Paris Digest
Paris city guide since 1997
The Somme Battlefields in France are moving testimonies of the sacrifice of Commonwealth heroes in 1916. In months, the Battle of the Somme killed 350,000 soldiers form the United Kingdom, 465,000 from Germany, 204,000 from France, 24,000 from Canada, 23,000 from Australia, 3,000 from South Africa, 7,400 from New-Zealand. Famous places in France.
As the main Allied attack on the Western Front during 1916, the Battle of the Somme is famous chiefly on account of the loss of 58,000 British troops (20 000 killed) on July 1st 1916, the first day of the battle. The attack was launched upon a 30 kilometer front, from north of the Somme river between Arras and Albert, and ran from 1 July until 18 November.
The deadly Verdun battle started on February 21st 1916 and was still going on during the Somme battle. A disastrous year for young men from many countries around the world.
2016 marked the centenary of World War One Somme Battle.
Somme Battlefields are 120km from Paris by A1 (locate Somme Battlefields on Somme map). You can go to Somme Battlefields from Paris on your own in a day. If you can, stay overnight near Somme Battlefields to visit more sights.
If you have just one day, go on a Somme Battlefields guided tour as this will simple and informative. Information.
The Somme Battlefields main sights are the memorials of Beaumont Hamel, Thiepval and Villers Bretonneux (1918 Picardy Battle in same area), the Somme Trench Museum (Albert), the Great War Museum (Peronne).
Stay overnight in Albert (picture), a lovely city very close to the Somme Battlefields and, as such, totally destroyed in 1918.
Visit the great city of Amiens near-by with its famous cathedral (picture) and the lovely Somme river valley.
Pozieres. Web site
Lochnagar crater (La Boisselle). Web site
Beaumont Hamel Newfoundland Memorial. Web site
Ulster Tower. Web site
Delville Wood (South Africa). Web site
Villers Bretonneux Franco Australian Museum. Web site
Somme Trench Museum, Albert. Web site
Museum of the Great War, Peronne. Web site
Thiepval Memorial - Thiepval. Web site
"Somme, the whole history of the world cannot contain a more ghastly word", said Friedrich Steinbrecher, a German officer. Day after day, lines of advancing soldiers were cut down by machine-gun fire, the shriek and thud of hundreds of thousands of artillery shells shattered the air.
The United Kingdom had 350,000 casualties, Germany 465,000, France 204,000, Canada 24,000, Australia 23,000, South Africa 3,000, New-Zealand 7,400.
