SOMME

For many, it evokes images of a gloomy, rain-soaked landscape, foul bogs and putrid marshland - mud - craters - broken trees - corpses - 1916. This is, of course, far removed from the Somme Valley of today; a pleasant rural canvas, criss-crossed with meandering country roads that dip and roll between secluded villages, hamlets and farmhouses, low ridges and shallow valleys, interspersed with copses, small woods and chalk quarries.

 

The Thiepval Memorial to the Missing is symbolic of the British and Commonwealth sacrifice on the Somme with over 72,000 names etched on its walls. The 51st Highland Division Memorial can be found beside the preserved battlefield at Beaumont-Hamel. For those who wish to venture somewhere more secluded and off the beaten track, try the atmospheric Mametz Wood where the fiery red dragon that is the 38th (Welsh) Division Memorial (main picture) stands guard over the fallen of 1916.