BATTLE OF THE SOMME

BATTLE OF THE SOMME

Albert, Somme, France..Although behind the Allied lines in the battle of the Somme, Albert suffered heavy bombardment. The statue of the Virgin and child was almost dislodged from its spire. It was said that if the statue fell that the Allies would lose the war. Of course it hung at a crazyangle throughout the war but never fell.

Reflected glory: A peaceful pond is what remains today of the craters made by massive mines on the Messines Ridge near Ypres. Their explosion was heard in London

They are a hidden maze of tunnels where a bloody underground war was played out in terrifying darkness and where the bodies of 28 heroes lie entombed forever. Now, after lying practically undisturbed since troops laid down their arms in 1918 and just days before Remembrance Sunday, the secrets and tragedies of the labyrinth are finally being revealed thanks to work by archaeologists. Since January, the Anglo-French La Boiselle Study Group has been working with historians to open up and explore the tunnels to discover more about the lives of the men lost in them. Heroes: Tunnelling Company workers pictured together at the Somme in 1916. Twenty-eight tunnellers died at La Boisselle. The passages, named the Glory Hole by British troops, run under and around the sleepy village of La Boisselle in northern France, which was of huge strategic importance to the 1916 Battle of the Somme. The infamous four-month battle claimed the lived of millions, including 420,000 British soldiers - all for just a few yards of territory.Twenty eight Britain tunnellers died in the passages between August 1915 and April 1916 and their bodies now lie permanently buried within the collapsed tunnel walls. Finds: A French soldier's metal drinking cup, left, and a margarine tin issued as part of the ration were found At war: German soldiers of the 111th Reserve Infantry Regiment. The lips thrown up by the mine craters can be seen behind them THE TUNNELS Three feet wide Made of chalk Ran under land a quarter of a mile square Nick named the Glory Hole It is thought there are four miles of tunnels, belonging to the French, German and Brits Most were a mining 'elite' sent from collieries across Britain, but never returned home. One victim was Sapper John Lane, 45, from Tipton in Staffordshire, a married father-of-four killed along with four others 80ft underground on 22 November 1915. His great-grandson, Chris Lane, 45, from Redditch in Worcestershire, said he had been gripped to learn about his relative’s fate, the BBC said in June. BBC journalist Robert Hall was among the first people to venture into the newly opened tunnels, many of which run up to 100ft deep. He has documented his account in the Daily Mirror. From bottles of drink and tins of food, graffiti, helmets, picks and bits of shrapnel, he discovered all sorts of eerie reminders of these lesser known heroes of the Great War. A camera getting ready for its descent down the 50 foot W-shaft. Archaeologists have been working on the site since January Discoveries: British .303 rifle ammunition and the heads of tooth brushes were found inside the passages. Almost 90 years ago the passages would have been full of tunnellers digging, laying explosives, and bringing soil to the surface aided by a recently discovered small railway - all with the Germans often just yards away doing exactly the same. Mr Hall wrote of the tunnels: 'The first thing that strikes you is how untouched they look.' A poem scrawled on a wall he passed read: 'If in this place you are detained; Don’t look around you all in vain; But cast your net and you will find; That every cloud is silver lined.' Top: A British shovel carried by infantrymen and below special strengthened pick used by the miners. This is how the village became strategically important. On 28 September 1914 the German advance was halted by French troops at La Boisselle. The two sides fought for the possession of the civilian cemetery and farm buildings. In December that year, French engineers began tunnelling under the ruins which sparked the prolonged battle below ground lasting until 1916. Both sides tried to probe underneath each other's trenches, setting off explosives to undermine fortifications, working at a depth of about 12 metres. The British Tunnelling Companies sent in miners to deepen these tunnels and crater system to 30 metres while above ground infantry occupied trenches just 45 metres apart. At the start of the Battle of the Somme La Boisselle stood on the main axis of British attack. To aid the attack the British