WWI ... # 1

I am back!

Hot and exhausted from an amazing week in Italy. Yes, I will post some photos, but thought I ought to catch up with the long overdue WWI pictures. I shall actually post them in the reverse order of the trip, as that's the way by pictures are loaded and I am too lazy (or too busy) to reverse them!)

This is the end of the trip - Thiepville memorialle, Beaumont Hamel, the Lochnagar Crater and the Ulster Tower (where North & South Ireland fought together)

Warning - it is picture heavy! ....( Thiepville, etc, clicky here )

More to come

WWI ... # 2

So, I am still on my last day - in the area of the battle of the Somme ... and yes, my Granddad went "over the top" on July 1st ... and survived the day. That July 1st is known as the "Bloodiest day in the British Army"

My suprise, as you see the land, is that any survived!

Picture heavy again
( And still I wandered round France, following my Granddad's footsteps )

WWI ... # 3

And here we are at the middle day - the battle of Lens was one of the few that actually went OK.  The people in charge made good use of the ancient tunnels under the town (that had been built as the rock was being excavated) .  These were extended, and so the armies didn't have the problems of no-man's land on day 1.  Sadly the generals didn't believe it would be as good as it was, so failed to bring up the support the men needed.

I went through a small part of the New Zealand tunnels.

( Going Underground )

One thing that has been special in Belgium is the sounding of the Last Post, every night, at the Menin Gate, Ypres.  That was how our first day finished.  To me it was doubly poignant, because Tim had learnt trumpet, and when he first brought his home Granddad picked it up, at age 81, and played the Last Post on it.  His only comment was that it wasn't the first time he had done that.

( A moving moment )

( The only German War Cemetery in Belgium )

And, finally another Canadian memorial - this time for those who died in the first gas attack.

WWI ... # 4

( And so the cemeteries continue )

As part of the trip we went to a lot of museums, including Hooge Crater Museum.  Hard to realise how much these show of everyday life.  Every year to this day, farmers still dig up live incendury, and bodies, in field they have used every year since 1919.
( Looking )

The Christmas Truce - famous, for the football match that took place ... and we went to it's location.



( Easier for me to stand in these trenches, than for Granddad 101 years ago )

This is where Granddad spent much of the battle of Passchendale