Somme Battlefields

Since it’s 2018 and near the centenary of the Australian Monash-led successes we looked for a guide. Our pick was Victor Piuk, because we found him on the web together with Tim Fischer. 

At 8.45 Vic met us at Arras station and accompanied us throughout  the area with extensive commentary until we reached the new Sir John Monash Centre , which has a self- guiding system for about an hour and half. At the end of the tour Vic took us to meet our 5.45 train at Longeau. Back in Paris at  7.00pm it was a long but worthwhile day, to get some slight acquaintance with the remaking of Europe (and setting it up for another war) as well as fashioning of Australia that occurred here 100 years ago. Some images of what the area is like now:

Inside the memorial to 72000 unknown dead at Thiepval

Contrasting left (French) and right  (British Empire) grave styles in military order. But Everyone gets a cross unless known not be Christian.

Thiepval monument

Surveying a battlefield 




W and Vic at theAustralian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux 

We also visited the Ulster Memorial with its copy of a Northern Irish tower, the Newfoundland memorial with a moose, and a German cemetery- we were told that Germans have not the same emphasis on memorial graves as the allies.

An image from my youth in the early 60s. At Clovelly parish church Pozières veterans gathered annually to sing O valiant hearts who to your glory came through dust of conflict and through battle flame: Tranquil you lie, your knightly virtue proved, Your memory hallowed in the land you loved. 

All you had hoped for, all you had, you gave, To save mankind—yourselves you scorned to save.