The remaining 9 “F” battalion tanks were joined by “A” Battalion tanks that had also been ordered to Marcoing. All tanks crossed over the Northern road bridge on the Lock East of Marcoing, the bridge was still been cleared of mines by the RE. 4 tanks then turned Left and worked the Wire towards Flot Farm, 5 and the 2 A battalion tanks turned right and flattened the wire towards Rummilly. Tanks were fired on by many MGs with AP ammo and some field guns. The infantry did not follow the tanks, possibly due to a lack of definite orders, or possibly due to the heavy MG fire.

F4 broke down prior to start, repaired and got into action at 1.30pm. Screened two tanks at Flot farm, whilst one unditched the other. Destroyed a strong point in Railway embankment with 6 pdr fire. Next shelled ridge in front and scattered many of enemy, firing LG at them as they fled. Rallied at dusk.

Bridge & locks over Canal in Marcoing

 

F4 Flirt II next in action 27th Nov 1917.
 

27 November 1917 

Orders

To support infantry and secure a line North of Bourlon Wood and village.

20 tanks attacked: 17 tanks from F battalion and 3 from C battalion.

Account of Operations

All tanks bar F12 which broke down on the way forward, reached POA at 12.30 on 27^th, thence led to starting points by infantry. Enemy barrage caused 50% infantry casualties and hit and damaged F28 which was withdrawn. It rained all night thus rendering ground conditions bad. The attack went in at 6.30am as planned, the infantry reached the centre of the village but were forced back to their starting points.

F4 entered the village at 6.40am after manoeuvring to avoid wounded infantrymen. The tank Ditched and broke down whilst attempting to avoid (or trying to unditch) the ditched F13. F4 was Towed clear by F1 at 8.30, but its big ends were gone. The tank was abandoned at 9.55am as the infantry retreated.

 F4 Flirt II (the one head on in the pic) & F13 Falcon II (up against the wall of the well) abandoned on the South East outskirts of Bourlon village on 27th November 1917 during Battle of Cambrai (Source: Following the tanks (1999), Jean Liuc Gibot and Philippe Gorcznskiy)

And same place today - thanks to Philippe for the idea, he does it better in his book

 

 

Close up of memorial at the F4/F13 abandonment site

So I was in the bar having a drink....

......and in walked Philipe the tank man. (It is his hotel after all). He sees me, points his finger and then walks out again to reappear minutes later with a 6" thick photo album full of original photos and postcards of tanks in and around Cambrai - this is just the E & F battalion pics. Another interesting hour disappears as I get a detailed commentary on the pictures, why and where and how he got them. Apparently you wont see many of them on the internet or anywhere else as he doesn't publish them in any form. He'll admit himself he's bordering on obsession but his collection will form the basis of the future Cambrai tank museum, hence he wishes to keep them low profile for the time being.

After that, plans made for tomorrow's route home and I'm avoiding the Peage with a cross country route via St Pol across to Etaples and up the coast to Calais. Once over the channel, pop into Ashford to see their tank as I pass on the A2. I'm becoming obsessed with the trapezoidal form, so I'd  better take a tablet or start planning the next trip in May before I start buying postcards eBay .

Cambrai 1917.........and Deborah!

Arrangements made with Philippe last night to see Deborah, and the plan was that we would go in his car from the hotel and then he would drop me back so I could get on the bike and do a route that covered most of F battalions activities.

What I didn't expect was for Philippe to give me a personal tour of pretty much the whole battlefield - that's where so and so tank was destroyed, there are some bunkers, this is the line of German support trenches etc etc. he also had the  1917 trench map overlays linked to GPS so we could see what was there. 

And of course we ended with visiting Deborah D51 in Flesquieres. A most excellent day, and a nicer guy with a passion for the Cambrai tank battle you'd find hard to beat. 

This left me with a better understanding of the layout and the relationship between places and made my own little tour that  much better as I knew where I was going and what to include.

Pics to follow as me camera ain't talking to the netbook for some reason.

Whats behind the big barn door?

 

 

Night cap

Into the centre ville for a beer or two.

Draught Leffe is the weapon of choice in the Pub Au Bureau in Cambria main square.

As luck would have it, it's also on at the hotel, one more for the road, and so to bed.

Sat nav says 397 miles for the day.

Flying visit to the Somme

Got to the Albert area around 1 o'clock and the first stop was the Tank Corps memorial at Pozieres - an obelisk with four miniature tanks.

 

The fence is made of drive chains and 6 pounder gun barrels.

Just alomg in Pozieres village is Tommys Cafe where a spot of lunch was had. Got talking to 3 blokes from West mids who where on their 14th annual visit to the battlefields, they were walking over the areas and staying in Flers. Gave loads of suggetsions for thingsto look at, but I've only got the one day so I'll stick to the better known.

