Friday 30th March 2007

Depart Dover for France on the morning of Friday 30th March 2007.
Arrive in Calais and then midday in Arras.

From Arras we take the N.17 south to Bapaume, turning westwards towards Albert on the old Roman road, the D.929. Our journey into Albert curiously in the opposing direction taken by the eleven divisions of British Fourth Army that took their axis of advance from Albert to Bapaume on the 1st of July 1916. Of those eleven divisions involved in the initial advance, seven of them, comprising of one hundred and twenty six thousand men, were to take part in a major battle for the first time as part of Kitchener's New Army.

We pass Warlencourt, le Sars and Pozieres, eventually arriving in Albert in late afternoon.

Staying in a hotel directly opposite Albert's Basilique Notre Dame de Brebieres, site of the famous 'Golden Virgin', we confront the symbol that during the Battle of the Somme would occupy the same mythic status as did the 'Angel of Mons' where the British Expeditionary Force first engaged the German Army for the first time in August 1914, over sixty miles away north-west of Albert.

Saturday 31st March 2007

We depart from Albert and take the D.929 heading eastwards towards the British front line prior to the 1st July 1916 situated immediately before the village of la Boisselle, in what was coined 'Sausage and Mash Valley'. Heading further eastwards we pass Pozieres Cemetery on a steady incline, which only becomes apparent when we stop to photograph the 'site' of what would have been the initial advance of the 34th Division across the now neatly farmed fields.

We gaze back westwards towards Albert with only the pinnacle of the Basilica visible on the horizon line.

Past Pozieres Cemetery we turn north on to the D.73 on a further incline towards Thiepval, serving only to illustrate the high ground occupied by the German Army on a series of Redoubts which faced the British Army in 1916.

Driving parallel to Mouquet Farm, marked by a small memorial to the Australian Imperial Force, Lutyens' Thiepval Memorial arises into view, to our left, amongst the woodlands surrounding.

From Thiepval, through Beaumont Hamel on to the D.50 arriving at Beaucourt, the site of the old station, on to Grandcourt via the D.151, arriving mid afternoon at Saint-Pierre-Divion and the southern bank of the River Ancre, approaching from the west on the D.4151. A marker board has been erected to Edmund Blunden who was here with the Royal Sussex Regiment during the course of the battle.

From Saint-Pierre-Divion we drive southwards on the D.50 towards Aveluy Wood, presenting a view of the wood remarkably similar to contemporary photographs of 1916, with only the road replacing a dirt track. At the far end of the wood stands Lancashire Dump Cemetery renamed Aveluy Wood Cemetery after the war and which behind it is situated the River Ancre.

Arriving back in Albert - early evening.

Sunday 1st April 2007

We depart Albert and head towards la Boisselle, the first village outside Albert on the D.929 and the site of the Lochnagar mine crater.

Then further westwards on the D.929, past Pozieres and then turn southwards on the D.6 towards High Wood and Delville Wood, via Bazentin - le Grand and Longueval, arriving at the site of the South African Memorial and Delville Wood Cemetery.

Throughout Delville Wood marker stones recall London and Edinburgh Street names indicating the origins of the men who fought there, marking the location of wooded tracks and communication trenches. The evidence of trenches quite clear in the wood itself, where extremely heavy fighting took place throughout July and August, with fighting for the wood ending officially on the 3rd September. Evidence of such heavy fighting is made clear in the adjacent cemetery containing over five thousand, five hundred headstones.

Then a return westwards towards Fricourt on the D.64 through Guillemont, past Trones Wood, Bernafay Wood, through Mametz arriving late afternoon in Fricourt and the site of the German Cemetery which holds over seventeen thousand German dead.

In the late afternoon light the contrasting black cruciform head stones stand sharply out from the slightly overgrown greenness of the grass and are a marked contrast to the white headstones witnessed earlier at Delville Wood Cemetery.

From Fricourt a last journey northwards on the D.147 and the British Cemetery at Pozieres sitting directly off the D.929 and on a decline facing northwards to Thiepval.

The cemetery holds over two thousand, five hundred headstones and its surrounding walls number over fourteen thousand names. It sits in the landscape as a solitary site, its classical proportions echoing both triumphal arch and the site of victory. A commemorative site commanding to be viewed from the surrounding roads on the decline south.

Then further north towards Foncquevillers, Gommecourt, Hebuterne and Sailly-au-Bois, via the D.929, via Courcelette, through Miraumont, Puisieux on the D.6 arriving at Hebuterne, the boundary line between the Third and Fourth British Armies positioned on the Somme. The landscape here remains orchard land as was described by those who were there in 1916 and so it remains to this day.

Final destination northwards to Arras via the D.3 - arriving early evening.

Friday 23rd November 2007

Depart Dover for Calais on the morning of the 23rd November.

Arrive in Amiens mid afternoon.

