Battle of the Somme 100 years - 1916-2016

[Don Regiano]

High Wood from the northern end of Bazentin-le-Petit

[Seadog]

 

In the museum in Albert, I guess for tree planting at the Ulster Tower? (I never bothered to ask!)

 

More

https://www.flickr.com/photos/glosters/28515993395/in/photostream/

 

Norman

 

[Don Regiano]

still at High Wood, memorial to the London Division

[squirrel]

Not the original memorial which was replaced many years ago.The base of the original stone memorial and the title stone are at Flodden Road Drill Hall, London SE5 along with the renovated original battlefield wooden crosses from High Wood and the Butte de Warlencourt.

[RichardOS]

Sept 13th 1925:

[Chris_B]

And another ...

 

 

[Seadog]

 

Memorial cairn to the dead of the Glasgow Highlanders who died in the fight for this infamous Somme Wood

 

Norman

[Don Regiano]

and not forgetting the Cameron Highlanders at High Wood

[Seadog]

 

 

Near the German trench known as the Strassburger Line with the view down to St Pierre Divion and the valley of the river Ancre. The view is from the existing Divion Road now a track as shown on the map.

 

Norman

 

PS Some excellent and interesting images being posted, keep up the good work!

[Seadog]

 

Once standing at High Wood now in the Newfoundland Battlefield Park, Beaumont Hamel.  the inscription reads "This Cross is erected in memory of the Officers, NCOs and men of the 51st Highland Division who fell at High Wood July 1916".

 

Norman

 

[Seadog]

 

High Wood on the right and London War Cemetery left

 

The Leveller

 

Near Martinpuich that night of hell
Two men were struck by the same shell,
Together tumbling in one heap
Senseless and limp like slaughtered sheep.

 

One was a pale eighteen-year-old,
Blue-eyed and thin and not too bold,
Pressed for the war not ten years too soon,
The shame and pity of his platoon.

 

The other came from far-off lands
With bristling chin and whiskered hands,
He had known death and hell before
In Mexico and Ecuador.

 

Yet in his death this cut-throat wild
Groaned 'Mother! Mother!' like a child,
While the poor innocent in man's clothes
Died cursing God with brutal oaths.

 

Old Sergeant Smith, kindest of men,
Wrote out two copies and then
Of his accustomed funeral speech
To cheer the womanfolk of each:-

 

'He died a hero's death: and we
His comrades of 'A' Company
Deeply regret his death: we shall
All deeply miss so true a pal.'

 

Robert Graves

[Ghazala]

"Do all those that lie here know why they died"

[Don Regiano]

Close to the position of Norman's photo towards the Ancre, this is looking across from Divion Road towards the Ulster Tower, across land attacked by many, including the 6th Cheshires on 13 November 1916

[Seadog]

 

Image

https://www.flickr.com/photos/glosters/28491836391/in/dateposted/

 

Norman

[Don Regiano]

Paisley Avenue "Cemetery" (south of Thiepval Wood), initial burial place of several fallen before exhumation, looking from its junction with Sutherland Avenue.

 

[horrocks]

 

'The Queen's Nullah' and 'White Trench', Mametz, August 2016

 

 

"And when you look to left and right, small, drab, bundled pawns severally make effort, moved in tenuous line"

 

 

"..and if you looked behind, the next wave came slowly, as successive surfs creep in to dissipate on a flat shore."

 

The Queens Nullah and White Trench, July 10th 1916

David Jones, from 'In Parenthesis'.

Edited 27 August , 2016 by horrocks

[horrocks]

 

Edward 'Bim' Tennant, on this day 100 years ago.

 

"I feel rather like saying "If it be possible, let this cup pass from me", but the triumphant finish nevertheless not what I will but what "Thou Willest" steels my heart and sends me into this battle with a heart of triple bronze...I always carry four photies of you when we go into action, one is in my pocket-book, two in that little leather book, and one round my neck, and I have kept my little medal of the Blessed Virgin. Your love for me and my love for you, have made my whole life one of the happiest there has ever been. Brutus' farewell to Cassius sounds in my heart : ' If not farewell, and if we meet again, we shall smile.' Now all my blessings go with you, and with all we love. God bless you, and give you peace - Eternal Love, from BIM."