A visit to the Somme

Finally we made it, to the Somme region of France, a significant World War I area.   We have driven past on many occasions, on the motorway from Calais to Reims, and each time we said that we must make time to drive in from Arras towards Amiens and visit the Somme region.   And after twenty five years of living in Britain, we have finally done so.

We could not visit every memorial or cemetery, as there were so many, seemingly dotted everywhere amongst the farmland.    The area was also very scenic, with rolling hill and valleys, and green.  It rains a lot here, that is for sure, which made fighting in the area very difficult.

The Thiepval Memorial, at 45 metres high, is the largest Commonwealth war memorial in the world, and over 72,205 names of missing soldiers are engraved in the stone pillars.   It also stands on top of a hill, so is clearly visible for kilometres away.   

The memorial was built between 1929 and 1932 and was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.

It was a very sombre experience to visit this memorial and we were both overwhelmed by the enormity of the loss of life, of mostly young men, during the Battle of the Somme.   I believe that 90% of the names on the memorial were killed during this battle.   

In front of the memorial there were graves of 300 French soldiers and 300 Commonwealth soldiers.

The simple Australian memorial in the village of Pozieres, which was captured by the Australians on the 23rd July, 1916.   The village, like all the other villages around the area, was completely destroyed during the battles.   Australia also has other memorials, at Le Hamel, Villers-Bretonneuyx, Sailly-le-sec and Peronne.

The Ulster Tower, a memorial to the soldiers of the Ulster Battalions ( Royal Irish Fusiliers, Inniskilling Fusiliers, Royal Irish Rifles) who fought and died between Thiepval and Le Hamel.   The tower was a replica of Helen's Tower from the Clandeboye Estate in Ireland.

An early evening visit to Beaumont-Hamel, The Newfoundland Memorial.  The memorial was open but not the carpark, so we parked on the side of the road.   An eerie visit for sure, on an overcast evening, just before dusk.   We were the only visitors at that time of day. 

The three villages of Beaumont, Gare-de-Beaucourt and Hamel make up the municipality of Beaumont-Hamel and during WWI they were behind the German front line.   On the 1st July the men from the Newfoundland Regiment left their trenches and were immediately trapped under German machine gun fire.  Half an hour later only 68 men remained alive or not wounded, and all the officers were either killed or wounded.    It was one of the bloodiest actions of the Somme.

The caribou mound, which also had an orientation table beside it.

It was a sobering experience to walk around this memorial site, which had been left with its trenches and bomb holes intact, although they have filled in a little over time.   And there would have been no grass, just mud and more mud, plus metres of barbed wire.

Walter standing in one of the trenches, on a wooden path, rather than the mud path of WWI.

Sheep now graze amongst the shell holes.

One of the cemeteries on the site.

We visited the town of Albert three times, the first time to find the owner of the B and B we were staying in, and then for dinner in the evening, and finally to visit the museum the following day.   We really liked Albert, a small town with plenty of atmosphere.

Albert was completely flattened during WWI, and after August 1918 nothing remained of the town but a vast expanse of ruins.    It was rebuilt with the help of the city of Birmingham.    Many of the houses and shop facades show the arrival of the Art-deco period from the 1920's to 1930's.

The statue of 'Mary with Baby Jesus' on top of the Basilica was hit by a shell in 1918 and toppled over.   A legend was born that if the statue fell it was to be the end of the war.

The Basilica Notre Dame de Brebieres, built between 1885 and 1897 was damaged during the war, and was rebuilt by the son of the original architect.

A view along one of the side streets of Albert, with the Basilica dominating the background.

Inside the very elaborate Basilica.

A building with a large painting on the side, commemorating 1916.   Notice the leaning statue at the top of the Basilica.

Around the town there were ten statues, which represented the involvement of soldiers from around the world who fought in the Battle of the Somme.

A 10 metre deep, 250 metre long tunnel, which dates from the 13th century, and used as air raid tunnels during WWII, ran from the church, under the square and came out in the gardens below the square.    And in this tunnel, there was the Somme 1916 Museum.

A very scary walk down the stairs into the museum.

The walls of the tunnel contained information about the war, plus a vast array of artefacts.   An amazing museum in a very appropriate setting, and it certainly captured the atmosphere of life in the trenches.   At the end there was an area where light and sound made you think you were walking through a trench, in the dead of night, under artillery fire.    I hurried through this part of the museum.

In between the boards with photographs and information, and the exhibits, there were lifelike dioramas, which were very realistic, and helped the viewer understand the hard life that the soldiers experienced.

Finally you stepped through a door, into the museum shop, and then out into beautiful gardens.  That was quite a relief.

After the museum we felt that we needed to move on, as we were emotionally drained by the experience of looking at the memorials and cemeteries.   However, we were pleased we came to the Somme region as it certainly gave us an insight into the horror and futility of what happened during 1914-18.    And sadly continues to happen elsewhere in the world today.

On a lighter note.    We stayed in a very quaint B and B in a little village called Mailly-Maillet, which was run by the French wife of an English landscape gardener who lived in Berkshire.   Consequently they both partly live in Berkshire and in the Somme region.  She was a very interesting person, and we enjoyed having breakfast in her kitchen and talking to her as she made our packed lunch.   Yes a packed lunch, which cost ten Euros, and there was enough food for dinner as well. 

Our room was on the top right of the house, the one with the open window.  We climbed up a very steep and narrow stairway to our large room where we slept in a bed that dipped a bit in the centre.  

We went for a walk before breakfast, and took a few photographs.    La Chapelle Madame, which belonged to the local chateau and then sold off after the French Revolution.   I think the chapel became part of a monastery.

The beautiful avenue which lead away, or towards the chapel, depending on the direction of the walk.

The village church in the early morning light.

After an evening, night and morning in the Somme region of France we drove back onto the motorway and continued on to our next stop, Beaune, where we ate the rest of our packed lunch, and collapsed into bed and slept very soundly.    Exhausted.