Most off-the-shelf guides, though excellent reference books, have a little to say about a lot of places on the Somme battlefield. This usually means that you have to read the whole guide in order to determine how to spend your limited time, and then have only fairly scant details of the places selected. Most off-the-shelf books also lack detailed maps and plans, certainly to the extent supplied by Somme Battlefield Tours Ltd. We turn things on their head by telling you a lot more about eight key areas which go to make up the Somme battlefield. The itinerary takes one to three days to complete, depending on how long you have to explore the areas described.

The Self-Drive guide produced by Somme Battlefield Tours Ltd comprises two parts. The first part is used to navigate yourself around the battlefield. The second part is divided in to eight main sections, covering the most poignant and significant parts of the Somme battlefield. Sample pages of the guide can be seen by clicking here. 

Part I
This part of the guide is used in conjunction with the guide map to navigate around the battlefield. It also includes comment on matters of interest one passes en-route to the eight main sites listed in the second part of the guide. It is written in 'clear English', such as when to turn left/right etc at junctions.

Part II
This is the heart of the guide. It is divided up in to eight main sections (below), together with an introductory overview.  Each section starts with an overview map, usually comprising a modern day large scale map (similar to the OS 25,000 series) together with a colour copy of the relevant 1916 military trench map (original). Significant features of both maps are then cross-referenced, thus making a 'then and now' comparison quite easy. This part of the guide is essential, as anyone not armed with such maps will find great difficulty in converting what appears to be just another part of rural France back in their mind's eye to how the terrain looked in 1916.  Some of the sections are also supported by panoramic photographs which, in conjunction with the supportive narrative, tell you exactly where to position yourself so that the panorama in front of you all falls in to place. Sample pages of the guide can be seen by clicking here.

The eight main sections cover the following areas:

Section A  (Serre and Sheffield Park)
It was here that many of the 'Pals' battalions from towns such as Accrington, Barnsley and Chorley went 'over the top' at 0730 hrs on Saturday 1st July 1916.

Section B  (Newfoundland Park)
This 'park' is in fact an area of front line left almost exactly as it was after the battle, with no attempt having been made to artificially reconstruct trenches etc.  To stand in the very trenches of 1^st July 1916, and to then walk across the exposed killing fields of 'No Man's Land', is a very moving experience indeed.

Nearby is the massive Hawthorn Ridge mine crater where, at ten minutes before zero hour on the first day of the Battle, more than eighteen tons of explosive was detonated beneath the German trenches, footage of which is so often seen on television.

Section C  (Thiepval)
Thiepval was the scene of particularly savage fighting as British troops battled throughout July, August and September of 1916 to take the ridge that dominated the battlefield. It was here that the 36th Ulster Division achieved such success on the opening day (but at a terrible cost). It was on this ridge that the massive Memorial to the Missing of the 1916 and 1917 battles was erected in 1932,  which today bears the names of nearly 73,000 British and South African soldiers who have no known grave.

Section D  (La Boisselle)
This section includes the tragic attack across 'Mash Valley', the attack on La Boisselle and Ovillers La Boisselle, as well as a visit to the huge 'Lochnagar Crater', the largest mine crater still to be found on the Western Front today.

Section E  (Fricourt)
Section F  (Mametz Wood)
The battles for Fricourt and Mametz  saw varying degrees of success on 1st July, but once again at a terrible cost. Fricourt includes a visit to the Tambour Mine Craters and the famous 'Devonshire Trench' where the 8th Devons were cut down by machine gun fire as they left their trench at Mansel Copse. Many were buried in the trench they had left that fateful morning, the trench now being a small cemetery.

Section G  (Delville Wood)
Delville Wood became a cauldron of almost unimaginable suffering as South African, followed by British troops, met the German defenders head-on. The battle for the wood lasted from 15th July through to mid - September, as the battle raged one way then the other. The wood, and those who occupied it from both sides, were ground to fragments, a haunting fact which seems to permeate the wood today, which has been left as it was at the end of the battle.

Section H  (Pozieres) (for picture see 'Images of the Somme' page - or click here)
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 Windmill Memorial, which stood at the furthest edge of the village, was the seen of particularly bitter fighting. The Memorial simply says:

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