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Somme Trip 2012 - Visit To Hindenburg Line: Part 1

I think it was Thur 22nd we decided to have a trip up to the Hindenburg Line in the Arras area. This is where having Foncquevillers as a base really comes in - it is almost the same distance from here to Montauban (extreme south of the British sector on the Somme) as it is to the Arras battlefields. We had a couple of hours at Bullecourt but I did not really take many photos in this area to make a blog post so I will start with our next stop, Heninel Hill. 

The Hindenburg Line in this area took in the high ground between Fontaine and Heninel. A number of concrete emplacements can still be seen on the ridge, which are observation posts / machine gun posts with a concrete cover protecting the dugout entrances and emplacements. These were captured by 18th Manchester's on April 12th 1917 during the Battle of Arras. 










Above:
Image 1: Trench map of the Hindenburg Line in Heninel area. This original map is marked up to D 280 Battery (note the artillery grid on the map).
Image 2: One of the concrete protected dugout entrances.
Image 3: Machine gun / observation post with protected concrete entrance to the dugout
Image 4: These structures are a useful way of getting rid of unwanted unexploded shells today!
Image 5: This concrete roof shows some shell damage
Image 6-8: A doppelmebus or armoured double machine gun post
Image 9: Cherisy Road East Cemetery, Heninel - the old and the new in the landscape! This cemetery, a battlefield cemetery,  contains 85 British burials, all from the Arras offensive (April 14th-28th 1917).

Part two on our visit to the Hindenburg Line will look at Telegraph Hill.

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