France 2015 - Day 3 - Villers-Bretonneux to Albert

The day was getting late so we decided to miss the Australian Memorial at Hamel and head to Albert for a rest. After seeing Hamel on the TV show ANZAC battlefields I was questioned by Jodie as to why we hadn't gone there. Kinda wish we had.

Anyway we were driving along a country road and spotted this plaque. This was the site of the first tank vs tank combat.

I went for a short walk along the edge of the field opposite and found a large piece of rusty metal, which I assume was shrapnel.

After that we headed toward Albert. Stopping off at the 3rd Australia Division Memorial.

The leading battalions of the division came to this land of deep, river valleys and broad sweeping uplands on the morning of 27 March 1918 marching up towards this spot from the village of Heilly in the valley of the Ancre just to the north. Their task was to occupy an old French defence line between the river Ancre in the north and the Somme in the south, roughly between the villages of Mericourt–L’Abbé and Sailly–le–Sec, and slightly to the east of these settlements:

As the Australians arrived, bullets from long distance reached them. The Germans, who were in the sixth day of a rapid advance that had begun on 21 March 1918, were firing at them from afar.

Called ‘Operation Michael’, this massive German attack had quickly breached the British lines near St Quentin to the east. Their plan was to push rapidly westwards, capture the city of Amiens and then cut off the British armies in the north from their French allies in the south. The Germans had initially swept all before them and the British began to retreat across the famous 1916 battlegrounds of the Somme.

To relieve the weary British, fresh divisions, including the Third Division, were rushed from the north to stem the German advance west of Albert.

(from http://www.ww1westernfront.gov.au/le-hamel/sailly-le-sec.php)

The road to Sailly-le-Sec. opposite the 3rd Australian Division memorial. As you can see, not really on a hill

Unfortunately I hadn't done by research on this area. Just down the road is the site where the Red baron was downed...... Doh !

We finally arrived at our Hotel about 3 kms out of Albert. Nothing flash but a generic Ibis. Time for a local ale. This time I tried a red beer (tasted a lot like raspberry soft drink). Nice enough but I didn't have another.
 

It was kinda the colour of Jo's hair -  tasted nicer though