I have just come back from a long weekend on the Somme battlefields with my son, Jan, and I want to tell you a quick story about a Frenchman we saw during our trip.
Not the Frenchman who drove up to us as we were walking up a small lane towards the Sheffield Memorial Park at Serre, asked if we were English, and when I replied oui just sighed to himself, turned his car around without a sound and drove off again, beeping his horn as he did so.
No this is not about him. Although that was quite a strange encounter.
This particular story starts a bit further south on the Somme battlefront at Fricourt. The Fricourt German Cemetery to be precise. Jan and I were just returning to our car after visiting the cemetery when we were approached by a local gentlemen in his seventies perhaps. He also asked us if we were English, but instead of just driving off he gently shook a big pile of papers he was holding in his hand and said in pretty good English: I 'ave something for you to see 'ere.
Curious to see what he had we followed him back to his car where he proceeded to lay out the papers on the boot of his car. His name was Bernard Maës and he owned Fricourt Farm which was a few hundred yards beyond the cemetery.
Fricourt Farm was in the thick of the fighting on the Somme in the summer of 1916 and was a prized possession of the incumbent German defenders for a reason we will reveal later. Indeed, there was a German machine gun post on the perimeter of the farm which would have been a significant obstacle for the men of the 4th Middlesex Regiment as they made their way round the north end of Fricourt village towards their main objective - the German intermediate line known as Crucifix Trench.
The chat taking place at back of Monsieur Maës' Peugeot was fascinating - he had lots of newspaper clippings and old photographs to show. Then he said something that made Jan and I stop in our tracks.
He had a German bunker on his land. And it was still there.
Obviously, we had to ask and after a little gentle persuasion he agreed to show us. So we got in our car and followed him up a track to his farm. The site of the current farm is not the original position - those buildings got obliterated by shell fire during the war. Monsieur Maës has been running the new Fricourt Farm since 1980 and for the first few years all he did was clear bricks from the land - bricks from the original farm buildings - we could still see two or three large piles of bricks to the side of one field - they were collected just two years ago.
Before we got to the bunker, Monsieur Maës wanted to show us something else - he is building a small museum in an extension to the main farmhouse, it is still a bit of a building site at the moment and he was at pains to say it wasn't finished, but it is a really nice space and if he gets it finished, it is going to look fabulous. And judging by the number (and size) of the shells he had just casually lying around in his garden, he won't be short of artifacts.
And so to the bunker. It is situated a couple of hundred yards from the farm and is a thick concrete structure. Inside the bunker was the reason they were keen to keep hold of the farm. So keen, that they positioned a machine gun post on its perimeter to keep out the pesky British.
Inside the bunker was a well. Dug to 58 metres below ground, it would have been a vital supply of fresh water to the defending German troops. No wonder they protected it with concrete and machine guns!
Overall, we spent several hours in the company of the delightful Monsieur Maës - it was a truly fascinating experience and we both thank him deeply for his time and hospitality. He has made it his retirement mission to build his museum as a way of keeping the memories of the history of his farm and of the battle alive for future generations. His is a special spirit so if you find yourself near Fricourt German cemetery and get approached by a kindly French gentlemen, make sure you stop and say hello - you won't regret it.
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