31st May 2013, The Somme

I drive over to Ovillers-la-Boisselle, and onto the Roman Road, through Pozieres towards Le Sars, the axis of the battle. I am trying to get the lie of the land. At Pozières Mill, point 160, the highest point on the Somme battlefield, stands the Tank Memorial. Behind me lies the Australian battlefield, those benighted acres 'more densely sown with Australian sacrifice than any place on earth', in front that of the Canadians. The memorial stands on the line of the German OG2 trench, finally captured by the Australians on the 5th week of the battle, and the start line for the Canadians on 9th September, the first day of the tanks. The Canadian troops were ordered to take no prisoners, and in the heat of the advance, many surrendering Germans needlessly died, each another small tragedy in a vast universe of tragedies. A tank, C5 'Creme de Menthe' commanded by Capt Arthur Inglis of the Gloucesters, had lurched forward from this exact spot to attack a sugar beet factory two or three hundred yards down what had been, and is again, the road. The factory held a number of machine-gun posts which were holding up the advance, and the tank is said to have drawn up to the ruins and fired its guns through a window, forcing the terrified garrison into submission.

A soft mist has settled on this high ground, and the photograph that I take looking along the road towards the trees that make the ghost of the long vanished factory, will be the first of the project.

The memorial features four finely detailed bronze models of the first tanks. One of them holds a .50 calibre bullet, left by a P51 Mustang or a P47 Thunderbolt strafing a retreating German column in another war.