The greatest stories never told: Thiepval Memorial

The Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme is a war memorial dedicated to 72,337 missing British and South African servicemen who died in the Battles of the Somme between 1915 and 1918, with no known grave. It is located near the village of Thiepval, Picardy in France. A visitor's center opened in 2004. Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, Thiepval has been described as 'the greatest executed British work of monumental architecture of the twentieth century'.

The Memorial was built approximately 200 meters to the south-east of the former Thiepval Château, which was situated on lower ground, by the side of Thiepval Wood. The grounds of the original château were not chosen as this would have required the moving of graves, dug during the war around the numerous medical aid stations. The Memorial consists of a series of arches, each individual arch bearing the name of a soldier who died on the battlefield. Sixteen stone laurel wreaths are engraved on this memorial, each inscribed with a sub-battle of the Battle of the Somme and subsequent actions. One of the roundels is for 'Bapaume' and 'Miraumont', referring to battles or actions on the Somme front in 1917 as the Thiepval Memorial includes the missing dead that fell before 20 March 1918.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons