Following the Australians from Bapaume to Bullecourt
21 March 2021
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******* GREAT NEWS - THE IMPROVEMENTS TO THE TOP OF THE WALKWAY NOW FINISHED, PLEASE CHECK OUT THE NEWS SECTION FOR MORE DETAILS! ******* THE GALLERY SECTION HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO CONTAIN SOME 60 PHOTOS. SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE WE HOPE! *******
Welcome to the website dedicated to the Butte de Warlencourt, an iconic site which is located on the World War One Somme battlefields situated some three miles from the town of Bapaume in the Pas de Calais department in Northern France. Originating back to Roman times, the Butte (French for ‘hill’) is a mound some sixty feet high standing close to the D929 Albert-Bapaume road. In WW1, it was held by the Germans at the end of the Battle of the Somme in 1916 and in a fashion, marked the final line of the British advance on the Somme.
After nearly 30 years of ownership by the Western Front Association, (WFA), a charity based in United Kingdom, the Butte was bought by its present owners Bob and Julia Paterson over two years ago. The Patersons spend a sizeable part of the year living in the close by village of Morval. Apart from ensuring the existence of the Butte as an accessible, well known, World War One site, the owners have now recommenced a restoration project which had been started and progressed by Bob in his WFA days but subsequently had stalled after his departure. We want as many people to visit the Butte and to engage with it and details of planned maintenance enhancements and general love and attention of the Butte will appear in the News section of this site, however it is strongly reiterated that the Butte will always be the Butte and that will never change. We hope that you may even engage with the Butte by becoming a member of our non profit making Butte de Warlencourt Association.
The Butte has a story to tell so let us do everything to tell it. All stories, photographs are more than welcomed also and if possible will appear on this site or in the Associates newsletters. Please send them to info@buttedewarlencourt.com. In the website's History pages we have published a report written at the time by VC winner Roland Boys Bradford regarding the November attack on the Butte and have added a nice article regarding the weather and underfoot conditions facing the troops of all sides in the autumn of 1916. The weather was undoubtedly their second enemy. As requested we have put online an article concerning the various attacks on the Butte late in 1916. In the pre 1914 section, there is a nice summary regarding the 1870-1871 war action in the area and a piece regarding the background over the years of Warlencourt and l'Abbaye. There are quite a few memorials for the 1870-1871 war all within a few miles from the Butte which are well worth visiting, all offering some very nice photo opportunities. Lastly we have inserted a nice time-line piece covering the arrival of WW1 in Bapaume and surrounds in August and September 1914. This is located in the History Overview section.
Have a look at the rest of the site please. Hopefully you will find it worthwhile and interesting. Apart from giving details of all improvements, developments at the Butte, the mixture of pictures for example on the Gallery page is fascinating. Before COVID 19 hit, we were well down the line of having a Butte Working Weekend at the end of April 2020. However the virus arrived and when it is actually going away for good nobody really knows. We certainly plan to hold a Working Weekend later in 2021 (maybe late August?) all things being equal.
May we sincerely thank the WFA for being a main sponsor of the site and also Intona Limited of Dundee for their contribution to the cost of the new pathway changes which are just completed. As you would expect links to both these organisations and more are on the site. Thank you for visiting and it is certainly hoped you visit this website again. Just for info, there is also the Butte's Instagram account which you may want to look at. The address is butte_de_warlencourt. Finally thanks to associate Stevie Kerr for providing the image of the Butte from above. The main picture at the top is copyright I.W.M.
