Arras
is a curiously neglected battle in many ways, not
least its coverage as a battlefield to visit. It
is not unlike Ypres in that it has a charming and
historic town, behind British lines, with plenty
of museums, things to see and places to eat and stay.
There are dozens of cemeteries, memorials and places
of interest on the battlefield too. Arras
sits midway between the vitally important location
of Vimy Ridge and the Somme battlefield yet somehow
does not grab the imagination in quite the same way
as either of those areas.
This may be because the battlefield area is not as pretty
and uplifting as the Somme, not as packed with "something
historic at every bend in the road" as Ypres. Indeed, the
outskirts of Arras town include some of what might be classed
as the ugliest housing in Europe and a great part of the
front line of April 1917 now lies below the tons of concrete
forming the industrial estates built around the town. Some
important WW1 craters are used as a rubbish dump by the
local people. The Paris motorway and the TGV du Nord track
cut right through the Arras battlefield too.
But for all that there are areas that are good walking
country, with sweeping views across the valley of the River
Scarpe and across the undulating ridges that were the epicentres
of fighting in the spring of 1917.
Paul Reed's "Walking the Somme" is quite rightly a best
seller in its class, opening up a new way of looking at
that battlefield and exposing many new sites to the casual
visitor. He had a much tougher job in tackling Arras and
I am glad to say does not let us down.
The Battleground Europe
format will be familiar to many. A pocket sized softback,
containing a number of guided walks that take in WW1
sites and provide some historical background to what
can be seen.
Paul's walks take
us first to Vimy Ridge (which is also covered in at
least two other Battleground Europe guides), then cover
in detail the area covered by the attack of 9 April
1917 . We are then taken to walks around Roeux and
Bullecourt. The walks are well planned and the supporting
information excellent.
It is notable that
the key points along the walks are the military cemeteries.
There appears to be much more of this book devoted
to descriptions of the cemeteries than I remember from
similar works. I can understand this. Arras was a
murderous battle with very heavy casualty rates and
in general the area has many more smaller, battlefield,
cemeteries than large post-war concentration plots.
It is something that makes this battlefield distinctive,
if the countryside and general atmosphere of the area
is not perhaps one that would attract any but the most
ardent battlefield visitor.
All in all this is
a good, reliable guide to the area and if it helps
a few more stop and look around instead of whizzing
past on their way between Ypres and the Somme, then
a good job done.
Click
here for all the British Army and WW1 books you might
ever need
|