placed two huge mines, known as Y Sap and Lochnagar, on either flank, but they failed to neutralise the German defences in the village. The village was eventually captured from the Germans on July 4. Military mining was key to tactics of both the Allies and the Germans during the conflict with tunnellers digging and laying explosives to undermine each other's fortifications. During the 1917 Battle of Messines, 10,000 Germans were killed after 455 tons of explosive was planted in 21 tunnels. And, two years earlier, in October 1915, 179 Tunnelling Company began to sink a series of deep shafts to try and stop German miners approaching beneath the British front line. At a location known as W Shaft they went down from 30 feet to 80 feet and began to drive two counter-mine tunnels towards the Germans.  But they heard sounds of German digging getting louder and explosives were prepared and planted. Company Commander Captain Henry Hance spent six hours listening and worked out the Germans were 15 yards away. However, 24 hours later the Germans set off their own explosives, which detonated the British charge too. Carbon monoxide gas was released by the huge explosion proving fatal for the tunnellers working underground. Four bodies were found; William Walker, Andrew Taylor, James Glen and Robert Gavin. The bodies of two other men from Staffordshire, John Lane and Ezekiel Parkes, were never found. Military historian Simon Jones, from the University of Birmingham, has studied the tunnellers of the 179th and 185th Tunnelling Companies and following seven years of research, learned who they were and how and when they died. British infantrymen occupying a shallow trench before advancing during the Battle of the Somme on the first day of battle in 1916 One of the German trenches in Guillemont during the Battle of the Somme. The battle began at 7.30am that day, and by the following morning 19,240 British soldiers had died THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME  The Battle of the Somme took place between 1 July and 18 November 1916 in the Somme area of France. The battle consisted of an offensive by the British and French armies against the German Army, which, since invading France in August 1914, had occupied large areas of that country. The Allies gained little ground over the four month battle - just five miles in total by the end. The battle is controversial because of the tactics employed and is significant as tanks were used for the first time. On the first day of fighting the British lost more than 19,000 men and 420,000 in total. Sixty per cent of all officers involved on the first day were killed. By the time fighting ceased there were more than 1 million casualties, including 650,000 Germans. He studied letters, maps and records as well as tunnel plans and diaries to uncover the truth about the deaths. The number of German tunnellers killed remains unclear. Mr Jones told Mr Hall: 'What comes across is the human endeavour. 'And the fact these men, most of them volunteers from Britain's coal mines, were a breed apart, and regarded themselves as an elite.' Military historian Peter Barton told Mr Hall: 'It's been a moving experience for us all.' Owners of the site, the Lejeune family, decided to let archaeologists into the site in January. It is hoped the area will be preserved once work is completed. The project is the first of its kind on the Western Front and has been officially sanctioned by the French archaeological authorities. It is envisaged that work may continue for up to fifteen years. Today: A general view of a trench system in Newfoundland park at Beaumont-Hamel on the Somme, France, once a bloody battlefield Manchester Hill Memorial to The Manchester Regiment In March 1918, the German Army launched an all-out offensive in the Somme sector. Faced with the prospect of continued American reinforcement of the Allied armies, the Germans urgently sought a decisive victory on the Western Front. On the morning of 21 March, the 16th Manchesters occupied positions in an area known as Manchester Hill, near to St. Quentin. A large German force attacked along the 16th's front, being repulsed in parts, but completely overwhelming the battalion elsewhere. Some positions lost were recaptured in counter-attacks by the 16th. Though encircled, the 16th continued to resist the assault, encouraged by its commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Elstob. During the course of the battle, Elstob single-handedly repulsed a grenadier attack and made a number of journeys to replenish dwindling ammunition