The best traffic-free bike rides around Douchy-Lès-Ayette

An interesting anecdote is that the Royal Naval Division was originally formed from reservists of the British Navy who had no place on ships during the war. This unit was trained as infantry and played a crucial role in several battles, including the Battle of the Ancre.

The British Royal Naval Division Memorial in Beaucourt-sur-l'Ancre commemorates the officers and men of the Royal Naval Division who died during the Battle of the Ancre, part of the great Somme offensive. The memorial is located on Rue d'Hamel (Route D50) and Chemin de Serres les Pusieux.

On 11 April 1944, an Avro Lancaster Mk I, serial number LL836 BQ-E, crashed near Achiet-le-Petit, in the Bois de Logeast, during a mission by the RAF 550 Squadron. The aircraft had taken off from North Killingholme in England and was part of a bombing raid on the railway installations at Aulnoye-Aymeries, as part of the Allied Transportation Plan2. The Lancaster was intercepted and shot down at around 02:43 by a German night fighter, a Messerschmitt Bf 110, flown by Hauptmann Helmut Bergmann. The aircraft exploded in mid-air and came down in flames approximately 1.5 km north-northwest of Achiet-le-Petit3. All seven crew members were killed. Among them were five Britons and two Canadians, including: F/Lt Richard William Picton (pilot, age 24, DFC) F/O John Foster Potter (bomb aimer, age 23, RCAF) F/O John James Logan (navigator, age 26, DFC) Sgt William Essar (age 22, RCAF) Sgt Thomas Henry Guest (flight engineer) Sgt Kenneth Percy Charles Williams (radio operator, DFM) F/Lt William Hugh Waycott (air force, age 22, DFM)3 They are all buried in Achiet-le-Petit cemetery. The crash is a harrowing illustration of the risks faced by bombers during night operations over occupied Europe.

An interesting anecdote is that Achiet-le-Petit changed hands several times during the war. The village was occupied by British troops in March 1917, lost to the Germans in March 1918, and retaken by the British in September 1918. In 1924, 300 bodies that had been temporarily buried elsewhere were transferred to this cemetery.

Cimetière militaire allemand d'Achiet-le-Petit is a World War I military cemetery located in Achiet-le-Petit, France. The cemetery contains the graves of 1,314 German soldiers. It was created in the autumn of 1914 to bury the bodies of German soldiers who had fallen during the fighting in the region.

Redan Ridge Cemetery No. 2 (Redan Ridge Military Cemetery) contains 279 casualties of the 1914-18 war, 124 of whom are unidentified. All but one fell in July and November 1916 near Beaumont-Hamel, which was then on the front line. The cemetery was established in the spring of 1917, when these battlefields were cleared.

The monument to the 8th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders is a Celtic cross symbolically erected on the embankment of a sunken road, at the spot where the men of this regiment rushed to capture the village of Beaumont-Hamel on November 13, 1916, at the end of the Battle of the Somme. First, on July 1, when it was located in no man's land, exactly equidistant from the British and German trenches, and served as a refuge for so many soldiers wounded during the fighting; then, five days before the end of that same battle, when the village of Beaumont-Hamel was finally captured on November 13, by the men of the 8th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, who had rushed from that position. The 8th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders was a Scottish regiment that fought on several fronts. A reading of the inscriptions engraved on the different sides of the base of this monument tells us this. Thus, this cross is dedicated to the glory of the battalion's glorious dead and to the memory of those who will never return. Its combat losses, throughout the war, amounted to 51 officers and 831 men and non-commissioned officers, including 105 wounded officers and 2,527 men and non-commissioned officers. Finally, a Celtic inscription reveals "it is good to have friends on the day of battle." Mobilized from August 4, 1914, to November 12, 1919, a period of five years and 100 days, the regiment fought from May 1, 1915, to November 11, 1918, in Belgium and France. Until 1918, the 8th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders belonged to the 51st Division; In 1915, it fought at Richebourg, Festubert and on Thiepval Ridge, which was to leave a sad memory for the British on 1 July 1916 (this is where the memorial to the missing now stands); in 1916, it fought at the Labyrinth, Vimy Ridge, Fourcaux Wood (High Wood), Beaumont-Hamel (there, therefore) and Courcelette; in 1917, it was Roclincourt, Arras, Roeux, Ypres and Cambrai. In 1918, the 8th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders fought as part of the 61st Division at Saint-Quentin, Holnon Wood, Villéveque, Nesle, Villers-Bretonneux and on the Lys; but also within the 15th division which distinguished itself at Soissons, at Buzancy and in the final advance which would lead to the armistice

At the start of the Battle of the Somme, a powerful German fortified redoubt stood at this location on a hilltop protecting the approach to Beaumont-Hamel. On July 1, 1916, while all the mines exploded at 7:28 a.m., two minutes before the assault began, Hawthorn Ridge exploded at 7:20 a.m. This was a decision made by Lieutenant-General Hunter-Weston, commanding the 8th Corps. Its explosion certainly caused damage to the fortifications and the German troops, but they had plenty of time to set up their machine guns, much to the misfortune of the British infantrymen who set out to assault this ridge carrying thirty kilos of equipment over a distance of approximately 500 meters. On November 13, 1916, the final phase of the Battle of the Somme began, ending three days later. Beaumont-Hamel, one of the objectives of July 1st, was still in German hands. This time it was up to the Scots of the 51st Division to capture the village. In support of this attack, a second mine exploded under Hawthorn Ridge (November 26, 1916) a few minutes before the troops rushed from their positions, this time located less than 250 meters away, where today stands the monument to the Scottish regiment of the 8th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. The ruins of Beaumont-Hamel railway station and the village were this time captured.