WW1 Somme Battlefield - Thiepval, Beaumont Hamel - Day trip from Paris (3/7 pax)

Impressives sites such as the huge mine crater in « La Boisselle » detonated by the british tunneling companies in July 01th 1916.

The Lochnagar Crater was created by a large mine placed beneath the German front lines on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, it was one of 19 mines that were placed beneath the German lines from the British section of the Somme front, to assist the infantry advance at the start of the battle.

The British named the mine after ‘Lochnagar Street’, a British trench where the Tunnelling Companies of the Royal Engineers dug a shaft down about 90 feet deep into the chalk; then excavated some 300 yards towards the German lines to place 60,000 lbs (27 tons) of ammonal explosive in two large adjacent underground chambers 60 feet apart. Its aim was to destroy a formidable strongpoint called « Schwaben Höhe » in the German front line, south of the village of La Boisselle in the Somme département.

You will pay your respects to the « Memorial of the Missing » in Thiepval, unveiled by the Prince of Wales in 1932 and the French State Président Mr Albert Lebrun . This massive british war monument commemorates more than 72000 soldiers from the UK and Commonwealth countries which where all reporting missing during the battle of the Somme 1916 and have no graves known.

Maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the memorial reminds visitors that the Battle of the Somme was one of the most deadly of the Great War, incurring 1,200,000 casualties from 1 July to 18 November 1916. Each year, hundreds of thousands of visitors (of which a great number are British) come to the memorial in remembrance of the fallen.

At the entrance a large animated map, enriched with period photographs and film, shows the impact that the battles of the First World War had on the Somme.

The gallery devoted to the Battle of the Somme opens onto a panoramic mural by illustrator Joe Sacco; it depicts the harrowing day of 1 July 1916, hour after hour. Reproduced onto 60 metres of back-lit glass, it provides a panoramic view of the battlefield, a graphic narrative of military operations.

In the centre of the hall, a vast display pit covered by glass presents collection pieces and archaeological remains of the war. Short videos provide complementary information about the mural: commentary on the scenes presented, historical information, archive footage, and educational animations.

At the end of the hall, a Maxim machine gun captured by a British regiment at Thiepval reminds visitors of how heavily the Germans defended this location: Thiepval ridge was an Allied objective of the 1 July 1916; it was not taken until the end of September.

Opposing the multitude of Missing, the exhibition examines the creation of great heroic figures. This large hall presents a life-size replica of the aeroplane belonging to Georges Guynemer and portraits of First World War aviators.

From 1916, the role of aviation in war had affirmed itself, encouraging the advent of great heroic figures. Individual heroes, like the “Knights of the Sky”, emerged in the face of the continuing death of the masses.

The Ulster Memorial Tower stands on what was the German front line during the Battle of the Somme, July to November 1916. It was erected on the site of the Schwaben Redoubt, a strongly fortified position, which the Ulster Division eventually captured from the enemy. It is opposite Thiepval Wood from where the 36th (Ulster) Division made its historic charge on the 1st July 1916, and is in close proximity to the village of Thiepval.

Following, the guide is now taking you to visit the Newfoundland Memorial Park in Beaumont Hamel. Over there, quite a large portion of the battleground has been preserved and so while walking through the network of the now-serene originals trenches you will see the scars of the battle which still remain on the ground.

The Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial is a memorial site in France dedicated to the commemoration of Dominion of Newfoundland forces members who were killed during World War I. The 74-acre preserved battlefield park encompasses the grounds over which the Newfoundland Regiment made their unsuccessful attack on 1 July 1916 during the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

On 1 July 1916 at 8:45 a.m. the Newfoundland Regiment and 1st Battalion of the Essex Regiment received orders to move forward. Of the 780 men who went forward only about 110 survived unscathed, of whom only 68 were available for roll call the following day.