Greg Gale
Well-Known Member
I know, it's remarkable how scarred that landscape is but hardly surprising when you consider the intricate trench systems and the sheer amount of artillery bombardment that occurred.
I want to take a trip to the Somme but my wife does not - she says it will be too depressing. One of those things I'll have to do by myself or with a chum.
I want to lay a poppy in the sector where I know he fell.
I did a tour about 10 years ago or so. Ypres, Somme, Verdun...Very sobering. Those scars aren't going to disappear from the Earth for a very long time. At many of the battlefields you can only walk a narrow path, because the rest of the area still has unexploded shells. They keep sheep there to cut the grass and well...find the shells...BAAAA-mm
Lochnagar looks way bigger in person. I may be mistaken but there were 4 chambers filled with explosives, dug under the German lines. 2 of them exploded, in 1916, 2 didn't. One was hit by lightning in the 80s and exploded, it could be heard all the way from London. There's still one left somewhere, nobody knows exactly where, waiting for a lightning strike...