Scale.

Thursday 1st October 2015.

Faubourg - D'Amiens Memorial, Arras. Thomas Kilpatrick, miner from New Cumnock, Scotland, carved in limestone along with nearly 40,000 others with no known grave.

Lochnagar Crater. Blown at 0728, Saturday 1st July 1916. One big hole in the ground. You can walk around it but it's too steep to go down into let alone get out again.
24 tons of HE placed under the German trenches. The explosion was heard in London.

Thiepval British and French Memorial to The Missing of The Somme.
Nearly 80,000 names carved in limestone.


Beaumont Hamel. Google it.

Left as it was.
You can walk through the trenches, albeit grassed over and at least 2' shallower than they were.
You can look across a piece of ground no more than two football pitches in size and probably less.
That piece of ground was no man's land and the German lines are easily visible.

You can walk around to them in a few minutes.

They blew their mine at Hawthorn Ridge at 0720 on Saturday 1st July 1916 because the divisional commander, a British MP wanted to be first. This is the mine explosion that was filmed by a film unit and frequently shown in documentaries.

The troops were required to go over the top at 0730.

Those 10 minutes allowed the Germans to clean the soil from their weapons, bring up reserves and accurately site machine guns so that when the first attack began the Newfoundland Regiment was decimated.
The second attack took place at 0845 but failed because there were too many bodies from the first to allow any meaningful progress under machine gun fire.

Further attacks were mounted throughout the day.
By day's end the Newfoundland Regiment numbered 86 men and no officers.

As you stand in the front line trench it's hard to describe how small it all is but straight ahead  the Germans lay in "Y-Ravine" which curves around to your lower right and ends at what now a cemetery called "Y-Ravine Cemetery."
Along the crest to your left is another cemetery called "Hawthorn Ridge Cemetery."
It is where the mine was detonated and was the Newfoundlanders objective on Saturday 1st of July 1916.

Hawthorn Ridge was taken by The Highland Regiment in November 1916.

 A Caribou looks out above the Newfoundlanders trenches and from his position you look directly along the Ridge through a beautifully manicured avenue of trees at Hawthorn Ridge Cemetery.

It took us less than five minutes to stroll from Hawthorn Ridge Cemetery to The Caribou.

Yesterday I was struck quite forcibly by the fact that the front moved over a mere 12kms between July 1st and Mid-November but this, this is something else.

The area between the lines is roped off as the Canadians are unsure if it has been completely cleared of munitions or of the fallen. And, yes, I know that The Newfoundland Regiment was not Canadian. They were Newfoundlanders. I learned that yesterday, too.

Sheila's Grandad joined The Newfoundland Regiment on active service on The Somme on 12th July 1916.
His brother, Percy, had been wounded with them at Gallipoli.

Foreground stakes marks front line trench. Red board in centre of frame marks German front line. On the left you can see the memorial to the Highland Regiment. That monument lies behind the German lines. Extreme right is the edge of "Y-Ravine Cemetery."

Taken from outside "Hawthorn Ridge Cemetery." Just off to my left is the Highland Regiment Memorial in the photo above. This position is the site of the objective for The Newfoundland Regiment on 1st July 1916.. In the exact centre of the frame is the Caribou which lies behind the forward three trenches that they occupied.