What to do with a day on the Somme?

[Tom Kilkenny]

I am biking over to the Somme next week, spending one night before coming back.

Been lots of times but always seem to end up at Thiepval, Newfoundland Park and the Ulster Tower. Thinking I might do one of Paul Reed's walks but has anyone got any other ideas what someone not wholly unfamiliar with the battlefield might do with one day?

[Rollerbeadle]

Try this?

Festival du film d’archéologie d’Amiens 2014: 8-12 April

Festival du film d’archéologie d’Amiens (Amiens Archaeological Film Festival) runs from 8-12 April 2014. The first two films to be shown on the Monday are “The Somme: Secret Tunnel Wars” and “Breathing Fire – Le Dragon de la Somme”, both produced by LBSG Director Peter Barton. Full details of the festival’s screenings can be found by downloading the PDF: festival du film archeologie amiens

[trenchtrotter]

. Just go to area south of Albert - Bapae Road d explore. Do your research first '

[peterhogg]

One area of interest you might explore is Bois Francais, Mansel Copse, Minden Post and Mametz. As Trenchtrotter suggests, research is important so you can get a sense of the landscape and how it related to and determined the fighting. Maps are important as are visual representations and written accounts. Ending up at Danzig Alley cemetery will provide you with a great panorama of the battlefield working it's way to High Wood.

I recommend, for example, a book called Ghosts on the Somme which focuses on photos and film taken by Malins and Brooks. You can fairly readily compare footage taken of the shelling of Mametz, for example and compare some of those famous shots to the present landscape.

Building on that theme, another area of interest that warrants exploration would if you go to White City area you can compare the area to the famous Malins footage and the photos taken by Ernest Brooks recording activity at the New Beaumont Road and the attack on Hawthorne Ridge. Just some suggestions.

[WilliamRev]

I am biking over to the Somme next week, spending one night before coming back.

Been lots of times but always seem to end up at Thiepval, Newfoundland Park and the Ulster Tower. Thinking I might do one of Paul Reed's walks but has anyone got any other ideas what someone not wholly unfamiliar with the battlefield might do with one day?

Since you have Paul Reed's excellent book "Walking the Somme" I recommend that you get to grips with the real heart of the battle as it unfolded from 14th July 1916 onwards (as opposed to just the first day). Paul Reed's "High Wood" walk (page 190) would be my first choice, and if you had energy you could combine it with the "Mametz Wood-Contalmaison walk" (page 171).

William

[Fattyowls]

Tom

Just to follow up on Connor's post above about the Malins film and how the landscape is today have a look at this. This appeared in a topic about Minden Post recently. I think there is some interesting ground between Maricourt, Longeuval and Guillemont which is worth a visit, starting where the British and French lines met and going up the slope to Caterpillar Valley cemetery with it's superb views and futher east to Guillemont which along with High Wood defied capture until September.

Pete

[Doug504]

Tom

have a look at the La Boiselle project website to see if they are working on site on the day of your visit,if so you may be able to get a tour of the site. Our small school group had an unforgettable tour underground a couple of years ago, you may be as lucky.

Doug

[Dawley Jockey]

The La Boisselle site (The Glory Hole) is closed for the for see-able future, there has been a couple of topics on it and the reasons for it.

Tom

have a look at the La Boiselle project website to see if they are working on site on the day of your visit,if so you may be able to get a tour of the site. Our small school group had an unforgettable tour underground a couple of years ago, you may be as lucky.

Doug

[Doug504]

The La Boisselle site (The Glory Hole) is closed for the for see-able future, there has been a couple of topics on it and the reasons for it.

That's a shame. It takes a truly amazing experience to engage with E.B.D. students and Jonathon Porters tour of La Boiselle certainly did that. Students still talk of that visit two years after.

Doug.

[Ghazala]

We talked about the High Wood walk here, that would be my choice..

http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=208336&hl=

[Tom Kilkenny]

Thanks for the ideas gents. The High Wood walk is looking favourite!

[Tom Kilkenny]

High Wood it was and the weather was superb. I will post some pictures once I have worked out how.

[berty199]

Tom

I'm heading over there in June armed with Paul Reed's book, I'll start with the High Wood walk too.

Will look forward to seeing your pictures

Martin

[Tom Kilkenny]

Some pictures as promised.

Bazentin church where I parked up.

I walked down to the military cemetery below the village.

