Thiepval is noted for the terrible losses suffered by the Pals Batallions. The massive memorial to Canada's dead stands atop Vimy Ridge, commanding the battlefield just below. Here, artificially preserved trenches with concrete sandbags give a rather sanitised impression of trench warfare. The German and Canadian front lines are, at this point, just 50 yards apart, catapult rather than rifle distance. The underground trench system shows how life underground was carried on, safe from the constant artillery bombardment.
Entrance is free.
More thought provoking was the walk between the Memorial and the Battlefield - through the forest and with countless shell and mine craters pockmarking the tree area. Vimy is physically unmissable as its gigantic twin white stone towers dominate the land for miles all round. Park at the large car park opposite the memorial and walk up to it. After viewing this staggering monument, walk back down the hill to the battlefield park. At Lochnagar Crater Memorial at La Boiselle just east of Albert, a 90 foot deep and 300 foot across hole shows where 60,000 lbs of gun cotton blew a gigantic crater under a German stronghold.