The city of Amiens is practically the capital of the British Army behind both the British and French lines, thirty kilometers from the front line. Siegfried Sassoon makes note of the Godbert Restaurant in its town centre, after dining there on the 7th July 1916, six days after the opening day of the battle.

It serves as both a clearing station and hospital for the casualties who arrive there after the first days of battle, with its barges moored in the town serving to hold the backlog of wounded. On our first evening you cannot fail to notice Amiens famous Gothic cathedral. We spend some time in an Irish Bar off the main square and then head back to the hotel before finally finding somewhere to eat in the early evening.

Saturday 24th November 2007: Amiens to the outskirts of Albert

We leave Amiens and head towards Albert and 'the Somme' on the D.929.  Almost immediately we pass through Querrieu, headquarters of the British Fourth Army in 1916.

As we approach Albert we circumnavigate its outskirts and head towards la Boisselle. Prior to entering la Boisselle we turn northwards on the D.20 heading towards Authuille and the River Ancre.

We pass through Authuille on the D.151.

The River Ancre adopts a greater significance than the battle's namesake as most of the British Army find itself stationed north of the River Somme and adopt the Ancre as its own. On a parallel timeline we are almost synonymous with the fighting that took place here in late October and November, ninety-one years earlier.

On passing through Authuille, adjacent to the banks of the Ancre, we turn on one of the immediate side roads and its southern bank is visible ahead of us. We are three kilometres from where we arrived on its southern bank at Saint-Pierre-Divion where we first hit the boggy soil of the Ancre back in March. The ground is immediately marshy as we hit it with footprint.

Further on we head towards Lonsdale Cemetery where one thousand, five hundred casualties from the 32nd Division are buried and as we walk along the track, we past the marker point indicating the British and German front line prior to the first day of battle.

As we ascend, the highest arch of the Thiepval Memorial comes into sharp focus and finally the arches at its base are revealed and a glimpse of its Great War Stone appears at its dead centre.

We continue along the D.151 and head north-west onto the D.73 and cross the Ancre nearly a kilometre north of Hamel. We stop to view the pools of the Ancre, they look tranquil but there is evidence of a communication trench where a gathering of hunters shoot sporadically for game.

We turn north-east onto the D.50 and arrive at Ancre British Cemetery, where over two thousand, five hundred casualties are buried many of them from both the Royal Dublin Fusiliers and the Royal Naval Division.

Late afternoon, we continue further on the D.50 and then turn further northwards on the D.4151 towards Beaumont Hamel and the Newfoundland Memorial Park; the undulating remains of the trenches are still very visible and the statue of the Caribou looks forwards, indicating the trajectory of attack taken by the Newfoundlanders on the 1st July 1916.

We head southwards towards Albert and then onto Amiens-arriving early evening.

Sunday 25th November 2007

We leave Amiens and head towards the German Cemetery at Fricourt. We enter the town from the outskirts of Albert on the D.938 turning onto the D.64. It is our second trip to the cemetery and one still cannot help but be moved by the inclusion and strangely ambiguous presence of Jewish headstones. The history of the German Jews and their contribution to the German war effort in disturbing opposition to the events that took place in Germany fifteen years later with the establishment of Nazi power in 1933.

From Fricourt Cemetery we head straight towards Bernafay Wood and enter the cemetery there on the D.64 where nearly a thousand casualties are buried from the 18th and 30th Divisions.

We head further along the D.64 and enter the strange pear-shaped wood known as Trones Wood, site of very heavy shelling from both British and German artillery as the wood exchanged hands during the course of the battle and much to the expense of the lives of infantrymen on both sides.

In late afternoon we head on towards our second visit to Delville Wood, I notice again the family photograph left against the headstone of a Lancashire Fusilier, first noticed on our last trip in March, it is still there, faded but still there.

As we strike very early evening we head back towards Longueval and turn northwards on to the D.107 to make our way back onto the D.929. Once on the D929 we are back on the trajectory of advance taken in the later stages of the battle and head towards Butte de Warlencourt. We ascend the Butte and view the trajectory of advance taken by the British Army from its viewing platform gazing down the old Roman Road, which is now the D.929.

As we head back down towards the D.929, to make our return journey back towards Amiens, we visit once again the cemetery at Pozieres, which sits immediately off the road; in the early evening light its classical arch dominates a rear skyline. We then head further westwards back towards Albert. The golden dome of the Basilica in Albert comes into view before we turn off at la Boisselle and visit for the second time the Lochnagar Crater.

Prior to the huge explosion witnessed here, coal-miners from both Northumberland and Durham laid underground heavy explosives in an attempt to dislodge the German defences on the first day of the battle.

Before we head back on the full return journey to Amiens we visit one last cemetery - Gordon Dump.

Gordon Dump commemorates nearly one thousand, seven hundred casualties following the fighting in the la Boisselle area. Unique to this cemetery is the one Indian casualty that is commemorated here.