supplies. At one point, he sent a message to Brigade that "The Manchester Regiment will defend Manchester Hill to the last", to his men he had told them "Here we fight, and here we die". The 16th Manchesters effectively ceased to exist as a coherent body. Lieutenant-Colonel Elstob was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross. An attempt to retake the hill was later made by the 17th Manchesters with heavy losses. Two more Victoria Crosses were awarded to the regiment in the final months of the war Epehy Wood Farm cemetery The village of Epehy was captured at the beginning of April 1917. It was lost on 22 March 1918 after a spirited defence by the Leicester Brigade of the 21st Division and the 2nd Royal Munster Fusiliers. It was retaken (in the Battle of Epehy) on 18 September 1918, by the 7th Norfolks, 9th Essex and 1st/1st Cambridgeshires of the 12th (Eastern) Division. The cemetery takes its name from the Ferme du Bois, a little to the east. Plots I and II were made by the 12th Division after the capture of the village, and contain the graves of officers and men who died in September 1918 (or, in a few instances, in April 1917 and March 1918). Plots III-VI were made after the Armistice when graves were brought in from the battlefields surrounding Epehy and the following smaller cemeteries:- DEELISH VALLEY CEMETERY, EPEHY, in the valley running from South-West to North-East a mile East of Epehy village. It contained the graves of 158 soldiers from the United Kingdom (almost all of the 12th Division) who fell in September, 1918. EPEHY NEW BRITISH CEMETERY, on the South side of the village, contained the graves of 100 soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell in August, 1917-March, 1918 and in September, 1918. EPEHY R.E. CEMETERY, 150 yards North of the New British Cemetery. It contained the graves of 31 soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell in April-December, 1917, and of whom 11 belonged to the 429th Field Company, Royal Engineers. The cemetery now contains 997 burials and commemorations of the First World War. 235 of the burials are unidentified but there are additional special memorials to 29 casualties known or believed to be buried among them, and to two casualties buried in Epehy New British Cemetery, whose graves could not be found when that cemetery was concentrated.

Trench footprint: The still pockmarked landscape of Beaumont Hamel on the Somme where the Newfoundland Regiment were decimated by German machine guns The secret Somme: 100 years on, the epic battle chronicled in photographs taken on the cameras which soldiers managed to smuggled into the trenches It was the bloodiest battle in our history. Yet it’s taken 100 years to get an insight as vivid as this – from a brilliant new book commemorating the centenary, astonishing photographs taken by soldiers’ illicit cameras… and their mesmerising, humbling descriptions of the horrors they endured – starting here, with the harrowing account of Private Frank Lindley  +18 HQ Company 8th East Lancashire Regiment at Whizz-Bang Corner, Fonquevilliers, 1915, picture taken by Lieutenant Patrick Koekkoek You could hear the bullets whistling past and our lads were going down, flop, flop, flop in their waves, just as though they’d all gone to sleep,’ recalled Private Frank Lindley, of the 14th York and Lancaster Regiment.  ‘Second Lieutenant Hirst was near to me, almost touching.  'He had just got wed before we came away, and was a grand chap, but it wasn’t long before he got his head knocked off,’ he recounted in his grimly compelling description of going over the top and into a hail of German bullets on July 1, 1916, the first day of the great Somme offensive.  What he goes on to report is one of the most extraordinary eyewitness narratives about Britain’s bloodiest battle that you will ever hear – and which, along with other horrific testimony and astonishing illicit pictures taken by the soldiers themselves, are contained in a mesmerising new book that gives a compelling new perspective of the Somme.  The infamous WWI battle began 100 years ago this year, on July 1, 1916, and would rage for four months.  On that first day it claimed 20,000 lives – the most ever in a single day in British military history.  But, as we learn from Private Lindley’s account, it is the uncomplaining commentary on random horrors that truly make us understand the scale of the carnage – and the humbling tenacity of the troops.  ‘I was in the first wave. There was no cheering, we just ambled across, you hadn’t a thought; you were so addled with the noise.  