May 1999
To see pictures of our 2007 trip please click below
Our Motorcycle Club had been running for three years, but up until 1999 had not ventured into Europe, yet that all changed in May 1999.This was our first battlefield tour.
It was a sunny Sunday afternoon when sixteen motorbikes left London for Dover and from there to Calais where we arrived and stayed in a local campsite. The second day the Club moved to a campsite in Le Quesnoy which had experienced fierce fighting in the First World War. The Club was in the area to visit Le Cateau; however, finding the various sites proved to be quite difficult. The Tour Guide attempted to get directions by communicating in French with the locals; unfortunately this only proved that there are two different languages, his and theirs! On returning to the campsite the club put its feet up at a Bar-B-Que organised by our support vehicle driver to celebrate the official launch of the Club.
The next day saw the Club move to Mons passing through the town of Landreicies where the Guards fought in the streets on 25 August 1914, holding off the Germans and allowing 1 Corps to retreat. On arriving in Mons and finally locating the campsite we moved off following a Battlefield Tour route. Mons is remembered rather poignantly as the place where the first and last shots of the war were fired. The Club visited the site of the first shot of the Great War, fired by Cpl Thomas of the Royal Dragoon Guards. For this distinction he was promoted in the field to Sergeant and received the Military Medal. In addition Mons is renowned for being the campaign during which the first two Victoria Crosses of the Great War were earned by Pte Godley and Lt Dease. A platoon of the 4th Battalion Royal Fusiliers led by Lt Dease defended the old canal bridge over the Meuse. Every man in the Platoon was killed or wounded slowing the German Advance and allowing the remainder of the Division to withdraw. Lt Dease himself was killed whilst manning the machine gun in place of another wounded soldier. Pte Godley then took over and was captured after exhausting all the ammunition and destroying the gun.
We then visited what was possibly the most sobering location of the trip, the Binche Cemetery. Resembling a landscaped garden with small well kept paths and shady grottoes, the cemetery had been laid out by the Germans at the start of the war. They buried both British and German casualties in small segregated areas, one of which is dedicated to the memory of the “Royal” Middlesex Regiment. The Germans could not believe that any Regiment displaying such discipline and courage as the Middlesex Regiment was anything other than “Royal”. Nearby, in a small group, ironically facing each other, are the graves of Ptes J Parr, G Ellison and G Price. The former was the first Allied soldier to be killed in the Great War on 21 August 1914 whilst on a bicycle recce. Pte Ellison was the last British soldier to die on the 11 November 1918. The most lamentable of all is Pte Price who was the last Allied solder killed in the Great War, just two minutes before the cease fire was announced.
The Club finally arrived at the Wellington Centre (Waterloo), which had been sign-posted from every direction but the one used. On meeting up with our Belgian guide Serge, the Club spent two hours on a guided tour of the Battle Site starting with a general overview from “The Mound” followed by a tour of the visitors’ centre and panorama room. Sitting atop “The Mound” is a twenty ton lion dedicated to the spot where the Prince of Orange was wounded. To reach this imposing edifice we mounted two hundred and fifty steps, a very long way in leathers. After a brief stop at a local caterer (McDonalds), the Club proceeded to Brussels and after negotiating a bizarre Diversion around the equivalent of the M25 finally arrived at Mol for a well deserved rest, some bike maintenance and mosquito swatting.
Thursday saw the club on route to Nijmegen, stopping off at the Son Bridge where we met the family who lived at the bridge house during the Second World War. Our Flemish was worse than their English but we received an extremely accurate impression of what had happened. The bridge had been captured by units of the American 101 Airborne Division, who were quickly pushed back by the Germans who captured and executed the remaining Americans at the bridge. The next day the bridge was recaptured and the Americans met up with Lt Parmar, a Troop Leader with 2 HCR, to the south near Eindhoven. Lt Tabor, also with 2 HCR, met up with the 101st at the bridge which had been destroyed in the fighting. Here German prisoners were helping to repair the damage, one even telling a British Engineer to get out of the way as he was slowing things up.
