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Tag Archives: Somme

13
Nov 2021

Fromelles Military Cemetery

Fromelles and Rue Petillon Commonwealth War Cemeteries in the Somme region of Northern France. It is quite sobering seeing how big some of these are. And also finding the large number of small sites, where soldiers were buried fairly close to where they fell. From 2010, where the first Commonwealth War Graves Commission for over 50 years was constructed at Fromelles, after the discovery of 250 British and Australian soldiers buried near Pheasant Wood. These were casualties of the Battle of Fromelles in 1916. 1. Rosa ‘Remembrance’ at Fromelles and pink roses at Rue Petillon. 2 & 5. Fromelles 3. […]

Rosa ‘Remembrance’ at Fromelles and pink roses at Rue Petillon.
13
Nov 2011

Remembrance Day

I went to a Remembrance Day service this morning. It was a shame that a local resident decided 11am was an appropriate time to start manoeuvring a car next to the memorial. Couldn’t even wait a couple of minutes. It made me think about some of the sites I’d visited over the last 18 months – Thiepval, Fromelles and Delville Wood. Amazing places to see, though very sad.

2
Aug 2011

Somme Valley

After  photographing the Fromelles WW1 cemetery for a job last June, I had an all too brief visit to the Somme Valley region. This was quite rushed, and I was keen to revisit the area to spend more time at significant sites. The opportunity arose a couple of weeks ago, after a trip to Monet’s garden at Giverny. There’s not a great deal I can add to the history, but here is a gallery of some of the photographs I took. A fairly small memorial commemorates the fighting that took place here at Mouquet Farm, where in all, around 7000 […]

27
Jun 2010

The Somme memorial at Thiepval

Two days ago I had the opportunity to visit the Somme region in Northern France whilst on an assignment. I have driven past the area countless times on car shoots, but  this time I made a particular point of stopping and visiting some of the World War One cemeteries. The most moving was at Thiepval, which is the site of the largest British war memorial in the world. Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and opened in 1932 by the Prince of Wales, you can see inscribed the names of the 73,357 British and South African men who fell at the […]