Thiepval Memorial

Listen first. Out here on the ridge, the wind moves through the grass and the farm fields with a low, steady sound. Larks sometimes sing high above the crops. Then you turn, and a great tower of red brick and pale stone rises above the trees. It looks heavy from a distance. Up close, it feels open, almost hollow, because arches cut through it in every direction. Walk slowly toward it. The gravel path crunches under your feet.

This is the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme. It stands near the village of Thiepval, a short distance from Authuille, in the rolling farmland of northern France. The memorial records the names of more than 72,000 men from Britain and South Africa. Every one of them died in this sector during the First World War. And every one of them has no known grave. Their bodies were never found, or never identified.

To understand why this ridge was chosen, picture the landscape in 1916. Thiepval was then a small village with a château, and the German army had turned it into a fortress. From this high ground, German soldiers could look down across the slopes toward the British lines. Trenches, deep dugouts and barbed wire covered the area. For the British command, Thiepval was one of the key objectives of a huge offensive along the River Somme.

That offensive began on the morning of 1 July 1916. It is remembered as the bloodiest single day in the history of the British Army. Close to 20,000 British soldiers were killed on that first day alone, and many more were wounded. Here at Thiepval, the attack failed. The village did not fall until late September, almost three months later. By then, the château and the houses had been reduced to rubble and churned earth.

The Battle of the Somme continued until November 1916. Shellfire was so intense that many men simply vanished. Others were buried where they fell, and those graves were later destroyed by new fighting. After the war, families wanted a place to grieve. The Imperial War Graves Commission, known today as the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, decided to build memorials for the missing. This one became the largest British war memorial in the world.

The architect was Sir Edwin Lutyens, the same designer who created the Cenotaph in London. Construction took place between 1928 and 1932. Lutyens built the memorial from brick, with facings of white Portland stone, a fine limestone from the south coast of England. Look at the shape as you approach. Smaller arches support larger arches, which support the tallest arch at the top. The design builds upward in layers, like a staircase made of arches.

Here is something many visitors miss. The memorial is not one single arch, but a set of arches that cross each other at right angles. From most angles, the building looks solid. But as you walk around it, the openings line up and the sky appears through the middle. Lutyens used geometry to make a huge mass of brick feel light. Some people say the structure looks different from every side, and it rewards a full slow walk around it.

Now step inside the arches and look at the walls. Sixteen great piers hold up the structure. Their stone faces are covered with names, carved in neat columns from the ground to far above your head. The names are grouped by regiment, then by rank, then alphabetically by surname. The lettering is small and precise. Stand still for a moment, and the scale becomes clear. Each line is one person, and the lines seem to go on without end.

Here is a second surprise. The list of names is not fixed. Even now, farmers and builders in this area still find the remains of soldiers in the soil. When scientists and historians can identify a man who is listed here, he is given a proper grave in a nearby cemetery. His name is then removed from the memorial. So, slowly and quietly, this wall changes. Some panels show small gaps or repaired stone where this has happened.

The memorial was inaugurated on 1 August 1932 by the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward the Eighth. Thousands of people came, including many widows, parents and former soldiers. For years afterwards, families travelled here to find one name among tens of thousands. Today a ceremony takes place each year on 1 July, the anniversary of the first day of the battle. Wreaths of red poppies often lean against the base of the piers.

At the centre of the memorial, at the top of the steps, stands a long, smooth block of stone. This is the Stone of Remembrance, a design Lutyens created for many war cemeteries. It looks a little like an altar, but it carries no religious symbol. Lutyens wanted it to speak to people of every faith and of none. Its plain surface carries a single short line of text, and the stone sits in perfect balance under the great central arch.

Walk down the steps behind the memorial, and you reach a small cemetery. It holds the graves of French and Commonwealth soldiers, side by side, in equal numbers. On one side stand white stone headstones. On the other side stand white crosses in the French style. This Anglo-French cemetery was built to show that the two nations fought and suffered together here. Many of the men buried here are unknown soldiers, with no name on the stone.

Before you leave, stand at the edge of the lawn and look out across the fields. Today the land is quiet. Tractors move slowly, and the hedges divide the slopes into neat shapes. Yet nearly every field you can see was once part of the front line. Notice how the ground rises and falls. Those small rises were worth thousands of lives in 1916. As you walk away, listen again to the wind... and turn back once, to see the arches against the sky.