From Dieppe, we made our way to Pourville and the Monet bridge where South Sask Regiment came up the River Scie during the Dieppe Raid. From there, we drove on to Green beach where the British commandos under Lord Lovat attacked and took the German gun battery - this was really the only successful attacks if that Raid.
From there, we headed to Lochnagar crater, one of the largest remaining craters created from shell fire. This crater is MASSIVE measuring 300 feet across and 70 feet deep. Following this, we saw the French and German trench lines at La Boiselle. These trench lines are marked with yellow and red flag tape. They were extremely close together. Unfortunately, I don't have a photo of this, but the cadets probably have several.
Our next stop is Thiepval Memorial to the Missing to commemorate all the British and South African soldiers killed on the first day of fighting on the Somme on 1 July 1914. There are 73000 names on the memorial.
Next on our list is Ulster Tower and the British front lines - 38th ulster division, saw original trench lines as they were found. A lovely Irishman gave us a personal tour of the trench lines and put into context what life was like on the frontline during WWI.
Another regiment that suffered catastrophic losses was the Newfoundland Regiment. Newfoundland was not part of Canada at that time, but they also wanted to contribute to the war effort. Their losses are commemorated at Beaumont Hamel. Newfoundland bought this little piece of land to commemorate and there are bilingual guides from Canada who give tours at this site. We saw danger tree, which is a tree in the middle of no-man's land that the soldiers gravitated to when trying to cross the area.
We finished our day at Piper Richardson's grave - piper who won a VC, who was a part of the 16th battalion. He won it for his bravery in encouraging his company to go over the trench lines when they got stuck at the barbed wire. Piper Richardson is buried at Adanac Military Cemetery.
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