We had planned a trip to the Pyrenees with me riding down from my new home in SW France and mates flying and hiring from the UK…but that all went a bit awry so it was suggested we do a World War 1 tour of the Western Front and the Somme. Brilliant, I’ve done various sites a few times before so linking a few new sites to visit with stuff I’d seen would create a good historic tour for two guys who hadn’t done the area.
An easy 425 mile ride North
Decent Airbnb for 5 nights which gave us 4 days to see the sights, 2 for the Ypres Salient and 2 for the Somme.
I’ll just post the pictures with where they are. They don’t really need words. A few pics of the headstones are simply to show that this was truly a global war.
I revisited a close friends Great Uncles grave at Thilloy Road Cemetery, we had visited him on the 100th anniversary of his death, to the day.
Day One, firstly the site of the famous Christmas Day football match, a statue is in the nearby town.
Many tiny graveyards, often smack in the middle of a farmers field
The Isle of Ireland Peace Park
Much of the writing on the tablets of stone dispelled the myth of death on a muddy battlefield being a ‘Glorious’ thing.
Messines Ridge New Zealand Memorial and cemetery
French memorial on top of the Kemmelberg
The execution post (Shot at dawn) at the back of the town hall in Poperinge.
‘Pops’ was the closest ‘safe’ town to the front at Ypres and is the location of Talbot House, An interesting building, now a living museum in as much as you can wander round during the day, looking in the various rooms, then when it closes at 5pm, some of those rooms are opened for guests. History of it and the organisation Toc H here… https://www.talbothouse.be/en/museum/home
(I grew up half a mile from Marsh and my best mates dad was in Toc H and introduced me to the delights of Talbot House. He and his wife used to spend a month there each year to act as wardens. Signing in guests, making tea for visitors and just being all round good eggs. ( I can’t tell you how good it was 20+ years ago arriving mid afternoon in 35c heat and being sat down and proffered a good cup o’ tea and a piece of homemade flapjack!)
The grave of an amazing man.
en.wikipedia.org
Day 2. The Somme
Windmill Memorial, Pozieres
A further small memorial to the millions of animals who died ‘in service’
A tank memorial directly across the road from it.
Next stop was the Ulster Memorial. Very special indeed
Next stop was the quite vast Newfoundland Memorial at Beaumont Hamel. Trenches still in evidence as are many shell craters. The wooden cross is by the small ravine that many lives were lost trying to take control of. Also within the site is a memorial to the Gordon Highlanders. I wonder what the Germans thought of big hairy blokes in skirts playing a weird set up of pipes that sounded like a strangled cat?
In the small on-site museum/visitor centre.
Thiepval Memorial to more than 72000 officers and men of the UK and South Africa missing. (Including Cedric Charles Dickens, grandson of the author Charles Dickens) A young lady in her first week as a guide, doing an attachment post Uni, with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, did her first guided tour with the 4 of us. She did just fine and I’m sure spending 2 or 3 months chatting to all manner of people will set her in good stead for whatever the future holds in store.
Cemetery of French (left side of photo) and Commonwealth graves in equal number in front of the memorial.
Delville Wood South African Memorial
Visitor centre
Nearby New Zealand Memorial, Longueval.
Thilloy Road, Cemetery
Day 3. Ypres / Western Front
German command bunker.
Tyne Cot(tage) Cemetery
Langemarck German Cemetery.
Mass grave containing the remains of c 25000 German soldiers.
It was a bike trip….honestly.
That evening, we attended the nightly Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate. First held in 1928 and done nightly ever since. The structure is undergoing extensive renovations so the ceremony takes place on the road at the front of it. It really does take away the ‘hairs stand up on the back of your neck’ reverberating sound of bugles within the giant arch.
Lego is brilliant
A bit of supper….
Day 4. Thursday 7th September. The somme
Indian Memorial, Neuve Chapelle.
Portugese Memorial, 50 yards away.
Vimy Ridge. Superbly done, short tour of the tunnels/trenches where it brings it home just how close the front lines were to each other in some places…..a matter of yards! Canadians do these sites of remembrance very well indeed.
Last stop was Carriere Wellington in Arras. A brilliant experience.
www.carrierewellington.com
Communication cables
Soot on the wall from a tunnellers candle
The numbers involved in The Great War are staggering. Men volunteering to travel 3000, 6000 or even 12000 miles to fight for King and country (and to travel there in steam ships talking weeks)
It is a pilgrimage I willingly do periodically to remind myself just how easy I have it.
