The Ypres Times. ]29
to travel from Albert in a saloon car along the Albert-Bapaume road through I,a Boiselle
and Pozières, to turn left and on through what was once the village of Thiepval, up to
the summit of Thiepval Ridge.
Up here, on the ridge, one is suddenly taken back to 1916 and 1918 barbed wire,
bully tins, rifles, bayonets (British and German), and other objects, still more grim, tell
the tale of how men lived and died on this shell-torn height. There is, even to-day, so
little change up here that it only required one of our party to burn some sticks of cordite
for the past eight or ten years to fall away as if they had never been. The old sights and
sounds of the old life lived in the immediate present without a future, and all its old
standards of values came rushing back with such force that one felt almost c mpelled
to get off the parapet and to take cover the sight of the car standing on the road below
partly dispelled the illusion, but days elapsed before that sharp reminder of the days
past and gone (we trust for ever) was dimmed.
From Thiepval ridge the road leads down to
Authuille, and looking back, the formidable nature
of the ridge is readily appreciated, with its precipitous
face and marshy foot.
The road from Authuille runs due north by
the side of the river Ancre (so insignificant in ap
pearance but so significant in history) to the village
of Hamel, where, on March 26th, 1918, the 5th
Brigade—made up mostly of remnants of
almost innu
merable units
endeavour
ed to make a
stand against
the German
advance. An
outpost was
formed on
the night of
March 27th
along the
heights over-
ALBERT CATHEDRAE looking the ALBERT CATHEDRAL TO-DAY.
(leaning virgin). river 8 m.
though almost completely exhausted and totally unable, through shortage of food and
ammunition, to cope with any determined effort on the part of the enemy, they were able
to hold the line until reinforced by the New Zealanders the following evening. Here,
therefore, the German offensive was checked and, as subsequently was shown, marked
the limit of his advance.
To-day, this district very much resembles a vast cemetery. Apart from the various war
cemeteries, so beautifully laid out and maintained by the Imperial War Graves Commission,
are a number of war memorials, many of which can be seen from the slope south-west of
Beaumont-Hamel. This aspect of the countryside was particularly noticeable on the
evening of October ioth as we stood at dusk looking down from the Auchonvillers-Hamel
road towards the Ancre, when the features of the country had faded except for the white
•stones of the cemeteries and memorials about us.
Driving, the following day, from Amiens to Arras, we passed through Maillv-Maillet
•(now rebuilt for the second time), Serre, Puisieux-au-Mont, and Bucquoy. From
Bucquoy, on August 21st, 1918, at 4.55 a.m., the Royal Naval Division attacked with
