While the Somme is on my doorstep, believe or not I don't always get the chance to get out and look around. Today, with some spare time on my hands, I finally got round to visiting the new Aeroport project at Meaulte.

The site is designed to assist the nearby Aerospace factory as part of the new Airbus programme, but local speculation is that it will soon(ish) become a small (or possibly large) international airport. When finished shrotly it will cover 179 hectares, and have a run 2.2KM long. The old Albert-Bray road is no more; the quiet Citadel Cemetery now sits on a busy roundabout, and Bray Vale Cemetery is not accessible currently:

Cemetery: BRAY VALE BRITISH CEMETERY, BRAY-SUR-SOMME
Country: France
Locality: Somme
Visiting Information: Due to renovation work currently being undertaken on the RD147 road between Fricourt and Bray and for safety reasons we regret that no public access is available at this time. The location or design of this site make wheelchair access impossible. For further information regarding wheelchair access, please contact our enquiries department on 01628 634221.
Location Information: Bray-sur-Somme is a village and commune in the Department of the Somme, 8 kilometres south-east of Albert and 16 kilometres west of Peronne. Bray Vale British Cemetery is on the east side of the town of Albert.
Historical Information: Bray-sur-Somme fell into German hands in March 1918, but it was retaken by the 40th Australian Battalion on the following 24 August. Bray Vale British Cemetery (called at one time Bray No. 2 British Cemetery) consisted originally of the 25 graves (of August 1918) in Plot II, Row A, but it was enlarged soon after the Armistice when further graves were brought in from the neighbourhood. In 1923 the space between the cemetery and the road, now Plots III and IV, was filled by graves brought in mainly from the battlefields of 1916 round Thiepval and Courcelette. The cemetery contains 279 First World War burials, 172 of them unidentified. The cemetery was designed by A J S Hutton.
No. of Identified Casualties: 107

http://www.somme.fr/education_emploi/les_f..._haute_picardie

On the above page is an artists impression of what the site will look like. Below is what it looked like today; I didn't have my usual camera with me, so this isn't brilliant. The control tower already dominates the landscape, and while I don't want to be alarmist, the future development of this site could stem major changes on the Somme Battlefields that might make the changes in Flanders in the past 25 years pale into nothing.

There has been some archaeo work:

http://www.stephane-demilly.org/grands_dos...einfoarcheo.pdf

Control tower under construction:



Map of the site below:

The yellow trace on the map above is the new road routing.

Better map here:

http://www.stephane-demilly.org/grands_dos...reinfonov03.pdf

Hangars being built:

Paul,

I was there in October and noted the changes to the approach to Citadel Cemetery, although the road didn't seem too busy then. But still a worrying devlopment for the area - I saw the changes as pretty major and as you say they coud have a greater impact as time goes on. Allied to the Glory Hole status you have posted elsewhere, this is of concern.

Alan

I have to be honest here.
Getting to the Somme region is not easy from where I live.
You can imagine how delighted I would be if easyjet could take me the doorstep so to speak.
At the same time, I appreciate that much of the beauty and the historical character of the region could be lost if this project 'over expands' (so to speak).
I have little or no knowledge of this sector .... can someone fill me in with more WW1 info about it?
Probably more worrying would be the associated road upgrades etc?

This is going to be a busy place, cant see them using it commercially...a newsletter I received a while back mentioned something like 60 flights a day. The flight paths don't seem to cross the major Somme areas, already the Airforce use those for training missions. Realistically, the work so far hasn't caused any major disturbance considering the size of the job. There has been no mention locally or in the press of it being anything other than a test flight or cargo facility. but if an airline like ryanair provided flights it would be a bonus, although the outward and inward travel infrastructure would need some work.

Mick

Des, I agree that an airport would obviously improve access to the area, especially from people outside of Britain, but the worry is that this will turn into a major development that will change the character of the area completely, as I have seen with my native Crawley in Sussex thanks to Gatwick. While I cannot see this becoming a Gatwick very quickly, it could easily be a Beauvais or a Lille, especially if the work it was originally intentioned to assist - the Airbus project - collapses, as many predict it will.

The WW1 history of this area is that it was a rear area in 1916 (although quite close to the front line around Bois Francais and Fricourt), but fought over in March and August 1918. Archaeological work has already uncovered human remains of both British and German soldiers, so I do not have a fear in that respect. What worries me is the knock on effect of a commercial airport: will this lead to even more building in the villages or on the ground? Only time will tell, but this is something we should all be aware of.

Mick - it is already going to be used commercially. The official planning paperwork I have looked at clearly states that a zone d'activities will be constructed on the site so that related companies can set up there: so far this apparently has attracted interested from freight companies who use flights to deliver material and mail and business courier companies. The next logical step are small companies that offer flights; with a 2.2KM runway the potential for large aircraft using it is already in place.

I agree that the flight plan for the area means that there is a military lane over much of the battlefield sites, but this could easily change; and may well do once the first stage of this is open anyway.

Paul
Sorry I meant commercial tourist flights. The other commercial frieght would presumably be in addition to Airbus's 60 flights a day.

Mick

They seem more concerned about the contemporaries of Astérix than more recent events. As far as I can see the only mention of 1914-18 is a reference to getting bomb disposal people in to clear the ground.

60 flights a day will shatter the peace of the surrounding cemeteries and destroy the chances of many people to have a quiet moment of reflection.

cheers Martin B

Martin - the local papers a while back did show a more in-depth report and work going on. The Somme Archaeo Group has a good name, and although they are more interested in earlier periods, they have done some good work on WW1. It is little know about as they only publish in French.

I agree, 60 flights a day will herald a big change.

I saw this development from a distance last week when I was on the battlefield. It certainly looked as though the Meaulte factory facility had been extended - and now I can see how. This sounds like the "Somme Airport" by the back door.

