Hi All
I rode down through France last week, and as I had just read Birdsong and it is the 100th anniversary this year we went via the Somme. I thought I would share a photo with you to remind us all what it was all about. The photo is of the Thiepval Memorial, which is currently having some work done to make it ready for the 100th anniversary of the start of the battle on July 1st. The new visitor centre should also be open by then, and looks well worth a visit.
Please take a moment to look at the photo, and remember that it records the names of the 72,000 dead British and white South African soldiers. Lets not forget the more than a million British, Commonwealth, French and Germans and people of other nations who died in this war to end all wars.
(Incidentally there is a temporary art installation in place at present to record the sacrifice made by black South Africans in the Somme battles, but it was not actually up on the day we were there. However this was where I read that they were deliberately excluded from the memorial, which I was not aware of before).
Thanks for reading
R