The War to End War

We spent a little over 24 hours in the region of Picardy for pretty much the sole purpose of visiting the battlefields of the 1916 Somme Offensive.

World War I is Josh's favourite war so he planned an extremely informative and respectfully sombre tour. While he studied it a few times at school, his interest in the Great War began with the 1990 computer game "Knights of the Sky" which looked a little something like this.

So we started the brilliant tour at the crash site of Manfred von Richthofen, a.k.a. the Red Baron. It was in this field (or one nearby) that the German ace with 80 official kills was fatally wounded.

A little history: For almost two years of the war, nothing the British or French had tried was able to break the stalemate of trench warfare. So in July 1916 they decided to try exactly the same thing but with more weapons and more men. Before the attack, artillery fired on the German trenches with the idea that afterwards the troops would simply walk across no-mans land and take the enemy positions. Unfortunately, due to inadequate number of guns, poor accuracy and over-reliance on shrapnel the German trenches remained largely intact.

As soon as the barrage stopped, the Germans knew to man the machine guns and fire. On the first day of the attack. The British had suffered 19,240 dead, 35,493 wounded, 2,152 missing and 585 prisoners for a total loss of 57,470. The battle is a great example of the 20th century's greatest affliction, that technology was always two paces ahead of humanity.

To get acquainted with the strategies, weapons and general life in the trenches we visited the Somme museum in Albert.

The critically acclaimed tour continued at Beaumont-Hamel. The site is a memorial to those who fought and died in the Newfoundland Regiment. Newly formed for the war, on 1 July 1916 the regiment lined up in the St. John's Road trench (pictured below) and at 8:45am marched towards the enemy. Due to confusion of orders, good positioning of German guns and carrying of 30kg of equipment, within 20 minutes most had been killed. Of the 780 men who went forward only about 110 survived unscathed, of whom only 68 were available for roll call the following day. 

The bronze statue of a bold caribou faces the enemy.

Another site on Josh's unforgettable tour was the town of Poziers. It was at this site where the Australians made their greatest contribution/sacrifice. Repeated and pointless attacks against one of the best defended positions in the area led to the Australians suffering more casualties in six weeks than in the eight months at Gallipoli.

At the highest point of the battleground is the Thiepval Memorial which lists the names of 72,191 missing British and South African soldiers. For the soldiers, there was an anxiety towards being killed by explosives or becoming lost in the dense mud. The idea of having no peaceful burial site or even a body to bury was just one of many psychological challenges faced.

This memorial is perhaps more bitter when you consider the wives, mothers, fathers and children who waited years only to lose hope and accept that missing of course meant killed.

Before the battle started, mines were set off under the German trenches. Engineers had tunnelled underneath to place explosives. The explosion of 27,000kg of ammonal at La Boiselle launched debris 1.2km into the air. That crater, seen below, is 91m across and 21m deep. Josh is the brown spot.

At the end of the day we concluded the insightful tour at the Fricourt German War Cemetery. The tragedy of WWI is that the soldiers were used as cannon fodder in order to improve the economic and imperial interests of their respective aristocracies. It is important to remember the losses on both sides as an equal part of that tragedy.

The next morning we rose early for the Anzac Day dawn service at Villers-Brettoneux. For those of you who don't know, the 25th April is the national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand. The service was a perfect way to conclude and reflect.

The last photo is from the Department of Veteran's Affairs as it better shows the size of the event. There were approximately 5,000 people at the service.