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The memory of the battle of the Somme (1st July – 18 November 1916) is less prominent in France, where it is supplanted by that of Verdun, than in the British world, where it occupies a central place. On the ancient battlefield, multiple sites of memory recall both the memory of the half a million killed it caused and the global dimension of a confrontation that involved troops from all over the British Empire, of France and its colonies and Germany. How and why were some of them covered with a memorial dimension? These traces, cemeteries and monuments, linked by a trail of remembrance, are the subject of a living memory, which is characterized by successive adjustments or new ceremonies. This is primarily due to the echo of their history, sometimes mythologized, and its national and imperial retellings in countries whose contingents were involved. Their monumental character, their outstanding topographical situation, the large number of honored dead are also factors.