Pozieres British Cemetery

The Somme - 1916

Tour Over Three Days (One full day and two half days) -

from £529 for your vehicle, driver and one passenger

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The

Battle

of

The

Somme

was

designed

to

act

as

a

diversion

in

order

to

ease

the

pressure

on

the

French

army

in

the

Verdun

area.

After

a

week-long

artillery

bombardment,

it

opened

on

the

morning

of

1 July

1916

with

the

detonation

of

a

series

of

underground

mines

along

a

front

that

was

less

than

15 miles

long.

These

explosions

signalled

the

start

of

months

of

bloody

and

muddy

attrition

across

a

relatively

small area of Picardie in Northern France

The

Battle

of

the

Somme

was

one

of

the

defining

events

of

the

First

World

War

and

is

often

remembered

for

the

huge

losses

on

the

first

day

but

the

Somme

offensive

continued

over

the

following

months - a total of 141 days - and men from every part of Britain and across the Empire took part.

When

it

was

halted

in

November,

than

1,000,000

Commonwealth,

French

and

German

soldiers

had been wounded, captured, or killed.

• Somme 1916 underground tunnel museum • Ovillers Military Cemetery • The vistas of the Frontline and the ground fought over • Thiepval Memorial to the Missing • Lochnagar Crater • Fricourt German Cemetery • South African National Memorial & Delville Wood Cemetery • Pozieres British Cemetery and Memorial • Newfoundland Memorial Park • The Sunken Lane, Beaumont Hamel

Tour Highlights

O ur tour starts from the historical town of Albert, a place in which soldiers of 1916 were billeted just behind the British lines. Most visitors travel around the battlefields by car or bus; however, on our tours we rarely see other vehicles on the lanes we use to traverse the area. Over three days we will give you an insight from a different perspective of this famous battlefield, travelling in a small convoy of 5-6 vehicles, on tracks once trod by infantry. You’ll receive CB commentary as we drive along our route so you can really get a sense of where troops came from and what their objectives were. To book, click on the link for your chosen date. We only require a £100 deposit per vehicle or full payment if the tour is less than six weeks away. Eight weeks before the tour we will send you a balance request and invoice. Once the balance is paid we will send you an information pack including meeting places, times, booking references etc. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at: info@battlefieldsby4x4.com

Friday-Sunday

25-27

SEPTEMBER

2023 DATES

CLICK TO BE INFORMED OF NEW DATES

Costs below are for your vehicle,

driver and one passenger.

Just £100 deposit required at booking

to secure your place

If you’d like to be informed if additional

dates become available, click below

Please read our Covid-19 Information Page before booking

HOTEL BASED

£699

Friday-Sunday

10-12

NOV

Example Itinerary: Day 1 Independent travel to Albert, Somme. Welcome, introductions and briefing. The tour starts with a guided tour of the tunnels beneath the Basilica of the town that were used as a refuge by the civilians who remained throughout the fighting, but now house the Somme 1916 museum. On leaving the museum we head out of town and drive along a some tracks stopping in Mash Valley, our route then takes us near Courcelette, Mouquet Farm and finishing the day at Thiepval Memorial to the Missing which contains the names of more than 72,000 British and South African soldiers who have no known grave. Arrival time back at Albert around 17:30 We usually have a table booked for 19:30 at a well-appointed restaurant just outside Albert. This is optional but gives you chance to relax after your journey and also get to know each other over four delicious, typically French courses in a local restaurant. The cost is approximately €35pp including wine. Day 2 Meet at a local supermarket so you can stock up on fuel and provisions for the day before setting out, using many green lanes, to venture to key areas of the battlefield. We visit the Lochnagar Crater, caused by the detonation of 28 tons of high explosive at 07.28 on that fateful day. We move on to Fricourt German cemetery to see how Germany commemorates its war dead. We cover Mametz Wood and the Welsh Dragon just before our lunch stop at Delville Wood. In the afternoon, we travel on tracks once trod by infantry as they advanced to their start points in the attack that saw the Tank go into action for the very first time. We visit a German bunker and will see villages that were occupied, fought over and liberated but in the process, were completely destroyed. We finish the day at Pozieres British Cemetery and Memorial, normally around 17:00 Day 3 During the last day of the Tour we travel up the Ancre Valley, use tracks adjacent to the Frontlines and visit the Newfoundland Memorial Park at Beaumont Hamel where preserved trenches can be seen and walked in. The landscape here hasn’t changed in over 100 years. We move on to the Sunken Lane, Redan Ridge and the battlefields around Serre, land that saw intense and devastating fighting as we head via the Schwaben Redoubt towards the final stop, close to Albert around 1pm. (Non-contractual Tour example, subject to alteration when necessary)