Some Tennessee History for y’all

[Redthies]

I’m currently on my first “real” vacation in about 10 years. I usually go on long road trips in one of our Airstreams with the wife and dogs, but that requires me to be towing and driving at least 5 hours most days with SWIMBO in the right seat. Enjoyable? Sure. Totally relaxing? Not always.

This time, I flew to Paris alone, hopped a train north and met one of my clients (now a friend) on his 60’ canal boat. We are currently moored just outside the tunnel at Riqueval. It is a 5.7 km long tunnel completed by Napoleon in 1810 (well, not him personally). It was used for 24 years to move coal south to Paris, and then the Germans pulled 34 barges in and sealed up the ends to make a fortress as part of the Hindenburg line. On Sept 29 of 1918 members of the 59 and 60 Brigades of the AEF (mostly from Tennessee) managed to take it back from the Germans.

There are tons of cemeteries all over this area, but we just happened to be near this one, and knowing we have some members from Tennessee I thought I’d share a bit of history.

Photos of the monument, “town” that was rebuilt, surrounding countryside and map of cemeteries.

[Redthies]

And for those interested, some of the canal system, tunnels and the boat:

[Redthies]

We are probably going to visit a couple of other significant sites from WW1 and WW2. I’ll post some info here if we do…

[HenryFan]

Very interesting. Thanks for posting.

[GFK]

Looks like a very relaxing area!! Hope you are enjoying yourself! Thanks for the post!!

[CT_Shooter]

Thanks for the wonderful storytelling and photographs. But, it's not just our members from Tennessee that can appreciate it. That sounds like a really nice time. Good for you.

I hope she who must be obeyed had a good time, too.

[Redthies]

I hope she who must be obeyed had a good time, too.

She is home with our pack of bird dogs

[Mags]

Thank you for sharing this.

[brm4450]

[daytime dave]

Great photos and interesting story.

[Hatchdog]

Beautiful pics James. That looks like a refreshing bottle of green tea in one shot. Pretty cool to travel across the pond and find that wonderful tribute to the state of Tennessee and the sacrifices made by the US soldiers.

[Vaquero]

Heck, Paris is just a little over an hour north of us.

RP

[Hatchdog]

Heck, Paris is just a little over an hour north of us.

RP

[Redthies]

Yesterday we visited a couple of cemeteries around Cambrai. WW1 saw a lot of fighting in this area. Boulon Woods (Sept 29 1918) had 45,000 Canadian troops bust through a 2km hole in the German lines which was the beginning of the end for Germany in WW1.

A beautiful but somber place. I found a few graves from members of Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, which has an Armory in my home town and was once Commanded by my stepdads father-in-law. He was killed in a plan crash in 1950 on peace keeping duties in Kashmir.
https://www.veterans.gc.ca/en/remembran ... ial/678194

I also found a local boy from near where I live now, and likely my neighbor would know his family so took some pics of his details as well.

[Redthies]

This poor lad clearly didn’t stand a chance, and likely was the butt of many gallows humor jokes. He was only 6 weeks short of beating the odds…

[Hatchdog]

That’s a really nice tribute to the Canadian allies. Nice to see that.

[Redthies]

Today we “accidentally” wound up at Vimy Ridge on our way to Dunkirk and the uncles grave.

Unfortunately the visitors center wasn’t open until noon, but we went to the memorial, and were able to do a quick tour of the trenches that were left. The craters were pretty crazy. The scale of the bigger ones is hard to show in photos, but 30’ deep and 60+feet across was average for the larger ones.