Somme Cemeteries and Views of the Battlefields - Oct 2012, Part 1

Another few days on the Somme at the end of October. Managed to get in a lot of walking and the next few posts will just be some of the views of the battlefields and cemeteries we visited i.e just holiday pics really! I guess you will have to know a little about the Somme for the place names etc to mean anything to you.

Arriving on Sun lunch time, for the first day we parked up on Hawthorn Ridge and walked up to Serre and back before rounding the day off in the Ancre Cemetery.

Above: French National Cemetery (top image) and Serre Road No 1 British Cemetery. A French Memorial Chapel can be seen in the background of the bottom image. The French Cemetery was actually started by British teams clearing the battlefields after the War, who found French bodies dating from the 1915 battles. It was not until 1933 it was  officially handed over to the French.  

Above - top image shows Queens Cemetery  (you may just be able to see out Luke Copse Cemetery in the background). The woodland in the background is the location of four Copses named by the British as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, which are now all joined together to form the single strip of woodland that can be seen. The image is taken from approx the front German lines.

Bottom image is the Cross of Sacrifice in Serre Road No 3 cemetery. 

Above set of images are of the Redan Ridge. Top image shows Redan Ridge (image taken from Hawthorn Ridge). The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Memorial can be seen. In the second image the memorial can again be seen, the subsidence in the foreground perhaps a collapsing dugout or tunnel from the War? Next two images down  show Redan Ridge No 1 Cemetery - note the unexploded shell by the Crucifix in the second image! Bottom image shows Redan Ridge No 2 Cemetery. 

Above: last set of images shows the Ancre British Cemetery - the light was beginning to go when we arrived here. In the bottom image the Cross of sacrifice in the cemetery can be seen in the foreground while up on the high ridge in the background is the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing; the image was taken from No Mans Land, the ground crossed on three major attacks in 1916 - 1st July, 3rd Sept and 13 Nov. The German front lines were not captured in this area until the Nov attack by the 63rd (Royal Naval) Division.