SirFozzalot

Just thought I would share a few pics from a very moving weekend visiting the WWI battlefields of the Somme in France.

Even saw Tissy's equivalent on the way down



Just a taster:

Lochnager crater





Ancre




Filthy scoob



Gueudecourt - Canadian/Newfoundland memorial


Thiepval - Memorial containing the names of over 70,000 soldiers who were never found!


Serre Road No. 2 cemetery - Over 7,000 soldiers buried here


Iron harvest! Shell found at the side of the road!



Unicorn cemetery - over 900 soldiers here


.....including my Great Uncle!


As I said, a very moving experience. I'm so glad I made the effort to visit. There are so many cemeteries dotted all over the region and this is just one relatively small area of the WWI battlefields.

frayz

iTrader: (7)

Ive been to alot of these too mate. A very humbling and worthwhile visit.

Words will never document or explain the feelings experienced at athese places but i think everyone should go there at least once.

Lest we forget

IN THE STICKS

I'm sure it was a very moving experiance for you mate, it's one of those things very high up on my to do list . These things must never be forgotten

Phil

I have to say not somewhere I would go I think it would be too much to take in

Those pictures tell a million stories

Jaybird-UK

Good pics

I've been to a few WWII sites around Europe but only one WWI site, Albert in France.

SirFozzalot

That's where we stayed.

bigmick

Been there a few time's myself steve when i was posted in germany,can bring a lump to the thoat very often

Nice photo's mate

Cornelius

iTrader: (2)

I've been watching about Auschwitz on UKTV History, terrible times
It makes you seriously think about perspective of those dark times.

On a lighter note:

My Nan was Ukrainian, and she was in a POW camp until it was liberated by the British army, there she met my Grandad and they got married after the war.

yellowvanman

Simon went to Ypres, Belgium with the school and found one of my relatives graves. have always thought it is something I should also do.

When working in Japan some years ago I did get visit the A-bomb memorial in Hiroshima, visited with a German (now one of my closest pals) and several Japanese, that really was a surreal experience

Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Dome

frayz

iTrader: (7)

Interesting link that Neil... worth a read

SirFozzalot

I was fortunate enough to visit Pearl Harbour when I was a kid. Another very moving experience, standing on the memorial over the USS Arizona.

yellowvanman

Wow, fascinating I never knew that existed.

spally

iTrader: (1)

never been myself, but defo want to. It must be a very humbling experience...maybe they should send the young tearaways somewhere like this, may buck their ideas up?!

frayz

iTrader: (7)

I wonder if the youngsters of today would even realise the significance of it all?

yellowvanman

You're beginning to sound old

Will be listening to R2 and Terry soon.

frayz

iTrader: (7)

Lol, you know what happened last time i spoke about wogan. I'll get infracted again lol

Looie

Over the last 10 yrs or so I have paid quite a few visits to Normandy, to the D-Day landing beaches area and visited a lot of memorial graveyards. The most impressionable of them was the USA one between Gold & Juno beaches - weird sensation of parking the car, hearing birds tweeting, other noises, etc, then once you go through the gate - it's just an erie silence.... no noises at all.....

Eventually found on my last visit the grave of one of my uncles who never made it back from the D-Day landings.. (with the help of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission I might add, otherwise I would probably still be looking for god knows how many years...).

I doubt anyone who hasn't had the family connections to these sorts of things will ever appreciate what our fathers/grandfathers went through to give us our freedom.... It's not something that most of the "younger" generation generally want to know about, or see, until they get a fair bit older...

Wherever you go they are all a humbling experience ...

I will never forget....

Supercue

iTrader: (1)

Fortunately my Grandfather was one of the lucky ones that made it back

However, if you ask any of my children they can all tell you about WW1 & WW2 and why we all attend Rememberance Sunday.

I do think its really important that those brave people are never ever forgotten

Gangsta Smurf

I visit the normandy beaches and military rememberance services for 1 week every year to pay my respects. It's something every person should do in order to fully appreciate the gift that we were all given by our ancestors. Visiting the war graves at Omaha is deeply moving.

Looie

Totally agree with you on this....

bibo_boy

My Sqn. (Essex Yeomanry), fought in the 2nd Battle of Ypres and also took part in the Normandy landings...

I was honoured to be choosen to say a reading at the Menin Gate a few years ago where the stop traffic every day at 8pm and player the last post. (everyday since the end of the WW1).

I've since taken all my family there so they can take in the scale of what actually happened...

I'm going back to Ypres in May with the Sqn. to unveil a memorial to the EY fallen.

"When you go home, tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow, we gave our today...."

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM!

WRX_Dazza

very moving pictures Fozz !!! - would love to do a trip like this, and i think ALL schools should force kids to see examples of hardship and sacrifices to bring it all home to them and realise how lucky they are now!!!

was particularly moved by the picture of your "dirty" scoob.

thx for sharing the pictures and experience with us all

see you soon

Dazza

f4iryprincess

Wow looking at those pictures brings back some memories, my nan and grandad have a house on the somme in France and spent all my school holidays over there as a kid, many of those places i went to 15 years ago, on our bike rides we'd come bak loaded up with shells just like the one in your picture and my grandad would dis-arm them and make them safe so we could bring them home, (when you could in those days). We have many a jars filled with shrapnel ***** and the noses of shells as paperweights. Haven't been there for many years now but you never forget the feelings you get when you go to one of the many cemetery's.

Tiny

frayz

iTrader: (7)

Could cry reading that...

robbroy

Ive done Thiepval twice, great grandfather was lost there... even found name on the monument, also done the canadian trench's
Keep meaning to do the d-day beaches, maybe this year, as it will be 65yrs..

ROB...

FLAT ERIC

iTrader: (1)

When my brother lived in Belgium we went to Ypres for the playing of the last post. A very moving & haunting sound & it seemed like the whole world stopped for those few moments.

We also went to the Tyne Cot cemetery just outside the village of Passchendaele ( Passendale), a few miles to the northeast of Ypres. It is the largest cemetery for Commonwealth forces in the world, for any war with nearly 12,000 buried there.







Mark

frayz

iTrader: (7)

Did the Tyne Cot when i was at school Mark... nothing prepares you for the endless white headstones that overwhelm you there.

When youre a teenager... it hits you double hard!

Baza1954

Very touching and humbling thing to do. A trip ever-body should do one day in their life.
We have done a few, Ypres being the last.
It still amazes me how we can still not have learned from those horrendous losses of that time that war is such a waste of life.

Am planning to go too Arham too the bridge this year.
It was where my farther managed to escape only by swimming the river.
Only found this out after his death as he near spoke about it only ever saying "lost to many good friends".

dynamix

iTrader: (3)

We did the Paschendale one - Tyne Cot over xmas/new year to remind ourselves why we dont speak perfect german on the way to the ring. Amazingly moving place and something that all should do IMO.