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Council Member
In my teens I was interested in WW1 and read about this battle, many years later I was able to twice visit the area.
The battlefield remains primarily agricultural land, with a few small villages and the terrain is not easy to follow. A good number of the houses are non-French owned, as a good number of those interested have purchased houses.
Delville Wood, where the South Africans fought and died, remains a rather shattered place even if the wood has re-grown.
We walked through the partly restored trenches around the Newfoundland Memorial (then not part of Canada), with German trenches nearby (out of grenade range) and the cratered "no mans land". A truly terrible place.
Conditions were so bad later on British troops deserted en masse to the Germans on the River Ancre sector; which when it rains is a really dismal, damp place.
A few years ago with my interest rekindled I joined the Western Front Association; treading their printed journal, taking in some lectures and maybe one day will go back. Link:http://westernfrontassociation.com/
Further north is that other battlefield etched in blood and mud in the British memory, Ypres. There the terrain is far easier to follow, with the Germans holding the high ground against which British "Tommies" threw themselves in 1917. We took in a nearby French cemetery and ossuary, then a German cemetery (for 44k) for the late 1914 battles - when eager student volunteers were mown down. A small German student party were there laying a wreath.
Link:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langema...n_war_cemetery
Incidentally two (?) US Army divisions (108k) served in the Ypres sector later in the last Allied offensive, which I was unaware of until finding a memorial:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_..._November_1918
Showing my age the best guide is a book: 'Before Endeavours Fade' by Rose Coombs (Pub. 1994); it covers many more battlefields e.g. Verdun: http://www.amazon.com/Before-Endeavo.../dp/0900913851
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