Next up was La Boisselle, and the Lochnagar crater - great hole left by a mine explosion on the first day of the Somme battle, then over to Thiepval and the Somme Memorial. Nearby is the Ulster Tower (didn't go in) and then over to the Beaumont Hamel Newfoundland Memorial with its preserved trenches and Caribou memorial.

Crater about 100m across and 30m deep

 

72,191 names - no known graves from Battles of the Somme. These are just the British & South Africans. The other Commonwealth countries have there own national memorials elsewhere

Not this way!! Road was closed at the railway crossing between Thiepval and Beaumont Hamel but this road looked likely but blocked by a parked van about half a mile down, so about turn and round the long way.

Caribou at Beaumont Hamel

British trenches in foreground and no mans land - German trenches 100m on the other side of the cemetery in the distance 

Preserved trench Beaumont Hamel

 

Time getting on so it was over to Cambrai to find the hotel, get a shower, some eats and some drinks.
End of day one.

Tank Memorial Pozieres

Just outside Pozieres - tank memorial with four bronze tank miniatures. Smack on the 1916 front line and across the road from The Windmill.

Posted on the move on my IPhone using the wifi in Tommys Cafe.

As you can see weathers picked up and it's around 12c and sunny - beats the 0c on the way down.









In the Courts of Lincoln 1842

Saw this poster from 1842 whilst at Museum of Lincolnshire Life.....

Item 2.....Eddie you're a very naughty boy.

Lincoln landships, "Flirt II" and Cambrai 1917

Ok. More background for the trip to France on Monday.
In Lincolns Museum of lincolnshire Life there is one of the very few remaining WW1 tanks - Flirt II.
It wasn't made in Lincoln, but most likely at Metropolitan Carriage Wagon and Finance in Birmingham. But seeing as Fosters of Lincoln designed, tested and built these type of tanks, its back at its spiritual home.

Flirt II saw action at Cambrai, which also saw the end of her wartime exploits. I'm going to try and visit the areas of her wartime exploits around Cambrai, which I believe are in and around the villages of Marcoing on 20/21st Nov 1917 & Bourlon 27th Nov 1917.
Also, I've managed to blag a visit to Deborah D51 at Flesquieres on 25th March. Philippe Gorczynski himself, the man who dug her up is taking me around. See here for all the info on Deborah. He's also an expert on all things tanks & Cambrai (he wrote a book about so he should be able to put me right for the areas Flirt II was in. 'Following the tanks (1999)', Jean Liuc Gibot and Philippe Gorczynski.



Flirt II special training for the Battle of Cambrai at Wailly, 21 October 1917(pic from www.iwm.org.uk)



L to R

Captain A Darby MC, Major Inglis DSO commanding 16 company the Tank Corps, 2nd Lt Lennard MC  (The commander of Tank F.4 at Cambrai) with the dog mascot of the tank, Wailly Oct 1917 (pic from www.iwm.org.uk)




F4 "Flirt II" abandoned on the South East outskirts of Bourlon village on 27th November 1917 during Battle of Cambrai. F13 Silenced an MG whilst approaching the village. Then ditched in marshy ground whilst manoeuvring to avoid a wounded man. The Tank was abandoned, having being stripped of Lewis guns, the crew rallied at 1.pm .F4 entered the village at 6.40am after manoeuvring to avoid wounded infantrymen. the tank Ditched and broke down whilst attempting to avoid (or trying to unditch) the ditched F13. F4 was Towed clear by F1 at 8.30, but its big ends were gone. The tank abandoned at 9.55am as infantry retreated.
Note that the card is now 'four of clubs' rather than 'four of hearts' as in the earlier October 1917 pics. It appears its something to do with what section the tank was in at the time - hearts for 1 Section, clubs for 4 Section. (pic from info board at Museum of Lincolnshire Life)

So thats most of my homework done, it gives the trip a bit of focus with the local Lincoln connection and the upcoming centenary interest in all things WW1.

If you're really stuck for something instead of going to the pub and talking about birds,bikes & football then check this website out which I stumbled across whe looking for Flirt info. It contains the war diaries of the units involved in the Cambrai battle. (Flirt II was in 16 company, F battalion)

Jeez I've got to get out more.

Commando tank & seat back

Petrol tank & side panels back from the painters - very nice.

Wrapped up in some old curtains

Also got the seat back from Gypsy - again very nice but he didn't want to put the trim on with the supplied clips as he reckoned there was a danger of ripping the vinyl. The last couple of times I've been around to his workshop (his bread & butter is furniture upholstery - rolls of cloth, horse hair, that sort of stuff), I haven't got away for a hour as he likes to have a chat!! Anyhow, bit of attention with a hairdrier to soften the trim for a trial fit, then holding my breath, attaching the clips and then the trim, and on it goes on with no problems.

 

Fixing the trim clips & trim - Gypsy likes his riveter, but doesn't like the clips

Looks comfy

Norton on me rear end