WW1, The British Empire on the Somme

A visit to the Somme 1916 Museum is a must for anyone exploring this area. The museum is located underground in a tunnel dating from the 10th century. It houses an extensive collection of World War I artifacts and traces the events of the 1916 Battle of the Somme. This guided tour provides an excellent introduction to your tour.

Lochnagar Crater is an impressive site, estimated today to be around 100 meters wide and 30 meters deep. It was created by a mine explosion at 7:28 a.m. on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. This was one of nineteen mines detonated that day. A visit to this site provides the opportunity to explain how the battle began and its significance

This site is home to both the Caterpillar Valley Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery and the New Zealand Memorial. In 2004, the remains of an unidentified New Zealand soldier were exhumed from this site and are now interred in Wellington. From this point, you can see the ground from which the New Zealand Division advanced during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette. It is an ideal location to explain New Zealand’s participation in the Battle of the Somme

More than a million Indian troops served overseas, with over 60,000 losing their lives during the war. As the largest colony in the British Empire, with a population of around 315–320 million, India made a significant contribution to the war effort. This memorial honours the Indian forces who fought here during the First World War. Your guide will explain the complex relationship between India and Britain and the role of Indian soldiers in the conflict.

The South African Memorial stands at the heart of Delville Wood, a place forever marked by the bravery and loss of the South African Brigade. These 63 hectares were their battlefield, and they still hold the remains of some 600 soldiers. The site includes a museum that tells the story of the brigade, as well as a Memorial Wall bearing the names of 14,000 South Africans who fell during the First World War, without distinction of race, skin colour, or religion. Walking through what is now a peaceful wood, your guide will recount their story.

This is where we will stop for a one-hour lunch break. This brasserie houses a remarkable First World War museum created by its owner Dominique and his son. A true labour of love, the museum displays an impressive collection of WWI artifacts and features a garden where the trenches have been carefully reconstructed.

Australian official historian Charles Bean described Pozières as a place “more densely sown with Australian sacrifice than any other on earth.” Sadly, Pozières is all too well known to Australians, with almost 7,000 men losing their lives here. At the 1st Australian Memorial site, your guide will recount the story of this terrible battle, which took place between 23 July and 3 September 1916, and the broader role of Australians in the First World War.

The Canadian Memorial at Courcelette commemorates the actions of the Canadian Corps during the final two and a half months of the Battle of the Somme. Their first major engagement was the Battle of Flers-Courcelette on 15 September 1916, famously marked by the first British use of tanks in warfare. The Somme campaign cost Canada 24,029 casualties. At the site, your guide will bring to life the courage and sacrifice of the Canadians, both at the Somme and throughout the First World War.

The “Memorial to the Missing” is the largest British war memorial in the world. This imposing monument overlooks the surrounding rolling countryside, its walls engraved with the names of over 72,000 soldiers who are missing. At this site, we will explore the role of the British Army in the First World War, including how and why it became involved in the conflict.

Newfoundland was a Dominion of the British Empire and a small island with a population of 250,000 at the time of the First World War. Their Memorial Park is a unique site, as it is a preserved battlefield and marks where the Newfoundland Regiment went into action on 1 July 1916 and lost most of their regiment. Here, your guide will recount their actions on that day and the regiment’s wider participation in the First World War,