Serre and Sheffield Park It was here that many of the

Serre and Sheffield Park
It was here that many of the ‘Pals’ battalions from towns such as Accrington, Barnsley and Chorley went ‘over the top’ at 0730 hrs on Saturday 1st July 1916. You will have your own copy of the 1916 trench map and we will use these maps to explore the battlefield, as well as standing on the exact spot where so many of Kitcheners 'New Army' went 'over the top' on that fateful morning of Saturday 1st July 1916.

Newfoundland Park
This ‘park’ is in fact an area of front line left almost exactly as it was after the battle, with no attempt having been made to artificially reconstruct trenches etc. To stand in the very trenches of 1^st July 1916, and to then walk across the exposed killing fields of ‘No Man’s Land’, is a very moving experience indeed.

Nearby is the massive Hawthorn Ridge mine crater where, at ten minutes before zero hour on the first day of the Battle, more than eighteen tons of explosive was detonated beneath the German trenches, footage of which is so often seen on television.

Thiepval
Thiepval was the scene of particularly savage fighting as British troops battled throughout July, August and September of 1916 to take the ridge that dominated the battlefield. It was here that the 36th Ulster Division achieved such success on the opening day (but at a terrible cost). It was on this ridge that the massive Memorial to the Missing of the 1916 and 1917 battles was erected in 1932, which today bears the names of nearly 73,000 British and South African soldiers who have no known grave.

La Boisselle
Our visit to this part of the battlefield includes the tragic attack across ‘Mash Valley’, the attack on La Boisselle and Ovillers La Boisselle, as well as a visit to the huge ‘Lochnagar Crater’, the largest mine crater still to be found on the Western Front today.

Mametz Wood
The battles for Fricourt and Mametz saw varying degrees of success on 1st July, but once again at a terrible cost. Fricourt includes a visit to the Tambour Mine Craters and the famous ‘Devonshire Trench’ where the 8th Devons were cut down by machine gun fire as they left their trench at Mansel Copse. Many were buried in the trench they had left that fateful morning, the trench now being a small cemetery.

Delville Wood
Delville Wood became a cauldron of almost unimaginable suffering as South African, followed by British troops, met the German defenders head-on. The battle for the wood lasted from 15th July through to mid - September, as the battle raged one way then the other. The wood, and those who occupied it from both sides, were ground to fragments, a haunting fact which seems to permeate the wood today, which has been left as it was at the end of the battle.

Pozieres
(for picture see ‘Images of the Somme’ page - or click here)

It was here that over 22,000 Australian soldiers were lost in the taking and holding of this small village in July/August of 1916. Such was the intensity of the bombardment of the Australian ‘positions’ at Pozieres that hardly a single brick remained in tact at the end of the battle. The Windmill Memorial, which stood at the furthest edge of the village, was the seen of particularly bitter fighting. The Memorial simply says:

“This spot was the centre of the struggle in this area and was captured by Australian troops who fell more thickly on this ridge than on any other battlefield of the war”