France
Somme Battlefields
Cappy
This memorial featuring a colourful figure of a French Army soldier, or Poilu, stands in the village of Cappy on the Somme. He carries a rifle and gas mask and is holding aloft a laurel wreath of Victory. Originally erected after the 1914-1918 conflict this memorial now pays tribute to the local men who died in both World Wars.
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I just passed through Cappy, only stopping for a few snaps of the war memorial and a narrow-gauge railway wagon from a local mine which now serves as a flower pot on the opposite side of the road.
I was unaware that there is a fairly large Railway Museum here, with 20 locomotives and around 30 wagons on display, including French, German and American examples, diesel shunters and various military or industrial wagons. Most exhibits date from between 1910 - 1925 and many of the locomotives were used to supply the trenches during the Great War. The line, which runs along the banks of the River Somme, was constructed in 1915 to ferry in supplies and troops during the build up to the Somme Offensive which began on 1 July 1916. The railway line was maintained after the war to supply the sugar factory at Dompierre. Now passengers visiting the museum can take a scenic train ride from 1 May to 25 August each year and learn more about the history of the area, with a particular emphasis on the Great War, at the same time. More information can be found on the Museum`s website: www.appeva.org/museum.htm. Please bear in mind that all images on this website are Copyright. They are not free to use and have been embedded with a digital watermark. The black & white photographs from the Imperial War Museum`s collection have been used courtesy of its `Share & Reuse` policy and are also subject to copyright restrictions. The railways on the Somme weren`t used solely for transportation. Massive long-range artillery pieces like the 340mm and 400mm examples shown below, mounted on railway wagons, could be moved into position to bombard German held territory, even locations far beyond the front-line. |
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It was near Cappy that the Red Baron, Baron Manfred von Richthofen, and his squadron Jagdstaffel II, were based in the latter stages of the Great War. The German Ace flew a vermilion coloured Fokker tri-plane DR-1 425/17 and the unit`s other planes were also painted in gaudy colours, quickly giving rise to the name `Flying Circus`. The image on the right above shows von Richtofen with the officers of Jagdstaffel 11. Pictured below left is the Baron (in front) and Jasta 11 personnel saluting during Kaiser’ Wilhelm II's visit to Courtrai, Flanders in August 1917. Below Right: General Ernst von Hoeppner, the Commander of the German Air Force, converses with Lieutenant Kurt Wolff who is about to take-off in a Fokker Triplane. Baron Manfred von Richthofen is immediately behind the General.
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Below left: General Ernst von Hoeppner, Commander of the German Air Service, shaking hands with von Richthofen, March 1918. Below top: Albatros D.III fighters of Jagdstaffel 11 and Jagdstaffel 4 at Roucourt, France, in March 1917. Richthofen's red-painted aircraft is second in line. The image underneath shows one wall of the Baron`s room in the family home at Schweidnitz, Lower Silesia, which he decorated with flying trophies, including serial numbers cut from British aircraft and a chandelier made from a captured rotary engine (partially visible in the top left corner), May 1917.
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The Red Baron took off from the airfield near Cappy for the last time on 21 April 1918 and following a dogfight with British RE.8s and Sopwith Camels led by Captain A. Roy Brown, a Canadian with eleven kills, von Richthofen crashed into a nearby field. Brown claimed the `kill` as did Australian Lewis gunners who had a `pop` at him as he flew over.
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The remains of Manfred von Richthofen's wrecked Fokker Triplane, including its armament of two Spandau machine-guns, being examined at Bertangles, Somme, by airmen of No. 3 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps. Many Allied airmen regarded the Red Baron with great respect, and a funeral with full military honours was organised. His body was buried in the cemetery at the village of Bertangles, near Amiens, on 22 April 1918. A guard of honour fired a salute and airmen from Allied squadrons stationed nearby presented memorial wreaths, one of which was inscribed with the words, "To Our Gallant and Worthy Foe".
An RAF Chaplain leads the coffin borne by six pilots of No. 3 Sqdn, AFC, past the saluting party as it enters the cemetery.
In the early 1920s the French authorities created a military cemetery at Fricourt, in which a large number of German war dead, including Richthofen, were re-interred, however, in 1925 von Richthofen's youngest brother recovered the body from Fricourt and took it to Germany with the intention that it should lie beside the graves of other family members in the Schweidnitz cemetery.
The German Government requested that the body should instead be transferred to the Invalidenfriedhof Cemetery in Berlin, where many German military heroes and past leaders lay, and the family agreed. Richthofen's body received a state funeral when it was reburied. In 1975 the body was moved to a Richthofen family grave plot at the Südfriedhof in Wiesbaden.
The German Government requested that the body should instead be transferred to the Invalidenfriedhof Cemetery in Berlin, where many German military heroes and past leaders lay, and the family agreed. Richthofen's body received a state funeral when it was reburied. In 1975 the body was moved to a Richthofen family grave plot at the Südfriedhof in Wiesbaden.
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Above left: French troops spreading out a kite balloon on the ground for inflation at a aerodrome at the Fontaine les Cappy ravine, near Chuignes, 7 August 1916. The adjacent image, although not the best quality, shows an Australian Army band rehearsing in the ruins of Cappy village after its capture towards the end of the war.