The area we stayed in was about 40 minutes drive from Amien and the Somme. The Somme is a river that runs through farmland in Picardy and is exceptionally beautiful, sadly its history is not, for centuries it has seen death and destruction, the worst of which was in the Great War of 1914-18 where 1.5 million soldiers perished. The front line was at Thiepval, where the memorial to the lost has been erected (see pic above), it lists all of the names of those whose bodies were never recovered, the whole area is very peaceful and its very difficult to imagine what happened there.

The Battle of the Somme, also known as the Somme Offensive, fought from July to November 1916, was among the largest battles of the First World War. With more than 1.5 million casualties, it is also one of the bloodiest military operations recorded. The Allied forces attempted to break through the German lines along a 12-mile (19 km) front north and south of the River Somme in northern France. One purpose of the battle was to draw German forces away from the Battle of Verdun; however, by its end the losses on the Somme had exceeded those at Verdun.

The whole Somme region is incredibly moving, everywhere we went we came across war graves, beautifully cared for by the War Graves Commission, visiting these sites is incredibly emotional, they have visitors books which I defy anyone to read through and not feel moved, at Memorial to the Lost I found myself wiping away a few tears as I walked around looking at all the names of those who were never found, and thinking that they were someones loved one, son, father and yet they had no proper grave for their relatives to visit. My Uncle was killed in World War 2 and has a grave in Italy that my Mother visited in 1985, but these poor brave people did not, very very sad. I think my next trip may well be to my Uncles grave.

The more you learn about this particular battle the more you want to you feel that this was a case of ignorant General's sending these poor souls to their death based on stupid assumptions, One of the leading British Generals addressed his men on the night before the first battle and told them they did not need a rifle, but a walking stick was more suitable as the German's had been wiped out following the artillery barrage, what this fool did not know was that the Germans were safe and sound in deep bunkers whilst the shelling went on, and as soon as Allies went over the top they emerged to slaughter 50,000 in the first few minutes.

At Thiepval they have built a visitor centre which tells the whole sorry story and in my opinion is more than worth a visit.