Our first stop this morning was to drop off Rod's car in his village called Mailly-Maillet. It was a cute little town with a pretty church. We saw his house which had bullet marks in the side and met his two cute dogs - made me miss our rabbits!
Next up was Euston Road cemetery. Here we looked for Michael's brother in law's great uncle who was only 18. We found him! I also found a gravestone inscription about another 18 year old that stayed with me - "a boy in years, a man in deeds".
Then we made our way into the Somme. Coming on this tour I didn't know too much about the history of this area, so again I learned quite a lot today! The main battle on the Somme happened on the 1st of July 1916. This was the worst ever day for British battlefield losses. Just on this day the British army/allies had 58,000 casualties, 19,000 of which were deaths. In total on the Somme there were 420,000 commonwealth casualties and 200,000 French. Absolutely crazy, so many lives cut short.
Then we went to the Newfoundland memorial. I never knew Newfoundland used to be a country of its own, but apparently it's been a part of Canada since 1948! Here it was bitter cold. Icy horrible winds. I love my Kathmandu coat so much, it completely blocked the wind. But god were my legs cold!! We saw some old trenches and a memorial with a caribou on top (a bit like a moose) that Rod explained was sculpted as if it was looking for its lost young.
We made a quick stop at Ulster Tower and then went to the Thiepval memorial. This is a memorial of the missing on the Somme for the British, South Africans and French that has a cemetery which 400 French and British resting side by side. The Aussie Somme memorial is the one in VB we went to on Anzac Day. Thiepval has 73,367 names of the missing on it (72,000 British and the other name South African) and is the biggest memorial to the British army in the world in terms of both size and the amount of names. 80% of British soldiers who went missing during the war went missing on the Somme. As soldiers are being discovered still, if they are found and buried their names are removed off the wall. After seeing the memorial we visited the visitor centre and I read that it took until 1940 to rebuild northeast France. At which time WWII had started. What a difficult time to be alive...
We then drove to Mouquet Farm (which the Aussies pronounced 'moo cow farm') and on the way saw an area where they were digging in the water pipe and found two rifles from WWI today. Apparently recently they found an officer Blakey here too who will soon be buried. We then passed Mouquet Farm, where the heaviest bombing in this area occurred. There were mine separate attacks by three Australian divisions between 8/8-3/9/1916 here with 11,000 casualties.
Then we passed through Pozieres and saw the 1st battalion monument which had an information board with a photo from September 1915 of this battalion marching past the parliament building in Melbourne.
Our next stop was the tank memorial on the spot where the first tanks of WWI were used on the 1st of September 1916. Over the road was the Pozieres windmill, where a 7 week assault by the Aussies to capture it caused 6700 casualties. It's 2m higher then the other terrain here and is the highest point on the Somme, giving a view of the whole landscape around.
We continued on to Lochnagar Crater memorial which was the biggest crater on the Somme. Apparently a guy called Cecil Lewis was flying his plane at 4500 feet (about 1.4km) at this moment and saw debris flying through the air! His plane then got caught in the percussion waves but he somehow gained control of it again. This particular mine killed 250 Germans by either atomising them, collapsing their lungs or blowing out their eyes. Eek...
We stopped in Albert for lunch. Carol and I went to the supermarket to buy some dinner and snacks because everything is closed on Mondays in France. Carol was kind enough to let me sit with her today because I'm still receiving the silent treatment (see yesterday's blog). We chatted all day about our travels. She has been everywhere! So many amazing stories to tell. We then went into the cathedral which was beautiful. Didn't go to the museum because we had 20 minutes before we had to get back on the bus, but then like yesterday a couple of people were about 15 minutes late. Bit annoying, only thing about a tour I guess..!
Then we made two more stops to find graves - Courcelette cemetery to find Liz's neighbour's great great uncle and Grevillers cemetery to find a relative of Catherine's dad. This one was particularly sad because apparently he was one of four brothers that went to war, and only one came back with the three boys dying all in the same month. I saw another very sad grave inscription here by a mother on her 19 year old son's grave, see the photos.
Our next stop was Delville Wood. Here there was a cemetery and a South African memorial. I went and took a lot of photos of it because one of my best friends, Brendon, was born in South Africa! The woods surrounding the memorial were obliterated during the war but replanted with South African oaks.
Then we went to the 3rd battalion memorial - seen all five now!!
We went on to Amiens afterwards and went to the cathedral which has the tallest spire in France. We saw where John the Baptist is buried. Carol and I went walking and I got a crepe with sugar - how I missed those!
Tonight my dinner consists of a pasta with Bolognaise sauce microwave meal, tabouli with vegetables and a banana. It's been an 11 hour jam packed day and I'm tired!
Tomorrow we head to Paris. Last time I visited Paris I was 18 in December 2010. I keep thinking about how much has changed since then and it really is crazy to think! I was fresh out of high school, really unsure of myself, Collingwood were fresh off a premiership and I had an idiotic boyfriend who treated me awfully. I wish Collingwood were fresh off another premiership but other than that I'm happy with all the changes! That was my very first trip, and since then travel has changed me and matured me so much for the better. Looking forward to even more positive changes over the next 6+ months :)
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
We went on to Amiens afterwards and went to the cathedral which has the tallest spire in France. We saw where John the Baptist is buried. Carol and I went walking and I got a crepe with sugar - how I missed those!
Tonight my dinner consists of a pasta with Bolognaise sauce microwave meal, tabouli with vegetables and a banana. It's been an 11 hour jam packed day and I'm tired!
Tomorrow we head to Paris. Last time I visited Paris I was 18 in December 2010. I keep thinking about how much has changed since then and it really is crazy to think! I was fresh out of high school, really unsure of myself, Collingwood were fresh off a premiership and I had an idiotic boyfriend who treated me awfully. I wish Collingwood were fresh off another premiership but other than that I'm happy with all the changes! That was my very first trip, and since then travel has changed me and matured me so much for the better. Looking forward to even more positive changes over the next 6+ months :)
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
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