Walking the Somme: Hawthorn Ridge 1916
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- Опубліковано 19 лип 2024
- In the first of our Battlefield Vlogs, we walk the Somme in the ground close to the village of Beaumont-Hamel and across the old No Man's Land to Hawthorn Ridge No 1 Cemetery. There we look at the story of Eric Heaton, who died here on 1st July 1916.
Old Front Line website for this Vlog with extra information: oldfrontline.co.uk/2023/04/29...
More on Eric Heaton here: somme1916.wordpress.com/2013/...
All images are from the Old Front Line Archive.
Contemporary footage: National Archives, America.
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We'll never know the suffering of those brave lads. A really moving tribute . Thank you.
' Lest We Forget'
Thanks, Keith.
Lets not forget the war mongers that brought on that suffering !
It always amazes me how quiet and serene these places are today. A farmer's field, a country lane, a small stand of trees. They speak not of the epic struggle of life and death waged in the same place you're standing. Time has healed the physical wounds upon the land (in most places), but the courage and sacrifice will forever remain. Thank you for your efforts, I truly enjoyed this video.
Thank you, I think it remains such a special and unique landscape in so many ways.
My grandfather, Hugh Walker, died on The Somme, July 1916, he left a widow and three young children in Liverpool, they lived in abject povert for many years afterwards, may they all rest in peace.
Yes the losses affected so many, and for so many years after the conflict was over.
This is an outstanding video....on a subject that should be constantly remembered and discussed. Good job!
Thank you!
Thank you for your work. As a US citizen born 1954, i have studied WW1 maybe because I was married to a Bosnian born Serb. My journey in books has brought me great understanding of some of the battles. Sadly I ran in to much anger within Facebook groups where I tried to discuss and clarify matters. I have learned to be equally respectful to the dead of both sides now. I hope before end of my life to visit a few WW1 cemetaries and pay my respect.
I hope you get to make those battlefield visits one day, they are life changing.
Superb film. Thank you for sharing it with us.
Thank you!
Brilliant video Paul. Word perfect. Always with emotion and care. Keep them coming I'm learning a lot
Thank you - more to come soon, I hope.
What an interesting video which brought a tear to my eye.. Iv just returned from a motorcycle ride to the Somme from Northern Ireland following the foot steps of the 36th Ulster division (UVF). Our trip was a personal pilgrimage as after watching the Flog It program on TV i was horrified to watch people selling their great grandfathers war medals for next to nothing, reasons being they are only sitting in a drawer!!.
I searched on Ebay WW1 medals of which there where thousands for sale. I found one in particular from a young lad W Martin Royal Army Corp. A google search gave us no information on him although there was some information on the Common Wealth Grave web site. I purchased the medal for a piffling £20 and on our trip we found his grave in Cambrai and buried it with him. We then recited For the Fallen by Binyon. It was a very emotional moment for remembering the life this young man gave and has been forgotten through out the years...
Thank you, that’s an amazing thing you did with that lads Medal.
FGAU
Hearing about Eric Heaton and his sister never fails to move. Watching you in the landscape adds a new dimension to these already fantastic podcasts.
My daughter and I visited the Somme in 2015. My father and my daughter’s grandfather is buried in Normandy. So many wonderful boys and young women have lost their lives. God bless them.
Glad you’ve been able to make that visit.
Thank You , Never forget
Thanks.
So poignant, Paul. Ever since I first heard of Eric Heaton via one of your podcasts I have taken a great interest in him and did visit his grave on my last visit to The Somme. His story always moves me to tears.
Yes, Eric’s story is very powerful!
I had the great pleasure of meeting and speaking to you Paul many years ago on a battlefield tour, I have never met a more knowledgeable man on this subject. Thank you once again.
Thank you, Graham, that’s very kind. Hope we meet again one day!
Thank you for this video. I have an uncle buried Trios Arbres cemetery. He was in the fourth New Zealand machine gun company when he died of wounds on 4 August 1917.
Thanks - I hope to do some films up that way in due course. It’s a cemetery I’ve been to a few times.
@@OldFrontLine thank you for the reply. Much appreciated. All the best from Sydney Australia 🇦🇺 PS I have just subscribed.
Go one great content all the best greetings from Holland
Thank you!
Great video.Thanks.
Thank you!
Would it be unreasonable for me to request a new one of these everyday? 😅
Excellent work. I enjoyed that.
Thanks, JD! If only I had the time to put one out every day!
Real stories, movingly told. Thank you Paul. Your blogs are such a wonderful tribute to those who gave so much in the Great War.
Thanks for those kind comments, Paul.
Wow, what a heartbreaking story.
Thanks, it is a sad story. Good and important to share it.
