The Somme proved to be a gem of a trip - and we did make the mistake of splitting this trip with Normandy and the D-Day landings, cost us much needed time to visit all the sights we wanted to see. This mistake was not rectified until the Normandy trip in 2004 (even then we had problems due to meanness of Avis Car Rentals) and The Somme trip 2007 - where we visited each area for a week each. The Somme and the area is beautiful countryside, but in a way is just one big farmers field.

In the small trip to the Somme in 2001, sites that got the "Wow" factor included - The Thiepval Memorial, The Lochnagar Crater, Newfoundland Memorial Park and The Museum at Peronne.

One of the nights we stayed in a pokey little hotel room in Albert. I half expected Basil Fawlty to serve me coffee the next day. Although this was recommended by a pretty and charming girl in Albert's tourist information centre the hotel, unlike the girl who had helped us (we gave her the name Eloise) was neither Pretty nor Charming.

The hotel was like staying in your grannies spare bedroom. Avoid it and book a Formule 1, just as basic and half the price. The Hotel in question we will not name for legal reasons but its right across the road from the Basilica. Hint Hint…..

Of the five memorials established in France and Belgium in memory of major actions fought by the 1st Battalion of the Newfoundland Regiment, the largest is the thirty hectare site at Beaumont-Hamel, nine kilometres north of the town of Albert. This site commemorates all Newfoundlanders who fought in the Great War, particularly those who have no known grave. The site was officially opened by Field Marshal Earl Haig on June 7, 1925.

On a mound, surrounded by rock and shrubs native to Newfoundland, there stands a great bronze caribou, the emblem of the Newfoundland Regiment. Situated close to the Headquarters dugout of the 88^th Brigade, of which the 1^st Battalion, Newfoundland Regiment was a part, the Caribou nobly faces in the direction of the former foe, overlooking the trenches and ground across which the Battalion advanced on July 1, 1916. At the base of the mound, three bronze tablets carry the names of 820 members of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, the Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve, and the Mercantile Marines who gave their lives in the First World War and have no known grave.

One of the most striking and awe-inspiring sites on the Somme is the Thiepval Memorial to the missing.  The memorial is on the site of the old Thiepval village which was destroyed during the fighting on the Somme.  The memorial was designed by Sir Edwyn Luytens and was completed in 1932. 

The Memorial is 150ft high and totally dominates the surrounding area - it can be seen for mile around.  Indeed it is hard to photograph it and get the true sense of scale and the sense of all the names of the fallen that have no known grave that is etched upon the white walls.  The memorial contains the names of 73,357 officers and men who were killed or missing in action and have never been found.
 
At the rear of the memorial is an Anglo-Franco cemetery with 300 graves of each. The French are buried on the left - The British on the right.
 
It is the biggest war memorial to the British and the Commonwealth in the World, and even surpasses the size of the Menin Gate in Ypres.
 
When NMBS first visited in 2001 it was just the memorial, today a visitor centre is near the memorial and was one of the eagerly anticipated visits of the 2007 tour.  It did not disappoint!

On the main road from Pozieres towards Albert is the large Pozieres CWGC Cemetery.   The Inscription above the gates reads - “In memory to the officers and the men of the Fifth and Fourth Armies who fought at the Somme Battlefields 21st March to 7th August 1918 and to those who have no known grave"

14,669 men have no known grave and the names are listed on the walls of the Cemetery - you can see the walls on the picture to the left. 

There are 2,700 headstones many that are "Known unto God".

The fight for Pozieres launched on 23rd July1916 on the Pozieres Ridge on the Albert to Bapaume Road saw the British and Anzac troops try and take the ridge which would give a great advantage as views of the open countryside would be first rate.  The CWGC cemetery is so large, due to the fighting by the battle weary troops.  The ridge had been intended to be captured on the first day of the Somme.  The Ridge finally fell into Allied hands on 4th August.

The Somme to me is unique.  Unlike most of Flanders, Market Garden and Normandy the Somme has small, more personal cemeteries.  This is the Rancourt CWGC cemetery. To get the size of this site, I am pictured in red at the gates. 

Behind where the picture was taken from is the Rancourt French Cemetery - which is the largest French site on the Somme.  To the left of the trees at the top of the picture is the Rancourt German Cemetery - the sites of these cemeteries show the loss, capture and recapture of the front lines.

The Somme 2001