Somme, how and where to begin.

Battle of the Somme, or rather, Battles would be a better term. During the time of the War to End all Wars, there was a series of battles fought over a 55 kilometer front from just south of the Belgium border to just east of Paris. These battles were referred to as the Battle of the Somme. The names of some 580,000 who fought, were killed, identified, and buried in the northern sector or Nord have their names inscribed alphabetically on this series of panels without regard to nationality, rank or date of death. The oval shaped design is a powerful statement. There is a row of Kruger, Otto - several panels of McDonald, no Crissmans, but 12 rows of Stones, eight rows of Hodges, countless Singhs, and panels of Smiths, and so on.  

Sad and moving 

This is beside the largest French cemetery, the Necropole-Nationale-de-Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, in France.  I begin to lose the numbers after a while but think it was in the 40,000 range of French soldiers and something like six father-son combinations are buried here. Probably too many brothers to bothers to mention. Below is the cemetery with the memorial cathedral.

The Cabaret Rouge British Cemetery, one of the over 500 British Commonwealth cemeteries in the Somme area. From this cemetery, the Canadian "Unknown Soldier" was taken back to Confederation Square National War Memorial in Ottawa.

Not far away was another large French Cemetery at Forecourt, numbingly large.

 Though not as large as the National Cemetery at Notre Dame, the  La Targette Cemetery has strong visual impact.

This is one of several German cemeteries in the Somme area. Manfred von Richthofen (The Red Barron) was buried here for a while. He was shot down by ground fire from Australians while in a arial fight over the trenches. Von Ritchofen was buried behind the Aussie lines, by the Australians with full military honors, until after the war when he was reburied here. Later his body was taken to Berlin for a state funeral and then moved again by his family to his hometown during the cold war.

In the German cemetery there was a block house with this sculpture of a grieving family. There is a noticeable paucity of statutes that do not reflect some form of grieving at WWI sites.

And another German cemetery. Germans used several types of grave markers. French used white crosses and British tombstones almost consistently.

Throughout the Somme and indeed in Ypres too were several monuments recognizing service and sacrifice from specific members of the British Commonwealth. Like this Caribou representing the small detachment from Newfoundland which suffered nearly 90% killed in a single offensive in 1916  during an attack on the German front along the Somme.

There are monuments for South Africans, New Zealanders, Australians, Moroccans, countless for British, the largest of which, Thiepval Memorial, was shrouded in scaffolding and plastic as it was being repaired, and this very large and impressive Canadian monument of remembrance on Vimy Ridge.  

That black dot like thing over my left shoulder is a man, those two black figures just above my head (right side of the monument as you are looking at it), people too. This is the back of the monument - the front faces down from the ridge top to the valley below, where the Canadians started their offensive. It was a gray, cold, overcast day and we were two of the few who were there.

Vimy Ridge was atop a very high hill along a ridge that was the objective of Canadian regiments operating as part of an offensive in 1917 that was successful. At great cost in lives, the Canadians established themselves as elite fighting forces in this effort and helped forge a national identity. April 9, the day this offensive started, is a national holiday in Canada. Check your Canadian Calendars.  The shell marks in the landscape below are part of the German lines that the Canadians took during the several months of the attack.  The Canadian monument has several figures representing various persons in stages of grief and anguish.

Below is the large British Memorial at Thievpal to the 70,000 plus soldiers whose bodies from the Somme fighting were never recovered and identified. As they are, and bodies still are being recovered in the area through various ground disturbing activities and the body is identified, the name is removed from this monument. Some few thousand names have been removed. Photo obviously a "screen shot"  -credit to someone else.

The British headstones had elaborate insignia for each regiment, some more so than others.

and not all headstones are crosses, as this German marker for a reservist indicates - this reservist probably was not a young man - called into the army late in the war.

and I was surprised to see the rank on this headstone, but probably should not have been. It is easy to pick up some French from the bottom line too.

and driving back to Albert from Lens this afternoon, we took back roads and came through several small farming villages.  In the village of Coigneux,  the church we noticed had an obelisk toped with a cross and names at the bottom.  Stopped for a look. The village didn't have a dozen houses in it and was but a crossroads. The Accep family paid a price.

Though it appears as if we are alone at many of these sites and indeed we are at many places there are huge tour busses with group tours. Some are people our age but many are school kids. These groups tend to huddle around the lecturer a bit then do the walk around. Fortunately this time of year there are not many as the parking lots at some of theses sites are quite large. Some sites though appear seldom visited.  

Very very brief capsule — the first Battle of the Somme, an allied offensive, achieved the movement of the front several miles into German occupied territory.  However, it was called the worst day in English military history as they suffered over 50,000 casualties. Total casualties on both sides during the several months of this first battle was about 1,000,000 men.  During 1917 several offensives including the Vimy Ridge offensive. In early 1918, the Germans mounted a major offensive that was successful and overran all the territory they had lost. Then in the fall of 1918, in the third battle of the Somme, the allies retook the the same territory and additional territory.  Significant additional casualties ensued in each of the offensives. The war ended November 11, 1918.