05/05/2019 - Day 2 (Part 1)
Day 2 is the first full day of the trip and starts at a nice 9.30am. The groups meet at a local supermarket to stock up on lunch essentials, mainly consisting of bread and cheese (when in France).
The iternary today is the following;
Various cemeteries
Sausage Valley
Lochnagar Crater
Mametz Wood
Delville Wood
High Wood
Caterpillar Valley
German Bunkers
Multiple frontline positions
Instead of talking about every detail of travelling from point to point i’d like to share the facts we learnt at each important location.
Sausage Valley The name given by British soldiers during the first world war to a valley south of of La Boisselle in the Somme. Named because the Germans would fly an observation balloon that looked like a "sausage", at the head of the valley. To the north of La Boisselle a valley was therefore logically known as Mash Valley.
Lochnagar Crater The Crater was created by a large mine that was at the time believed to be placed beneath the German front line on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, The British named the mine after ‘Lochnagar Street’, a British trench where the Tunnelling Companies of the Royal Engineers dug a shaft down about 90 feet deep into the chalk. Then excavated some 300 yards towards the German lines to place 60,000 lbs of ammonal explosive in two large underground chambers. The aim was to destroy a strongpoint called Swabian Heights south of the village of La Boisselle.
Mametz Wood Was the objective of the 38th Division (Welsh), to attack over a ridge, focussing on the German positions in the wood at a lower level, This occured between 7th July and 12th July 1916. On 7th the first wave of men proceeded with the expecatation to take the wood in a matter of hours. However, strong fortification and machine guns decimated over 400 soldiers before they’d even reached the wood.
Further attacks were attempted and by the 12th of July 1916 it was estimated 4,000 men were killed or wounded from the Welsh division attempting to clear the woods which in the end was the result. Our next stop will be Deville woods where we will have lunch and visit the cemetary and South African memorial.
