Exploring The Somme
- Raff & John
- Nov 11, 2019
- 2 min read
Our first stop on the second part of our travels was The Somme, where we stayed at the tiny village of Cappy which nestles on the banks of the River Somme. The picturesque rolling countryside is quite rural with agriculture the main industry. With autumn well underway we are treated to stunning shows of yellows, orange and gold as trees were shedding their leaves.
You can't travel far without seeing a graveyard from the First World War there are thousands of graves for the many identified and unidentified killed in action. Our visit coincided with cold conditions and fog which added to the general sombre mood as we visited some of these cemeteries which are dotted across the landscape.
They are kept in immaculate condition - the commonwealth sites are maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and they are visited very regularly if the visitor books are anything to go by. Many of the killed were very young, teenagers and early 20s from the UK, Australia, New Zealand and other Commonwealth countries.
At each cemetery there is a guide book which lists each identified soldier and some information about their family life and where they originated from. It made for very difficult reading as we zig zagged the many rows of graves. Some graves sported pots of flowers, presumably placed by family members and a few even had pictures of the killed. It was a very somber visit, but one we are glad we made. We should never forget the absolute horror and the mass loss of life these wars cause.
We spent three days in the area and visited the towns of Bapaume, Amiens and Flers.
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