Edward Hancock - Battleground - Aubers Ridge

Individual acknowledgement of the large number of people who have assisted me in compiling this guidebook is regrettably not possible, suffice to say that each piece of information I have been given, however small and from whatever source, is greatly appreciated, and to each contributor I register my sincere thanks.

As always, thanks above all to the countless soldier scribes of all ranks and nationalities who jotted and wrote and recorded their experiences and thoughts and described what they saw around them in letters, diaries, and documents, official and personal; and to those who saved and preserved these items. Thanks also to the many authors who have since written accounts of the encompassing events and others who have compiled the available wealth of technical information concerning all the paraphernalia of the Great War.

My thanks to the many friendly members of staff of Records Offices, Newspaper Offices and Regimental Museums who, with cheerful mien, have invariably helped beyond the call of duty and often at short notice. Thanks also to members of the historical group of Laventie, and in particular to M. Octave Defief. Now retired, M. Defief farmed land adjoining the Rue Bacquerot for many years and provided me with much unsolicited detail of the surrounding area and local information. His father tilled the land before him and served in the French Army on the Somme front whilst his then enemy took possession of the farm, first in October 1914, and again in 1918. The experience was repeated during the Second World War. His son has for many years been tilling the same land under EEC policies now thankfully agreed around a table and common to us all.

I record my great appreciation for the assistance, encouragement and sympathy, of local people, manifest on several occasions. When fuel tanks ran unexpectedly dry in a most inhospitable situation; when the car became bogged down off road and somewhat isolated; being welcomed in for coffee breaks after lingering alone and forlorn with camera whilst persistent mist and gloom threatened to spoil photographic expeditions; being lifted by a smiling farmer with tractor after slipping and sliding across fields, dripping wet and mud bespattered, whilst rain sheeted down and time was rapidly running out; and when travellers, hungry, thirsty, and bedraggled, arrived out of hours speaking deutsche franglais to be graciously served a most delicious and welcome meal. To the French people, whose joie de vivre has lightened such moments and who, with Gallic shrugs, have reminded us that sunshine is not far away, profound thanks.

Again I thank the staffs of the National Record Office, for so long familiar as the PRO, the Imperial War Museum, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the Volksbund Deutsche Kreigsgraberfursorge, the Deutsche Bundesarchiv and the National Army Museum, as well as members of the Western Front Association and other friends. All have provided over many months, information and assistance, maps, records and photographs, invaluably contributing to my understanding and the untangling of the events of the subject day. My gratitude to all at Pen and Sword Military Books, and in particular to Paul and Roni Wilkinson, who with good humour and patience have suffered my delays and alterations, and last, but by no means least, again my thanks to the editor of the Battleground Europe Series, Nigel Cave, for his constructive and helpful criticisms, and enduring patience in correcting copy and moulding my occasional flights of poetic fancy into more or less acceptable English.

I alone am responsible for any inaccuracies or omissions and hope that any unwitting errors will be forgiven.