The Battle of the Somme

[jeremyp]

Today is the 1st of July, the 100th anniversary of the first day of the Battle of the Somme. The Battle of the Somme was the first Allied land offensive in which Britain took a leading role.

The British lost 60,000 men on the first day and over a million men lost their lives on both sides through the course of the battle.

[L.A.]

A very personal tribute from singer/songwriter Harvey Andrews

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t55xoP7DK08

It's worth listening to the words.

[Udayana]

"The lamps are going out all over Europe, we will not see them lit again in our lifetime."

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064754/quotes

[floo]

Remember Our Innocence

Eagerly they accepted the King’s shilling,
Fresh-faced youths responded to the call.
Most caught up in fervent patriotic naivety,
Keenly anticipating a glorious adventure.
Soon nationalistic fantasy confronted grim reality,
Youthful idealism was swiftly obliterated
Amidst a Hellorama of mud, screams and gore.
Those long dead boys call to the living,
When our war is a dusty recollection
Our motives misrepresented and misunderstood,
Please Remember Our Innocence.

RJG

[Nearly Sane]

The idea seems almost trite but sometimes that is all anything can be, and because of that seems very moving


https://becausewearehere.co.uk/wearehere/

[floo]

It is awful to think all those poor people were killed for such an unnecessary war, which led directly to WW2, which we did have to fight.

I have put up a framed photo of my paternal grandfather who fought in WW1. He is wearing his uniform and it was taken just before he was sent across the channel. He was gassed and was never 100% again. He died in 1943 at the age of 48!

[jeremyp]

It's hard to imagine what these people went through. The Germans had a phrase "drum fire" which refers to the fact that the artillery shells came down so thick and fast that the explosions sounded like a drum roll. I read an account by Ernst Junger - a German lieutenant - who was there for part of the Battle of the Somme and he said that, at one point, the artillery barrage was extremely heavy, but after a while it subsided to drum fire. So that was all right then.

Everything you read about the Western Front is a half truth. It was actually much worse than that.

 

[L.A.]

I think Siegfried Sassoon's  Memoirs of a foxhunting man and Memoirs of an infantry officer give and amazing insight of how the war effected both the lives of individuals and society as a whole. These books are virtually biographical (but with some names changed)

It's also interesting to contrast these works with  Pat Barkers (largely fictional) Regeneration Trilogy.

[SweetPea]

Yes, Siegfried Sassoon's wartime poetry is also very moving.

Did anyone watch the BBC's coverage last night from Thiepval? Shirley Williams was excellent on her historical knowledge of the Battle of the Somme.

I've only seen bits of the coverage today, but the Beeb always seems to excel in this area.

[Nearly Sane]

Some details of the #wearehere commemoration.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5HXGNLBg3PyNpQQpCbrPF4R/moving-uk-wide-art-event-honours-fallen-somme-soldiers

[Nearly Sane]

Charles Dance reading Aftermath


http://www.snappytv.com/tc/2277254/1147880

[Bubbles]

I must admit, my first thought on seeing all this stuff about the Somme, was that we were being distracted from Brexit.



It's no good remembering deaths and holding services when no one in living memory is connected to it, when our own soldiers are neglected,  when they need support.
( unless the country uses it not to send young men into war in the first place  )
The best way of honouring the dead, is to look after the living soldiers and ex soldiers in need of support.

 

Tbh all those church services, people looking grim, it all looks a bit false to me.

http://www.helpforheroes.org.uk

IMO If you want to honour those dead in the Somme, look after and value, the living.

[Brownie]

It is awful to think all those poor people were killed for such an unnecessary war, which led directly to WW2, which we did have to fight.

I have put up a framed photo of my paternal grandfather who fought in WW1. He is wearing his uniform and it was taken just before he was sent across the channel. He was gassed and was never 100% again. He died in 1943 at the age of 48!

That's very sad floo.  I had an uncle (who was old enough to be my grandfather), who was gassed.  He was lucky I suppose, certainly compared to your grandfather, he lived to his early seventies, brought up three children.  His chest was never very good, which one would expect, and he was quite 'nervy', ie would be easily startled.  Nice man, he died when I was 18.

WWl was terrible and, as you said, unnecessary.  What a waste of life - and such extreme patriotism!  When you think how Rudyard Kipling connived so that his son, Jack, was able to join up, even though his eyesight was terrible, it beggars belief.  Kipling regretted that of course when the boy was killed in action.  People had no idea how difficult it would be, thought it would be all over in no time.

[floo]

That's very sad floo.  I had an uncle (who was old enough to be my grandfather), who was gassed.  He was lucky I suppose, certainly compared to your grandfather, he lived to his early seventies, brought up three children.  His chest was never very good, which one would expect, and he was quite 'nervy', ie would be easily startled.  Nice man, he died when I was 18.

WWl was terrible and, as you said, unnecessary.  What a waste of life - and such extreme patriotism!  When you think how Rudyard Kipling connived so that his son, Jack, was able to join up, even though his eyesight was terrible, it beggars belief.  Kipling regretted that of course when the boy was killed in action.  People had no idea how difficult it would be, thought it would be all over in no time.

My father, the second son, a bright lad, was made to leave school just before his 13th birthday to help on the family farm and do the chores his father found impossible. His older brother was permitted to stay on at school and eventually become an accountant. I think that was very unfair and did my grandfather no credit especially as they certainly could have afforded to pay others to do the tasks my father had to take on. If my grandfather had lived long enough I would most likely have given him an ear bashing!

My father went on to build a thriving horticultural business, through hard physical graft, although it wasn't really what he wanted to do. However, he had a mother and four younger siblings to support after WW2. My father and two of his younger brothers have been dead for a good few years now. My eldest uncle, who didn't have to do hard physical labour, even during WW2 when he was in the army pay corps, is still alive (95)!

[Brownie]

Good for him!
Your dad's story is not an unusual one, young people often had to make sacrifices then.  It seems so unfair to us now.  Yet he went on to have a good life, very successful, so not all bad.  You can be proud of him, especially as he didn't have it all handed to him on a plate (better than number crunching!).

[john]

Reading the Novel Birdsong by Sebastien Faulks was the first time I really realised the enormity and horror of the thing.

Art can sometimes be more powerful than facts.

I also found the "because we are here" tributes so moving a tear ran down my face. What a brilliant concept that was.

[Brownie]

I too found 'Birdsong' very helpful in understanding what it was like for those fighting WWl, it was a great novel (as was his WW2 novel, Charlotte Grey.  I couldn't put that down).  It had more of an impact on me than 'All Quiet on the Western Front' which I read when I was young.  However that doesn't detract from the fact that WWl was an unnecessary war and a terrible waste.  At least there was a point to WWll, Britain and the Allies fought for a worthy cause.  We can mourn the WWl losses but, as Rose said, it might be better to use the remembrance as a warning not to waste lives unnecessarily again.  That concept doesn't seem to have penetrated far enough, lives are still being lost fighting wars that cannot be won but at least no-one is conscripted.

I don't think anyone has been distracted from Brexit, Rose. 

[jeremyp]

Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger is an excellent memoir of the First World War. It's probably the best eye witness account there is.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Storm-Steel-Penguin-Modern-Classics/dp/0141186917/ref=sr_1_1?s=gift-cards&ie=UTF8&qid=1467468142&sr=8-1&keywords=storm+of+steel

Make sure you get the most recent translation.

[Brownie]

Thanks, being a personal account will be so different from a novel, and interesting to read a German perspective.