My visit to Cambrai.

[Hans]

The 2nd and 3rd of August I travelled to northen France to visit the battlefield of Cambrai.
It was a impressive experience,specially the visits to the (many) cemeterys!
Took a lot of pics from the part of the battlefield I am recreating on my dio,learnt a lot about the topography and colours of the ground.
I was also having a appointment with mr. Philippe Gorczynski,the writer of the book "Following the tanks at Cambrai",and I hoped he would show me the excavated tank "Deborah".
http://www.tank-cambrai.com/english/home.php
He did much more than that,he took me to the battlefield and showed me useful details!
For more than 2 hours whe travelled the Fields of Glory,and located the trenches and bunkers.
He asked me not to show pictures of the tank,but I can assure you it was a great experience to take pictures and touch the real thing!

Hope you enjoy the pics.












Philippe showing me a bunker at Ribecourt.


My first battlefield-find,a British bullet.

One of the dio's in Philippe's office (1/32!).

greetings,Hans.

[musketier]

Thanks for posting the pics,I was just reading a little bit more on this battle currently and I have to say seeing the topography for real is different than what I picture in my head. The ridges are not as high as I thought are they?

[Dad's Army]

Looks you got a interesting trip there, and enough inspirement for your own dio (but must say: like the last dio as wel, a pitty it's the wrong scale)
Looking forward to the stories about your trip, Hans.
Thanks for posting

[The Observer]

Great post here and nice pics too-inspired me to learn more about the battle around Cambrai!

[Paul]

Nice the sky in the first photo....
and you can find bullets !! I´ll have to get my metal detector out and pop down for a day or so.
In the last photo, the dio one, there seems to be a very big model of a Tank on top of a wardrobe....how big is that if the others are 1/32nd!!?

[Hans]

musketier :I felt the opposite,thought it would be more flat.
Maybe i have to change my dio,but i have to admit the pictures don't show the real topography.
Good to read you are interested in the battle,if you need something let me know!







Paul:the sky was indeed very beautiful:


and the tank was aprox. 1/6 scale,radio controlled and completely metal!



greetings,Hans.

[musketier]

1/6 scale British female tank ( sorry the mark number escapes me)
The era around WW1 has been my first 'love' subject of history, I have as many books on WW1
(in english) in my Library and the wonderful set of the 'Official History of Military Operations of WW1 (British of course, slightly biased but detailed) Western front, Mesopotamia, Egypt and Palestine as well as the 4 volume set of the Royal Navy's Naval Operations. I believe in my own opinion that the conflict was and is a pivotal point in History.

I am so happy that 1/72 is starting to catch up in variety of figures in WWI to the 15mm scale
of which I am trying to paint up to get out of the way ( Anzac's, Belgians,Turks, British, French,Serbians,Bulgarians,Italians, Russians,Austro-Hungarians,and Americans) this may take awhile

Oh and Hans I have been following your Dio on this, I am not so sure a change is needed, I mean I think adding low rolling terrain might be more trouble than its worth, but perhaps a low ridge addition maybe?

[Chris]

Nice photos, and surely a moving trip...actually you were at something like 40 km from my house...
My step brother lives in the "pas de calais" at "locon" (place of the furthest advance of german troop) each time I go to his house I cross several cemetery, battlefield, memorial mark..that's always disturbing...
Concerning the remains of history, a farmer of this area told me that each time he works in his field he founds remains, bullets, schrapnel etc...even 90 years after...

chris

[FrankM]

Hello,

thank you for the interesting report.

Best regards

Frank

[Peter]

Hey Hans, I see you had a good time over there, and I hope you did not only dig up a bullet but also lots of inspiration

Thanks for sharing this with us