Battle of Amiens

Wed 12 August 2009

Battle of Amiens

Filed under: #satscene —— Sylvia @ 20:44

Some dates involve long searches to find something of interest that I can tell you about.

This week, I typed “8 August” into my Google search bar and it immediately prompted me with 1918. Well, that was easy.

Funnily enough, just today my son was talking about what he’d learned at school about the First World War. I told him to try to remember that these are not just dates to be memorised. The dusty stories in his history books happened to real people, with real stories and real families and hopes and dreams and fears. I chose this site as my link of the day because of the personal touch:

8th August, 1918

In the early hours of the morning of the 8th of August 1918 a blanket of fog around the river Somme concealed a massive military force which was about to be unleashed. As aircraft flew overhead tens of thousands of troops were on the march and four hundred tanks rumbled forward to the start line with engines throttled low to minimise noise. Two thousand British, Australian, Canadian and French cannon were deployed in a line stretching south-west from Hamel and north to and beyond the Somme.

To the north of the river were two divisions of the British Third Corps to the south four Australian Divisions, two Canadian and on the far right two French Corps. Their task was to drive the German army back from Amiens and to inflict a defeat which would further undermine Germany’s flagging will to continue the war.

In the line of artillery not far from Hamel were the twelve 18 pounders of the 38th and 39th batteries of the 10th Field Artillery Brigade of the Australian Imperial Force.

Amongst the crews of the 38th was my great-uncle George William Jessop who was then 21 years old. From Launceston Tasmania, George was a talented watercolour painter and sketcher who had been apprentice to a professional artist for four years.Away from home for nearly three years by August 1918, he had followed his older brother Alf into the Australian artillery having served as a cadet before the war. And it had been nearly a year since Alf had died of wounds received in fighting around Ypres. George had, no doubt often thought of him and of his family on the other side of the world. But as the seconds ticked down to Zero hour everyone’s mind must have been on the job that had to be done.

91 years later, we’re living easier times and I am grateful that our photographs show scenes of peacefulness and friendship.

Here are the Saturday Scenes from 8 August, 2009: