Ovillers, La Boisselle
Ovillers and La Boisselle are villages spread out on either side of the main road from Albert to Bapaume.
Each has it's own grim story to tell of death and maiming during the Battle of the Somme.
Ovillers, La Boisselle
Written by Mike
Ovillers and La Boisselle are villages on either side of the main D929 road from Albert to Bapaume.
They were both the scene of fierce fighting and huge losses during the Battle of the Somme.
The front at Ovillers and La Boiselle
Written by Mike
Ovillers was one of the front line villages held by the Germans. Ovillers is situated on a spur which gave it an excellent view over the British lines.
On the opposite side of the valley stood La Boiselle. It was an equally heavily fortified village that commanded the north side of what was known as ‘Mash Valley’.
Extract from 'Now it Can be Told' by Philip Gibbs:
Beyond La Boiselle, on the left of the Albert-Bapaume road, there had been a village called Ovillers. It was no longer there. Our guns had removed every trace of it, except as it lay in heaps of pounded brick.
The Germans had a network of trenches about it, and in their ditches and their dugouts they fought like wolves.
Ovillers from the south west
Written by Mike
Ovillers from the south west, with Ovillers Military Cemetery to the left of the village.
Lonsdale Cemetery, Authuille
Written by Mike
The Lonsdale Cemetery is where many of the 11th (Lonsdale) Battalion of the Border Regiment are buried. They suffered very heavy casualties as they advanced on the Leipzig Redoubt from the sanctuary of Authuille Wood on 1 July 1916.
Sergeant James Youll Turnbull V.C.
Written by Mike
Amongst those buried in Lonsdale Cemetery is Sergeant James Youll Turnbull V.C., 17th Battalion Highland Light Infantry, (Glasgow Commercials) who died July 1, 1916, aged 32. He was the son of James and Elizabeth Turnbull of Glasgow.
Ovillers Military Cemetery
Written by Mike
Ovillers Military Cemetery contains a total of 3,436 graves comprising 3,265 from the United Kingdom, 95 from Canada, 57 from Australia, 13 from South Africa and six from New Zealand. Of the total, 2,477 graves are unknown – two thirds of the total.
Private G J Nugent
Written by Mike
Private G J Nugent of the Tyneside Scottish is buried in Ovillers Military Cemetery. He was killed on July 1, 1916 aged 28. His bones were found sticking out of the ground near the Lochnagar Mine Crater in 1998.
La Boiselle
Written by Mike
La Boiselle is situated on a spur of higher ground. In July 1916 it was a strongly held German front line village.
Extract from 'Now it Can be Told' by Philip Gibbs:
Above the slogging of the guns there were louder, earth-shaking noises, and volcanoes of earth and fire spouted as high as the clouds. One convulsion of this kind happened above Usna Hill, with a long, terrifying roar and a monstrous gush of flame. The German trenches being blown up by a great mine before the assault.
Lochnagar Crater
Written by Mike
The Lochnagar mine was an explosive-packed mine created by the Royal Engineer tunnelling companies, located south of the village of La Boisselle in the Somme Département of France, which was detonated at 7:28 am on 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme.
The Lochnagar mine, along with a neighbouring mine north of the village known as the Y Sap mine, contained 24 tons of ammonal. At the time these mines were the largest ever detonated.
Y Sap Mine, La Boiselle
Written by Mike
The Y Sap mine was one of a number exploded by the British under the German front line at 07.28 – two minutes before zero hour – on 1 July 1916.
Tyneside Memorial, La Boiselle
Written by Mike
The attack on La Boiselle by the 34th Division is commemorated by the Tyneside Memorial on the outskirts of the village, the first regimental memorial erected on the road.
Memorial to the 34th Division, La Boiselle
Written by Mike
The Memorial to the 34th Division is located on the eastern edge of La Boiselle, approached from the road to Contalmaison.
Gordon Dump Cemetery, La Boiselle
Written by Mike
Gordon Dump Cemetery near La Boiselle contains the graves of 1,676 Allied soldiers of whom 1,053 (63%) are unknown.
Donald Simpson Bell VC
Written by Mike
Donald Simpson Bell was born in Harrogate, Yorkshire on the 3 December 1890. He went on to study at Westminster College, Oxford where he showed himself to be a great athlete playing rugby, cricket and football.
