The Somme and the Ancre

The Ancre river, a tributary of the River Somme, runs through the heart of the British sector of the Somme battlefields. The landscape of the Somme is very similar to southern England in its rolling chalkiness. A trip of 4-5 days will allow time for you to walk in this remarkable landscape. Doing this you will understand why the area took so long to recover in the 1920s, and the difficulties experienced by early post-war visitors. Shorter visits are of course possible.

As well as a wide range of beautiful cemeteries and memorials, itineraries for visits to the Somme and Ancre area can include:

• Preserved trenches at Newfoundland Memorial Park

• Vast mine craters at La Boisselle and on the Hawthorn Ridge

• Walks through the heart of no man’s land

• Sir Edwin Lutyens’s masterpiece of the Thiepval memorial to the 73,000 missing

• The Ulster Tower memorial

• Sir Herbert Baker’s South African memorial at Delville Wood

• Reconstructed basilica church at Albert, and its museum

• Villers-Bretonneux Australian memorial and museum

• Two of the three experimental cemeteries built by the then Imperial War Graves Commission in the immediate aftermath of the war

• The grave of Raymond Asquith, son of the then Prime Minister

Example itinerary

Day 1

• Arrive Bapaume in time for lunch

• Afternoon: Thiepval for memorial to the missing, Ulster Tower and Mill Road and Connaught cemeteries; Pozieres for British cemetery and memorial; onto Albert for hotel check-in.

• Dinner in Albert

Day 2

• Morning: Lochnagar Crater, La Boisselle; onto Delville Wood South African memorial, walk around wood to see remains of trenches, and Delville Wood cemetery; London Cemetery and Extension, High Wood

• Afternoon: Martinpuich for 47 Division memorial park; Newfoundland Memorial Park to walk the preserved battlefield; Ovillers Cemetery

• Dinner in Albert

Day 3

• Morning: Serre Road Cemetery No. 2; circular walk across the battlefield including Redan Ridge Cemeteries 1-3, Beaumont-Hamel Cemetery, Hawthorn Ridge crater, Hawthorn Ridge Cemetery No. 1

• Afternoon: Devonshire Cemetery; Carnoy cemetery; Dartmoor cemetery (with the grave of the eldest British casualty); Guillemont cemetery (with the grave of the son of Prime Minister Herbert Asquith)

• Dinner in Albert

Day 4

• Morning: Forceville and Louvencourt cemeteries (two of the Imperial War Graves Commission’s experimental cemeteries); Australian National Memorial and cemetery, Villers-Bretonneux

• Lunch in Etaples; and military cemetery

• Afternoon: (assuming returning to UK via Calais at end of day) visit cemeteries in Boulogne and Wimereux

This is just an example. I will put together a bespoke itinerary for your group based on any particular interests. See my specialist battlefield themes below.