Day 2 was the 1st July, and so the anniversary of the first day of the Battle of the Somme in 1916. We were not to blessed with fine weather, it poured down solidly all day, and was quite cold. 

We were up early to be at Lochnagar Crater by a little after 7 in the morning. Lochnagar was one of the craters blown at 07:28 that morning, just before the assault. Every year the Friends of Lochnagar have a service at the crater edge. This year there were wreaths laid by friends and relatives of many individual soldiers, many of those there had come from far and wide. Amongst those commemorated were some young men only 14 years of age when they were killed!

As you can see from the photo, there were a lot of umbrellas, there were also a lot of teenage schoolchildren who stood there for an hour or so in the pouring rain, no hats or umbrellas, soaked through, but were not complaining. They also seemed to be touched by the whole scene.

After the service there were boxes of poppy ‘petals’ that everyone was invited to throw into the crater. The lump in the throat was back again.

Since past each wall and every common mark, Field path and wooden bridge, there once went by The flower of manhood, daring the huge dark, The famished cold, the roaring in the sky. They died in splendour, these who claimed no spark Of glory save the light in a friend’s eye.

The words above are the last verse of Edmund Blunden’s poem, “Flanders Now”, written when he had returned after his time in the war.  It has a poignancy that rings with the many memorials to all those who died with no known graves.

Because the ceremony took longer than anticipated we unfortunately had to forgo the trip to Serre, we had a coffee and tea appointment at Avril Williams tea rooms in Auchinvillers. We were cold and wet enough to need it. We would be back at Avril’s at lunchtime.

Edmund Blunden mentions Auchonvillers in his book, “Undertones of War.”  ‘Reorganized, the battalion was quickly sent back to the more obvious kind of war. My batman and a large number of his cronies used to spell the name of our new locality ‘Ocean Villas,’ but it appears on the map as Auchonvillers. In retrospect, I confess that we were lucky to take over trenches there, even though they faced some bases of red walls and decapitated trees, the outward signs of Beaumont Hamel.  Auchonvillers at that time was a good example of the miscellaneous, picturesque, pitiable, pleasing, appalling, woundingly intimate village ruin close to the line. As we go up to the new sector, we must pass through, and we will look about us.’

Our next stop was the Thiepval memorial, and again en-route we had a continuing commentary from Richard at the front of the bus, explaining the lie of the land, and the actions that were taking place there that day in July, 1916.

We arrived for a ceremony that would take place in the memorial. The wind and rain were very strong, making it very difficult for the padre delivering the service, and those carrying their group and unit flags.

Thiepval is a memorial to the more than 72,000 Allied soldiers who died on the Somme battlefield, with no known graves.

I have included a photo by Malcolm Cooper, a colleague at work who visited in rather more clement weather!

From Thiepval we went to Newfoundland Park, still in the pouring rain. Here there is a visitor centre and one of the four Moose statues to be found on memorials in the area. ‘Y’ Ravine and some preserved trenches can also be seen here.  Lunch was at Avril’s and this time there was an opportunity to see the trenches she is having preserved, as well as the Advanced Dressing Station that was in the well preserved cellar of the building.  If you visit and have a buffet lunch as we did, try her pate and also her gherkins.  Very good!

Montauban was next with a talk by Richard on the battles here on 1st July, in April, and then the attack in September employing tanks. Unfortunately the rain made the views limited, and the photos I’ll keep in the drawer. High Wood and Delville Wood don’t really show up as much on that kind of a photo. At the end of a wet but enjoyable day, back to the hotel in Arras, beers, good meal and another evening talk from Richard.