Author: GILLES PRILAUX
The French Australian Review No 69 (Australian Summer 2020-2021): 52-71.
https://doi.org/10.62586/VJGH2879
This article documents the discovery in 2014 of a concentration of inscriptions in a network of underground caves and tunnels under Naours in the Somme. Almost 3,200 of these inscriptions date from the First World War, with 2,200 inscriptions by Australian soldiers identified. An historical overview of the site is presented along with the personal biographies of a selection of the soldiers who inscribed their names, drawing on the National Archives of Australia and family records, including personal diaries. The article contains many images of the underground signatures as well as photos of the soldiers.
Keywords: Naours, the Somme, World War One, the ‘souterrains’.