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IMAGES OF THE
SOMME BATTLEFIELD
(All places shown here form part of both conducted and Self-Drive itineraries)

Click here for personal accounts from those who took part in the initial attack.

Newfoundland Park - The Somme.
Newfoundland Park is an area of the 1916 Front Line that has been left pretty much as it was at the end of the battle.
As you can see from the above picture, the ground still shows the line of the old trenches and shell craters. A recently opened visitor centre commemorates those soldiers from the Royal Newfoundland Regiment who lost their lives here on 1st July 1916.
We visit Newfoundland park as part of both conducted tours.

L/Cpl W Briggs aged 19 (Accrington Pals) Killed in action on the morning of 1st July at Serre.

Pte A S Edwards (Accrington Pals) Wounded in the face at Serre 1st July 1916. Later gassed but survived war. Died 1965 aged 73.

Cpl E Whittaker aged 32. Wounded on 1st July at Serre. Killed in action on 27 March 1918.
His body was never found.

Serre Road No.1 Cemetery - The Somme

Harry Hardman (27) and William Clarkson (18) (Chorley 'Pals'). Joined together. Both killed in action on the morning of 1st July at Serre.

Harry Cecil Bloor


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Cpl William Hill


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Fricourt German Cemetery - The Somme

The huge mine crater at La Boisselle.

The Ancre Valley (near Thiepval) after the battle.

Pozieres 'then and now'. It was here that over 22,000 Australian soldiers were lost in the taking and holding of this small village in July/August of 1916.
Such was the intensity of the bombardment of the Australian 'positions' at Pozieres that hardly a single brick remained in tact at the end of the battle.  The shell holes (bottom left) were the final resting place for over 8,000 soldiers, a sinister fact that can so easily escape the casual visitor to the battlefield today as traffic whizzes through this village en-route to wherever.

The Windmill Memorial (below) which stood at the furthest edge of the village was the seen of particularly bitter fighting. The Memorial simply says:

"This spot was the centre of the struggle in this area and was captured by Australian troops who fell more thickly on this ridge than on any other battlefield of the war"