Somme visitors face battle with over-the-top French security

Children of Longueval lay wreaths at a New Zealand memorial near the Somme battlefield. Picture / NZ Defence Force

Visitors from New Zealand and Australia may be prevented from making pilgrimages to the graves of relatives who died at the Somme, thanks to unprecedented security for the battle's 90th anniversary.

Thousands of people from around the world are expected to visit the battlefield in northern France to commemorate the start of the five-month battle on July 1, 1916.

But French authorities say that a huge ceremonial zone will be set up around the VIP events, making it impossible for many to reach the graves of their relatives or the places where they fell.

From 8pm next Friday to 6pm the next day, no buses or private cars will be allowed into a 40sq km zone surrounding the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the British Empire.

Instead, visitors will have to park at an airfield near Albert, 12km away, and catch shuttle buses to the ceremonies.

Buses will only be allowed to drop passengers in the zone, and will not be allowed to take travellers to other sites or war cemeteries, although that decision is now being appealed against by the managers of heritage centres and museums.

No camping will be allowed on the battlefield throughout the weekend. Vehicles are also to be barred from stopping on the main highway through the battlefield and dozens of minor roads.

To reach the Australian memorials and the war cemeteries where many of the country's 23,000 Somme dead are buried around the village of Pozieres, visitors face a 4km hike along the main D929 road.

Outside the zone, New Zealanders should be able to tour the Caterpillar Valley Cemetery at Longueval which contains the memorial to 1205 of the nation's dead (and hundreds of their countrymen's graves.

But they will have to risk the wrath of the French police to visit many graves of other New Zealanders, such as VC winner Donald Forrester Brown at Warlencourt British Cemetery.

Tour guide Teddy Colligan, who runs a small museum at the Ulster Memorial Tower at Thiepval Wood, said: "It's the French who are doing this. It's the same sort of over-the-top security which ruined things for many at the 60th anniversary ceremonies in Normandy two years ago.

"We have people coming over from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa for this day and they don't know anything about this yet.

"An awful lot of people who come year after year are elderly and they may not be able to go where they normally go. There appear to be no facilities at all laid on for the disabled."

Dominique Zanardi, who owns the Le Tommy Cafe in Pozieres alongside the main road from Albert to Bapaume, had been preparing to serve meals to 3000 visitors.

He has now been told by the Prefecture de la Somme in Albert that no buses can stop on the road and instead parties must walk 4km from the next village.

"Some say it's because of Prince Charles going to Thiepval but he's not coming here and we have never had problems before on July 1. Many VIPs have visited and there have never been arrangements like this."

"We are expecting people from Australia and New Zealand to make the trip ... but they will not be able to see where their troops fought and died if this is not changed soon."

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is warning of travel delays, advising visitors to arrive early and to bring food and drink. It says there will be more meetings between the British and French authorities.

BATTLE OF THE SOMME

* July 1 to November 18, 1916, in northern France.

* British forces suffered 58,000 casualties (a third of them killed) on the first day of fighting.

* By the battle's end, the death toll included 96,000 British Empire soldiers, 51,000 French and 164,000 Germans.