WW1 WW1 British and Canadians soldiers in the Somme 1916 (Small Group 2/7 pax)

In the morning the driver guide will pick you up at 06:25 am at the following adress : LIDO DE PARIS 116 Av. des Champs-Élysées, 75008 Paris (Easy to access by metro Line 1 and to get off at Metro station « George V »)

The tragedy of the Somme in 1916, even nowadays is remembered by all commonwealth countries as the bloodiest battle ever. At the end of the fisrt day (1st July 1916) of the attack, casualties  went up to 56,000 and among them at least 19,000 commonwealth countries'soldiers got killed. By the end of the offensive in November 1916, more than 1 million soldiers would have been wounded, captured or killed. Come and join us for a day of remembrance and discover this large and very flat areas of farming lands. War cemeteries are standing everywhere in the fields and forever will testimony of the violence and bloody battles of the Great War. To start your trip, you will be pickup by the driver guide in central Paris near « Place de la Concorde » at 06H40 in the morning aboard a comfortable minivan. Leaving Paris, we are now heading north towards the county of Somme wich is Located at only 1h40mn drive away from the french capital. This tour wil give you the opportunity to see the front line of the 2nd battle of the Somme 1916 (July to November) fought by british troops.

Impressives sites such as the huge mine crater in « La Boisselle » detonated by the british tunneling companies in July 01th 1916. The Lochnagar Crater was created by a large mine placed beneath the German front lines on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, it was one of 19 mines that were placed beneath the German lines from the British section of the Somme front, to assist the infantry advance at the start of the battle. The British named the mine after ‘Lochnagar Street’, a British trench where the Tunnelling Companies of the Royal Engineers dug a shaft down about 90 feet deep into the chalk; then excavated some 300 yards towards the German lines to place 60,000 lbs (27 tons) of ammonal explosive in two large adjacent underground chambers 60 feet apart. Its aim was to destroy a formidable strongpoint called « Schwaben Höhe » in the German front line, south of the village of La Boisselle in the Somme département.

Then you will pay your respects to the « Memorial of the Missing » in Thiepval, unveiled by the Prince of Wales in 1932 and the French State Président Mr Albert Lebrun . This massive british war monument commemorates more than 72000 soldiers from the UK and Commonwealth countries which where all reporting missing during the battle of the Somme 1916 and have no graves known. Maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the memorial reminds visitors that the Battle of the Somme was one of the most deadly of the Great War, incurring 1,200,000 casualties from 1 July to 18 November 1916. Each year, hundreds of thousands of visitors (of which a great number are British) come to the memorial in remembrance of the fallen.

At the entrance a large animated map, enriched with period photographs and film, shows the impact that the battles of the First World War had on the Somme. The gallery devoted to the Battle of the Somme opens onto a panoramic mural by illustrator Joe Sacco; it depicts the harrowing day of 1 July 1916, hour after hour. Reproduced onto 60 metres of back-lit glass, it provides a panoramic view of the battlefield, a graphic narrative of military operations. In the centre of the hall, a vast display pit covered by glass presents collection pieces and archaeological remains of the war. Short videos provide complementary information about the mural: commentary on the scenes presented, historical information, archive footage, and educational animations. At the end of the hall, a Maxim machine gun captured by a British regiment at Thiepval reminds visitors of how heavily the Germans defended this location: Thiepval ridge was an Allied objective of the 1 July 1916; it was not taken until the end of September. Opposing the multitude of Missing, the exhibition examines the creation of great heroic figures. This large hall presents a life-size replica of the aeroplane belonging to Georges Guynemer and portraits of First World War aviators. From 1916, the role of aviation in war had affirmed itself, encouraging the advent of great heroic figures. Individual heroes, like the “Knights of the Sky”, emerged in the face of the continuing death of the masses.

Since 1914, the area of Thiepval was fortified by the German army. On July 1, 1916, at 7:30 a.m., soldiers of the 36th British Division stormed enemy positions and encountered persistent resistance. The British nevertheless succeeded in seizing the «Redoubt of the Swabians», a key position of the German army. The 36th Division was taken under the cross fire of British artillery and German machine guns of the second German line, which forced it to withdraw with losses exceeding 5,000 (killed, missing, wounded or taken prisoner), or a quarter of the workforce. It was not until 26 September 1916 that the German positions were taken by the 18th British Division. Situated on the site of the former German trenches, the cemetery of the Mill Road has a particular physiognomy: the 260 original tombs are materialized by steles lying on the ground. They are arranged in this way because movements of ground in front of the cross of sacrifice gave fear of instability and the fall of steles erected vertically as in other cemeteries. 1,304 British soldiers are buried in this cemetery, 815 of whom could not be identified

The Ulster Memorial Tower stands on what was the German front line during the Battle of the Somme, July to November 1916. It was erected on the site of the Schwaben Redoubt, a strongly fortified position, which the Ulster Division eventually captured from the enemy. It is opposite Thiepval Wood from where the 36th (Ulster) Division made its historic charge on the 1st July 1916, and is in close proximity to the village of Thiepval.

Following, the guide is now taking you to visit the Newfoundland Memorial Park in Beaumont Hamel. Over there, quite a large portion of the battleground has been preserved and so while walking through the network of the now-serene originals trenches you will see the scars of the battle which still remain on the ground. The Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial is a memorial site in France dedicated to the commemoration of Dominion of Newfoundland forces members who were killed during World War I. The 74-acre preserved battlefield park encompasses the grounds over which the Newfoundland Regiment made their unsuccessful attack on 1 July 1916 during the first day of the Battle of the Somme. On 1 July 1916 at 8:45 a.m. the Newfoundland Regiment and 1st Battalion of the Essex Regiment received orders to move forward. Of the 780 men who went forward only about 110 survived unscathed, of whom only 68 were available for roll call the following day.

In the afternoon, you will discover the town of Albert where we will take a break for lunch in a local restaurant or you will just decides by yourself of your own choices of meals (own expense).

The SOMME 1916 museum in Albert houses in an ancient medieval tunnel (13th century) that crosses the city center an impressive collection of uniforms and weapons of the First World War. You will discover new scenes with soldiers (dummies) reconstructing the lives of soldiers in their trenches and also a new collection of badges of military regiments. It is now possible to download an app (free of charge) on your phone in order to discover more details about the museum..

During the return drive to Paris you will have time to relax aboard the minivan before to be dropped off in Central Paris (Drop off in front of "THE LIDO DE PARIS 116 Av. des Champs-Élysées, 75008 Paris" in the evening between 06:00 pm till 07:00 pm). Easy there to catch a taxi cab either to find metro stations (Ligne 1 Métro : George V)