Our history knowledge of the battle of the Somme and the western front improved 10 fold today thanks to the personalised guided tour that 4 of us took advantage of.
Cheryl, me, Christine and David were picked up from the boat just after breakfast by Sylvester who is owner operator of a local tour company specialising on tours of the western front. If you want to check out his website, it is www.terresdememoire.com and we would highly recommend him to anyone who ever gets to this part of the world and is interested in war history. He tailors tours to ensure you get to see what you want to see and communicates wonderfully portraying the history of events in excellent English.
Sylvester was a great tour guide
Our first stop was at one of several war cemeteries that we would visit today. This one however, had the remains of 17,000 fallen souls. Row apron row of crosses were inscribed with the names of deceased soldiers while mass graves at the front of the cemetery contained the remains of thousands and thousands of unidentified soldiers. We later moved on to a huge monument and museum honouring the missing British soldiers killed with their final resting places unknown. Most remain buried in the fields where they died.
It's hard to believe that this trench warfare on the western front extended for over 700 kilometres from Belgium to Switzerland. Over a million Allied soldiers holding their positions with just as many Germans holding their line only a hundred or so metres in front of them. The destruction of property and landscape was immense and some of the sites have the preserved trenches and bombing craters still clearly visible. The Le Grand Mine site was where Welsh coal miners had tunnelled under the German trenches and exploded 20 tonnes of explosives causing a crater the size of anything on the moon. I knew it was going to be a big hole in the ground but our mouths hit the ground when we walked to the top and looked down. Unfortunately, the camera can't capture the true perspective of size and depth of this crater.
WTF was that?
We visited many of the places that we've heard of so often; Poziers where 27,000 diggers perished, Mouquet Farm and of course Villers Bretonneux where we toured the new Sir John Monash War Museum after visiting the cemetery and monument. This cemetery had the most impressive flower displays along the rows of headstones with some of the largest poppies we have ever seen. Thousands of big fat bumble bees worked tirelessly hovering from flower to flower.
Bumble bees work tirelessly pollinating flowers in the cemetery
Villers Bretonneux memorial
Our final stop was at the Victoria School in the town of Villers Bretonneux. The school was built in 1927 from funds raised by schools in Victoria. The museum there was just as impressive as the rest visited during the day.
Our visit to the war fields has certainly left a lasting impact.
Cheryl, me, Christine and David were picked up from the boat just after breakfast by Sylvester who is owner operator of a local tour company specialising on tours of the western front. If you want to check out his website, it is www.terresdememoire.com and we would highly recommend him to anyone who ever gets to this part of the world and is interested in war history. He tailors tours to ensure you get to see what you want to see and communicates wonderfully portraying the history of events in excellent English.
Sylvester was a great tour guide
Our first stop was at one of several war cemeteries that we would visit today. This one however, had the remains of 17,000 fallen souls. Row apron row of crosses were inscribed with the names of deceased soldiers while mass graves at the front of the cemetery contained the remains of thousands and thousands of unidentified soldiers. We later moved on to a huge monument and museum honouring the missing British soldiers killed with their final resting places unknown. Most remain buried in the fields where they died.
It's hard to believe that this trench warfare on the western front extended for over 700 kilometres from Belgium to Switzerland. Over a million Allied soldiers holding their positions with just as many Germans holding their line only a hundred or so metres in front of them. The destruction of property and landscape was immense and some of the sites have the preserved trenches and bombing craters still clearly visible. The Le Grand Mine site was where Welsh coal miners had tunnelled under the German trenches and exploded 20 tonnes of explosives causing a crater the size of anything on the moon. I knew it was going to be a big hole in the ground but our mouths hit the ground when we walked to the top and looked down. Unfortunately, the camera can't capture the true perspective of size and depth of this crater.
WTF was that?
We visited many of the places that we've heard of so often; Poziers where 27,000 diggers perished, Mouquet Farm and of course Villers Bretonneux where we toured the new Sir John Monash War Museum after visiting the cemetery and monument. This cemetery had the most impressive flower displays along the rows of headstones with some of the largest poppies we have ever seen. Thousands of big fat bumble bees worked tirelessly hovering from flower to flower.
Bumble bees work tirelessly pollinating flowers in the cemetery
Villers Bretonneux memorial
Our final stop was at the Victoria School in the town of Villers Bretonneux. The school was built in 1927 from funds raised by schools in Victoria. The museum there was just as impressive as the rest visited during the day.
Our visit to the war fields has certainly left a lasting impact.
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