This Bloody Field…

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Apologies for the lack of posts recently, folks, but sometimes real life interferes.  To keep you going, here’s a picture of a field.  Not just any field, though.  No.  The date is 1st July 1916, and this is the view you and your fellow Yorkshiremen would have had as the whistles blew early that morning and you extricated yourself from your trench to assault the German front lines situated on the crest of the rise.

Very possibly the last view you would ever see.

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7 Responses to This Bloody Field…

  1. Mark Dinan says:

    I plan on visiting the Somme again this fall.

    Do you have a longitude and latitude position from where this photo was taken. I would like to see this spot in person.

  2. Magicfingers says:

    You clearly understand why I took this photo, Mark. No I don’t have the co-ordinates, but I can easily direct you there. It’s taken from the very edge of the wood that makes up Sheffield Memorial Park near Serre. Actually, if you search for Queen’s Cemetery, Pusieux on the CWGC site and then look at the satellite map that accompanies the entry, this photo was taken from the south eastern edge of the wood looking up the ridge east past the cemetery. If you then continue looking east past the cemetery marker on the map, you come to the trees surrounding the hamlet of Serre Les Puisieux, and these are the trees you can just see on the horizon of my photo. Make sense? When you get there the line of the front line trench is still quite clear….and if you find some dark red-tinted sunglasses lying around there somewhere, they’re mine!! And be sure to treat the farmer who lives near where you will have parked your car with respect. Don’t ask.

    There will be, in due course, a series of posts here about our recent Somme trip, including a more detailed look around Sheffield Memorial Park, but should you happen to take a straightforward photo of the entrance to the Park when you visit, and if you wouldn’t mind donating it, then my own foolishness in photographing everything except a head on shot of the two small brick pillars at the entrance will be less exposed. Based on ‘if you don’t ask you don’t get’, you understand.

    And finally, check out the fourth photo of the previous post, which shows the edge trees of the Park from where I took the photo.

    • Mark Dinan says:

      Thanks for the quick reply.

      I was at that site last fall, unfortunately I came up empty handed when it comes to the sunglasses.

      I have viewed that battlefield from google maps and it makes complete sense of your description.

      The British cemetery’s are obviously located just rear of the initial forward lines and the casualties were brought back after the failed attack.

      In the Sheffield Memorial Park is located one of the more recent memorials, that dedicated to the Accrington Pals.

      Thanks for the update, that field will be explored upon my visit to the battlefields next fall.

      Unfortunately I cant’t seem to be able to upload the google.maps image.

      Mark

  3. Mark Dinan says:

    Maybe this will work!

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