Albert is a small town in the Province of Picardy. It found
itself in the heart of some of the hottest action on the Western Front
throughout the Great War. Albert had one target that towered over the village
making it an excellent observation post for whomever occupied it and an
irresistible target for opposing gunners. Earlier town fathers, attempting to
turn the community into a destination for Christian pilgrims, had built an
impressive Romanesque Basilica crowned with a gilded statue of the Virgin Mary
holding up her baby son to God.
During the early days of the war German artillery had shelled the Basilica,
trying to knock it down and prevent the French artillery spotters from using it.
They had only succeeded in dislodging the statue of Mary, which by 1916 hung at
a precarious angle just below the horizontal.
Several myths had developed among the soldiers of both sides, one being that the
side that brought the Virgin Mary down would lose the war, or alternatively win
the war. The other myth that was circulating was that the war would end when the
statue of the Virgin finally fell.
The statue hung there until 1918 when it was brought down by artillery fire from
the British 8 inch Corps. The man most responsible for its final destruction was
a Captain F.G. Petch MC, who was on the staff of the 5th
Corps, Heavy Artillery. At that time an Army Order had been issued that no more
buildings were to be demolished by gunfire - Captain Petch tells the story:-
"One early morning we had a telephone message from the Infantry Colonel of the
Battalion holding the line quite near to the Cathedral to the effect that he was
suffering heavy loss from machine gun-fire from the Cathedral. Tower, and he
asked that we should blow the place to blazes. My General was out on
reconnaissance work, and my Brigade Major was absent at the time so I (quite a
young Captain) was in charge. Realizing the Army Order and knowing that I should
get no satisfaction from Army H.W., I chose one of the 8-in. Batteries in the
Corps, worked out some imaginary trenches well beyond the Cathedral, and then
ordered the Major of this Battery to fire a couple of hundred rounds at these
imaginary trenches, knowing full well that the line of fire would go clean
through the Cathedral!
The Major was thrilled with this order and it was duly carried out and the
Cathedral Tower and most of the surrounding Cathedral was blown to hell, thus
probably saving the lives of many of our Infantry". |