Germany 2025 - The Battle of the Somme and then Home

 Monday 13th October - Bray sur Somme

The last day of our holiday and also of our WWI tour.  Let me start by giving you a short history lesson.

The Battle of the Somme took place between 1st July and 18th November 1916 on both sides of the River Somme. The battle was intended to hasten a victory for the Allies.  More than three million men fought in the battle, of whom more than one million were either wounded or killed, making it one of the deadliest battles in human history.  The British Empire suffered approximately 420,000 casualties, the French suffered 200,000, and German losses were at least 450,000 killed and wounded.  British troops included some from British Empire countries - Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, India and the West Indies.  The front stretched about 25 miles, the British sector was roughly 13.7 miles long, while the French attacked along a 6.2 mile front to the south.

We drove to Delville Wood which is the South African National Memorial, only to find it closed on a Monday which I was rather surprised about.  Shame as it looked attractive.  There is a sign which says that the Wood is the resting place of thousands of British and German soldiers who died bravely.

Next it was the Thiepval Memorial, which is the British Memorial to the Missing of the Somme.  It bears the names of more than 72,000 officers and men of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died and have no known grave. Over 90% of those commemorated died between July and November 1916. The memorial also serves as an Anglo-French Battle Memorial in recognition of the joint nature of the 1916 offensive and a small cemetery containing equal numbers of Commonwealth and French graves lies at the foot of the memorial.  The Memorial commemorates more missing soldiers than any other Commonwealth Graves Commission memorial in the world.  There is also a museum but we didn’t go in.  

The Ulster Tower was our next destination.  It is Northern Ireland's National War Memorial. It was one of the first memorials to be erected on the Western Front and commemorates the men of the 36th (Ulster) Division and all those from Ulster who served in the First World War.  Sadly this is closed on Mondays too.

We weren’t too sure what the Newfoundland Memorial Park at Beaumont-Hamel would be like as it appeared to be more organised than others. We were met at the gate by a Canadian student who told us what we could see and did we want a guided tour.  We said no, but then wondered afterwards if we should have done as we had questions.  

The Germans didn’t know when the Allies were going to attack though they knew a major offensive was imminent due to the massive artillery bombardment. The attack was delayed by bad weather, which prevented the Allies from launching on the originally planned date, so the specific timing remained a surprise to the defenders.  

The 1st Newfoundland regiment, based at Beaumont-Hamel, attacked at about 9.15am on July 1st 1916 but unfortunately the assault lacked the element of surprise and in less than half an hour the Regiment suffered the second highest casualty rate for a battalion on that day. More than 700 were killed, wounded or missing.  This tragedy touched almost every Newfoundland family.    

The Newfoundland Memorial Park has preserved trenches and craters.  The trenches didn’t look that deep but time has eroded the sides and filled up the bottoms.  Reinforced with sandbags, the walls of the original trenches were about 2.5 metres tall.  I stood and tried to imagine the scene back in 1916 with gun fire, shouting and screaming, but I couldn’t.  Maybe it was just as well.  There is a small visitor centre which was interesting.  As we left we found our Canadian student and I asked him why there are so many small cemeteries around the area.  He said that the French wanted their soldiers buried in one place, which is why there are such huge French cemeteries.  The British wanted their soldiers buried where they fell, hence the number of small cemeteries, and the Germans were told where they could bury their dead.  I wonder if he was right. 

Our last stop was to the Lochnager Crater which was created by a large mine detonated beneath a German field fortification known as Schwabenhihe, by the British Army's 179th Tunnelling Company Royal Engineers, on July 1st 1916, at the start of the Battle of the Somme.  The mine was a massive explosion that created a crater approximately 330 feet wide and 70 feet deep. The explosive charge consisted of two main chambers, one with 16.5 kgs and the other with 11 kgs of ammonal explosive.  The resulting crater had a lip around 15 feet high, created by the force of the blast, which helped protect advancing troops.  The British named the mine after Lochnagar Street, the trench from which the gallery was driven.

Back at our site, it was empty, not a motorhome in sight!  Had the word got round about the awful Gifford-Hulls? 🤣  Three more motorhomes turned up later on though, phew!

37 miles

Tuesday 14th October - Hayling Island

Awake at 7.30am, breakfast at 8.00am and away at 9am. Richard was worried about catching the Shuttle!

Our first stop was to find a Post Office to post back the Austrian Go Box. According to Google there are two Post Offices in Bray sur Somme but one is now a nursery and the other has moved, we found a sub post office in a library.  Anyway the GoBox is now going back to Austria - I hope!

Google made a real blunder today. We were going along a narrow lane with grass growing down the middle (maybe that was a sign), when suddenly we came to a T junction. The road we should have turned onto was unmade and looked very rough, so we turned around and found a different way!

Once we were on the motorway, it was plain sailing until we got close to Calais when the mist came down and the drizzle started. Last time we went on the Shuttle back in May it was just the same. We checked Rio in and then checked ourselves in. We were booked on the 14.16 but managed to get on the 12.46. 

I think this is my favourite photo of the trip

When we arrived at the Eurotunnel I worked out that we had done 898 miles since saying goodbye to the group in Rothenburg. Once we were on the Shuttle we discovered that Lizzie, one of the group, was 4 vehicles behind us 🤣 How weird is that??

The Shuttle was 16 minutes late in leaving.  The trip passed quickly as Lizzie came down and we chatted until it was time to get ready to disembark. 

This is my second favourite photo

I don’t remember much of the journey home as I slept almost all the way!  All was good at home and the unpacking was done in record time.

23 days and 7 countries.  For me only Luxembourg was a new one, but for Richard it was four new countries.  I’ve been to Austria twice now but both times to the same place! I would like to see more of Austria (but that does mean another Go Box!) and also go back to Luxembourg and do the city properly and see a bit of the country itself.  Switzerland is definitely on the wish list to return to.  

Louise took this photo - I don’t often get photos of myself!

2026 sees us taking the ferry to Santander at the beginning of March and spending about four weeks in Portugal.  The rest of our 47 days will be in Spain and France.  We are only home for a few weeks before we go to Ireland to join another Wandering Bird group.  I’m sure we will do something else in the Autumn!

So until March 2026 have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!

238 miles

Total 2427 miles