Cycling through history on Western Front

There is something humbling about standing in places once filled with terror, which are now peaceful woods of chirping birds and buzzing bees.

This was the experience for Platabeen Rover Scout Antony Stephenson as he cycled along some of the incredible sites of the Great War (1914-1918) in June.

Accompanied by his Canadian friend and history buff Joe, the pair cycled about 600km, starting in the French town of Nancy, along the Western Front, visiting sites of the French, American and British Sectors.

Antony said he wanted to travel to the Western Front after reading about the battle of Fromelles and discovering the stories of many men who are still missing to this day in that region.

“After digging deeper and enquiring with my family, I discovered my great-great-uncle James Scott Pattullo of the 72nd Canadian Seaforth Highlanders served and died at Vimy Ridge at the age of 27,” he said.

“He was Scottish born and moved to the USA where he joined the US Cavalry. When the war broke out, he went to Canada to sign up, as the US were not involved in the war at the time. James was ranked Sergeant when he was Killed in Action in Vimy Ridge in 1917. Sadly, much like many Canadian men who fought there, he was not recovered.

“Joe, he’s a freak in a good way when it comes to this stuff. He knew everything when it comes to the Canadians about WWI. He says, ‘we’ll be going to this spot here’, and it’s a tiny little spot on this map. It wasn’t technically part of the Battle of Vimy Ridge (which was in April 1917), it was just before.

“The 72nd Battalion was taking a German position on Vimy Ridge near the ridgeline. On 1 March 1917, James was part of an attack. They got up early in the morning and lay down gas on the ridgeline, but the wind and the weather caused that gas to fly back onto the Canadian lines, but they still went over the top. It was a failed attack – the gas repelled the Canadians back and they were killed by machine gun fire.

“When we were cycling, we went to this tiny cemetery full of unknown soldiers of the 72nd Battalion. James could be one of them. Joe said right behind the cemetery on this section of grass we would be standing right at the German line. He pulled up a trench map and cross compared where we were to a spot where a German machine gunner was stationed. 100m across from us was a highway and just beyond that was the Canadian line. Within a 50x50sq m area is where he was Killed in Action. Being able to stand on that spot was fascinating. To be on the spot within a couple of metres was pretty spectacular.”

James’ name can now be found of the memorial at Vimy Ridge. The massive memorial sits on Canadian province – land gifted by the French people. When Antony visited the memorial, he found the name straight away on a front panel.

“Below it, to my surprise, was his brother, who I didn’t know about,” he said.

“He was killed in 1918, and I’ve since found out, talking to my grandparents, that it was James’ brother. I don’t think there’s much information about him. Whereas James’ service history was well-known as he was quite an esteemed American officer, there’s not much to be known about his brother.”

A newspaper article from the time said Sergeant James Pattullo “joined the Canadian forces as a private and won rapid promotion. He was a general favourite with the men of his battalion, and during his stay in Vancouver made many friends”.

Antony was able to undertake the trip thanks to a grant from the Dick and Pip Smith Leadership Through Adventure Fund. The funds covered a lot of the travel, as well as the purchase of a bike for the trip.

Find out more about the Leadership Through Adventure Fund

“Our bikes proved to withstand the terrain, with my bike only having three punctures, one shredded tyre and a broken panier rack, all of which were easily rectified,” he said.

“I have personally not done a lot of cycle trekking, so it was a fantastic new experience. I needed to learn to reduce my packing weight – at one point I had to post some of my gear to my final stop to cut back on weight.

“The trip happened to take place at the end of a major heatwave – one of our longer days (90km) we were stuck in the dense wood for the first half and then open countryside, all while being 40 degrees. We also had spells of intense rainfall, cold winds and rough terrain all to make the journey more interesting, however, bearing in mind the vast amount of cemeteries, monuments and war sites we were passing, there was no way we could complain.”

The pair travelled through the French Sectors in Verdun, where trench lines and craters were still visible and large fortifications loomed over ridgelines. This was one of Antony’s favourite parts of the trip.

“We did 25km of hiking that day instead of riding. There were 300,000 men killed on the battlefield of Verdun. You just can’t fathom it – it’s such a small space,” he said.

“My best moment was visiting the Serre Road Cemetery No.2 on the Somme. It’s mostly full of Australians, many who fought at Pozières. When you sit there in the afternoon with the sun setting, watching the graves turn from white to amber, it was very humbling. It makes you feel like the cemetery was designed so the sun hits these guys at sunset.”

The Somme battlefields, considered the Commonwealth Sector, offered a place of remembrance for those soldiers who travelled so far to seek a sense of adventure.

Antony said it was a place of “beautiful international memorials commemorating their fallen soldiers in a faraway land”.

“The remains of war can be seen on almost every farm trail, being littered with unexploded ordnance and shrapnel,” he said.

“It’s amazing to see the Australian memorials scattered in the countryside, along with the graves of many Australian soldiers whose epitaphs can cause your heart to ache. Visiting a lot of Australian locations where men so far from home had fallen is always a hard thing to grapple, having visited most of the key Australian sites of the war, such as Fromelles, Villers Bretonneux, Le Hamel, Pozieres, Polygon Wood, Messines, Ploegsteert Wood, just to name a few.

“It was very special to visit these sites, say ‘G’day’ to those buried so far from home, and those so young who went off to war. Some questions I struggled to answer for myself is ‘how can we best make sure this memory doesn’t fade? How can we understand their stories moving forward to preserve their memory? How can I make sure they aren’t all forgotten, while keeping people interested and engaged with kind of history?’ These are some things I’ll be thinking about in the future.”