Paul .. I’ve listened to and enjoyed everyone of your podcasts … You have a way of painting pictures with your words which is a gift to your listeners … After walking “ walking “ with you via this video I’m looking forward very much to see where you visit next .. Thank you 👍🏻
Thanks so much, Philip! More to come!
Very moving and interesting. Thank you.
Thanks, hope you find some of the other videos of interest too!
Thanks Paul, I thought the podcasts were the best substitute for re-visting the Western Front. The images of the places we know and personal anecdotes are wonderful. Tim
Thanks, Tim!
Well done.
Thanks!
Very moving. Thanks.
Thank you.
James Davis
So Movingly told. How right it is to remember the sacrifices they all made, often at the beginning of adulthood and all that brings. Your blogs should be in classrooms everywhere .
Thanks, James - that’s very kind.
Thank you for this video Paul and all your work. Looking forward to this evening's talk.
Thank you! See you later!
Lovely to see the ground too Paul. You often paint a vivd picture of these places through your words. However this added a new dimension to the podcast.
Thank you, John. More coming soon!
I must have bumped into you at the mine crater just after you filmed this. As ever, fantastic history and retelling of personal stories.
Thanks, Mark!
Outstanding as ever .
Thank you!
Paul, I've been a fan of your podcast since pretty much the beginning. I've definitely listened to every episode and just wanted to say thank you for your efforts. I'm always struck by the lingering thoughts and emotions afterwards. Keep up the good work, cheers.
Thank you so much, Shannon!
I’ve been to Hawthorn Ridge but didn’t know this story so thank you for telling it.
Glad it was of interest, Ian!
Well done! A+
Thank you!
thank you for your comments
, very humbling.
.
Thank you.
Thank you for this superb video Paul. Keep up the good work.
Thank you, Nick!
Very interesting video. Got me thinking, back when I was in grade school my teacher took a small group to the rest home to visit the residents. I remember interviewing an old soldier, it really didn’t sink in till I was a lot older that I was talking with a WW1 hero. Happy new year to you from Montana
An amazing experience to have.
Thank you for this video Paul. Look forward to more.
Thank you, Edward.
Beautifully told, very thought provoking, thank you.
Glad you liked it!
I watch a lot of videoes on WW1 & WW2, they are all fantastic but this video, I must say really for me is one of the best. Your story telling, knowledge and bringing to life the movements of the soldiers is unreal. What must the family have thought when they visited his grave in 1919 with the surroundings back then.
Thank you, that’s very kind. I hope you find the other videos of interest - and there are more coming soon!
Thank you for letting me learn the story of Eric Heaton and his family. I found this video very moving had a tear in my eye watching and listening to you tell us the sad story. You make it look so easy Paul, a great video and story very interesting.
Thanks, I’m glad Eric’s story affected you - that way him and his family, who speak for so many, are not forgotten.
Fantastic Vlog. First heard of Eric Heaton when visiting the Somme with you some years ago. Great to be able to see the ground as you guide us through it
Thanks, Jonathan!
Fantastic video, thank you 👍
Thank you!
Great videos. I've been enjoying listening to your podcasts which I found recently. But I'm liking the videos a lot, especially since I'm across the ocean so I can't walk the old front lines, so the visuals help a lot.
Thanks - hopefully more to come soon!
Excellent Paul - even though I've been there several times, it's always good to hear more.
Thank you, John!
Wonderful, thank you. I'm going to be there this weekend coming. Over from the UK for the weekend with a group of friends and they've asked to visit the Somme. Your videos and the podcast are helping me to compile something resembling a bit of an itinerary with the little time available.
Thanks! And hope you have a great visit this weekend!
Smashing video thank you!
Thank you, Gary!
Excellent supplement to the moving story about Eric Heaton. I think that was the podcast that really connected me to this podcast series and made me realize what a fantastic way this is to study the Great War. Keep up the excellent work! 🙂
Thanks so much, Andreas. I’m glad you found it of interest!
Fascinating. I really appreciate your time and effort in putting this together. Very poignant and utterly moving.
Thank you, Guy! Some more coming soon!
So sad thank you for bringing this story to life, sometimes for people like me and others I'm sure we lose sight of what war is really about we get lost in history and forget everyone that fell on both sides had dreams 💔
Thanks, these stories are important to remember.
I always walk along both rows in this iconic cemetery to acknowledge each of the non-Eric Heatons (as if they might otherwise feel neglected)😉
Oh I agree, David. There are so many interesting stories in there and I wish I had as much on them all as Eric.
Thank you Paul, this is a thought provoking podcast reminding us all of the horrific loss of life on 1st July 1916. I recall last year when we visited here, with Leger & Andrew Thornton, that last letter of Eric Heaton's being read out. It was heartbreaking to hear the words from a man so obviously 'loving & loved' writing the night before his certain death. God bless him & all who perished ❤
Thanks, yes Eric’s story is a very moving one.
