The Somme département was deeply affected by the fighting of the First World War: the invasion and the “race to the sea” from August to September 1914, the battle of the Somme from July to November 1916 and the battles of Picardy from March to September 1918.
At the end of the First World War, towards 1917, the French military staff decided to plan a replica of Paris and its surroundings with the intention of tricking the German planes which they were thought were likely to come and bomb Paris.