Six stands in one day: walking the Somme battlefield

Stand 5: New Zealand Memorial - July 1 1916

New Zealand Memorial - map of the battleground at the time of the Somme

• The Memorial stands on the ridge between High Wood and Delville Wood, ground taken in the first ever tank attack on 15 September.
• There were 49 tanks in France, and 32 reached the start line for the attack. Some made good progress: one correspondent reported that one was walking up the high street of Flers with the British Army cheering behind it. Shocked Germans described tanks as 'the Devil's Chariots.'
• This attack, officially the battle of Flers-Courcelette, made good progress, but ran out of momentum in the German third position with autumn at hand and a blighted battlefield standing between the attackers and their reinforcements.