FIRST WORLD WAR - Somme
THE SOMME - BIRTH OF THE MODERN BRITISH ARMY
The Somme - the very name evokes stark images of pointless and horrific slaughter
at its very worst and is seen as the very epitome of lions being led by donkeys.
However, whilst the slaughter of British soldiers on 1 July 1916 is truly horrific
and is indeed the darkest day in British military history, that day should also
be viewed as the day that the modern British Army was born.
On this tour we will visit the sites where ordinary men performed extraordinary acts of valour and bravery against incredible odds. We will learn why the battle happened in the first instance and see where and why many of the attacks on that first terrible day of the battle failed with such horrific consequences. But we will also see where some attacks were actually successful and investigate the role of the British commanders throughout the battle.
We will also consider the part of the Germans in the Battle of the Somme and try to discover what it was like to be on the receiving end of the British offensive.
This tour is available as a six day or four day package. The four day package is the same as the six day in terms of content, however, time at certain locations is restricted to keep the tour within the four day time period.
Please contact us for departure dates.
Day One: UK - Albert
With stops en-route at historically significant points, the final stop will be on the Bapaume - Albert road to consider the German position in the spring of 1916 and their preparations for the impending British attack. Move into the hotel and an after dinner talk about the British plans for the ‘Big Push'.
Day Two: Gommmecourt, Beaumont Hamel and Newfoundland Park
After breakfast we move North to the British Third Army area of operations around Gommecourt. The British troops here were tasked to launch a large scale diversionary attack intended to draw German reinforcements away from the main effort further South. By the end of the first day, the British had lost almost 7000 casualties and it is not clear if a single German was actually diverted from the main attacks.
We also visit the first of the cemeteries at Gommecourt, Cemetery No2 and Rossignol Wood Cemetery that contain the remains of British and German troops killed throughout the Somme battle.
A major feature of the Somme Battlefield is the proliferation of cemeteries that were established all across the area during and after the war. These poignant islands of white marble on the rolling green and chalk slopes of this corner of France are a stark symbol of the human cost of the Somme and throughout the tour we will be learning about the stories of some of the men whose names are carved into the marble headstones.
In the afternoon we explore the area around Serre and Beaumont Hamel where 14000 British casualties, many from the ‘Pals Battalions', were suffered on the first day for no gain. We will visit the site of the Hawthorn mine and King Street trench where two of the most famous photographs of the First World War were taken.
We then move onto the famous Newfoundland Park with its haunting Caribou memorial on rocks above the ground where so many men from Newfoundland fell - 90% casualties in 30 minutes, most before they had even reached no-mans land.
The 'Y' Ravine where the descendants of the Defence of Rorke's Drift, the 2nd South Wales Borderers, assaulted impregnable German defences losing 400 out of 600 men, killed, wounded and missing in just minutes. The ground all around is still deeply marked by the scars of war.
Day Three: Thiepval
We start today with a visit to the relatively new Thiepval Visitor's Centre which has a very good orientation display using then and now photographs.
The morning will be spent looking at both the German and British positions around Thiepval including a visit to the Leipzig Redoubt that was captured by the Highland Light Infantry using tactics that surprise many who think of British soldiers on the Somme walking slowly towards murderous German machine guns.
However, despite this heroic success, stubborn German defenders still managed to inflict 9000 casualties on the attackers - mostly Irishmen and Scotsmen.
A visit to the Mill Road cemetery that has a rather unique feature when compared to other Commonwealth war cemeteries and the Lonsdale cemetery where Serjeant [sic] James Turbill is buried. He was awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously for the valour he displayed during the bitter fighting at the Leipzig Redoubt.
The Ulstermen have their own memorial in the form of the striking Ulster Tower and afterwards there will be an opportunity to see the fascinating work being undertaken by the Somme Association who have excavated trenches in Thiepval Wood. Walking in these trenches is literally to walk in the footsteps of heroes and one such hero was Rifleman Billy McFadzean of the Royal Irish Rifles who threw himself on to a box of grenades that had fallen into a trench dislodging a couple of the pins, in order to save his comrades - another posthumous Victoria Cross, and one that is today commemorated by marker crosses near where this tragic incident occurred.
