Who is looking after Canada?...

Saturday, April 8. Sunny, clear, chilly wind. 

On the coach at 8:15 and first stop is a grocery store for food today. 20 minutes later we were at Lochnagar Crater. It was exploded on the first day of the battle of the Somme. It was so loud that the blast was heard in England. The objective of the mine was not to kill Germans but to create lump of soil that was the result of the blast so that the Allied advance would be obscured by the crater of the blast. The First Battle of the Somme took 146 days and turned into a meat grinder. The British suffered over 57,000 casualties, on the first day. It was the worst day in the history of the British Army.

Next stop was at Beaumont-Hammel, which is where The Royal Newfoundland Regiment was virtually wiped out on July 1, 1916. 780 officers and men started that day, 110 were unscathed and 68 were at roll call the next day, no officers went unscathed. Experienced Germans and Newfoundlanders not experienced in this type of warfare even though they had been at Gallipoli. It was such a beautiful day that is made it hard to comprehend the butchery that went on that day over 100 years ago. 

We next got back on the coaches and ate our lunch at "Sunken Road" where the Yorkshire Regiment had a famous photo taken before they attacked the German lines and made very few gains at all.

There were so many busloads of Canadians there that one of the French coach drivers asked "Who is looking after Canada???"

Next we went to the Tank Memorial and then to the Australian memorial at Poziers. Lastly, we went to the cemetery where Piper Richardson won his VC for piping the Canadian Scottish at a nasty situation, where he died. There was a bit of a Regimental ceremony there.

Lastly we picked up our groceries for tomorrow on the way back to the hotel. Tomorrow will be a very long day for us. That is the ceremony at The Vimy Memorial where there will be over 200 busses there and all of us having to be shuttled up one by one under very tight security. Long day ahead for us.

The blast from this crater was heard in England.

This is about the most impressive and solum monument to what in reality was a very resounding defeat but we celebrate it as a salute to those killed that day that we now celebrate, July 1.

A very stirring tribute to a Highlander, from the 51st Highland Division, a British Unit with a wonderful reputation.

All these soldiers were killed and buried in a single blast in this crater.

A few of the members at the Tank Monument with the Seaforth crest on the Cross of St. Andrew, or, Scottish Flag.

The headstone of a 22 year old Seaforth piper, attached to another unit, killed while trying to recover his pipes.

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This is Craig's photo of the  Lochnagar Crater at the beginning of the day. It's size is beyond belief. Its blowing up signalled the beginning of a battle that claimed over 1,000,000 casualties on all sides. Crazy!