I then headed back the way I had come but, rather than returning to the village, carried on along the track to join the road where I turned left towards Longueval.

I have driven (and ridden) across the battlefield many times but there's no doubt walking gives you a very different perspective, especially on a warm day!

More pictures to follow.

[Tom Kilkenny]

Another view up the road to Longueval. There is a Calvary among the trees on the left.

Apparently it's one of the few features on the battlefield to have survived the fighting.

A closer view reveals damage that may have been caused by shellfire or bullets.

[trenchtrotter]

Known of course as Crucifix Corner.

[chrissparrow]

Is this where Billy Congreve died?

Chris

[Tom Kilkenny]

It was known as Crucifix Corner. Whether it's the Calvary where Congreve died, I think that might have been further up the road to Longueval. Somebody else might know better.

By the way, you'll have noticed we've had no sight yet of High Wood itself. Fret not, it's coming just as soon as I can get a few minutes to try (again) to upload pictures!

[Tom Kilkenny]

The view back down the road to Bazentin. On the right you can see the entrance to a track leading up to and past the site of a pre-war windmill.

[Tom Kilkenny]

Looking up the track to the site of the windmill which is among the trees on the left. High Wood is out of shot and we still wouldn't be quite high enough to see it from this point in the sunken lane, but it's over to the right. There is a 1916 German map of the area in Paul Reed's 'Walking the Somme' which has the road behind and the track we're on marked on it. It seems amazing to me that, while everything else on the battlefield was pretty much obliterated, these presumably ancient byways survived and still do to this day.

Finally, High Wood! You can see why it would have been an important objective for its view of the surrounding area.

[Tom Kilkenny]

I carried on up the lane and noticed this barbed wire picket still doing a job, if not exactly the one for which it was designed!

At the top of the lane there is a T-junction with a track back to Bazentin to the left and up to High Wood on the right. Here is the memorial to Houston Wallace of the Worcestershire Regiment.

[Ghazala]

Excellent pictures Tom, thanks for sharing them. The area from the crucifix up to High Wood is one of my favourites that I visit every year.

[dullsdulls]

On 4/3/2014 at 05:12, peterhogg said:

One area of interest you might explore is Bois Francais, Mansel Copse, Minden Post and Mametz. As Trenchtrotter suggests, research is important so you can get a sense of the landscape and how it related to and determined the fighting. Maps are important as are visual representations and written accounts. Ending up at Danzig Alley cemetery will provide you with a great panorama of the battlefield working it's way to High Wood.

I recommend, for example, a book called Ghosts on the Somme which focuses on photos and film taken by Malins and Brooks. You can fairly readily compare footage taken of the shelling of Mametz, for example and compare some of those famous shots to the present landscape.

Building on that theme, another area of interest that warrants exploration would if you go to White City area you can compare the area to the famous Malins footage and the photos taken by Ernest Brooks recording activity at the New Beaumont Road and the attack on Hawthorne Ridge. Just some suggestions.

 

[dullsdulls]

I am going to order the book Ghosts on the Somme, My brother and I, he is still serving and i am an Ex squadie will be in the Somme for a week and the locations of the famous photos are the nearest we can get to shaking the hands of those incredible men.  My brother and I were over in the 90s so this is our second time on the Somme.  Thank you for your research.

[simond9x]

11 hours ago, dullsdulls said:

I am going to order the book Ghosts on the Somme, My brother and I, he is still serving and i am an Ex squadie will be in the Somme for a week and the locations of the famous photos are the nearest we can get to shaking the hands of those incredible men.  My brother and I were over in the 90s so this is our second time on the Somme.  Thank you for your research.

 

My daughter and I did this a few years ago - it was incredible. I would further recommend that you take Malins' film 'Battle Of The Somme' with you on a tablet or some similar device. To stand at Minden Post and watch the film slowly pan left to right whilst you do the same, or to stand on the track at the White City watching the film of the troops fixing their bayonets in a trench 8 feet below where you're standing, is an unbelievable feeling. We had all the relevant clips from the film loaded up in the sequence that we visited the sites. My daughter did lots of before/after photography and filming.Enjoy your trip!

 

[Edit - I've just noticed that Fattyowls posted a link above to a before/after film on YouTube - that's the sort of thing I mean. A longer version can be found here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuz0BA3-_P0&t=1182s]

 

Edited 22 April , 2018 by simond9x