Stand in front of the cemetery and look across the valley to the village of La Boisselle. This valley was known as Mash Valley and represented 800 yards of no mans land to be crossed by the 8th Division on 1st July.

Standing with the cross of sacrifice behind you looking out across the valley the German front line trenches ran along the road back towards Ovillers and then turned right where there is a large crucifix in the civilian cemetery. It then went down across the valley up to La Boisselle and then along the edge of La Boisselle following the Albert - Bapaume road. At the end of the village just before the last few houses - in the field on the other side of the valley is the site of Y sap mine crater - filled in about 15 years ago. Looking towards Albert, either side of the main road are the hills known by the soldiers as Tara and Usna. The Tyneside Scottish and Irish came down those hills on 1st July 1916 just after the first attack and were mown down by machine guns firing from La Boisselle and Ovillers. Ovillers military cemetery contains nearly 3500 British graves plus 120 French. It is largely a concentration cemetery, extended after the War but does contain burials after August 1916. The son of Sir Harry Lauder of music hall fame, is buried here - Captain John Lauder.

When I was here in March 1983 I found human skull pieces and rib bones in the field opposite the front of the cemetery, about 150 yards on the right. These almost certainly belonged to the 50 or so bodies exhumed there in March 1982 - originally uncovered by the local French farmer. These bodies, strangely, and for reasons known only to the CWGC, were taken all the way up to Boulogne and buried in Terlington Military Cemetery where they were placed in a mass plot.