'Out of the corner of your eye you could see the boys going down but there was no going back. They had what we called “whippers- in” with revolvers and they could shoot you if anybody came back, so we moved forward as best we could.  +18 Taken at 3.30pm on July 1, the day of the first assault, soldiers of the Royal West Surrey Regiment take cover on the road to their objective, Montauban – which they later reached, albeit with heavy casualties 'As I laid flat out there in no-man’s-land, up on top jumped one of our whippersin with revolver ready, and we were all laid out in shell holes, and he said, “Come on, come on.” He hadn’t gone two yards before he went up in the air, riddled…  ‘Bullets were like a swarm of bees round you – you could almost feel them plucking at your clothes. Them that made for the gaps in their wire were all piled up where the machine guns just laid them out.  'It was pure murder, so we tried picking the Jerries off because they were on the trench top, some of them, cheering their mates on while our lads on the wire were hanging like rags. Some I recognised. “That’s so and so,” I thought, but one burst of their big machine guns and they were in bits. Arms and legs were flying all over. I didn’t know anybody in the shell holes I got in. We were all mixed up.  'There was no conversation, it was self-preservation, dive in and risk what you got. The final shell hole we got in was the finish, a whizz-bang came over us and split.  'I never heard it coming. Shrapnel went right through my thigh and took my trousers in with it. I looked down and there was blood running freely.’  The carnage and devastation were in stark contrast to the comparative tranquility that had greeted British troops 12 months previously when, as a signal of London’s willingness to shoulder more of the responsibility in the war, they marched south from Belgium to take over French positions north of the River Somme. The German and French troops there had cleverly learnt to avoid antagonism.  Private James Racine of the Seaforth Highlanders was in the first division of British troops to relieve the French.  He wrote in his memoir: ‘The French troops gave us a hearty welcome and informed us that the sector was extremely quiet and that only eight light shells a day were fired into the village.  'They were sent over in pairs at the following times, 11am, 2pm, 4pm, and 8pm, and the French artillery replied similarly.  ‘At the times stated, the trench troops had gone into the dugouts while the shells burst, and returned to the estaminets [cafes] at the conclusion of the comic bombardment. We thought this to be an extraordinary way of carrying on war…’  British soldiers were unimpressed with the quality of the French trenches they were taking over.  They were often filled with mud and water. During the winter they froze. Nor were the filth and the cold the only challenges troops had to deal with. An officer described in a letter the trenches’ other inhabitants.  An officer of 183 Tunnelling Company, the Royal Engineers looks warily over the edge of the trench. It was his men who dug and detonated a huge mine blown at Kasino Point, near Carnoy Soldiers go 'over the top' in Battle of the Somme in 1916 Loaded: 0% Progress: 0% 0:00 lay Mute Current Time 0:00 / Duration Time 1:18 Fullscreen Need Text s 1 2 3 Watch video Watch video Watch video Schoolboy jumps from building after his phone was confiscated Watch video Open wide! Inside the jaws of a great white shark Watch video Disturbing bodycam video shows woman being tasered by police ‘The place is honeycombed by rats – brown rats with whitish bellies, big as young cats, heavy with good living; blundering, happy-golucky, fearless brutes... Trench life was exhilarating to those new to the line, but interminably dull to those who had been there month after month. It was punctuated by moments of intense excitement and fear, but in the main it was characterised by boredom, days passing slowly in an endless and repetitive round of duties – until the offensive began.  The Germans, having observed the movement of troops and weaponry, were well aware of the planned assault. Lieutenant Frederick Bursey, of the Royal Field Artillery, wrote on June 23: ‘The Huns put up a board yesterday in their front line trenches and on it was pinned a paper with the following: “We know you are going to attack. Kitchener is done, Asquith is done. You are done. We are done. In fact we are all done.”’ Second Lieutenant John Engall, 20, of the London Regiment, wrote to his parents on June 30.  