Where is/was Bertham (France) ?

[morris.merryweather]

From a War Diary which mentions marching from Le Havre to 'Bertham' and from Bertham to Arques. Any idea's where this is/was - possibly somewhere between Audruicq and Arques.
Thanks

[Kay99]

Could it be Berthen??    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berthen

Kay

[BumbleB]

That would make some sense AND they are about 33/34 km apart. 

This website gives an indication of how long it would take to march that distance.

https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/other-aspects-of-order-of-battle/marching-pace-of-the-british-army/

So 7.25 hours would be about the right timescale.

[John915]

Good evening,

The excerpt from the war diary mentions exercising horses so I would say not infantry. So some type of artillery, service corps or cavalry. As Arques is not only 33/34 km away it is 33/34 km further away from the front line. So my guess would be supplies (ASC).

34 km is about 21.5 miles so at 2.5 to 3 MPH with wagons would take roughly 7 hrs.

John915

[morris.merryweather]

Sorry, I had a mistake - they marched from Audruicq to 'Bertham' and a few days later from 'Bertham' they marched for 7 hours to Arques. Isn't Berthen near the Belgium border a bit far out - it's over 10 hours by foot today, and it would have meant they all marched half the way back again a few days later?

I noticed that they arrived Audruicq at 11.15am and were ready to leave for 'Bertham' at 2.10pm and that the entry in the diary recording their arrival at 'Bertham' was made at 3pm, so it must be less than an hour away from Audruicq. Could 'Bertham' be a name of a camp rather than an actual place?

Thanks.

[John915]

Good evening,

Some of the facts don't seem to add up. I can find no record of a camp called Berthen or Bertham. Audruicq is listed as an ammo dump but it says it is nr St Omer.

However, St Omer is only a couple of miles from Arques, in fact they almost touch one another on the map. That journey could have been an hour.

From Audruicq to Berthen is about 10 to 12 hrs depending on which route is taken. The shortest is via Watten and Cassel. Then 7 hrs back to Arques.

The diary mentions wagons and horses so I assume we are talking about ammo supplies up to the front. So the "marching" is not on foot but supply wagons.

What unit are we actually talking about and is it possible to show us more of the war diary entries on that page.

John915