Top of Page
The Western Front 2000

A very sobering trip through the battlefields of the Somme (France) and up to Cambrai where the first tank battle took place, then onto Ypres (Belgium) and the Menin Gate.

An extraordinary journey through quiet French towns harbouring cemetery upon cemetery and memorial upon memorial. Strolls through preserved trenches at Vimy Ridge and Beaumont Hamel with the snow falling all around and shocked by the craters at the Somme and Pachendaele, some 30meters deep. Just a few of the memories that made this trip so amazing and thought provoking.

  
Now the Chateux in Cambrai was superb with the restuarant sunken into the brick wine cellar. An incredible gourmet dinner was served with traditional French detail and flavours. The second night however was quite different as we travelled on the Woolfy "Hunt for a Mussels Restaurant" tour we ended up, until the early hours, drinking strawberry beers with the locals in a lovely cosy ale house at the back of the cathedral in Ypres.  

Hover over the image to see its caption. Click on the image to see an enlargement.

Von Woolf: "I seem to remember the Cathedral being on the other side of the Square"A bleak Vimy Ridge (Canadian Trench)British trench position (Hill 60), YpresWandsworth to Fulham via the sewersSalwyn jones emerging from the trench networkHill 60 at sunset