Early evening and we head back towards Amiens.

Friday 2nd May 2008

Depart Dover for Calais on the morning of 2nd May.

Arrive in Hardecourt-aux-Bois late afternoon. The immediate vicinity of the village lies near the boundary line between the British Fourth Army and the French Sixth Army at Chem des Anglais; between Maricourt and Favier Woods.

Fighting takes place around Hardecourt-aux-Bois from the 8th July, as the British 30th and 18th Divisions attack north of the village with their objective being the capture of Maltz Horn trench and farm; in addition to Trones Wood and Montauban-de-Picardie.

30th & 18th Divisions are the sum total of men who teemed into the brigades of Kitcheners 'New Army' - volunteers from Manchester, Liverpool, Bedfordshire, Wiltshire, London, Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk, Kent, Surrey, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire & Northamptonshire.

Alongside the British Army, the French 39th Division attack the western slopes of Hardecourt Ridge, as well as the village itself. Fighting in the village takes place in the church catacombs as well as the tunnels joining the wells and cellars.

On our arrival in the village we locate Chavasse Farm where will be staying throughout the duration of this trip.

The small walls of each residential cottage is evidenced with the remains of the War:- shell casings, spent rifle cartridges...

Inside, the walls are adorned with trench maps and bayonets - French German and British.

Saturday 3rd May 2008

Following breakfast, our destination for the first part of the day is Dantzig Alley Cemetery, which lies east of the village of Mametz. At Dantzig Alley Cemetery lie the remains of Stephen's Great-great Uncle:

A.E. Curtis-G/1427, Private, 7th Bn, The Queen's, (Royal West Surrey Regiment).

His headstone tells us that he was in a 'service battalion', designated by the prefix 'G' before his service number, one of thousands who joined Kitchener's New Army in 1914, joining up in Guildford, Surrey in September 1914, finally destined to be one of the over nineteen thousand killed on the 1st July, aged 26.

On leaving Hardecourt-aux-Bois we head north towards the D.64 and enter the village of Montauban-de-Picardie, on its outskirts we pass a small memorial to the Liverpool and Manchester Pals.

1916: Prior to the Battle, Montauban-de-Picardie was the largest village in the Somme area. On the first day of battle, the capture of Montauban or 'Monty-Bong' as the British Army called it, fell to 30th Division, part of XIII Corps, with the French 39th Division attacking further to the right. The village fell at around midday and was the first village to fall into British hands.

Walking through Montauban, we pass a heat splintered green door with an engraved plaque above it, linking Montauban with Maidstone in Kent. Likely in recognition of those men of the Royal West Kent Regiment, who along with Stephen's Great-great Uncle, formed a further part of the 55th Brigade - Maidstone being a centre of recruitment for the Royal West Kent Regiment in 1914.

Leaving Montauban, we continue along the D.64, arriving eventually at Dantzig Alley Cemetery, the burial site of Stephen's Great-great Uncle.

In belonging to the Queen's Regiment, Royal West Surrey's, Stephen's Uncle took part in the fighting as part of 55th Brigade, 7th Battalion. Their objectives on the 1st July were largely achieved by the taking of communication trenches in the advance towards Montauban.

As we leave the cemetery we enter the very outskirts of Mametz village and turn northwards to what was termed by the British Army as 'Death Valley'; between Mametz, Quadrangle and Bottom Woods, in the Vallee St. Antonie.

As we ascend and descend through a series of lanes, Peter makes a decision on the location for tomorrow morning's photography.

On our progress north-westwards we begin to fatigue as a group and decide to cut our journey immediately southwards; adjacent to Mametz Wood. On ascending a very slight ridge we encounter the Memorial to the 38th Welsh Division, atop the memorial, a Welsh dragon stares ahead, imitating the line of attack taken ninety-two years earlier by the division it commemorates.

The Royal Welch Fusiliers held poet Siegfried Sassoon in their ranks, who took part in the battle for Mametz Wood in July 1916.

We turn back on ourselves to return back to Hardecourt-aux-Bois, passing through Montauban, in reverse order, eventually arriving in the village early evening.

Sunday 4th May 2008

We awake at 04:30 and drive out towards Death Valley adjacent to Mametz Wood repeating our tracks from yesterday afternoon. It is still dark and the morning light of dawn is still absent.

We park the van on a track to one side. A hazy light slowly allows us to seek out the woods ahead of us and the fields of rapeseed surrounding us.

We walk down a track, adjacent to Mametz Wood stopping intermittently to take allow Peter to take a photographic record.

Light finally allows colour to dominate, removing uncertain greys.

To the south-east, on a slight incline, Dantzig Alley Cemetery is revealed; identified to us by one of Sir Reginald Blomfield's crosses 'of sacrifice' on the far lip of the cemetery.

