Bullecourt

Bullecourt is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region in France.

Bullecourt
Commune
The church and Souvenir Français monument, in Bullecourt
Coat of arms
Location of Bullecourt
Bullecourt
Bullecourt
Coordinates: 50°11′35″N 2°55′43″E
CountryFrance
RegionHauts-de-France
DepartmentPas-de-Calais
ArrondissementArras
CantonBapaume
IntercommunalityCC Sud-Artois
Government
 • Mayor (2001–2008) Jules Laude
Area
1
6.43 km2 (2.48 sq mi)
Population
 (2017-01-01)[1]
236
 • Density37/km2 (95/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+01:00 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code
62185 /62128
Elevation74–104 m (243–341 ft)
(avg. 92 m or 302 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Geography

Bullecourt lies on the Upper Cretaceous plain of Artois between Arras and Bapaume and east of the A1 motorway. This satellite photograph shows Bullecourt just north of centre. Quéant is the larger of the two villages near the eastern edge. The A1 and the high-speed (TGV) railway line run up the western edge. To the south of Bullecourt, a now closed local railway line snakes from east to west.

Population
Historical population
YearPop.±%
1793 490—    
1800 522+6.5%
1806 522+0.0%
1821 532+1.9%
1831 583+9.6%
1836 556−4.6%
1841 601+8.1%
1846 617+2.7%
1851 593−3.9%
1856 543−8.4%
1861 503−7.4%
1866 490−2.6%
1872 527+7.6%
1876 559+6.1%
1881 547−2.1%
1886 488−10.8%
1891 512+4.9%
1896 506−1.2%
1901 458−9.5%
1906 423−7.6%
1911 396−6.4%
1921 181−54.3%
1926 273+50.8%
1931 281+2.9%
1936 288+2.5%
1946 321+11.5%
1954 330+2.8%
1962 296−10.3%
1968 264−10.8%
1975 245−7.2%
1982 248+1.2%
1990 260+4.8%
1999 251−3.5%
2006 239−4.8%
2009 243+1.7%

Transportation

Bullecourt lies in the triangle made by the A1, A2 and A26 motorways and that made by the N17, N30 and D939 roads.

History

There were remains from the Gallo-Roman period and the village was mentioned under the name "Bullecortis", in 1096.

In 620, it was the birthplace of Saint Vindicien, a follower of Saint Eligius, known in French as Saint Eloi. Vindicien became successively, bishop of Arras and bishop of Cambrai. He is regarded as the founder of the abbey named after his mentor, Mont St Eloi, of which Bullecourt became a lordship.

War has twice completely destroyed the village: in 1543 during the Ninth Italian War (1542–1546) and in 1917, during the First World War.

The remains of Hindenburg Line at Bullecourt (as seen after the war, in 1920).

In early 1917, during the northern hemisphere spring, two battles at Bullecourt became significant to the military history of Australia in particular. The village lay at the southern end of a highly active front – and formed part of the Hindenburg Line. On April 11, in the First Battle of Bullecourt, two brigades of the Australian 4th Division attacked German positions in Bullecourt, supported by 12 tanks but without artillery support. Caught in heavy fire, the Australians were forced to retreat. The Australian 4th Brigade alone sustained losses of 2,258 killed, wounded or taken prisoner, out of approximately 3,000 infantry. Only 750 Germans soldiers were killed, while they captured 27 Australian officers and 1,137 other ranks. On May 3, 1917, in the Second Battle of Bullecourt, an attack on both flanks of the village was conducted by the Australian 2nd Division and British 62nd Division respectively. Bullecourt itself was recaptured, but the anticipated breakthrough on the Hindenburg line did not occur. In total, there were 14,000 Australian and British casualties. The Musée Jean et Denise Letaille (established in 2012) now commemorates this fighting.

Sights

While there were many bunkers and dugouts, from the period of the Hindenburg Line, there is also an underground shelter from the 17th century.

The church of St. Vlaast was rebuilt after 1918.

There is a museum of objects collected from the periods of the world wars.

Economy and village life

The economy is one of general farming with the raising of beef. The village has an agricultural cooperative.

The village festival is held on the first Sunday of June and there is a festival in honour of the Australians on the last Saturday in April.

gollark: By my rough count, it's only about 300 nanoideologies per person.
gollark: I mean, obviously.
gollark: I guess you'd want to reweight slightly so that you don't pick everything from Marxism (because it has a ton of variants).
gollark: It should be easy enough to automatically extract all the names from this and then manually filter out some of the things which don't really work on a calendar-type thing.
gollark: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_ideologies

See also

References
  1. "Populations légales 2017". INSEE. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
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