Trying to locate the cemetery. Is this the correct place:?

Chris - my thoughts exactly.

Egbert - that is Citadel Cemetery. The one that is currently closed is on the old Albert-Bray road.

You might be interested to know that during the archaeo work seemingly an entire German MG team was found (6-8 men I believe), with several thousands rounds of ammo in MG ammo boxes, but no weapon. I believe they have now been reburied at Maissemy. I am not aware of any IDs being established. I would suspect they were from whatever unit defended this area when it was attacked by 47th (London) Division in August 1918.

Thanks for the info Paul - as has been stated ... it does look like the airport by the back door.
If it is transformed from the present facility into a fully fledged commercial airport then I imagine that the entire area will undergo a huge transformation.
Most definitely worrying from the perspective of a WW1 enthusiast.

Still have problems identifying the correct place. If the right cem is on this snippet please mark

Anybody?
Is it further south?

This is an aerial view showing the cemetery affected which is not marked on your map above.

The Meaulte factory/ airfield is a major manufacturing centre for Airbus Industries A380 project.I would not think that Airbus see the site as a passenger airport although there might be other carriers handling small freight.

The nose/cockpit sections and forward fuselages for the A 380 are manufactured here.They are then assembled at St Nazaire and I would think that the airfield is being extended to transport the two sub assemblies by air to St Nazaire.From there they are shipped to Bordeaux and then by river on to Langon.From Langon, the assemblies as others from the various Airbus Industry overseas sites, are road transported by the French "equivalent of Wynnes" to Blagnac for final assembly.No doubt, Blagnac receive some A380 parts direct as can be handled by the available transports.

Having spent some time in Gascony, I was aware of the opposition to the upgrading of rural roads in the area to take heavy loads which are required to complete the last leg.These roads have obviously now been upgraded.

Airbus Industries also have a large aircraft manufacturing programme for the A400M European military transport which is to replace the Hercules and Transal transports.It is possible that the Meaulte site would also be involved with sub assembly manufacturing for this aircraft.

I would think that the local labour market have welcomed the uplift in economic activity.

Got the location. This is a snippet from Now , matched with a snippet from Then:

German aerial from 8.4.1917

Interesting Egbert - appears to be a hutted camp with dugouts close by, and possibly latrines?

Am assuming dark shapes on the road are trucks?

Affirmative trucks with trees. The spot is some 1 km from Bray RR station and appr. 500 m from food depot Bray

These examples of German aerial photography in the Great War are impressive. Is it known what kinds of analysis these images underwent? Was is only intelligence analysts who got to see and analyze these, or were they also distributed to infantry and artillery headquarters so they could be used for planning operations and developing artillery target lists and fire plans?

From 1998 memory there is a French Cemetery within sight of the Airbus plant.

Paul - there are French cemeteries in Bray and also Albert; I suspect it is the Albert one, which from the front steps you can certainly see the new control tower.

Sadly ploughing will have removed the traces of the camps, which would be fairly ephemeral - I know, I'm investigating one in UK at the moment.

As far as the archaeology goes I suppose it's only to be expected that the older stuff will attract more attention. It is rarer and more mainstream in archaeology to boot. And I say that as an archaeologist who is working on the Great War! Even so it's good to hear that they have excavated the remains properly, a few years ago the military stuff was what you machined through to get to the interesting stuff! I'd like to see a report on the Germans MG crew - Paul is there such a thing yet?

Best

Martin

Martin - all I have seen is what was in the Courier Picard and some local magazines. I suspect they will publish something, as they have done before with work they did in the A29 motorway project. Perhaps Nils Fabbisson will have a better idea of which journals it will appear in?

Hello Paul,

Hope you are well,havn,t seen you since the Longueval changeover.As regards the Meaulte tower,I think you can see it from pretty well all over the Somme.I suppose if Henri Potez had not been born in Meaulte and not met up with Marcel Bloch in WW1 there would be no Airbus factory there today.It was originally built in the 1920,s,used by the Germans in WW2 to repair planes and who excavated underground workshops to protect from bombing,and then after August 1944 used by the allies for the same purpose.At least the local farmers now have enought chalk spoil to last them two or three years.

All the Best,

Les

Where is Grove Town cemetry in relation to all this? when we paid a 'flying' visit by campervan in June we were not able to visit the cemetry via the instructions given by CWGC, we spent several hours trying to get to it via an alternate route as there was a huge trench running right beside the road leading to the cemetry. I posted picture re this and informed the CWGC and they have altered the info on this site. I must admit I am quite concerned re this as my GG Uncle Thomas rests in Grove Town, it doesn't sound like he will be in peace soon! It is 90 years tommorow since he died of wounds... I'm feeling a little emotional Nel

When i was there in July and October the first thing i said was that airport is to BIG for the alleged purpose it was built for . I would be intrested to hear the final deal on the airport use commerical or other.

Dan

French press reports predict that Airbus will dispose of the Méaulte facilities under a restructuring plan to be announced before March 9. Guess the future of the site depends on who is interested in acquiring it. It could certainly tempt someone seeking to start up a commercial airport.

cheers Martin B

Was reading that the other day. I would be very surprised if the development was just adbandoned. I fear that a commercial airport, even if just for freight, will be the ultimate outcome.

Nothing will change at Meaulte except ownership. Airbus industries just wants to outsource the facility but futurewise depends on its deliveries as before.

To Paul Reed

Hi Paul.

If we put more time into the EU and less into the USA people in France might listen to us a bit more??
I wish they would.

Tim.

Will be interesting to see if todays news of Airbus laying staff of in France and the UK has any effect. Either way I fear the airfield is as Paul observed here to stay whoever owns it!

TT