Wow so sad. We had a similar situation in my own family around my great uncle who was killed on lancaster operations in ww2.
Yes, sadly these sad stories are all too common.
What an incredible story, ref Heaton, Paul. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks, it’s good to share these stories with a wider audience.
Excellent video
Thank you!
That photograph is probably one of the most poignant pictures I have ever seen of the Great War. Those battlefields behind them were fresh. God knows what it must have looked and smelled like. They probably had no idea that the front was like that. Incredible.
Indeed, it’s captured a moment in time that was quite unique.
I've been to the WWI battlefields all the way to the Swiss border. Between 45 and 50 occasions (I don't remember exactly how many now). Each time, I see something different. Just before the Pandemic, I recorded the Western Front in 360 VR, both video and photos. I use the footage to show people that are too infirm or can't afford to go themselves. Although I am British, I enjoy the French former battlefields more as there is so much more to see that was just left. It's quite dangerous at times but very interesting.
Thanks, that sounds like a great project. There is a lot to see beyond the Somme and hopefully I’ll have some films there coming up in the near future.
This deserves more likes. It was a personal connection and a close friend that finally convinced me to visit the Somme and Arras battlefields. His great uncle (Lt John Arbuthnott, Grenadier Guards) is buried at Bronfay Farm Military Cemetery, whilst mine (Pvt Edward Thomas Friend, Honourable Artillery Company) died at Bullecourt and having no known grave is memorialised at the Arras Memorial. In 2 1/2 days we visited 48 sites which for a first visit, gave me a sense of the ground over which this sector was fought and whilst a tad ambitious was more a reflection on how densely packed and how close the Somme and Arras battlefields are to one another.
Thanks - and interesting to read about your own connection. There’s an HAC Cemetery near Bullecourt and the bodies of some men were found there in recent years.
Well done Paul, nice video, was there 4 weeks ago (got soaked), I think I'm right in saying there is also Heaton trench named after him
There was indeed, just down the slope from where I was walking.
I have walked the Somme,there's a small cemetery to the Devonshire regiment ,across the road from that cemetery is the Royal Welsh Fusiliers .
I think that's the Gordon Cemetery you're referring to? Opposite the Devonshire Cemetery at Mamet?
@@OldFrontLineI also went Mametz woods ,my great uncle was killed there on 7/7/1916 ,no known grave he was 3 weeks off his 18th birthday
@@barbaraallen435 I did one of my podcasts on Mametz Wood. You'll find it on Spotify or Apple podcasts.
@@OldFrontLine I shall look out for that
Heading to the Somme in May. Grandfather was wounded west of Courcelette in late September 1916, 7th Battalion Canadian Expeditionary Force
That’s great, I’ve done some podcasts on Courcelette as I used to live there and plans some videos about the Canadians there later this year.
@@OldFrontLine we’re going to Ypres as well. My grandfather’s first injury was at the Bluff, well documented mine explosion in mid July 1916. I have a couple of your books Paul, any recommendations for a guide in either Ypres or Courcelette. I can be reached at t.greaves@shaw.ca. Thanks regards Tom
That picture of the dead soldiers looks very much like the very young soldier in the video taken at the time who looks very nervous and worried staring into the camera.
Indeed.
Your pods are excellent Paul, I always feel I am there with a friend. The photo of Eric’s family in the cemetery is very similar to one I have (taken at Hooge Crater Cemetery) of my grandmother posing next to the wooden cross marking my great uncle’s grave. When the headstones were later erected it was decided he had no known grave and his name is on the wall at Tyne Cot. Have you any idea why this might be?
That’s an interesting one! I know this happened occasionally when a cross has been placed as a memorial rather than on an actual grave. Perhaps that?
It's good to see the actual ground where WW1 was fought but an aerial view or map during your walk would really help me to visualize where you are walking in relation to the whole Somme area. How far apart were the german and English lines in this area? Thank you for a great video
Yes that’s a good point and one I learned from that film so will be including maps in them now as I have done with the recent Ypres ones. Appreciate your comments.
Lest we forget.
Indeed.
A very poignant story, respectfully told. Thank you. I've read that the 10 minute delay between the detonation of the mine and the advance of the British troops was at the request of the commanding office in this sector, and was longer than for the other mines fired on 1st July- is that your understanding?
Hi Keith - yes, the 10 minute delay was a compromise reached by senior commanders one of whom wanted it fired an hour before the attack. It was a fatal decision that allowed the Germans to occupy their lip of the crater despite sending an advance party to try and stop that.
I have also queried that decision, maybe presuming that the artillery barrage was effective, a case proven otherwise along the whole front line?
Thanks very much Paul love ur videos and I'm much wiser about WW1. keep up the good work.