We continue on through a wooded track, overhanging branches deny us the light of a fully emerging dawn, which only becomes evident as we walk out into the open, almost on eye level terms with a slightly raised rapeseed field, fully yellow.

We return back to Hardecourt-aux- Bois and sleep until late morning.

Later that morning we split in to two groups. Sara and I commit to a further circular walk northwards, that takes us through Longueval, Guillemont and Delville Wood.

We head towards Trones Wood, passing the memorial to the 18th Division on the D.64 before turning immediately to our right. The wood itself changed hands throughout July witnessing terrible fighting before eventually falling into British hands.

Passing Trones Wood we turn immediately to our right on to the D.197, at which point there is a sense of 'expectancy' a feeling of 'imminent arrival' as I look and walk ahead, waiting for Bernafay Wood Cemetery to come into view. The 'Cross of Sacrifice' is framed by trees as we decline further forward and eventually the rest of the cemetery is revealed in the landscape.

This is the second visit to Bernafay Wood Cemetery and feelings of familiarity arise, as they do when we eventually reach Delville Wood Cemetery further on. We head towards Longueval, via Longueval Road Cemetery and Delville Wood appears on our right.

As I walk through Delville Wood Cemetery for the third time, I search for the headstone that shoulders the family photograph of the Lancashire Fusilier, first noticed on our trip in March 2007 and again, far more faded by the elements in November of the same year. It has now gone.

We head further on to Guillemont and pass the church; a Celtic cross commemorates men of the 16th Irish Division who took part in the fighting around Guillemont and Ginchy in September.

We turn on to the Guillemont-to-Montauban Road and enter Guillemont Road Cemetery. In the distance one can see Trones Wood and the rapeseed in the surrounding fields is an intense yellow, drawing the white headstones of the cemeteries into stark contrast.

The road to Hardecourt-aux-Bois is ahead of us on the left and we make our way back to the village.

Friday 17th October 2008

Depart Dover for Boulogne.

Arrive in Boulogne late morning.

In Boulogne one senses an autumnal but bright October light; one that is sharp and clear, balanced between the English Channel and the sky over Boulogne.

It is a 'light' that is unique to coastal towns, a merged hazy coastline-brightness in the summer months; shifting to a clearer colder grey-blue in the later stages of the year.

As we navigate the town, we are reminded of both the historical and geographical importance of Boulogne's proximity to the French coastline; marked by the brief glimpse we catch of the column commemorating Napoleon's gathering of La Grande Armee, at camp at Boulogne; in preparation for the never to take place invasion of Great Britain between 1803 and 1805. The column stands at fifty-three metres high, the tallest in France.

In 1914, a rest area for British troops was established at Terlincthun, on the northern outskirts of Boulogne; being one of three major city ports to receive the British Expeditionary Force disembarking the ports of southern England. Throughout the War it also housed hospitals, medical facilities and finally a cemetery where over three thousand men are buried.

During the Second World War, it suffered heavy bombing by the Royal Air Force following the invasion on the beach heads at Normandy in 1944, in an effort stop any German Naval activity following D-Day.

From Boulogne we head in an easterly direction towards the Somme battlefields and our second visit to Chavasse Farm and its cottages. On this trip we have the largest of the three cottages available; complete with a small library and a Lee-Enfield rifle hanging on small chains from the ceiling. As a bolt-action, magazine-fed, repeating rifle, it was the standard rifle for the British Army throughout World War One.

Saturday 18th October 2008

From the view offered from the cottage, we awake to a morning fog covering the fields immediately opposite, over a forty-five minute period the fog gradually clears and our view is transformed to a wider horizon beyond.

Prior to the trip Peter has pre-determined the photographs that he wishes to take. Our destination will be the valley referred to as 'Death Valley' by the British troops fighting in this area throughout the summer months of 1916. It is one of two 'Death Valleys' on the Somme, in our case it is an area running west of Mametz Wood, which we will approach from an easterly direction, down the D.64, for the second time this year.

Peter has also decided, in weight of our previous trips, that any successful photographs will be dependent on either a very early morning or late afternoon light. The open brightness afforded to the fields of the Somme removing the option of any other time of day. Therefore we plan to approach Mametz Wood late in the afternoon, returning on the approach we had already made earlier in May.

Our expectation of an autumnal October landscape has already been forced upon us, as we journey eastwards. We are witness to an instant and sharp contrast from the bright rapeseed fields of May, they are replaced by a limp and murky ochre of maze fields.

Mid-morning we head northwards towards Luytens' Thiepval Memorial, stopping on route at Adanac Military Cemetery; its name is a simple reversal of 'Canada' reflecting a third of Canadian burials within its cemetery walls. This is also reflected on the gate to the cemetery. Whilst unlocking the gate latch, allowing us access, an activity very familiar to us now on our fourth trip to the cemeteries on the Somme, one notices the Canadian Maple Leaf on the iron-gate.