Well worth a visit folks.
An easy 425 mile ride North
Decent Airbnb for 5 nights which gave us 4 days to see the sights, 2 for the Ypres Salient and 2 for the Somme.
I’ll just post the pictures with where they are. They don’t really need words. A few pics of the headstones are simply to show that this was truly a global war.
I revisited a close friends Great Uncles grave at Thilloy Road Cemetery, we had visited him on the 100th anniversary of his death, to the day.
Day One, firstly the site of the famous Christmas Day football match, a statue is in the nearby town.
Many tiny graveyards, often smack in the middle of a farmers field
The Isle of Ireland Peace Park
Much of the writing on the tablets of stone dispelled the myth of death on a muddy battlefield being a ‘Glorious’ thing.
Messines Ridge New Zealand Memorial and cemetery
French memorial on top of the Kemmelberg
The execution post (Shot at dawn) at the back of the town hall in Poperinge.
‘Pops’ was the closest ‘safe’ town to the front at Ypres and is the location of Talbot House, An interesting building, now a living museum in as much as you can wander round during the day, looking in the various rooms, then when it closes at 5pm, some of those rooms are opened for guests. History of it and the organisation Toc H here… https://www.talbothouse.be/en/museum/home
(I grew up half a mile from Marsh and my best mates dad was in Toc H and introduced me to the delights of Talbot House. He and his wife used to spend a month there each year to act as wardens. Signing in guests, making tea for visitors and just being all round good eggs. ( I can’t tell you how good it was 20+ years ago arriving mid afternoon in 35c heat and being sat down and proffered a good cup o’ tea and a piece of homemade flapjack!)
The grave of an amazing man.
Noel Godfrey Chavasse - Wikipedia
Day 2. The Somme
Windmill Memorial, Pozieres
A further small memorial to the millions of animals who died ‘in service’
A tank memorial directly across the road from it.
Next stop was the Ulster Memorial. Very special indeed
Next stop was the quite vast Newfoundland Memorial at Beaumont Hamel. Trenches still in evidence as are many shell craters. The wooden cross is by the small ravine that many lives were lost trying to take control of. Also within the site is a memorial to the Gordon Highlanders. I wonder what the Germans thought of big hairy blokes in skirts playing a weird set up of pipes that sounded like a strangled cat?
In the small on-site museum/visitor centre.
Thiepval Memorial to more than 72000 officers and men of the UK and South Africa missing. (Including Cedric Charles Dickens, grandson of the author Charles Dickens) A young lady in her first week as a guide, doing an attachment post Uni, with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, did her first guided tour with the 4 of us. She did just fine and I’m sure spending 2 or 3 months chatting to all manner of people will set her in good stead for whatever the future holds in store.
Cemetery of French (left side of photo) and Commonwealth graves in equal number in front of the memorial.
Delville Wood South African Memorial
Visitor centre
Nearby New Zealand Memorial, Longueval.
Thilloy Road, Cemetery
Day 3. Ypres / Western Front
German command bunker.
Tyne Cot(tage) Cemetery
Langemarck German Cemetery.
Mass grave containing the remains of c 25000 German soldiers.
It was a bike trip….honestly.
That evening, we attended the nightly Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate. First held in 1928 and done nightly ever since. The structure is undergoing extensive renovations so the ceremony takes place on the road at the front of it. It really does take away the ‘hairs stand up on the back of your neck’ reverberating sound of bugles within the giant arch.
Lego is brilliant
A bit of supper….
Day 4. Thursday 7th September. The somme
Indian Memorial, Neuve Chapelle.
Portugese Memorial, 50 yards away.
Vimy Ridge. Superbly done, short tour of the tunnels/trenches where it brings it home just how close the front lines were to each other in some places…..a matter of yards! Canadians do these sites of remembrance very well indeed.
Last stop was Carriere Wellington in Arras. A brilliant experience.
Mémorial de la Bataille d'Arras - Carrière Wellington
À 20 mètres sous les pavés d’Arras, découvrez la Carrière Wellington, un lieu chargé de mémoire et d’émotion.
www.carrierewellington.com
Communication cables
Soot on the wall from a tunnellers candle
The numbers involved in The Great War are staggering. Men volunteering to travel 3000, 6000 or even 12000 miles to fight for King and country (and to travel there in steam ships talking weeks)
It is a pilgrimage I willingly do periodically to remind myself just how easy I have it.
Well worth a visit folks.
