Liam's adventure in France: The World War I sites in the Somme

We are staying in a part of France called The Somme. In the early 1900s this was where some of the worst battles of WWI were fought. We have gone to the Australian sites at Villers-Brettoneaux and Fromelles and to others for England and Canada.

At some of the sites the trenches have been left as they were and we were able to walk through them and imagine what it would be like to be there. It was cold in the trenches, the wind was cold and strong and it was really muddy and wet. I think it would have been really scary. At night here its really dark and foggy and misty and it would be really scary and spooky out in the fields.

I also learned that lots of boys who weren't 18 lied about their age to help their families by earning money, some of them died and some of them were hurt, losing arms or legs.

The schools at Villers-Brettoneaux and Fromelles had Australian names and kangaroos and flags of Australia and the school at Villers-Brettoneaux had a sign in the playground that said "Don't forget Australia". This was because the Australian soldiers in the War freed their towns.

We were here on Remembrance Day and we went to a service at a town called Pozieres. There was a service at the French memorial and then we walked to an Australian memorial and they laid some flowers there as well. The Australians also helped to save Pozieres.