Our attention is also drawn to those headstones commemorating men of the Tank Corps. The first we have seen. At Adanac Cemetery we are less than two miles from Flers- Courcelette, where forty-nine British tanks made their first attack on the Somme on the 15th September 1916.

We travel further northwards until we arrive at the D.4151. We continue westwards until we are at the junction with the D.73; we then turn south to the Thiepval Memorial.

Edwin Luytens' Memorial to the 'Missing' on the Somme was inaugurated in 1932, at 150ft high it stands as the largest British War Memorial in the world. It commemorates over seventy three thousand men who fell between July and 20th March 1918.

One can only comprehend the 'whole' from a distance. As one advances nearer you realises a subtle architectural maze as you view its external perimeter and its internal arches within. As you navigate memorial-wall-to memorial-wall over seventy three thousand men are listed in alphabetical order, representing each stage of the battle, throughout six months of fighting in the fields further north, south and eastwards.

At points it almost faintly echoes a Giovanni Piranesi etching, as you try to make sense of its structure, as arch eclipses arch, which further obscures the view of seeing all the names of the fallen in one huge vista, instead it is fragmentary and one is almost surrounded by the names of the fallen, emphasising the huge scale of the 'Missing' in the fields surrounding the memorial itself.

In its upper-reaches, memorial wreaths of stone heighten both a sense of triumphal arch and an appalling sense of absence. Its Great War Stone occupies dead-centre, exhorting us to remember the fallen for 'Evermore'. Finally we descend a series of stairs to the cemetery beyond, containing both British and French dead.

Of those commemorated, over ninety-percent fell between July and November 1916, representing fifty-percent of all fatalities from the 1916 battle, estimated at a one hundred and twenty five thousand dead. A rough draft of arithmetic tells us immediately that the men commemorated at Thiepval mark fifty percent of total casualties with no known grave.

As we approach late afternoon we make our way towards Death Valley and Mametz Wood. This area of the Somme has become increasingly familiar to us and a sense of recognition takes hold as we turn of the D.64 and follow the trail towards Mametz Wood.

As expected the rapeseed fields that surrounded us earlier in May are gone. The fields are bare and brown. Mametz Wood now stands out in bulky contrast maintaining a deep green in colour as the light gradually recedes.

Peter takes up position immediately left of the Wood as you face towards Bazentin-le-Petit. In May this was as far as we had walked into the Valley. For this trip we have decided to walk further on. Shortly afterwards we come to Flatiron Copse Cemetery situated immediately in front of both Bazentin-le-Petit and Grand Woods. As you face the cemetery it progresses on an incline in front of you. Designed by Herbert Baker it holds over eleven hundred men.

We then return back to Hardecourt-aux-Bois as the light fades completely.

Sunday 19th October 2008

As with the previous morning, fog obscures any view of the surrounding fields outside the cottage. Gradually it clears. We have decided to use a tour in Paul Reed's 'Walking the Somme', as an aid, choosing a tour tracing the movement of the 18th (Eastern) and 30th Divisions in the Montauban area.

This is a deliberate choice reflecting Stephen's Great-great Uncle's involvement in the battle as part of 7th Battalion, 55th Brigade, 18th(Eastern) Division.

We arrive in Carnoy. Its cemetery is famous for holding Captain Wilfred Percy Nevill, it was his platoon that signalled the advance with the kicking of footballs into no- mans- land prior to facing German machine guns.

Leaving Carnoy, we walk alongside the wooded track of Talus Boise for nearly an hour; turning onto a further open track that allows us access across an adjacent field towards the Carnoy craters. Before reaching them we are afforded an excellent view of Montauban.

As we stand at this point, we immediately realise that this is the most expansive view of the battlefield that we have had thus far. Montauban stands immediately ahead of us, to its right both Bernafay and Trones Woods are in view. Bernafay Wood clearer and deeper in colour, Trones Wood faded, but sill in view behind.

The wide horizon line ahead is in distinct contrast to the wooded shadow of Talus Boise that had accompanied us for the previous hour along its track. Our perceptual leap of the battlefield has provided us also with an equally expanding and increasingly proportionate sense of scale of the battle itself, which we can now measure in visual miles on the horizon line ahead of us.

We begin to understand the sheer space occupied by numerous British infantry divisions as we gaze ahead of us.

We further imagine both Mametz and Fricourt to the left of Montauban in the distance that sits just beyond our visual grasp.

On passing the Carnoy craters we then head into Montauban itself, walking to the edge of the village, we again pass the small memorial to the 'Pals' battalions that took part in the fighting for Montauban on the 1st July; commemorating men from both Manchester and Liverpool.

As we hit the middle of the day, we head for Bray-sur-Somme and the River Somme itself. For lunch we stop at Cappy. On making our way down to this the southern most part of the Somme battlefield, the surrounding landscape is not so densely interwoven with cemeteries as is the case further north of the river.

