*VIRTUAL TOUR - The Somme Offensive Continues*

Thiepval


The Thiepval complex includes a Visitors Centre, which was a joint venture between British and French partners, and on completion, responsibility for the whole Centre was assumed by the French partner. Although, British interest is maintained through the ‘Comité Franco-Britannic’ which meets annually.

Until the opening of the Centre in September 2004, there was nothing at Thiepval to tell visitors what had happened during the Somme Offensive in 1916. All that could be seen was the magnificent Memorial, inscribed with over 72,000 names of British Soldiers who disappeared on the Battlefields of the Somme, and the graves of 300 British and 300 French Soldiers. Nothing about the other 54,000 British Soldiers who have named Graves in the area from the same Battles, and nearly 300,000 wounded from the series of Battles around the Somme, nothing about why they were there, nothing about Kitchener's Army and the Pals Battalions; no context at all. The Visitor Centre was designed to correct this, so that visitors now leave with a greater understanding of the events of 1916, and remember the sacrifice and the historical context into which it fits. There has been no attempt at ‘interpretation with hindsight’. The context also includes the events of 1918 when a fearful reverse was turned into the hundred days advance to the Armistice. As was the intention from the outset, the concept of the Visitor Centre was not to add another Memorial to this already much visited and hallowed site, but to provide a discreet building where visitors could not only find historical information about Thiepval and what it represents, but also rest, reflect, and find refreshment and associated facilities in a suitable setting.

The complex also includes a magnificent Memorial to the Missing which was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens. It was built in red brick and limestone between 1928 and 1932. It bears the names of 72,194 Officers and Men who died in the Somme Battle Sector before the 20th March 1918, and have no known grave. The date of the 20th March 1918, was the day before the German Army launched a large-scale offensive, code-named Operation Michael, against the British Army Front in the Somme Sector.

The Thiepval Memorial serves as an Anglo-French Battle Memorial. It was designed as an arch representing the alliance of Britain and France during the Somme Offensive in 1916, against the German Defensive Front. On the top of the Memorial, the British flag flies on the Northern side, and the French flag flies on the Southern side; this is representative of the British Army being in action in the Northern area of the 1916 Somme Battlefields, North of the River Somme, and the French Army being in action in the Southern area, South of the River Somme.

The Memorial is located on a high ridge of ground, and the top of the Memorial can clearly be seen from various points in the Centre and Northern sectors of the 1916 Somme Battlefields. The Stone of Remembrance, also known as the War Stone, is a feature of most of the British and Commonwealth Military Cemeteries and Memorials. It is situated in the raised section at the heart of the Thiepval Memorial, and in the centre point of the arch. The words carved on every Stone of Remembrance:
Their Name Liveth For Evermore 
As suggested by Rudyard Kipling, the phrase was taken from Ecclesiasticus, Chapter 44, verse 14: 
Their bodies are buried in peace, but their name liveth for evermore 
On occasions, when ceremonies are held at the Memorial, wreaths are laid at the foot of the Stone of Remembrance. The 72,194 names of the men missing in action on the Battlefields of the Somme are inscribed on 64 large stone panels, which form each of the four faces of the 16 piers for the building. The name of each man commemorated on the Memorial can be found in the Memorial Registers; these are a series of books listing the casualties on this Memorial in alphabetical order. The Memorial Registers are located in brass register boxes at the foot of the memorial, by the steps leading to the Stone of Remembrance, and on the terrace at the West end of the Memorial. A Visitor's Book is also present in the box for visitors to leave comments.




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