TIMELINE  JUNE 24, 1916 The Allies begin a week-long bombardment of heavily fortified German positions on the River Somme.  JULY 1, 1916 The British Army suffers the greatest number of casualties in one day in its history as some 20,000 soldiers are killed and many more wounded in the opening salvo of the Battle of the Somme.  SEPT 15, 1916 Tanks are used on a battlefield for the first time as the British renew the offensive and attack German positions along a five-mile front. But there are few of the armoured vehicles, and they make little impact.  NOV 13, 1916 British troops capture the towns of Beaumont Hamel and Beaucourt at the northern end of the front. Five days later the battle ends, as the British and French decide to end the offensive.  ‘The day has almost dawned when I shall do my little bit in the cause of civilisation. Tomorrow morning I shall take my men – men whom I have got to love, and who, I think, have got to love me – over the top to do our bit. Engall was one of the 20,000 men killed the following day when around 150,000 British troops left their trenches to attack the German lines. Forty thousand men were wounded, many of them stranded in no-man’s-land. Pinned down by sniper fire, Sergeant Walter Popple of the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry decided it was better to get the inevitable over with and raised his head to give the enemy rifleman a clear shot.  ‘A sharp crack, and my helmet flew off and my neck stiffened,’ he later recalled.  ‘I sank to the ground. Utter silence. At first there was a buzzing sensation in my head and then sharp piercing darts of pain. Had I been killed as I first thought? I dared not lift my head and there I remained through the heat of the day, wondering if in fact part of my head had been blown away.’  When night fell, Popple crawled into a shell hole filled with bodies. He had been wounded but not seriously. He spent four days in the crater, by which time all the bodies around him had turned black, before he was able to summon the energy to crawl back to his own lines during the night.  The Battle of the Somme dragged on for months, through renewed assaults and phases of varying intensity, before finally ending in mid-November.  The British had suffered around 420,000 casualties, the French 195,000 and the Germans some 650,000. The Allies had gained around five miles.  For so long, the men had seen the battlefield through a trench periscope or a risky look over the top. They were finally able to see the ground, and they were profoundly shocked.  Second Lieutenant Geoffrey Fildes, of the Coldstream Guards, wrote: ‘From the open door of our goods van, we were able to realise more than ever before the magnitude and fury of the struggle of the previous autumn.  'In every direction stretched a desert of brown shell-ploughed slopes and hollows, and scattered upon the face of this landscape, clumps of splintered poles, gaunt and blackened by fire, marked the sites of former woods...  ‘Such a region as this, exceeding the limit of our vision in every direction, presented a scene surpassing human imagination. It haunted one like a nightmare.  ‘Life – human, animal, and vegetable – had been engulfed; not a leaf, hardly a blade of grass, no sound of bird, greeted us; all was done and finished with. Here indeed was the end of the world...’ PREPARING FOR BATTLE +18 Men of the 8th East Lancashire Regiment in waterlogged trenches near Foncquevillers, winter 1915 +18 120th Battery Royal Field Artillery gunners digging an emplacement for an 18-pounder field gun +18 Troops swim in the River Ancre, near Aveluy +18 Seaforth Highlanders enjoy a rare moment of relaxation in the sunshine in early September +18 Men of the 8th East Lancashire Regiment in waterlogged trenches near Foncquevillers, winter 1915 INTO NO-MAN'S LAND  The soldiers were relatively safe inside the trenches, but all that changed when they were ordered to go over the top... +18 Major Beauchamp McGrath of the East Lancashire Regiment in a flooded communication trench at Fonquevilliers in the winter of 1915. McGrath was killed on June 2, aged 44 +18 Three officers of the Yorkshire Regiment relax behind the lines. All were killed in the battle +18 Men prepare a mortar minutes before the infantry attack on Thiepval. Picture taken by Lieutenant Patrick Koekkoek +18 Urgency is etched on the faces of men running through a trench at Beaumont Hamel. Below: troops had to endure squalid conditions – note the rifle used as a tent pole +18 Troops had to endure squalid conditions – note the rifle