The following morning the Club set off for Amsterdam, A brief stop at the Nijmegen bridge where our tour guide starting his brief on the route to Arnhem and we were off towards that infamous town. 30 Corps had been given the task of capturing the Nijmegen road bridge and relieving the Airborne Division. 2 HCR was to support the 82 Airborne Division in the east of the town and to recce east and west of the bridge. On 21 September the push by 30 Corps had been halted short of Elst due to a bottleneck on the road. This ground did not favour tanks with waterways and dykes making movement off the road impossible. The ensuing bottleneck provided the 88 mm German guns with good shooting. Whilst this battle was taking place the Polish Airborne Brigade flew over and was dropped North West of Elst near Driel. On the 22 September there was a thick mist which Capt Wrottesley (2 HCR) used as cover to move his troop west following the River Waal and then the River Neder Rijn. He moved west around Elst and met up with not only RAF pilots from downed aircraft but also the Polish Brigade just South West of Driel. The Troop arrived just in time to assist the Poles in fighting off a German attack. It then assisted the 1 Airborne on the far bank by calling in artillery fire on to German positions. Later Lt Col C B McKenzie and Lt Col Myers swam the river and using the Troop’s radios sent the first message from Arnhem. 30 Corps then made a push North to relieve the troops at Arnhem with tanks of the 5/7 Light Dragoons and DUKWs of the 5 Duke of Cornwall Light Infantry. As they approached Driel, solders of 2 HCR showed recognition panels; however, in the half-light the lead tank failed to recognise the signals and fired two rounds at the 2 HCR scout car killing Tpr Holmes outright.
After this briefing the Club set off to Arnhem where we promptly got lost and ended up on one of the many cycle-come-footpaths. When Dave who was at the front of the ride eventually stopped , much to his dismay, he saw a large group of bikes and one lorry behind him, being closely scrutinised by the Dutch Police. On nearing the front they inquired i“Are you zee Leader of zee Pack?” However, we soon found our way back to the beaten track and another handy McDonalds. By now the group was convinced that some of the riders had brought a MacDonald’s road map to navigate around Europe, or had shares in the company! The Club then followed the spectacular route along the sea wall road to Zuider Zee, and ended up camping in Amsterdam in a site in the middle of Haarlem which seemed to be entirely populated by Germans.
The next day we packed up and set off towards Zandvoorde along the motorway and the long flat Dutch roads arriving in the afternoon at one of the smartest campsites we had yet stayed! The small town of Zandvoorde near Ypres is situated on a hill which was strategically important as it commanded a vital cross-road. The Household Cavalry charged the slope from nearby Zillebeke on 26 October 1914 and in the days that followed it manned trenches in and around the village. It came under heavy German artillery fire, facing retreat and complete annihilation. When the German XV Corps eventually took the town, they found dead and wounded men still with their machine guns.
On the eastern edge of the village we eventually found the Household Cavalry Memorial in the back garden of No 10, Brielen Road. The Memorial is situated at the approximate centre of the British position. It was built after the war on the site where the body of Lord Worsley (RHG) was found, where he had died manning a machine gun, single handedly holding off the German advance. We laid wreaths at the Memorial in acknowledgement of the members of HCR who had served and died there.
After laying the wreaths we proceeded to the Menin Gate. A simple ceremony of sounding the last post at the Gate each evening at 2000 hrs has continued ever since November 1929, the only exception being during the German Occupation of WW2. There are 54,896 names engraved on the gate commemorating soldiers who died between August 1914 and August 1917 and whose bodies were never recovered. The day had been a sobering one giving us much to think about.
The next day was our last day so we headed off back to Calais for the ferry and back to London where it all started. This trip was a fantastic success and was the basis for more adventourous and exciting trips.
To find out more about the
Thames Valley & Chiltern Air Ambulance
Please click on the picture below
