Today was about World War 1 for me. I have never been to any of the battlefield sites. For the first time I traveled through Northern France and the Thiepval region where a lot of the action during the Battle of the Somme in 1916 took place. I had about a 1.5 hour ride from Calais to Thiepval which featured a lot of rain, but after this the rain stayed away for the rest of the day. The Thiepval Memorial was my destination and it was easy to see from a long way off. It is a magnificent monument to the dead of WW1 who have no known grave. It is also a monument to a waste of life. While there I looked up the Irish regiments and spotted an "O'Loughlin, J" listed under the Dublin Fusiliers - I'm sure I am not alone in looking up family names on such a memorial. I also visited the Ulster Monument followed by the best part of the day in Beaumont-Hamel. Here I toured around a field dedicated to Canadians from Newfoundland who fought here in 1916 - I was struck by how close the front line with the Germans was. This evening I have ended up in Verdun and I have toured around the city centre of this historic location.
Some photos from today...
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| A wet start to the day in Dover. |
At the Thiepval Memorial...
Look closely - there is an "O'Loughlin, J" listed...
At the Ulster Memorial...
Real trenches...
These are the German trenches, the Bristish trenches are below the tree line - a few hundred metres away...
The view from my hotel room over the Meuse...
The huge memorial to the Battle in Verdun...
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