Walking the Somme this summer - 2005

[Fraser Thomson]

Hi to you all.

As a new member to the forum here, I'm really curious as to why so many of us are drawn to the hallowed ground we know as the Somme/Ancre valley, in Picardy, France. I'm off this year, to walkabout, starting early on tthe morning of July 1st - 2005. Exactly 89 years to the minute after so many young men met their fate.

I'm not too fussed on what Army Battalion did what or where. Of course I love stories like the South Africans' 'Baptism of Fire' in Delville Wood, etc. But for me, it's a combination of reflecting on their sacrifices, and a slighly morbid curiousity as to imagine what it must have been like to see what they saw - as they offered themselves to this machine we know as the 'Great War'.

Times have changed so much in the world, and I can't help wondering if those lost souls still roam the land, AND, (while we are paying our respects), do they perhaps smile, and acknowledge that we ARE there, and that we're truely greatful to them, and value the gift they bestowed on future generations like myself???

I'd like to think so, even though I have no close family involved in the war, not a big believer in the Christian faith, (or any other faith for that matter). Plus, I never really understood WHY the war should have ever happened in the first place.

This is the closest a young agnostic like myself gets to 'spirituality' in this day and age.

Thats the reason I go there, to try to say thanks to them and what they sacrificed.

Please feel free to voice your own feelings towards this, I'd really love to hear other viewpoints on visitors to the Somme.

[Tim Birch]

Hi Fraser

A reflective post!

I was interested to see you intend walking part of the Somme on July 1. You won't be alone, in fact on that day there will be hundreds of people in the area attending various commemorations including at the Lochnagar Crater, Thiepval and The Ulster Tower. Although they will have a semi-military/religious tone, your faith (or otherwise) is irrelevant. It's the fact that so many care enough to be there that is so poignant.

Two years ago on July 1, along with a few other members of this forum I watched the dawn break over the Thiepval. 80 odd years before it had been heralded in by the sound of guns, but that morning it was to the joyeous song of a Blackbird perched high up in the Memorial echoing around the building.

Tim

[armourersergeant]

Fraser,

I am visiting the western front this April for the first time with the forum, I am a battlefeild virgin. So not the Somme but Ypres. I have a feeling that when i get back my reasons for going will have changed.

regards

Arm.

[HarryBettsMCDCM]

Possibly because in our cosy;cossetted lives of Today we have a need to reflect & consider how our Great Grandfathers,Grandfathers & Fathers aquitted themselves all those years ago,to ask ourselves "How would we have fared in those Circumstances?" & to see,having Read all about it Where it all actually happened,to breath in the Atmosphere ,close ones eyes & be there in Spirit..........

[John_Hartley]

Like Arm, my trip in April is to Ieper.

If, on 1st July, you should find yourself near Montauban, please spare a thought for the 113 of my grandad's mates in 17/Manchester who went over the top with him and are there still.

Thanks

John

[Guest scotlad]

Hi Fraser.

On the 1 July 2006 at 07.20 I'll be standing at the brit frontline near Fricourt where the 10th West Yorks went over. Somewhere in front of me will be the remains of my great uncle from the regiment who was killed and never found.

Now I'm definately not religous but it has gone through mind a few times, will I be walking forward with a ghost army? Do they get up and go in their own world, running between the living and seeing us walking with them.

We'll never Know, however it does make proud of them.

[Fraser Thomson]

I'm convinced the ghosts are happy to see/feel us at their home on the Somme.

[BlackSeptember1918]

I've only been to the Somme once , about 6 years ago , will be going again in June , also Ypres and Verdun . If I lived closer than Australia I am sure I would have gone many more times . All the reasons listed above are why I want to go also , added to this is a need to actually view the lay of the land I have read so much about . I'm sure it will help my reading when I can actually see the area's I read about . Ofcourse the conditions are much changed but seeing the topography and taking in the panorama gives you a better idea of the problems faced , or the advantages held .

Phil.

[Simon Furnell]

Hello Fraser.

Well said,and i know what you mean.

Only been the once,in early April,but it made a lasting impression.

Could have heard a pin drop,most of the time.

All the best.

Simon.

[paullaw1155]

Hi Fraser

I agree with your sentiments. This will be my third visit to the western front. I remember being talked into joining a friend of mine on a visit in 1998.

I had thoughts of calling it off. That would have been a big mistake. Since that first visit i do not think a week has gone by without my thoughts or leisure time being spent on the suject of the Great War.

The Ypres salient was an eye opener and full of interest . But the Somme was somehow different, I think it is the open fields which are now being farmed,and then you cast your mind back to the time when men were losing there lives by the thousand on these places that you are now walking .

What thought was going through the minds of the soldiers waiting for zero hour in the Sunken lane at Beaumont Hamel, or the pals divisions at Serre. One old veteran once described it as hallowed ground and I certainly agree with those sentiments.

Like yourself I am not to knowledgeable on military matters. It is the human aspect of all the carnage and slaughter that took place here that interests myself.

I once described to a friend that my visit was one of the most humbling and poignant episodes in my life.

Paul

[Piscator]

On the 20th of October last year I attended the funeral of a soldier of the Highland Division at Loos British Cemetry. He was L/Cpl John Young BROWN of the 6th Battalion Queens Own Cameron Highlanders. Members of the 1st Bn Highlanders were present and formed the Honour Guard.

The coffin was preceded by a Piper playing Flowers of the Forest. It was a very moving ceremony, its funny you always seem to get a bit of grit in your eye in moments like this!!!!! As an Ex serviceman it was an Honour to pay tribute to a soldier of the Great War. Better stop before the Irish in me goes all maudlin.

Len

[steve fuller]

Hi Fraser

Like others mentioned before, i am a battlefield virgin until 21st March. I too am off to the Somme, but a different area i believe - West & South west of St Quentin to trace the footsteps of my GG's last battle & to try to understand just a little of what he may have seen. Seems to be a strong attraction to 'researchers', to stand where those we are trying to understand have stood?

And no doubt Ill be starting my own thread at the end of March raving about "how I understand now"! Cant wait!