Hello from the Somme front
- Thread starter Somme80
- Start date
Glad to have you on the forum, James
Kaiser Wilhelm II
Well-known member
Welcome to the ranks of the forum, Val, we're always happy to take on a new member.
Peter B
Well-known member
Bienvenu Val.
michiel
Well-known member
Welcom Val
I visited the western front from the see in Belgium up to the dolimites many times,
and although all sectors are worth visiting, in my opinion the somme region is somewhat disappointing because apart from some deep mine craters there is not much left in the landscape.
There are wonderful musea, monuments and grave yards, and those are very much worth visiting, " but you don'f feel the conflict".
But the landscape is too much restored to its original purpose (living and agriculture),
whereas in verdun the french government decided to let the nature take it over and not te rebuild the villages (village detruit martyr in french), and the heart of the battlefield (zone rouge in french) was also left untouched (originally out of practical considerations, to much polluted and unexploded ammunition to be of any use), later (already very few years after the conflict), it was recognized that this was to only practical but also of archeological en historical interest, and serves as pelgrimage ground up to today, (by then the trenches in the somme region were already cleaned and filled up thus erasing them from the landscape.
Around Verdun, but also in the argonne Forest, and the dolomites, the Voges (Hartmannwillerkopf) you can stroll through the landscape mostly left untouched are really connect to the events in a way that I never experienced near Ypres or the Somme.
So: do visit the Somme and Ypres, but also experience, " les eparges", " hartmann willerkopf, vieux armand" Butte de Vauqois, and the Dolomite mountains ,
I visited the western front from the see in Belgium up to the dolimites many times,
and although all sectors are worth visiting, in my opinion the somme region is somewhat disappointing because apart from some deep mine craters there is not much left in the landscape.
There are wonderful musea, monuments and grave yards, and those are very much worth visiting, " but you don'f feel the conflict".
But the landscape is too much restored to its original purpose (living and agriculture),
whereas in verdun the french government decided to let the nature take it over and not te rebuild the villages (village detruit martyr in french), and the heart of the battlefield (zone rouge in french) was also left untouched (originally out of practical considerations, to much polluted and unexploded ammunition to be of any use), later (already very few years after the conflict), it was recognized that this was to only practical but also of archeological en historical interest, and serves as pelgrimage ground up to today, (by then the trenches in the somme region were already cleaned and filled up thus erasing them from the landscape.
Around Verdun, but also in the argonne Forest, and the dolomites, the Voges (Hartmannwillerkopf) you can stroll through the landscape mostly left untouched are really connect to the events in a way that I never experienced near Ypres or the Somme.
So: do visit the Somme and Ypres, but also experience, " les eparges", " hartmann willerkopf, vieux armand" Butte de Vauqois, and the Dolomite mountains ,
