WORLD WAR I BATTLEFIELDS TOUR - Phil & Jill (Part 4) Day 1

Talk at lunch time had been centred around how much we had already seen and how informative our guide Francis was. For me I had to pay close attention to put some detail on names which were vaguely familiar to me. The photos of what was actually helped to visual the scene but makes it harder to understand how these valient men withstood the conditions. The moment the Thiepval Memorial came into sight on the landscape you knew it was going to be tremendous. In fact the memorial is 45m high and can be seen from all over the battlefields. It was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyers, who also designed the Australian National Memorial near Villers-Bretonneux.

The British Memorial to the Missing is the largest Commonwealth War Memorial in the world. It needed to be to accommodate the 72,243 names of the British and British Empire soldiers classed as missing after the Somme in 1916. Missing here means they have no known grave, or the body could not be identified on burial
The average age was 25. 10 Australians, 6 of them unknown, are buried in the cemetery at the foot of the monument.

A short walk from the car park through the museum and over a gravel path brings you to this massive, majestic memorial. It takes your breath away from the sheer enormity. It was beginning to get rather hot. A heatwave has been predicted for France for today and tomorrow. Fortunately we are travelling in a well air conditioned mini bus.
This was a very moving visit as once again the sheer numbers of the fallen

20190628_151425

20190628_150926

20190628_150637

20190628_150739

20190628_150700

Our last visit of the day was the Beaumont-Hamel-Newfoundland Memorial, which commemorates the engagement of the Newfoundland Regiment in WWI. The three villages of Beaumont, Gare-de-Beaucourt and Hamel make up the municipality of Beaumont-Hamel and were located immediately behind the German front line in 1916. At the time of the Great War, Newfoundland was a British Dominion and like other Commonwealth countries, raised an army of volunteers for the war effort. At 9.15am on 1st July, 1916 (100 years ago) men of the 1st Newfoundland Regiment, barely out of their trenches, found themselves trapped beneath German machine gun fire. Half an hour later, only 68 men remained able to fight. 86% of their force had been wounded, killed or reported missing. When we heard that story it was unbelievable to imagine. It takes a lot of absorbing this new information.

When we first arrived Francis spoke to one of the young Canadian interns who come here on a 3 month summer holiday job. There is strong competition for these jobs and the two young people we spoke to fiercely told us how important it was to tell young people and travelling Canadians what had happened here 100 years ago. They felt they were privileged to have the job.

Francis then led the way passed many trenches and lumpy ground to the top of the mound where the caribou stands. From here we got a panoramic view of the surroundings. Francis pointed out the skeleton of the Danger tree, the only tree that survived in No Man's Land. There was a network of trenches which have been preserved but as it was really hot now Phil and I didn't join some of the others who went to see them.

What a wonderful day it was as we drove to the Hotel Prieure in the heart of Amiens in the same street as the Cathedral.

The group were split between two hotels in the same street. We were very happy with our big room fronting the street and opened the windows and put on the fan. We decided to have a salad in the room to give Phil a chance to rest after such a good day. I went out to get the provisions and just happened to see the Cathedral was still open. These huge Gothic structures with their magnificent stained glass windows and amazing artwork are like magnets to me. The artwork in this Cathedral dated back to the 13th century. It survived the French Revolution and the war and was recovered after the rebuilding of the Cathedral after the war.

20190628_183913

After about an hour an a half I returned to the room with dinner in hand after finding the supermarket downtown. I am pleased to report that Phil hadn't passed out due to lack of food....but nearly!!

Now you would think that would be the end of the day.....but this day just kept giving. At 11.15pm there was a Light and Sound show on the Cathedral. It was free entry into the square in front of the Cathedral and was closely monitored by the local police.

This was beautiful and amazing 25 minutes and I will let the following photos say it all and close what has been a full, thought provoking and unique day.

20190628_230225

20190628_231718

20190628_231100