Late afternoon we again make our way into Death Valley and Mametz Wood, we walk further and further along the track, past Flatiron Copse Cemetery and head onwards until we are in between the two Bazentin Woods. At this point we have met the D.20 and Peter takes up a position for a photograph looking back down onto Death Valley.

We then head back along the track before the light begins to drop and our final evening in the cottage at Hardecourt-aux-Bois.

Monday 20th October 2008

Once we awake, we pack and then head for Boulogne and our journey back home.

Sunday 8th February 2009

Depart Folkestone for Calais.

Arrive in Calais late morning.

As we approach Calais via the Channel Tunnel and emerge into daylight, its neo- Flemish town hall comes into view on the Calais coast line. At its belfry it stands at seventy-five metres high. Work began on its construction in 1911, which was interrupted by the First World War; when it was damage during the conflict and its final construction was completed in 1925.

During the War, it was a major port delivering both men and arms into the Western Front. On the cessation of hostilities, following the Armistice, it witnessed serious disorder in 1919, whilst Allied soldiers awaited demobilisation after four years of war.

Twenty two years later, in 1940, Calais witnessed heavy fighting prior to the fall of France and the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force at Dunkirk. In supporting that retreat the 2nd Battalion of the Queen Victoria's Rifles held in check two German armoured divisions who would have certainly turned on the retreating British Expeditionary Force if not held in check. All riflemen were killed or taken prisoner during Calais' defence. A memorial to Queen Victoria's Rifles sits on its beach, twenty one miles from the English coastline.

We head towards the town-centre to find somewhere to lunch; on driving towards the centre one cannot escape the proliferation of post World War Two architecture, testament of Calais' near destruction during the Second World War.

On leaving Calais, we head again to the battlefield on the Somme. Our destination is the village of Longueval and the site of one of the fiercest areas of fighting throughout the course of the battle, Delville Wood.

Once in Longueval and on our arrival at the house, we discuss a story linking its inhabitants, during the Second World War to the French Resistance who were captured and then taken away; no doubt to their deaths.

The house is only a short distance from the cross-roads that link Longueval to the rest of the battlefield, its road signs stating ever increasingly familiar names to us, on this, our fifth trip to the battlefield and our first in 2009. There is snow on the ground and in the distant landscape ahead.

In the evening we watch the Imperial War Museum's 'The Battle of the Somme'. Filmed in a documentary style, throughout the course of the battle, Geoffrey Malins' images, filmed almost in parallel with the birth of cinema, provide us with what are now some of the most iconic images of the First World War: British soldiers marching on the roads of Picardy, staring back self -consciously into the camera whilst on the march, waving their caps, helmets, Lee-Enfield rifles and Lewis guns. Forced cheeriness expressed through toothless laughs and smiles.

The purpose of this trip is to try and capture an image of the 'full' moon; which is due to appear tomorrow night. We head out in the direction of the D.20 to scan the sky for evidence but unfortunately the cloud cover is quite heavy and we are unable to locate the moon in the sky above us.

A 'lunar-light' is however evident, as we are able to see the road ahead of us with little need of a torch or street lamp. The sky takes on an almost luminous deep Prussian blue in tone, before noticing a more complete darkness ahead of us.

Monday 9th February 2009

On traversing the battlefield in October 2008, we walked for a second time down 'Death Valley', immediately adjacent to Mametz Wood. On walking the length of the valley we finally emerged on to the D.20, where we were able to look back over the valley from the vantage point of the Bazentin Ridge.

Now in 2009, from Longueval, we set a course to walk the length of the D.20, taking us to our last reference point of October 2008; between Bazentin -le-Petit and Bazentin-le-Grand. Our walk from Longueval to the two Bazentin Woods will echo the course of the Battle of Bazentin Ridge nearly ninety three years earlier.

On course we pass a new memorial, dedicated in July 2002, to the 'pipers' of the Great War. In the context of the fighting that took place in Longueval and Delville Wood, it focus' immediate reference to the 9th (Scottish) Division, who would take part in the battle here in July 1916.

The Battle of Bazentin Ridge, July 1916.

14th July at 03:20 1916: A five minute artillery bombardment is unleashed against the German line followed five minutes later, at 03:35, by the first wave of British infantry of the 21stand 7th Divisions advancing towards Bazentin- le-Petit Wood and the village of the same name, an advance from the northern edge of Mametz Wood. Facing them were the 'Flatiron', 'Villa' and 'Circus' trenches.

Following this attack, the villages of Bazentin -le-Petit, Longueval and Trones Wood are captured.

14th July, two battalions of cavalry, the 20th Deccan Horse and the 7th Dragoon Guards from the Secunderbrand Brigade, 2nd Indian Cavalry Division; attack High wood. This is the first and last time that a cavalry charge takes place on the Western Front. The attack, a heroic but inevitably hopeless anachronism from a previous century fails to take the wood which finally falls into British hands on the 15th September.

