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MAJOR AND MRS. HOLT'S BATTLEFIELD GUIDE TO THE SOMME
Major and Mrs. Holt's Battlefield Guide to the Somme is, without doubt, one of the best-selling guide books to the battlefields of the Somme. This latest updated edition, includes four recommended, timed itineraries representing one day's traveling. Every stop on route has an accompanying description and often a tale of heroic or tragic action.
Memorials, private and official, sites of memorable conflict, the resting places of personalities of note are all drawn together with sympathetic and understanding commentary that gives the reader a sensitivity towards the events of 1916.
Memorials, private and official, sites of memorable conflict, the resting places of personalities of note are all drawn together with sympathetic and understanding commentary that gives the reader a sensitivity towards the events of 1916.
288 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 8, 2017
This book an indispensible guide if you are visiting the Somme and doing it on your own.
You need to sit down and study the key to the accompanying map quite carefully. Once you have got the hang of it, and the references in the book, your journey will be much smoother.
There are so MANY memorials, graves and sites of remembrance in this area, that it would be virtually impossible to visit everything. Many people (like me) will have a personal reason for visiting - a relative who fought, maybe was killed there.
My advice is to do as much research as possible first, and you can do worse that start by reading the introduction to this book. Stroll through the book and become familiar with some of the places it describes. I had a particular interest in Australian-oriented memorials. In the latest edition these are paid quite close attention. However, you need to piece together your own "Australian tour" (the Franco-Australian museum in Villers-Bretonneux can help too).
Still, it was quite easy with this guide - one read through and I compiled my own list from it.
The more generalist visitor I would recommend starting with the Historial in Peronne, which is well described in the book...but not as a starting point. The book is oriented towards Britons with a car coming from across the channel, which is no doubt the promary audience, but the "approaches" section cannot be followed if one is arriving, for example from the direction od Paris.
Nevertheless, with a bit of flicking back and forth and some sticky-paper notes, this is an excellent resource from which to plan an independent tour.
Highly recommended.
You need to sit down and study the key to the accompanying map quite carefully. Once you have got the hang of it, and the references in the book, your journey will be much smoother.
There are so MANY memorials, graves and sites of remembrance in this area, that it would be virtually impossible to visit everything. Many people (like me) will have a personal reason for visiting - a relative who fought, maybe was killed there.
My advice is to do as much research as possible first, and you can do worse that start by reading the introduction to this book. Stroll through the book and become familiar with some of the places it describes. I had a particular interest in Australian-oriented memorials. In the latest edition these are paid quite close attention. However, you need to piece together your own "Australian tour" (the Franco-Australian museum in Villers-Bretonneux can help too).
Still, it was quite easy with this guide - one read through and I compiled my own list from it.
The more generalist visitor I would recommend starting with the Historial in Peronne, which is well described in the book...but not as a starting point. The book is oriented towards Britons with a car coming from across the channel, which is no doubt the promary audience, but the "approaches" section cannot be followed if one is arriving, for example from the direction od Paris.
Nevertheless, with a bit of flicking back and forth and some sticky-paper notes, this is an excellent resource from which to plan an independent tour.
Highly recommended.
December 19, 2014
Get an Australians perspective.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews