commune
A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to:
Administrative-territorial entities
* Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township
** Communes of ...
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
Érin is a small village on the south side of the small river, the
Ternoise
The river Ternoise (; nl, Ternaas) is one of the small chalk streams that flow from the plateau of the southern Boulonnais and Picardy, via the Canche, into the English Channel. The basin of the Ternoise extends to and lies in the southern en ...
which flows through St.Pol-sur-Ternoise and joins the River Canche at
Hesdin
Hesdin (; vls, Heusdin) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France.
Geography
The N39, from Arras to Montreuil, used to be the main thoroughfare of the town. In the 1950s, a circular route was created to help traffic fl ...
. The geology of the area is like that of the Somme valley to its south. The Ternoise valley is the most northerly flowing in the syncline to the south of the Variscan front. The
London-Brabant Massif
The London-Brabant Massif or London-Brabant Platform is, in the tectonic structure of Europe, a structural high or massif that stretches from the Rhineland in western Germany across northern Belgium (in the province of Brabant) and the North Sea t ...
underlies the land to the north.
Communications
The road, D94 follows the river between St.Pol and Hesdin. Alongside it runs the Arras to
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, the principal depôt of the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
unit, then known as the
Tank Corps
An armoured corps (also mechanized corps or tank corps) is a specialized military organization whose role is to conduct armoured warfare. The units belonging to an armoured corps include military staff, and are equipped with tanks and other armo ...
, developed at Érin. The Tank Corps developed through the Heavy branch of the
Machine Gun Corps
The Machine Gun Corps (MGC) was a corps of the British Army, formed in October 1915 in response to the need for more effective use of machine guns on the Western Front in the First World War. The Heavy Branch of the MGC was the first to use tanks ...
from the Heavy Section. This was founded in March 1916. The depôt was known as the Central Workshops and was set up in January 1917 under the command of Major Brockbank. Other parts of the organization were nearer the neighbouring villages of Bermicourt (maintenance school) and Fleury (wireless and signals).