On the 15th July fighting begins in Delville Wood a name that would become synonymous with the South African Brigade.

As we leave Longueval, we progress along the D.20. Snow is still on the ground and the sky ahead of us has taken on a milky, foggy light, an off white tone that is due to the cloud cover preventing a clearer and colder light breaking through. Our expectation of witnessing the 'full' moon later that night is diminished because of it.

As we progress along the D.20 we reach Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, the sight of snow here is strangely moving and incongruous to previous experiences of walking the Somme battlefield. One wonders whether those fighting in 1916 ever experienced snow between the months of July and November in 1916? It also a physical reminder of the sense of 'in perpetuity' sited at the entrance of all Commonwealth War Graves cemeteries. Regardless of the dates of the battle and other battles on the Western Front, they are now a permanent feature of the surrounding landscape and at that point the landscape then becomes part of the fabric of memory.

A further act and addition to the communal memory of the Great War was made on the 6th November 2004, when the body of an unidentified New Zealand Soldier was removed from Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, handed to the representatives of the people of New Zealand and interred into the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior in Wellington, New Zealand.

Sidney C. Hurst referred to the cemeteries of the Great War as 'The Silent Cities', in his 1929 illustrated guide to the Western Front. The metaphor of a Great War cemetery echoing a 'walled-in' community of the dead, welded into the surrounding landscape is reinforced further as Thistle Dump Cemetery comes into to view on our right, further down the D.20.

Its cemetery walls appear in dark linear outline, two of it sides in opposing direction to the equally dark troughs of the field beyond. It is in stark contrast to the maze and rape seed fields witnessed earlier in May 2007.

The dark February fields take on the appearance of a Flanders field further north.

Immediately outside Bazentin-le-Grand, marked by a rusting road sign, an iron cavalry embedded in a wooded copse takes our attention.

We head on to the two Bazentin Woods and arrive at where we ended our October walk at the end of Death Valley. Later that evening the cloud cover completely negates the opportunity of observing a 'full' moon; the surrounding sky still taking on an all encompassing luminous deep Prussian blue.

Tuesday 10th February 2009

We set out in the morning by van as the weather is wet, windy and very cold. We head north on the D.107 for High Wood, the scene of very heavy fighting throughout July, August and September with appalling casualties. We are denied access to it by a perimeter fence surrounding but we hope to return later in the year if access is possible. However we visit London Cemetery and Extension opposite where many of the dead fighting for High Wood are buried.

Outside the cemetery walls we notice a broken and heavy fragment of a Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone, it has no name inscribed and doesn't appear to be an act of vandalism but rather a replacement stone that has been disregarded but its appearance outside the cemetery walls remain unsettling.

Our journey continues back down the D.107 and a return on to the D.20. Along its length we are afforded a view of Pozieres Cemetery on the horizon line to our right. Its classical columns appear stick like and stretched out. At its height, in the distance, it sits just above the horizon line. It has the appearance of a classical ruin sitting in an ancient landscape.

Continuing along the D.20 we head for Dantzig Alley Cemetery turning south on the D.147, pass Fricourt and Mametz arriving at the cemetery on the D.64; where Stephen will be leaving a laminated photograph of his Great-great Uncle. As the photograph is placed against the headstone careful attention is applied to mount as much soil as possible at is base to prevent the wind from blowing it away.

We then head for Peronne where we have lunch and visit the Museum.

Very late that evening we head into Delville Wood, where Stephen attempts to take a recording of the wood itself.

Total silence.

In the darkness we are able to make out the broad mass of the South African Memorial, testament to the South African Brigade who endured heavy fighting, day and night, under the most appalling conditions from the 15th until the 20th July. The Wood itself falling first into British and then returning back to German hands with small pockets of fierce resistance maintaining the battle for the wood until its conclusion. No less than seven British divisions, the 2nd, 3rd, 7th, 9th, 14th 20th 24th including the 53rd Brigade of the 18th (Eastern) Division took part in the fighting before it finally fell into British hands on the 3rd September.

Wednesday 11th February 2009

Prior to driving to Calais and returning home, we visit the northern end of the battle and drive up to Serre , noticing a place to stay for a further trip. We then head for Calais and home.

Monday 13th July 2009

Depart Dover early afternoon

Arrive in Calais mid-afternoon.

Leaving Calais we head towards the 'Somme', arriving late afternoon at its southern most point, adjacent to the River Somme itself. As we turn in a northerly direction towards Hardecourt -aux-Bois the surrounding fields present a range of ochres-to- silky brown tones: barley, wheat and at almost head height, sweet corn in colour blocked squares.

The undulating slopes, the gradation of colour tones and the shifting, seasonal, patterns of light across the landscape become an increasing visual note accompanying the mile-after-mile of committed walking across the battlefield.

