La Grande Mine

Lille, Flanders & the Somme


Just outside the hamlet of La Boisselle, 4.5km northeast of Albert, this enormous crater looks like the site of a meteor impact. Some 100m across and 30m deep, it was created on the morning of the first day of the First Battle of the Somme (1 July 1916) by 27 tonnes of ammonal (an explosive made from ammonium nitrate and aluminium powder) laid by British sappers in order to create a breach in the German front lines.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Lille, Flanders & the Somme attractions

1. Fricourt German Cemetery

1.11 MILES

A stark reminder of the extensive loss of life on all sides of WWI, this cemetery is the burial place of 17,027 fallen German soldiers. Only 5000 of the…

2. Thiepval Memorial & Museum

2.57 MILES

Its silhouette instantly recognisable from afar, this 45m-high memorial to the missing of the Somme, 7.5km northeast of Albert, is inscribed with the…

3. Ulster Memorial Tower

3.18 MILES

The 5000 Ulstermen who perished in the Battle of the Somme are commemorated by this 21m-high Gothic-style tower, an exact replica of Helen’s Tower at…

4. Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial

4.47 MILES

This evocative memorial preserves part of the Western Front in the state it was in at fighting's end. The zigzag trench system, which still fills with mud…

5. Mémorial Sud-Africain Delville Wood

5.17 MILES

The memorial (1926) and star-shaped museum (1986), a replica of Cape Town's Castle of Good Hope, stand in the middle of Delville Wood, where in July 1916…

6. Australian Corps Memorial Park

9.62 MILES

Adorned with a large bronze ‘Rising Sun’, the insignia of the Australian Imperial Force, this memorial 6.5km northeast of Villers-Bretonneux stands on the…

7. Ayette Indian & Chinese Cemetery

10.86 MILES

Towards the end of WWI, tens of thousands of Chinese labourers were recruited by the British government to perform noncombat jobs in Europe, including the…

8. Historial de la Grande Guerre

12.06 MILES

For historical and cultural context, the best place to begin a visit to the Somme battlefields is the outstanding Historial de la Grande Guerre in Péronne…

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