Thanks so much! Glad you enjoy them!
Can't thank you enough for all your work Paul. Im working through your podcasts and have nearly caught up!. Do you happen to know the origin of that clip you have used just you mention the Hawthorn mine and the advanced party?. Ive seen the extended clip of what look like advancing or retreating troops but have never found out where it is from. Is it real or was as it staged?
Thanks, John. It’s from Malin’s Battle of the Somme film. I have some digital masters of it and most of the film is genuine.
@OldFrontLine Thanks Paul. I was dreading you saying that, given I must have seen it quite a few times.
Completely humbling! The current state of our country could well do with recalling the sacrifice of our men and women in the last 100 years. I doubt these WW1 warriors would be impressed today with the country they so valiantly and bravely made the ultimate sacrifice for.
Thank you!
the intro film to those men, marching to certain death, nothing learnt by the ones following
them today , however the ' masters to deciet ' then before and now know very well the game!;
Important to remember their bravery, I think.
that is not in question paul, to the very brave and before , and to this day, my point is the ones who start, and fuel the conflicts, centuries past ,and today that keep the protected safe to replay such horror for their gain, one of my grandads was a sgt major, in the 'first' war, he was
injured, by shelling, then shot off his horse, to then be machine gunned , he was trying to return to his 'men' from injury when the war ended, extrordinary men he passed as i was born, asking that i should have his name, i was told he never talked of such times,
my father said he had bullet wounds to his legs from the M,G, ;
perhaps not a topic to yer presentation, lets not forget to how they were sent
there, knowing the wider reasons many would have remained with their families;
My Grandad lost his Leg in WW1 Fighting at the Somme, RIP to all the British and Canadians and all Allied forces that defeated the Germans. Rule Britannia from Glasgow 😎🇬🇧
Thanks for sharing your connection to the Great War.
It baffles me why Europe committed suicide in 1914-1918. 😢
It was certainly a costly period of our history.
Geo politics. Worst of reasons for a generations demise.
You might enjoy watching on YT: "The Necessary War".
@@raymondmiller5098 I'll check it out.
@@raymondmiller5098 100% Brit propaganda. We Americans are savvy to such productions going back to 1914.
A hundred years on and we have learned absolutely nothing !
Even more important to remember these men and women, though.
Do you do alot of the research yourself? If so, my wife's great grandad was in ww1 an died in a mission at the beginning of ww1, I'd be very interested if you could find more info for me maybe an do a video.
Yes I do all the research. Feel free to contact me via my Podcast website.
No German graves?
Not here - they were all moved post-war to concentration cemeteries.
Would have been better if you showed the area around you and pointed out places of interest rather than just yourself but good knowledge
Thanks, that was the first one of these I did and I learned from it so the ones I did of Ypres showed more of the ground and I’ll be doing that with the others going forward.
why do you think people want to look at you? show the surrounding area where the battle was fought.
Umm, it’s a Vlog, so a conversation between the presenter and viewer. But thanks, I’ll take that point on board.
I find it disheartening to listen to videos of the battle of the some and realise that there is no mention of the newfoundland regiment at all. Why did our little nation sacrifice so much for so little to the point that their sacrifice never warrents a mention? Not in this video or any other.
Hi Frank - in this video they aren’t mentioned because it’s about a specific area of the Somme where they did not fight. If you look elsewhere on my Channel, you’ll find Podcasts about them and also video Shorts. Hope that helps.
The newfoundland regiment was part of the 29th division and was ordered to attack on this specific part of the front at 08:30 in the morning to reinforce the attack. They were the only regiment that were attacking at the time, so the whole german line opened up on them. But the men tucked their heads as if walking into driving rain and advanced as ordered Of nearly 800 men that attacked, 68 answered roll call the next day. Lindel Hart, who wrote the first definitive history of the battle of the some covered this event so we have proof of our existence in the battle, so we cannot be completely wriien out of this history. Even now, when canada celebrates July 1, newfoundland remembers that day as a day of morning, much to the irritation of the Canadians.
@@frank834skinner3 hi Frank - I have 100s of books about the Somme. The Newfoundland Regiment is mentioned in almost every one of them! They have a massive memorial site on the Somme visited by thousands of people each year. I honestly don’t think they are forgotten in any way!
instead of focusing on you walking, how about you turn the camera around and show the battlefield.
Well it’s a Vlog, and that requires some dialogue with the audience. 🤷🏻♂️
The beginning of the decline of the West and the nihilism of britaintoday. Sad.
The sacrifice they made is important to remember, however.
Thanks you, we will never forget their sacrifice 🙏
I do hope not.
World War One is largely over shadowed by World War Two. I’m so glad we have people in the world, who care enough to make videos such as this and keep the history alive. 🤍.
Well done.
Thanks!
Well done.
Thank you!