Bullecourt 1917, Jean & Denise Letaille Museum, is a small museum but therein lies its charm. You have time to read and see the very well-written stories (in both French and English) of the battles of Bullecourt and, particularly, of the soldiers who played such a tragic part in World War I in this part of Pas de Calais.

The Battles of Bullecourt

On April 11 1917, the Australian 1st Anzac Corps of the British Fifth Army attacked the Hindenburg Line, the major German defensive line of defence that ran from Arras to near Soissons on the Aisne river. The offensive was part of the attack that included the Battle of Arras (9 April to 16 May 1917) further north.

The Australian and British attack on the German position was a shambles. A lack of communication and the late arrival of tanks led to 3,289 Australian casualties, including 1,166 taken prisoner by the Germans. It was the largest number captured in a single battle during the whole of the Great War. The Germans suffered 749 casualties. 

A second battle which lasted from May 3 to 17 led to more than 7,000 Australian and 8,119 British casualties.

British divisions like the 5th (London) Division and the 62nd Division (volunteers from Yorkshire), were largely inexperienced; the 7th Division was experienced; it had been fighting in the war since 1914.

It’s not a well-known story outside the immediate area, partly because it was such a badly run campaign by the generals and partly because it gets caught up in the better known story of the Battle of Arras at the Wellington Quarry.

Bullecourt 1917 Museum and Jean Letaille

You’ll find Bullecourt 1917 located in the now renovated barn and stable that originally housed the museum. The inspiration came from the former Mayor of Bullecourt, Jean Letaille and his wife Denise. He was a farmer and over the years had discovered that his fields yielded a rich selection of wartime artifacts, of rusting machinery, old guns, helmets, barbed wire, unexploded shells, scrap metal,  bits of uniform and more…relics and reminders of the battles of World War I. 
While Jean Letaille was Mayor, he created a small museum in the Town Hall before relocating them to his barn and stable in 1995.

The Bullecourt 1917 Museum Revealed

The museum is divided into two rooms.

The Battle Room

In the middle of the long room lies a display of those relics of World War I, many of them found by Jean Letaille: rusty tank remains, mortars, boxes of shells. The story is told in panels around the room and here it becomes fascinating. 

Exhibits describe – and illustrate – everyday life at the Front which was nasty and brutish and often short. Nights were particularly hard when in the dark and cold, the stench of decaying bodies and fear of attack took over the imagination. Soldiers wrote letters, made ornaments, played cards. The sight of air battles overhead broke the monotony and bets were made on the outcome. Keen souvenir hunters took extraordinary risks to take rare objects from their enemy, and later sold them to those waiting to be called forward.  Water was brought from the rear often in drums that had held petrol…imagine the peculiar taste.

There are pictures of Australian soldiers playing pitch and toss where they threw a coin as close as possible to a given target in the sunken road near Noreuil. Others heat up tea over candles in trenches. 

You see medical equipment like a shell dressing in a canvas bag. You see images from the advanced medical station where the nurses’ lips were stained brown from using their teeth to remove the corks from bottles of antiseptic iodine tincture. And who knew that camphor or caffeine injections were used as a cardio stimulant?

It’s these small details that fascinate and make this one of the World War I museums you should put on your list. I have been retelling the story of the nurses’ brown lips with great success!

Early cemeteries were created, like the Quéant Road Cemetery in Buissy. Of the 2,377 commonwealth soldiers buried there, 1,441 bodies are still unidentified. Of the 995 Australians, only 299 are named. The search, and the story, goes on. In 1995 the remains of Sergeant John (Jack) James White were found in a field nearby and identified. He died on May 3, 1917. In 1995, 77 years after his death he was buried here. Inscribed on his gravestone are the words:  Deep Peace Of The Quiet Earth So Far From The Land That Gave You Birth.

The Tribute Room – The Dead, The Missing, The Survivors

Black and white photos line the walls of the second room with the name, fate, date of death and age below of the face that stares back at you. The Australians are in their characteristic ‘digger’ hats; others in army hats; some are bare-headed; a few are in civilian clothes. Most of them sport moustaches or small beards – it was the fashion then but it also recalls the difficulties at the front of washing and shaving in precious water. Below the photos stand cases of more war items.

Again it’s the stories behind the photos that bring home the harsh reality of war. 

Private Christopher Douglas Elphick of the Honourable Artillery Company was killed on May 15, 1917. His remains were found in a field in Bullecourt in 2009 with 8 other bodies. He was identified by a ring with his initials, and was buried at Ecoust-Saint-Mein at the HAC cemetery in 2013. There’s a picture of him and a photo with his wife and child. One of the eight buried along with him is Lieutenant John Harold Pritchard, identified by his silver identity bracelet. 

Both were discovered by Didier Guerle, an elderly farmer who unearthed one of the soldiers’ gas canisters. He dug a little deeper to remove the canister and discovered the soldiers’ remains.

It took 3 years to trace the named soldiers’ relatives after they were identified.

More surprising is the story of rifleman Léon Pageot. Born in Dijon in 1891, the young French citizen moved to London to work as a jeweller. While there he designed the Royal emblem of the Postal Service, still used today on red post boxes. Married and the father of 2 children, he entered military service in 1916 and was killed at Bullecourt on  May 21, 1917. He has no known grave.

After the Battles of Bullecourt

Bullecourt was a small village, with just 396 inhabitants in 1911. At the end of the war it was classified as being in the ‘Red Zone’ (totally destroyed) along with other nearby villages. In 1920 the inhabitants returned and began rebuilding Bullecourt as a farming village. Inevitably as the land was ploughed up, discoveries were made. 

On withdrawal from the Hindenburg Line Germans left behind booby-traps. On March 25 1917, the town hall at Bapaume was destroyed by a delayed-action bomb left by the Germans. About 30 men were sleeping in the building. 5 were brought out; 25 were killed including 9 Australians and 2 French MPs.

Memorials to the British and Australian soldiers

At the village church you’ll find the Slouch Hat memorial to the British and Australian soldiers who lost their lives at Bullecourt. Next to it is a small brick memorial dedicated to the tank crews of the Heavy Branch of the Machine Gun Corps (HBMGC) who died here. The corps was the first unit in the British Army to use tanks in combat.

Just 900 metres away on the Rue des Australiens, you’ll come across the Australian Digger Memorial Garden. This was the front line, occupied by the Australians in their attack on Bullecourt. The statue in the garden is of the ‘Bullecourt Digger’, wearing the insignias of all four Australian infantry divisions who fought in Europe. 

Two hundred metres further along, a cross stands just beside the road with a collection of individual memorial stones to the soldiers who died here.

The Australian Remembrance Trail

The ART is a 200 km (124 mile)-long commemorative trail running from Ypres in Belgium, through Fromelles, Bullecourt and Pozières to Villers-Bretonneux, east of Amiens where you’ll find the Sir John Monash Australian Centre. The trail, which includes battlefields, cemeteries, memorials, and museums, commemorates the experiences of the Australian soldiers between mid 1916 and late 1918 in France and Belgium.

More about Australians on the Western Front

More about the two World Wars in Pas de Calais

The Wellington Quarry in Arras

World War II Sites in Pas de Calais

Guide to Calais (I have to admit, one of my favourite cities).

Declaration: I travelled to France courtesy of DFDS from Dover to Calais on a self-driving press trip as a guest of Pas-de-Calais Tourisme.

More Information on Ferries to France including DFDS details.

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