I took this panorama (click to enlarge) in April this year some 500 metres south-east of Guillemont in France, looking south-west in the direction of Albert. It shows, to the left, Leuze Wood beneath the rising sun, and to the right Trones Wood beneath the moon, separated by a distance of about four kilometres. This is one of the most attractive parts of the 1916 Somme battlefield, with beautiful woods, wide expanses of fields and a valley dropping just off to the left, and was utterly tranquil that morning. Yet during August 1916 that was the scene of some of the worst carnage of the First World War, as the British attempted repeatedly to assault the German line in front of Guillemont. My grandfather Tom Verrinder was here with a working party of the 9th Lancers creating a ‘cavalry track’ in the days leading up to the renewed offensive on 15 September, when the 1st Cavalry Division were poised to follow the anticipated breakthrough to the east of Guillemont - a forlorn hope with the infantry that day suffering losses on a similar scale to those of 1 July, as they walked into massed German machine gun fire.
