Before we set out on our World War One Battlefield tour I had very little idea of what to expect. I had Major and Mrs Holt's Pocket Battlefield guide to the Somme, but I just found it rather confusing. On reflection I realise that the Battle of the Somme was exactly the same - very confusing. We decided not to have a plan, but just try to get a flavour of the region.
The Battle of the Somme took place over a number of months and over a wide area. Consequently there are a large number of memorials and monuments - some are huge and imposing, but many are personal and very individual. They reflect the various nationalities, professions and trades of the combatants.
The Battle of the Somme took place over a number of months and over a wide area. Consequently there are a large number of memorials and monuments - some are huge and imposing, but many are personal and very individual. They reflect the various nationalities, professions and trades of the combatants.
The British had a policy of keeping friends together - as 'Pals Battalions', and the 17th Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment had a core of professional footballers. The quote on the memorial says:
"This is worse than a whole season of cup ties"
Donald Bell played for Bradford Park Avenue, and was the only professional footballer to be awarded the Victoria Cross. He attacked a German machine gun post, and his memorial - Bell's Redoubt - is situated on the spot where he died.
Pals battalions could be from the same trade, or from the same area. Although it seemed a good idea to get men to volunteer with their friends, it was in fact very devastating when many of them lost their lives together. On 1st July 1916 one of the largest mines ever made was detonated. This was the Lochnagar mine. It did not reach the German positions, although it made a huge crater which was then occupied by the Grimsby chums. This made them vulnerable to machine gun attack and over five hundred men were lost. The Lochnagar crater is privately owned and is kept as an amazingly poignant memorial to all who died there. The simple bench memorial to the Grimsby chums brought a lump to my throat.
"This is worse than a whole season of cup ties"
Donald Bell played for Bradford Park Avenue, and was the only professional footballer to be awarded the Victoria Cross. He attacked a German machine gun post, and his memorial - Bell's Redoubt - is situated on the spot where he died.
Pals battalions could be from the same trade, or from the same area. Although it seemed a good idea to get men to volunteer with their friends, it was in fact very devastating when many of them lost their lives together. On 1st July 1916 one of the largest mines ever made was detonated. This was the Lochnagar mine. It did not reach the German positions, although it made a huge crater which was then occupied by the Grimsby chums. This made them vulnerable to machine gun attack and over five hundred men were lost. The Lochnagar crater is privately owned and is kept as an amazingly poignant memorial to all who died there. The simple bench memorial to the Grimsby chums brought a lump to my throat.
Memorials come in all shapes and sizes, and some, while not being exactly funny, are decidedly strange. The Ulster Memorial Tower was one of the first memorials to be constructed after the war, and looks like a folly.
It is an exact replica of Helen's Tower on the Clandeboye Estate, where volunteer Ulstermen had trained before being dispatched to the front.
Another unique memorial faces Mametz wood, where the Royal Welch Fusiliers took five days to capture the wood, with the loss of four thousand men. They were criticised for taking so long, which somehow beggars belief as they had no smokescreen, no communications and were being fired on by their own barrage as well as the German machine guns, because the preparatory artillery bombardment had failed.
Another unique memorial faces Mametz wood, where the Royal Welch Fusiliers took five days to capture the wood, with the loss of four thousand men. They were criticised for taking so long, which somehow beggars belief as they had no smokescreen, no communications and were being fired on by their own barrage as well as the German machine guns, because the preparatory artillery bombardment had failed.
Everywhere we went there were new things to learn, and many things to think about. I had lazily thought that the Great War was largely fought between "Britain and her allies" and Germany. It had never occurred to me to think about it in terms of the effect it had on Newfoundland for example. All that changed when we went to Beaumont-Hamel. At the outbreak of war Newfoundland was an independent dominion of about 200,000 people. They immediately set about raising a regiment, and by the end of the war they had lost over 1000 lives. The Newfoundland Memorial Park has an excellent visitors' centre which depicts the lives of the Newfoundlander recruits. What stuck in my mind particularly was how proud they were of their socks - Newfoundland socks were the best in the world and highly sought after by other nationalities.
The caribou is the emblem of the Newfoundland regiment, and this particular part of the park is their memorial to the missing. Newfoundland is now part of Canada, and every year young Canadian students come over to France to work at Beaumont-Hamel. The ones that we met were utterly charming, and totally indifferent to the weather.
However, for us the weather certainly played its part in making our tour very memorable. The wind blew constantly causing dramatic and constantly changing scenes, captured here by Christopher.
However, for us the weather certainly played its part in making our tour very memorable. The wind blew constantly causing dramatic and constantly changing scenes, captured here by Christopher.