Today was on the tour bus and into it proper. The guide, Gary, he of impressive mo/burns (what did they used to call it, when the mo was attached to the sideburns? Stirrup sideburns?) is an encyclopaedia of knowledge on everything re war, in any era. As the bus ran over the rolling French countryside he literally just stood up the front, all day, with a story or three about every hillside, gully, creek, village and patch of trees. I will sit down at some point and try to explain where we went and what we saw, but even in one day it was so many dozens of things that it is hard to take it all in.
Being here does make it all very real though, in any book or doco or website it is just photos or maps or a few camera shots. Famous names of famous battle which you know, but which make no real sense as an actual place. Today at Beaumont Hamel, one of the few preserved sites, I stood in a British trench, surrounded by craters as deep as a man, made by the incoming artillery, and looked down from the ridge to the German lines.
From there I walked down the hill and stood where the Germans stood, looking back up, on the spot where the German gunners were firing on the advancing Allied troops. You can picture a machine gun sitting mounted in front of you, and looking through the sights at the figures of men appearing against the skyline out of the trenches above.
The story of that ridge is one of the great tragedies amongst many of the Somme, as it was where fresh and keen Canadian boys, all from the same area in Newfoundland and new to the war, massed keen and eager, ready to advance in the big offensive. On that day someone, unknown to history, mistook a white German signal flare for an Allied flare meant to indicate that the British assault had been successful and they should advance in support. The German flare in fact was calling in an artillery barrage on their position, just as they all leapt forward out of their trenches.
That story is only one of many though, the scheduled timeframe for many of the attacks on that day had the Allies taking certain positions within hours or at most a few days. Which seemed realistic, because being here you realise many of these famous battles are literally within sight of each other, from one gently rolling hill to the next. But in reality some of these battles started on 1 July and meant to be won by 4 July were not finished one way or the other until six or more months later.
The other sobering thing as you drive through all these quaint French villages and look at all the old brick buildings is you think, as you would in the UK or elsewhere 'hey, this place looks interesting, must be some ancient stuff here...' But in reality nothing here is older than 1918, because anything older than 100 years was wiped off the map. Every house, barn, church, shed, factory, and in many places even every tree, was gone by the end of the Great War.
I promise more interesting stuff sometime soon, for now it is 1am and apparently, suddenly, it is time for sleep. Stay tuned gentle viewers
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