And so on to the Somme - the very name of this rather small river fully redolent of the hopeless stalemate of the First World War and massive losses. Our variably trustworthy/untrustworthy GPS aid Daniel had us going to the wrong Bapaume before we bothered to check so we swung left to get ourselves to Albert instead. Here, the first sight was of the lustrous Virgin atop the Basilica in the centre of town. She was knocked from her precarious perch by German gunfire in early 1915 but amazingly did not fall then although she was destroyed by British shells when attacking occupied Albert in August 1918. The current shining version is a replica and visible for miles around. Again, there was almost too much to see and too many places to visit but we did attempt a representative sample. Firstly to the military cemetary at Ovillers near la Boiselle which is home to hundreds of graves of the Tyneside Irish and Middlesex Regiment soldiers many of whom died on 1st July as these 'Pals' walked up the hill into withering fire from the German forces. The terrain here is gently undulating farmland for maize and sugar beet but the dips and folds in the ground could hide troops while the crests provided good defences and sweeping fields of fire. The poorly trained troops of Kitchener's New Army stood little chance as they advanced up the hill to near certain death or wounding.
On then to Thiepval and the Ulster Tower which were in the thick of the Somme engagements from July to September. The fierce Ulstermen had made the most ground in the general advance in July and taken two lines of German defences before they had to retreat as they were unsupported on their flanks. The small cafe at the Tower is run by a lovely lady from Bangor, County Down called Phoebe who has been resident in the Tower for these last 8 years. She was splendidly welcoming. On the way in, there was a very sweet little girl called Victoria from NI sitting on the gate post who proudly showed us her drawing of the Tower. Piled by the cafe, was an assortment of shell cases and other ferrous items from the war for inspection/collection. We also took in Mametz Wood where the 38th Welsh had a hard time trying to take the wood from the south and across a fully exposed approach. That they succeeded at the second attempt was testament to their tenacity although they had attracted criticism for their first attack which was judged by some as not showing sufficient resolve(!) despite casualty figures in these actions of some 4000. There is an attractive memorial of a bright red Welsh Dragon facing the wood.
After this, it was time to find a home for the night. A neat and shaded camp site was signposted at Authuille, right on the British front line of 1916 and we happily parked the van there. We finally cooked the dormant reserve cassoulet of duck, sausage and white beans from the remnants of our depleted food store. We even finished just about all our boxed wines. Fortunately, we were approached by a British couple of caravanistas for advice on their failed electrical supply (which we were unable to resolve without the help of le patron) but Dave and Maureen from Glasgow proved to be generous hosts as we helped them deplete their opening stock of scotch and red wine. So, eventually, we stumbled back for our last night in EMU and felt no pain.
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