List of World War I memorials and cemeteries in the Somme
This article lists the memorials and cemeteries around the area of the river Somme.
Memorial to the Liverpool and Manchester Pals at Montauban
7th Yorkshire Regiment Memorial at Fricourt
Statue of Marshal Foch at Bouchavesnes
Memorial to 18th Division at Thiepval
Memorial to the 46th Division at Bellenglise
Memorial at Flers
The New Zealand Memorial at Longueval
New Zealand Memorial to the Missing at Caterpillar Valley Cemetery
Memorial to the 38th (Welsh) Division at Mametz Wood
Mametz Wood was to be the scene of some of the bloodiest fighting of the opening days of the Battle of the Somme as taking the wood involved advancing uphill and over open ground whilst facing heavy machine gun fire and artillery. By 12 July the woods had been cleared of Germans but at a heavy cost with over 4,000 Welsh deaths and casualties. The Mametz memorial takes the form of a Welsh dragon challenging the wood to its fore. At one side of the base is carved the regimental cap badge of the South Wales Borderers. The sculptural work was by David Petersen.The 38th Division was very much the result of personal initiatives by Lloyd George and was the Welsh equivalent of the "Pals" battalions from the North of England. So awful was the fighting here that a Welsh soldier, Wyn Griffith, described it as "the horror of our way of life and death and of our crucifixion of youth".
Joint Memorial to the Black Watch and Cameron Highlanders
Australian First Division Memorial at Pozières
The Tank Memorial at Pozières
The Windmill Memorial at Pozières
The Mouquet Farm at Pozières
The Kings Royal Rifle Corps Memorial at Pozières
The Pozières British Cemetery and the Pozières Memorial to the Missing
The Thiepval Memorial
Memorial to the Ulster Division at Thiepval
The Canadian Memorial at Courcelette
Memorials at Ovillers-la-Boisselle: The Lochnagar Crater
Memorial to the 102nd and 103rd Tyneside Infantry Brigades at La Boiselle
Memorial to the 19th (Western) Division at La Boiselle
The 34th Division Memorial at La Boiselle
Serre Road
The South African Memorial at Delville Wood
Images of Delville Wood
Memorial to the 20th Light Division
| Memorial to the 20th Light Division |
| The British 20th Division was a New Army division formed in September 1914 as part of the K2 Army Group. The division landed in France in July 1915 and spent the duration of the war in action on the Western Front. The division fought at Loos, Mount Sorrel, Guillemont, Flers-Courcelette, Morval. Le Transloy, Messines and at Third Ypres and the Battle of Cambrai. The memorial shown here stands at Guillemont near to Delville Wood. Guillemont was a village to see much fighting in the Battle of the Somme. The Germans held on to Guillemont with great tenacity and after major attacks on 30 July and on 8 August, the village was finally taken on 3 September 1916. The 20th Division was instrumental in taking the village, one of the reasons for the choice of location, although there is another 20th Light Division Memorial at Langemarck in Flanders. The 16th Division took nearby Ginchy on 9 September and there is a memorial to them near Guillemont. See below. This memorial is on the linas which was the Division's target when they attacked on 3 September 1916. The road running north-south was taken, as their third objective. The 20th Division Memorial is in fact a replacement of the original memorial. The original, a tapering stone obelisk, was unveiled on Sunday 4 June 1922, by Major-General Sir Cameron Shute. He was accompanied by the Mayor of Guillemont and a French Army representative, plus men who had fought with the Division at Guillemont. The original memorial was similar in appearance to the same Division's memorial in Flanders, which was unveiled five years after that at Guillemont. The Flanders memorial can still be seen today at Langemarck. The replacement memorial here at Guillemont was unveiled on 25 April 1995. |