Up at 07.00 and away from the hotel by 09.00 (Jack seemed to have run out of whisky). Our first stop of the day was at the Lochnagar Crater near to La Boiselle. This enormous hole in the ground marks the spot where, shortly before H-Hour, at 07.28, on 1st July, a mine was exploded under the German front line trenches. For some time before the attack a long sap had been dug from the British trenches and a small space had been opened up at its end into which was packed as much explosive as it could hold. When this was detonated the resultant debris had been driven a thousand feet up into the air and the German troops underneath it were vaporised. There then followed a race from the British lines to occupy the crater before the Germans could rally and add it to their own defences. The first men to arrive had thrown themselves over the rim of the crater before they realised just how deep it was. They tumbled headfirst down to its bottom and then had to scale the other side where they started to set up their defences. The battle that ensued for ownership of the great hole was to lead to the deaths of many men. Their bodies were initially buried in the crater for which they had given up their lives but at a later stage they were removed to a military cemetery. At least it was assumed that all the bodies had been discovered and removed until, fairly recently, the body of Private Nugent was uncovered, buried under the spoil that lined the rim of the crater. Although only a skeleton, Private Nugent was clearly a very tall man, especially for a time when people tended to be somewhat shorter than they are today.

We also remembered Private Stanley Proctor of the 15th Battalion (1st Edinburgh Battalion) The Royal Scots (Lothian Regiment), one of the lost Marple men who died very close to the crater. He was also a member of the Carver Recreation Club, the forerunner of the theatre of which I am Chairman. His name is inscribed on our memorial scroll. Our party included two of Stanley's nieces.

Stanley, a packer at the Goyt Mill in Marple, had enlisted following the German fleet's bombardment of several towns on the east coast of England on 2nd November 1914. This action had resulted in the deaths of many innocent civilians and had disgusted the whole country. By July 1916 his battalion of the Royal Scots, Britain's senior infantry regiment, were in the line and scheduled to attack La Boiselle two minutes after the explosion of the Lochnagar mine. For some reason the regiments at the two ends of the line failed to synchronise their attacks, the Royal Scots attacking five minutes before their comrades in the 10th Lincolnshire Regiment (The Grimsby Chums) and the 11th Suffolk Regiment, by which time the Germans were able to recover and had set up their machine-guns to repel the attack. The regimental War Diary, quoted in Andy's and Pete's book records:

The men left with great heart and in grand form, not the least hesitation or staleness. 3rd and 4th waves got severely handled when quitting front line parapet – mostly from machine-guns. Advance moved slightly more to the right than was intended but this machine-gun fire naturally forced the left flank over a bit. This left flank was 'in the air' as 10th Lincolns on our left were not timed to assault until some minutes later than the 15th R.S. This undoubtedly caused considerable loss, first to the 15th R.S. and later to the 10th Lincolns and 11th Suffolks as machine-guns could afford to play on each at separate times.

Although the Royal Scots did eventually achieve the German front line and not only captured it but held it, it was during this attack that Stanley lost his life. His body was never found.

One strange fact about the crater is that in its bottom grow some flowers, otherwise unknown in France but that were once unique to the English countryside. Even here they are now extinct so they only survive in this one spot, far from home. The only explanation would appear to be that after the end of the war families of the soldiers who died here visited the site of their men's death and brought bouquets of flowers that they picked from their local fields and hedgerows. They must have tossed their offerings down into the crater where the seeds established themselves and now bloom in a strange perpetual memory of the late soldiers and their now dead families.

From the Lochnagar Crater we moved on to Ovillers cemetery to visit the grave of Private Nugent, the giant of the Lochnagar Crater. In this cemetery also lay the bones of two soldiers that Andy discovered. On one of his trips to the battlefield his attention was drawn to the remains of what appeared to be one British soldier. He alerted the Commonwealth War Graves Commission which, on exhuming the bones, discovered another skeleton nearby. The identity of neither man could be established and they were subsequently re-interred in a shared grave.

The sun continued to shine on us as we arrived at Mansell Wood. We were now at the southern end of the battle line. In this area the attack met with some limited success on 1st July but not without great cost, as we were to discover as the day progressed.

The Devonshire Regiment had held the trenches around here. A Captain Martin commanded one company. The plan for 1st July was for the regiment to attack across an open field that was known to be under the control of several German machine-guns sited in several places to give enfilading fire. Captain Martin realised the danger this presented and fully realised that the regiment must expect heavy casualties and that he would be likely to be among them. Concerned that, without him in command, his company would not be able to identify their objective, he made a plasticine model of the terrain over which they were to advance. He made his junior officers and senior NCOs study this model so that they could all lead their troops forward no matter who fell. It was not usual at this time to share this type of intelligence with lower ranks who were merely required to follow their commanders. Captain Martin's fears proved well founded and he did, in fact, die at an early stage of the advance but thanks to his foresight his men advanced and captured their objectives.

Slightly above the road and on the line of the old Devonshire trenches is the Devonshire cemetery. After the battle the regiment collected its fallen and buried them in their old front line trench. Above them the survivors erected a sign. Here they still lie, in several long, narrow rows and their brave claim is still there, transferred onto a cross carved in stone with an explanation also carved below it:

While we were in the cemetery we heard a poem that was written by a young lieutenant the night before the assault in which he foresaw his own death. It was an extremely sad moment to stand there by the young man's grave, in the bright sunlight with the only additional sound the song of the birds, and to hear his words, still so clear after all this time.

Our next cemetery was Carnoy where we visited the grave of Captain Nevill. Although an officer of the East Yorkshire regiment, he was, at the time of the battle, attached to the East Surreys. He was an experienced officer in command of three platoons of largely untried troops and was concerned about their morale when called upon to advance into what he knew would be a frightful situation. This resourceful commander hit upon a strange, but in the event, very effective idea. He acquired three footballs, which he gave to each of his platoons. As they emerged from their trenches each one was kicked ahead of the troops who charged after them. Captain Nevill had offered a prize for the first platoon's ball to enter the German front line. Sadly the prize was never claimed as Captain Nevill was killed in the charge as were too many of his men, but their gallant charge after the footballs has gone down in the history of the Battle of the Somme.

Moving on, we stopped briefly in Montauban to pay our respects at the memorial to the Pals Regiments from Liverpool and Manchester (17th, 18th, 19th and 20th Battalions, the King's (Liverpool Regiment) and 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th Battalions The Manchester Regiment). These battalions formed the extreme right flank of the British line and attacked the town of Montauban in conjunction with the French 39th Division. The French had made better use of their artillery that was of calibres more suitable to the task. Consequently the German defences were completely smashed, although some hidden machine-guns still caused high losses. However, the troops reached their objectives and after fierce hand-to-hand fighting the town was secured by 10.05. Sadly their success was not exploited and their secondary objectives, Bernafay Woods and Trônes Wood, which were virtually undefended, were not assaulted, leaving them to be captured on 14th July at the cost of additional thousands of lives.

Andy took a group photograph at the memorial. This picture may prove to be the only record of the one moment during the whole trip when Darryl was not making a telephone call!