Liverpool & Manchester "Pals" Battalions Memorial at Montauban yesterday. The Pals liberated the village 1/7/1916 & the memorial always seems to be well supported locally. Surrounding hedge is always pretty neat, but some attention from a stone mason wouldn't go amiss. >cont>

Gordon Dump Cemetery this afternoon, - nicely framed by the scorched stubble fields. Somme farmers seem to be watering sparingly, probably due to low water tables.

Tank Corps Memorial & the Australian "Windmill" Memorial at Pozieres today. It was trying to rain, but not enough to even wet the road, because the ground was so hot the water was evaporating immediately.

"Mucky Farm" (Mouquet Ferme) Pozieres this afternoon; the scene of intense Australian actions during WW1. The wartime farm was left (north) of the track, where the trees left distant are. Post war the ground was riddled with German underground workings & was unsafe to build on.

16th (Irish) Division Memorial & Guillemont WW1 French Memorial today. The Irish memorial railings have been cleaned ready for repainting by Western Front Services Ltd. westernfrontservices.com

"Ghastly by day, Ghostly by night, The rottenest place on the Somme." "High Wood" (Le Bois des Fourcaux) this evening.

Two things always strike me at Bailleul Communal Cemetery & Extension; the shear size of it, but especially the fact that so many of the headstones butt up against each other.

Gordon Dump Cemetery Somme. 1st photo last month, & 2nd an explanation of a photo I've been looking for for 40 + YEARS😲 The horrible little entrance is an early 1950's imposition. No2 shows where the original entrance was built, BUT CAN I FIND AN IMAGE OF IT😱 Do you know of one ?

Kemmel Chateau Military Cemetery, Belgium. Has anybody any information(*) about the genesis & use of this cemetery 1914-15, & / or ever found any reference to any man / men being exhumed elsewhere & reburied here ? (* not from the cwgc website).

Peronne Road Cemetery is one of many IWGC WW1 cemeteries which contained "ghost burials" at the end of the war. Some were recognised as such & the "memorials" removed (such as here). Others were not, & some which cwgc know about they are in a state of denial about. >cont>

I'm reminded of the rostrum at motor racing events, - pints of good champaign tossed over ... well, tossers.

That went well👍😂

Knowing SFA about the "spitting game" I'm ever so pleased to have Marmalade Man explain to me & his mate the head of the world spitting game that stamping on your opponent's heal isn't at all naughty. Cut that bloke in half & like a stick of Blackpool rock it'd say "100% corrupt fecker"😱

Connaught Cemetery Thiepval, 29/6/2026.

I once nearly bought a house in Epsom, Surrey, which was circa 80 yards from what was my favorite pub at the time. THANK GOD I DIDN'T😱

Anybody else having problems with TNA "Discovery" advanced search ? - I've been getting this error message all day😒

Why don't we do this ?

Here are some 2025 notes I made about 41st Div Memorial at Flers. You will see that a formal commemoration finally took place 15/5/1932.

Frankly hilarious, but sadly the man or woman on the Clapham omnibus will read it, & believe it.

VERY nice photo👍 Here is a map showing where Rue de l'Abbaye is (as of 1916), though I can't work out where the cameraman actually was. Can anybody work it out ?

3/8/1916 French Lieut de Commarque of the Dépot de chevaux blessés at Airaines, Somme, wrote to the WO to enquire of his friend Major Thomas H Guest of the 13th Bn York & Lancs Regt; "Sir,I had good acquaintance with Captain F T/J Guest 14th Ser Batt (2ND Barnsley)York and Langs [sic] Regt >cont>

I've now seen this image posted 3,872 times & it's giving me nightmares😱 That woman would be dangerous with a butter knife, let alone a huge axe😲

This is 47th Div's memorial at High Wood before subsidence forced its dismantling & remodelling.

22yr old 2nd Lt Arnold James Beal, 12th Bn York & Lancs Regt KiA 1/7/1916 near Serre. Arnold was officially "missing"until evidence accumulated about his death, & then V Corps found his body when they cleared the battlefield in spring 1917 & buried him in Queens Cemetery, Puisieux, E.39.

Redan Ridge Cemeteries No1 & No3, Beaumont-Hamel, photographed a couple of days ago. Formed when V Corps cleared the ridge in spring 1917. This area, NNW of the "Sunken Lane" of Lancashire Fusiliers fame, was an absolute disaster 1/7/1916.

Rocquigny-Equancourt Road British Cemetery to photograph a headstone today. Verry very strange. I appears that the headstones have been cleaned to a fairly good standard, EXCEPT the first three rows, & very obviously the War Stone. Its almost like an intentional "before & after" demonstration🤔