Taking a guided tour over the trenches by light aircraft gives you an interesting perspective on many aspects of a turbulent time in history, including troop deployment and other strategies.
Book a flight over the Somme battlefields with the Aéroclub de Picardie Amiens Metropole and, with the help of your English-speaking pilot-guide, you’ll grasp the strange and poetic beauty of a landscape indelibly marked by the traces of its violent history. You’ll also gain new insights into the strategies of some of the key battles that took place in this region during the Somme Offensive of 1916.
The best Somme Battlefield to visit:
Château de Querrieu
During the 40-minute flight from Amiens, your pilot will point out sites such as the Château de Querrieu, stately seat of the British High Command during the Battle of the Somme, and Sainte-Colette hill, the site where notorious German fighter pilot, Manfred von Richthofen, nicknamed the Red Baron, met his end in a crash.
Fricourt
You’ll also fly over the village of Fricourt, once home to Picardy aircraft industrialist Henry Potez, co-inventor of the Potez-Bloch propeller, which, after 1917, was used in most Allied World War one planes. Fricourt itself bears many remnants of the World War one, from a German military cemetery sheltering 17,027 war dead to trenches and craters that bear witness to the devastation that occurred here.
Albert
From Fricourt you’ll head to Albert, where your pilot will tell you about the hopes and superstitions surrounding the golden virgin on the basilica – the British believed that the war would only end when the statue had toppled.
Lochnager crater
At Boisselle, you’ll get a bird’s-eye view of the vast Lochnager crater (100 metres in diameter and 30 metres deep). Resembling a extinct volcano from above and caused by an explosion from mines painstakingly laid by Welsh tunnelers, it marked the exact beginning of the Battle of the Somme, which went on to be the bloodiest in British military history.
Thiepval Memorial
Flying over Pozières and the Ferme du Mouquet, which were defended by Australians, you’ll reach Thiepval – site of an immense memorial that together with the nearby Tour d’Ulster commemorates British and Irish forces. Thiepval’s pillars are poignantly engraved with the names of more than 72,200 missing British and South African servicemen.
Beaumont-Hamel
Over Beaumont-Hamel, you’ll get unique views of the vast huge battlefield with its intact network of trenches and its craters denoting enemy lines. Next to it, the Newfoundland Memorial is testament to the loss of hundreds of Canadian lives in one of the most violent battles of the war – one that has left dramatic and lasting traces.
Aéroclub de Picardie Amiens Metropole
29 Rue Robur le Conquérant
F- 80440 Glisy
Tel: +33 3 22 38 10 70
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