On the frontline

Our next adventure was a lot more physical, yet still very emotional. Temperature was still below freezing and we had the duty to cross the Battlefield lead by Commander in Chief Shepherd and Roberts. Starting from the beautifully maintained Newfoundland Memorial Park (which for some of us felt like our first visit to Canada) we followed the same path as so many Commonwealth soldiers did in the morning of July 1st 1916.
Our objective was the village of Beaumont-Hamel but, like on that day we came close but didn't enter the village. We managed to cross the front line, went all trough the No-Man's Land, penetrated the German territory and took over a German redoubt which had been mined by the British Army. Sadly the end of this visit was another intimate, beautiful and lonely cemetery on the top of the hill, possibly the most beautiful of all, due to its prominent location, just above the village.
In the distance Thiepval was still visible, a stark reminder of the scale of the tragedy. Near the end of our visit, the oblique sun rays eventually pierced through the clouds, hitting the white stones of the graves with solemnity.