British improvised sign, 'Nach Corbie' [to Corbie] and 'HAMEL' : Cerisy, France

British improvised sign constructed from three pieces of untreated wood nailed to a post with 'Nach Corbie' and a right facing arrow stencilled in black paint. 'Nach' has been added later and is darker than the paint for 'Corbie'. Below the is an arrow made of tin with 'HAMEL' stencilled in large white letters as well as 'Y CORPS' stencilled in smaller white letters on the vertical axis.

The tin arrow was a later British addition to the sign and it bears considerable damage to the lower point , as well as a small hole is under the letter 'M'. The German portion of the sign also shows evidence of shell damage with a large hole present under the letter 'B' and two smaller holes in the upper portion of the sign.

This British sign board, located near Cerisy, pointed in the direction of Corbie and Hamel. Cerisy was occupied by the British until March 1918, when it was captured by the Germans. Five months later, in August, the village was recaptured by Australian forces.

Hamel was the site of an extraordinarily well-planned and successful limited Allied action on the Western Front on 4 July 1918. Designed to straighten the Allied line the battle was notable for the careful co-ordination of infantry, artillery, tanks and aircraft. Two brigades of Australian infantry assisted by American troops, British Mark V tanks and accurate artillery barrages, quickly overran German positions and took, according to the official histories, well over 1,600 prisoners. The battle witnessed the first air drop of supplies to Allied troops in action when Royal Flying Corps units dropped 100,000 rounds of ammunition to Australian machine gunners.

The text 'Y Corps' on the Hamel sign appears to relate to Y Corps Supply Column or Ammunition Sub-Parks, established in January 1917. They consisted of a mixture of British, Australian and New Zealand personnel and were part of II ANZAC Corps until January 1918, when the Australian personnel became part of the Australian Corps and II ANZAC Corps was renamed the British XXII Corps. Together with other similar units in XXII Corps, Y Corps' Supply Depots and Ammunition Sub-Parks were disbanded in March and new units created.

During the five months the Germans occupied Cerisy, the word 'Nach', meaning 'To' was added. The Germans never captured Corbie. However, they came within 10 kilometres of it during the 1918 Spring Offensive.