The end of the day will find us at the evocative Thiepval Memorial that sits brooding over the battlefield below. This huge monument to the missing was the last and largest such monument unveiled on the Western Front with 72,116 names of missing British and Commonwealth soldiers listed.
Day Four: 'Sausage & Mash', Mametz, Montauban and Delville Wood
A day spent exploring the Southern sector of the battlefield beginning with Sausage and Mash - the deceptively harmless codenames given to the twin valleys that straddle the Albert - Bapaume road
and which were assaulted by the Regulars of the 8th Division and New Army volunteers, mostly
Irishmen from the Tyneside, of the 34th Division.
A feature of this part of the battlefield is the Lochnager Mine, one of several that were exploded at the start of the battle. The sign post to the mine says ‘La grande mine' so you get an idea of the size of the crater created by 60 000 Ibs of explosives!
The 34th Division Memorial, said to be located on the spot where Divisional HQ was located, provides some stunning views that demonstrates the brutally open ground over which the attack on 1st July 1916 was launched. The 34th Division suffered 80% casualties in less than 15 minutes.....
We will also visit the large cemetery at Ovillers that is located in what was No-Mans Land and where only 31% of the remains have been identified and then Fricourt where the men of the 10th West Yorkshire are buried. This Battalion is believed to have suffered the worst losses of any battalion on 1 July 1916 with 400 killed - many as they lie wounded and exposed to German gunfire with no hope of rescue.
The nearby German cemetery contains some 17 000 remains and provides a grim comparison to the British Cemeteries.
The area around Mametz saw the British achieve bloody ‘success'. The price of this success is no more graphically illustrated than at the Devonshire Trench cemetery that contains the remains of 150 British soldiers who were buried in the trench from which they launched their successful attack. The thought provoking inscription on the entrance to the cemetery states, "The Devonshires held this trench, the Devonshires hold it still".
Further success was achieved by XIII Corps at Montauban, albeit at a heavy cost in lives. This is where Captain Neville of the 8th East Surreys famously kicked off the advance of his company with one of four footballs.
The role of the French during the Battle of the Somme is often overlooked and we will visit the site where Colonel Fairfax of the 17th King's Regiment advanced arm in arm with the commander of the French unit on his right flank, Commandant Le Petit of the 153rd Regiment in the successful attack around the Glatz Redoubt. We shall explore why this attack succeeded when so many other attacks along the line failed.
We will finish the day off around Guillemont and Delville Wood where we'll explore the ground on the right flank of the British Line which protected the villages of Guillemont and Ginchy. The South African Brigade is best remembered for the ferocious fighting here and we'll look at how they fought, and why they suffered such a huge number of dead and wounded - only 768 out of the 3,433 men of the brigade made it through unscathed. As a comparison with trench warfare where the ratio of dead to wounded was 1 to 3, Delville Wood was 4 to 1.
Day Five: Albert
A chance to explore Albert and see one of the most famous icons for the British in the Great War - the Golden Virgin on top of the Basilica. The statue had been knocked off its perch by artillery fire but remained hanging at a ninety degree angle for over three years. A superstition grew up that the war would end only when the statue finally fell....
We will end the tour learning about what happened after the first terrible day of the Somme and its impact on the battles fought by the British Army in 1917 and 1918 before finally achieving the final victory on 11 November 1918 - a victory that set the stage for the Second World War.
Day Six: Albert - UK
6 DAY TOUR
Price - £990 per person
£1710 per couple sharing
4 DAY TOUR
Price - £689 per person
£1170 per couple sharing
The tour begins and finishes at Victoria Bus Station, London.
Spaces are limited to 12 so we would advise to enquire and book early to avoid missing out.
We fully comply with the provisions of the Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours Regulations 1992 (EEC Directive 90/314). In accordance with these regulations, all payments made to us, either as deposit or final settlement (including all credit card payments), are held in a separate trust account (HSBC Bank PLC, 76 Hanover Street, Edinburgh, EH2 1EL. Account Number: 93672638) and as such your payment cannot be released to us until the relevant Tour has taken place. This regulation guarantees a full refund of all monies paid in the most unlikely event of us failing to provide the Tour booked.