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 The battlefields can be visited through a marked itinerary connecting the two towns symbolising the Great War in the Somme: Albert, where the British troops were stationed, and Péronne, then occupied by the Germans. This ‘Circuit of Remembrance’ can be recognised by panels displaying the poppy, a flower of the Somme which has become the emblem of British remembrance. It is possible to obtain brochures and books detailing the different battle sites of the Somme and the events which took place there. Guided visits are also available for groups. The southern part of the circuit concerns the French sector while the north concerns the British.
http://www.somme-battlefields.com
Organized tour for groups, information and booking:
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Tourism of memory
1 July 1916 remains a date without equivalent in British memory: this was the bloodiest day in the entire history of the British army, with 20,000 killed and nearly 60,000 losses (killed, wounded, and missing). In the collective memory, it represents both a test of British valour and one of the most extensive and useless tragedies. Each village name in the Somme is now mentally associated with a town or region in the United Kingdom which sent combatants there.
Thiepval
 The circuit is thus punctuated with stopping places revealing the memory of the Great War: museums, major memorials, vestiges of battles and cemeteries. Among them are Thiepval, the most important Franco-British memorial in the world, which is inscribed with the 73,367 names of soldiers who died without known tombs. A Visitors Centre offers key information necessary for understanding the history of Thiepval during the First World War. A few kilometres away, other memory sites - Irish, Newfoundland, Australian, South African, German and French – may be visited.
Cemeteries
Whatever the nationality of the cemetery, it reflects the soldiers’ conditions of life and death through its location, composition, typical or original inscriptions, or its history. They attest to their respective societies’ attempts, at the end of the war, to confront a mass bereavement whose consequences we have not yet fully grasped.
The 14 German, 19 French and 410 British cemeteries of the Somme may easily be distinguished:
- Run by the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge, the German cemeteries may be recognised by their black crosses, in cast iron or stone, often in the middle of a tree-lined park. The German War graves Agency, created in 1919, is responsible for inventorying, preserving and maintaining the tombs of German soldiers abroad. Through its website, the organisation makes it possible to locate a particular soldier’s tomb: http://www.volkbund.de
- The French cemeteries are distinguished by their white crosses and a flagpole flying the French flag. There is always an ossuary.The Ministry of Defence handles the upkeep of the French burial sites. The files of French soldiers declared “Morts pour la France” (killed in action) are available on http://www.memoiredeshommes.sga.defense.gouv.fr
- The British cemeteries are quite numerous along the front because it was decided to bury the bodies as close as possible to the place where the soldiers were killed. There were few mass graves, as was the case for the French and the Germans. The headstones of the British soldiers are accompanied by the “Cross of sacrifice” when there are more than 40 tombs and the “Stone of Remembrance” when there are more than 1,000. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission, created in 1917, runs all British cemeteries throughout the world
http://www.cwgc.org
A particular place must be reserved for a specific form of remembrance tourism, namely the visit of a cemetery to find a relative’s tomb. It is here that private and public spheres come together in the processes of mourning and commemoration. By the late 1920s, the cemeteries were visited more than the actual battlefields, while the construction of the cemeteries themselves was coming to an end. Today, the revival of interest – often among the generation of the grandchildren – for the Great War, which was long overshadowed by the Second World War, is creating an increase in the number of cemetery visitors.
 Cimetière allemand de Rancourt  Cimetière français © Yazid Medmoun |