First-hand experiences of walking the landscape have turned into a series of embedded contrasts across the months of February, March, May, July, October and November.

We eventually arrive at the cottage in Hardecourt-aux-Bois in late afternoon.

That evening we head out to Dantzig Alley Cemetery via the D.64, through Montauban and in the direction of Mametz, to attempt to place a more permanent, laminate mounted photograph at the base of the headstone of Stephen's Great-great Uncle, Arthur Curtis, who fell on the 1st July, fighting in the 7th Battalion, 55th Brigade, 18th(Eastern) Division as it attacked the stretch of German trench known as the Dantzig Alley.

The ground at the base of his headstone is dry and it takes two or three attempts before Stephen is certain that it will stay in place. On leaving the cemetery I notice again the plaque commemorating the Royal Welch Fusiliers, an elongated rectangle of Portland stone embedded in the cemetery's red-brick wall. We then head back to the cottage and that evening we briefly join the inhabitants of the village in commemorating the eve of Bastille Day.

Tuesday 14th July 2009

Throughout our last three trips we have concentrated much of our walking west of Hardecourt-aux-Bois, towards Mametz and then onwards further north towards Bazentin. On this trip we decide to head immediately north in the direction of Guillemont, the site of bitter fighting during the final days of July 1916.

We leave Hardecourt-aux-Bois and begin walking in northerly direction towards Guillemont. The round-about- walk that we have planned should take us approximately four hours. As we walk the village church in Guillemont comes into view and then sinks slightly below the horizon line, its steeple sliding up and down at a ninety-degree angle against the horizon line.

We arrive at the outskirts of Guillemont at midday.

On the approach road to the village we notice a road sign commemorating Ernst Junger, author of 'The Storm of Steel' and German storm-troop officer, who fought in Guillemont, whilst serving as a Lieutenant in the 73rd Hanoverian Fusilier Regiment. We turn left towards the village church and another road sign commemorates the 16th (Irish) Division, who with the 20th Division captured Guillemont on the 3rd September. Further evidence of the 16th (Irish) Division's part in the battle for both Guillemont and Ginchy is commemorated in the memorial form of a Celtic-cross, adjacent to the village church.

We then turn eastwards towards Combles on the D.20; as we walk we come across a memorial to the 20th (Light) Division, battalions originating from Shropshire, Oxfordshire, Yorkshire and Liverpool.

We enter Combles, where we stop for lunch. Refreshed, we then head to its southern outskirts to visit the Guards' Cemetery. On approaching the cemetery, one is faced with a carpet of grass laid across a field that funnel's visitors to its walled enclosure, sitting slightly raised off the road.

We then turn in a southerly direction back towards Hardecourt-aux-Bois. Along a dirt-track as we head towards the D. 146 B we observe three very large harvesting vehicles at varying distances from each other in a field to our right. They churn the remains of the harvest creating vast dust clouds in their wake. Their huge hulks are silent in the distance.

That evening we visit the Thiepval Memorial; on arrival I make my way to the shiny black registry box, the sheer amount of red-coated Commonwealth War Graves Commission registers, crammed one on top of the other is a poignant reminder of the sheer number of the 'missing' commemorated on the Portland stone walls. I scan the registers and arrive at the sections covering surnames beginning with 'T'. I eventually find the entry for 'A.E. Turley' and direct myself towards 'Pier and Face 5A and 6C', listing those men who fought with the Worcestershire Regiment. I gaze half-way up and ahead of me is A.E.Turley, I immediately recall the pages of David P. Whithorn's 'Bringing Uncle Albert Home' , an intimate and detailed history of his uncle who fell on the 24th August 1916 whilst taking part in an attack on the Hindenburg Trench with the 3rd Worcestershire Regiment; which formed part of the German defensive network of trenches known as the Leipzig Salient.

Wednesday 15th July 2009

We head out again to the Thiepval Memorial and the German Cemetery at Fricourt, before moving onwards to our final destination for the day - Peronne. On route we pay a third visit to the Lochnager Crater outside la Boisselle. We circumnavigate its perimeter- edge, noticing at its deepest and most central point a 'bulls eye' of poppies, laid during recent commemorative events.

Although Peronne is not, strictly speaking, a part of the Somme battlefield, it is marked by history in the fact that it fell to the German Army in both 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War and in 1914, in the opening stages of the First World War. Gerald Gliddon notes in his 'Somme 1916, A Battlefield Companion' the efforts taken to restore its buildings to their original state after both conflicts.

Particular reference is made to a milliner's premises, which, built in 1792 was destroyed in 1870, only to rebuilt in 1873; destroyed again in 1916 to be finally rebuilt in 1924.

We stop for lunch opposite the remains of the town's medieval castle, which now houses the 'Historical de la Grande Guerre', before returning to Hardecourt-aux-Bois.

Thursday 16th July 2009

We leave Hardecourt-aux-Bois and head for Calais.