Cycling the Somme

A ride around the Somme

There are war graves in approximately 240 cemeteries located in the 1916  -  1918 Somme area.  These cemeteries vary in size from Hunters Cemetery (found in the Newfoundland Memorial park and contains only 46 Graves) to Serre Road Cemetery Number 2 (7139 Graves).  The Thiepval memorial commemorates 72,085 men who died in the Somme sector up until 20 March 1918 and whose bodies were never found.

It would have been impossible for us to cover all of these locations in just one week so we selected 150 which contain mainly graves of the 1916 July offensive.

The route took us from the village of Bailleulmont on the Northern edge of the area (just off the map) to Bray sur Somme on the Southern edge and from Rancourt in the East to Puchevilliers in the West.  Daily routes are described under the Day by Day section of the site

The above map is reproduced with kind permission from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.