THE STORY OF THE SOMME

Next year will mark the 110th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme. Here, we reveal the historic locations of the area, and recommend places to pitch up

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On a beautiful summer's morning almost 110 years ago, men of the British Army stepped out into no-man's land at 7.30am. It was 1 July 1916, and the start of what was then called 'The Big Push'. With high hopes of a walkover to victory, the Tommies stepped into what can only be described as machine-gun oblivion. By the end of the day, more than 57,000 were casualties, with nearly 20,000 dead. But as the Battle of the Somme raged on, the Germans were pushed back. New weapons and tactics helped the British Army win battles, then the weather turned the area into a quagmire, ending with the coldest winter in Europe for decades. The Pyrrhic victory of the Somme cost more than 400,000 British and Commonwealth casualties in 1916 and moved the First World War into the dark heart of industrial warfare.

Today the Somme battlefields offer a unique insight into not only the battle in 1916 but the wider context of the war, as it is a landscape covered with locations that bear witness to conflict. You can walk trenches, gaze at huge mine craters, see a landscape pockmarked by shelling and pause for reflection at the many military cemeteries.

Over the next four pages we reveal the best places to visit, and where to pitch your motorhome.

Historical Museum of the Great War, Peronne

This excellent war museum opened in 1994 with an ultramodern design but with its roots firmly in the past. It was built among the ruins of the old citadel of Peronne, which are former medieval fortifications that became the site of the German headquarters at the time of the Somme in 1916. The museum sets any visit to the battlefields at the Somme into context as the road to war is explained in much detail with large maps and artefacts from life in pre-1914 Europe.