TheBoulogne camp refers to two military camps established aroundBoulogne-sur-Mer inFrance.
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First camp
editThe first camp was prepared byJulius Caesar in 54 BC to prepare the fleet for his secondexpedition to Britain. One hypothesis is that Caesar set up his camp at the current location of theold City of Boulogne-sur-Mer. Some historians believe that the Old City was built on the camp; at a vicinity toItius port which he cites in Chapter IV of itsGallic Wars:
- Caesar returns in Hither Gaul, and from there to the army. When he got there, he visited all neighbourhoods, and finds that the singular activity of the soldiers had managed, despite extreme shortages of all things, to build about six hundred ships of the form described above and twenty eight galleys, all ready for sea in a few days. After giving praise to soldiers and those who had led the work, he instructs his intentions and ordered them to go all the Itius port, where he knew the ride in Brittany is very convenient, the distance this island to the mainland being only thirty thousand steps.
Second camp
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The second camp was established byNapoleon Bonaparte in 1803 and continued until 1805. It was here he assembled theArmée des côtes de l'Océan (Army of the Ocean Coasts) or theArmée d'Angleterre (Army of England) toinvade Great Britain.
On May 16, 1803,Britain (without a previous declaration of war) seized a hundred French and Batavian ships. France then declared war and Napoleon choseBoulogne-sur-Mer as a base for attacks.
The Boulogne camp housed about60,000 soldiers in 1805, and was divided into two large camps:
- one on the left bank of theLiana, near d'Outreau
- another in the area of VallonTerlincthun and the plateau of thetour d'Order
At the top of the cliff were the command barracks, including that of Napoleon, but the headquarters was located atCastle of Pont-de-Briques.[1]
Notes & references
edit- ^The Boulogne camp is behind the construction of the magazine. We can especially note the work done in 1841 in the context of strengthening the protection of places: Construction of a wall in stone, paving of the courtyard and a gatehouse and a lightning rod. Powder belonged to the artillery and was paid in 1835 by the Indirect Taxation Administration. The latter are sites of gunpowder and hunting weapons. When Second World War came, the powder bunker was certainly exploited by the Germans who reinforced the site, as evidenced by bunker there. At the end of the conflict, the magazine was abandoned to become a real ruin until the day when the city decided to restore it. The inauguration took place in 1990.
Related articles
editBibliography
edit- Fernand Nicolaÿ,NapoléonIer au camp de Boulogne, Paris, Perrin et cie, 1907.OCLC 1901969
- Albert Chatelle,Napoléon et la Légion d'honneur au camp de Boulogne, 1801-1805, Paris, Lajeunesse, 1956.OCLC 5047474
- Daniel Haigneré et Augustus Henry Pitt-Rivers,Étude sur le Portus Itius de Jules César : réfutation d'un mémoire de F. de Saulcy, Paris, Renouard, 1862.OCLC 55585755