Battle of the Somme at 100

I B Hankering's Avatar



"The Battle of the Somme was one of the bloodiest of World War One, with more than one million people killed or wounded. It lasted five months as the British and French Armies fought the Germans on a 15-mile front." (BBC)





"British troops were sent into battle on 1 July 1916. It was the bloodiest day in the history of the British army, which suffered 57,470 casualties, including 19,240 deaths."





"Allied artillery barrage decimates German lines during Battle of the Somme."





@ "07:20 July 1st 1916. The explosion of the Hawthorn ridge mine signaled the beginning of the most tragic day in the history of the British Army. The battle of the Somme. Just behind the village of Beaumont Hamel lies hawthorn ridge. Today it is virtually unchanged and the exact position this film was shot from is very easy to locate. Sadly the attack began at 07:30 and exploding the mine at 07:20 allowed the Germans to regroup. Like the boys in the sunken lane they were cut to pieces and the cemeteries which bear witness to this massacre are scattered all around the ridge and fields. Even today shells and bullet casings are found everywhere, especially after the spring ploughing."
https://www.yahoo.com/style/duchess-...091717090.html




https://www.yahoo.com/style/duchess-...091717090.html




Originally Posted by i'va biggen
We never knew that YOU were such a follower of a future QUEEN'S fashion choices EKIM !!! Bet YOU and YOUR swishy-walking brethren would love it if she were to were something with the " rainbow " colors on it !
gfejunkie's Avatar
How you can take something that was so deadly and is so solemn and turn it into a reason for a fashion statement is nothing short of sick. But, that's Yahoo for you.

You should really stay away from Yahoo news. It's mind poison.
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/battle-somm...ews&yptr=yahoo

Got some good photos inside the link.
I B Hankering's Avatar


Tommies before the battle. (Daily Mail)





Germans burying Tommies. (source)



.
How you can take something that was so deadly and is so solemn and turn it into a reason for a fashion statement is nothing short of sick. But, that's Yahoo for you.

You should really stay away from Yahoo news. It's mind poison. Originally Posted by gfejunkie
Seeing they were there for the honoring of the 100th of the battle, WTF did you want them to wear? cutoffs like your ilk wear? Fucking hillbilly.
Yssup Rider's Avatar
SNICK!
dilbert firestorm's Avatar
I've always wondered how the dead bodies were removed from no mans land area between the trenches.

I assume they must've had a series of cease fires to remove the bodies and wounded if found alive.
I B Hankering's Avatar
I've always wondered how the dead bodies were removed from no mans land area between the trenches.

I assume they must've had a series of cease fires to remove the bodies and wounded if found alive. Originally Posted by dilbert firestorm
Sometimes, but many men died trying to retrieve the wounded and the bodies of their friends under fire. More often than not, the bodies of the dead weren't retrieved ... and the buried were too often disinterred by a subsequent artillery barrage.



How J.R.R. Tolkien Found Mordor on the Western Front



“On the path to Mordor, stronghold of Sauron, the Dark Lord, the air is ‘filled with a bitter reek that caught their breath and parched their mouths.’ Tolkien later acknowledged that the Dead Marshes, with their pools of muck and floating corpses, ‘owe something to Northern France after the Battle of the Somme.’ ….

“When Frodo returns to the Shire, his quest at an end, he resembles not so much the conquering hero as a shellshocked veteran. Here is a war story, wrapped in fantasy, that delivers painful truths about the human predicament.”

(NYT)
dilbert firestorm's Avatar
SNICK! Originally Posted by Yssup Rider
SNOCK!!!
I have been watching the Apocalypse WW-1 series this spring.

Absolutly brutal.
I have been watching the Apocalypse WW-1 series this spring.

Absolutly brutal. Originally Posted by Jackie S
It viewing should be a required part of a high school or college history class. I found it very informative, as to the who and why of WW-1 and the reasons for WW-2.
I B Hankering's Avatar
Only July 4, 1916, 28-year-old American poet Alan Seeger was killed fighting with the French Foreign Legion at the Battle of the Somme. He died at Belloy-en-Santerre. Seeger's poem "I Have a Rendezvous with Death" was one of John F. Kennedy’s favorites, and he often asked his wife, Jackie, to recite it.





"I Have a Rendezvous with Death"
poem by Alan Seeger

I have a rendezvous with Death
At some disputed barricade,
When Spring comes back with rustling shade
And apple-blossoms fill the air-
I have a rendezvous with Death
When Spring brings back blue days and fair.

It may be he shall take my hand
And lead me into his dark land
And close my eyes and quench my breath-
It may be I shall pass him still.
I have a rendezvous with Death
On some scarred slope of battered hill,
When Spring comes round again this year
And the first meadow-flowers appear.

God knows 'twere better to be deep
Pillowed in silk and scented down,
Where love throbs out in blissful sleep,
Pulse nigh to pulse, and breath to breath,
Where hushed awakenings are dear...
But I've a rendezvous with Death
At midnight in some flaming town,
When Spring trips north again this year,
And I to my pledged word am true,
I shall not fail that rendezvous.





Six minutes of audio from the Western Front:

http://sounds.bl.uk/Environment/Soun...26081X1-1900V0



I have been watching the Apocalypse WW-1 series this spring.

Absolutly brutal. Originally Posted by Jackie S
+1

Two good books on the subject:




Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger




The Price of Glory: Verdun 1916 by Alistair Horne



It viewing should be a required part of a high school or college history class. I found it very informative, as to the who and why of WW-1 and the reasons for WW-2. Originally Posted by Rey Lengua
It is a very good series.