used as a tent pole +18 One of the walking wounded from the fighting at Mametz Wood walks through the Pommier Redoubt ENEMY: 'THE HUN'  +18 German soldiers relax in their trenches +18 German defences at the edge of the Thiepval Spur, a position that overlooked the British +18 German prisoners are marched to captivity by Australian soldiers +18 British officers of 183 Tunnelling Company sport highly prized German ‘pickelhaube’ helmets, captured from the enemy Fear and loathing... dispatches from the front line Soldiers tell their terrifying Somme stories ‘Bodies were riddled with bullets’  Private Sydney Fuller, 8th Suffolk Regiment, was involved in the September assault on the German bastion of Thiepval. He described reaching the enemy lines, which had been heavily bombarded.  ‘Two of the enemy were lying dead on the top of the dugout entrances, wearing their steel helmets and equipment, and with their rifles under them, just as they had died, riddled with bullets. Another was lying, buried almost to the neck by a shell which had dropped near, but still alive. I shall never forget the expression on this man’s face – ghastly white, his eyes staring with terror, unable to move, while our chaps threw bombs past him down the dugout stairs. The explosions of the bombs in the dugouts could be felt rather than heard – we could feel the shock of the explosion, but the sound was deadened by the depth of the dugout. One little German popped out, wearing his steel helmet, holding both hands above his head, and crying “Mercy, mercy!” He was shot at once, and dropped like an empty sack.’  ‘I didn’t expect to survive the day’ Having been shot twice, Private Henry Russell, of The London Regiment, managed to make it into a shell hole where he found a wounded comrade.  ‘He told me that he had been shot through the middle of the back and that the bullet had emerged through his left ear. We were lying together, he wondering whether we would finish up in the same hospital. I could not help feeling that he was being rather optimistic. I did not expect that we could survive the day... ‘We had not long to wait before a shell burst on the edge of our hole; it killed my colleague and injured me in such a way that I was virtually emasculated.’ As the barrage continued, Russell reckoned that the situation was hopeless and elected to kill himself. ‘I managed to get hold of the bottle of rum which I had put in my haversack, and drank the lot hoping that it would result in my death. In fact, it did me no harm at all. It probably made me slightly merry and bright and rather stupefied. It also probably caused me to drop off to sleep. I came to the conclusion, when I had recovered my senses, that, in spite of my condition (my left arm being torn and the bone shattered, my left thigh damaged, my right leg wounded and strips of flesh hanging down from my abdomen) it was still worthwhile making a serious effort to save myself.’  ‘Sir, we are your prisoners’  Second Lieutenant Arthur Young, 7th Royal Irish Fusiliers, was impressed by the élan of one the enemy officers.  ‘When Captain O’Donnell’s company rushed a trench round the corner of the wood, a German officer surrendered in great style. He stood to attention, gave a clinking salute, and said in perfect English, “Sir, myself, this other officer, and ten men are your prisoners.” Captain O’Donnell said: “Right you are, old chap!”’  ‘Both of his hands were blown off’  Major Rowland Fielding, 1st Coldstream Guards, was billeted in a village behind the front line, but even there, safety was not guaranteed.  ‘This morning at ten o’clock, I went to Mass. As I was leaving the church I met Cecil Trafford, who asked me to his mess (Headquarters, 1st Scots Guards). ‘The latter is a house with a small yard in front of it. As we were crossing this there was a sudden loud explosion, and bits flew through the air about us. We looked round and saw [Second Lieutenant] Leach, the bombing officer of the battalion (who had just come from visiting my own mess), on the ground, four or five yards away. He lay on his back, in a pool of blood, his arms outstretched and both his hands blown off. ‘I later learnt some particulars about poor Leach’s accident. He was detonating [arming] a bomb in the orderly room, which is a shed opening onto the yard, when the safety pin slipped. Seeing that it was going to explode, and some of his men being in the shed, after ordering them to lie down, he picked up the bomb and dashed outside to get rid of it. He then had less than four seconds in which to decide what to do. I can only suppose that seeing Cecil and myself in the middle of the yard he came to the conclusion that his one chance of throwing it safely away was gone. ‘So he turned his back to us, faced the wall, and hugging the bomb in his hands, allowed the bomb to explode between his body and the wall. ‘It is impossible to speak much of such courage and self-sacrifice. He is since dead. ‘He was only 22.’  ‘The poor beasts dragged to hell’  It was not only the soldiers who suffered on the Somme, as Private David Polley, 189th Machine Gun Company, Machine Gun Corps, reported.  ‘To me, one of the beastliest things of the whole war was the way animals had to suffer. It mattered not to them if the Kaiser ruled the whole world; and yet the poor beasts were dragged into hell to haul rations and gear over shell-swept roads and field paths full of holes to satisfy the needs of their lords and masters. Bah! Many a gallant horse or mule who had his entrails torn out by a lump of shell was finer in every way than some of the human creatures he was serving. I believe I might normally be described as a peaceful, easy going sort of chap, but the sight of a team of horses, hitched to a limber, on a road in the forward areas, screaming with fright at a shell burst in the ditch beside them, turned my mind in such a direction, and instilled a desire to wipe out those responsible for the poor brutes’ presence.’  ‘Blood and entrails... it’s obscene’  Capt Theodore Wilson, 10th Sherwood Foresters, was angered by the glorification of war.  ‘Whatever war journalists may say, or poets either, blood and entrails and spilled brains are obscene. I read a critique of [English writer] Le Gallienne out here, in which he takes Rupert Brooke to task for talking of war as “cleanness”. Le Gallienne is right. War is about the most unclean thing on Earth. There are clean virtues about it – comradeship and a whittling away of nonessentials, and sheer stark triumphs of spirit over shrinking nerves, but it’s the calculated death, the deliberate tearing of fine young bodies – if you’ve once seen a bright-eyed fellow suddenly turned to a goggling idiot, with his own brains trickling down into his eyes from under his cap – as I’ve done – you’re either a peacemaker or a degenerate.’  How I uncovered the Somme secrets  For me, as a writer and film-maker specialising in World War I, the Somme is a special place.  It was the first Great War battlefield that I visited, back in 1985, and I have returned at least once every year since and intend to be there for the 100th anniversary this year.  To mark the centenary of the battle, I have assembled a collection of extraordinary photographs, taken on their own illegally held cameras, by the men who fought there.  There were just two official photographers on the Western Front and the Army threatened disciplinary action against anyone else found with a camera.  The top brass had banned their use just before Christmas 1914, when it was discovered that soldiers were selling their photos to the press.  Fortunately, cameras were still kept by a small number of officers and even fewer other ranks. In the main, private photographs were not taken in moments of critical danger – the men had more pressing issues to take care of.  The pictures shown here, the vast majority never published before, have come from a variety of sources: from online auctioneers to regimental museums; direct from the families of the men who fought; and from repositories such as the Imperial War Museums.  The words are from soldiers’ diaries, letters and memoirs.  A century on, they give a different perspective of the war.  Metal detection: Mike St Maur Sheil's picture of the Somme battlefield today where farmers are still finding shells and war debris known as the 'Iron harvest' Monument: Grave of French soldier Edouard Ivaldi in Champagne. This is the only grave left from WW1 and still has Ivaldi's helmet marking the spot he fell in 1917 Crossfire: German cemetery at Le Linge near the Weiss valley which was attacked by the French in 1915. Today the German tranches are remarkably well preserved. Laid to rest: German cemetery on the battlefield of Tete des Faux - the highest point on the Western Front. 10 million soldiers died in the conflict almost 100 years ago Ruins: The remains of the Chateau de Soupir after the village in northern France was cleared by elite British unit the Brigade of Guards on the 14th September 1914 Obliterated: Original site of the village of Butte de Vaquois which was destroyed between Feb 1915 and Feb 1918. American forces captured the hill on Sept 26 1918 Killing fields: An image of rich farmland at the Somme from a photographic collection showing how the battlefields of the Great War still shape today's landscape Aerial bombardment: The scarred landscape of Beaumont Hamel on the Somme taken from the air shows the wartime topography preserved after almost 100 years   The Somme Road near High Wood. Somme 1.7.1916   Battle of the Somme, the Attack of the Ulster Division by J P Beadle. Beadle's painting is one of a number displayed in the Ulster Tower, a memorial to the men of the 36th (Ulster) Division. The Tower is located near to the Schwaben Redoubt, which the Division attacked on July 1, 1916, and is also close to the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme. Arras War Memorial 3. Clear evidence of fighting around the area of the monument,note holes in the side of the memorial. The damage to the French soldier on the monument is out of proportion to the damage on the rest of the memorial. Did the Germans desecrate this in World War 2? British Front line,Serre,1916 This stretch of dirt road ,between Serre Road Cemetery number 3 (out of shot,over right shoulder) and Mark Luke and John Copses,is just about on the British front line trench in 1916. The trench came in from bottom left,roughly followed the stretch of roag until it reached the copses (about a third of the way in from the left of the trees. It then took a dog leg to the right and followed the line of the front of the trees. Needless to say,there were no trees in 1916. German lines ran on the right of this picture,parrallel to the Britsih lines

The Somme The Thiepval Memorial

Prisoners rolling in from Les Boefs on the 25th September showing a tank in the distance. German prisoners march down the road towards the photographer, probably John Warwick Brooke. Some of the Germans are wounded and are being helped by their comrades. They are led by a British soldier with his rifle at the ready and bayonet fixed. Other British soldiers watch in the foreground. Tanks had been used in the war for the first time only ten days earlier on 15 September, 1916. The early tanks were cumbersome and often got stuck.

THE SOMME

From the Somme fought in 1916 where over a million lost their lives to El Alamein in 1942, Richard Holmes' top British military victories 1 THE SOMME 1916 The most costly battle ever fought by the British Army, the Somme (below) lasted from July to November 1916. Britain and her Empire suffered almost 420,000 casualties, the French 204,000 and the Germans over 500,000. The battle was marked by the courage and inexperience of Britain's volunteer 'New Armies', the unfamiliarity of commanders with fighting on this scale, and German professionalism. Its first day, July 1, remains the bloodiest in British history - and there was no breakthrough. Yet the Allied assault aided the French at Verdun, probably keeping them in the war, and provoked the Germans into waging unrestricted submarine warfare, thus bringing the U.S. into the conflict. The Somme was far from being perfectly conceived or flawlessly executed, but in all its anguish, squalor and endurance, it is Britain's greatest battle.  The Battle of the Somme was the mostly costly battle ever fought by the British Army Somme Offensive, took place during the First World War between 1 July and 18 November 1916 on either side of the river Somme in France. The battle saw the British Army, supported by contingents from British imperial territories, including Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, Canada, India and South Africa, mount a joint offensive with the French Army against the German Army, which had occupied large areas of France since its invasion of the country in August 1914. The Battle of the Somme was one of the largest battles of the war; by the time fighting paused in late autumn 1916, the forces involved had suffered more than 1 million casualties, making it one of the bloodiest military operations ever recorded. The plan for the Somme offensive evolved out of Allied strategic discussions at Chantilly, Oise in December 1915. Chaired by GeneralJoseph Joffre, the commander-in-chief of the French Army, Allied representatives agreed on a concerted offensive against the Central Powers in 1916 by the French, British, Italian and Russian armies. The Somme offensive was to be the Anglo-French contribution to this general offensive and was intended to create a rupture in the German line which could then be exploited with a decisive blow. With the German attack on Verdun on the River Meuse in February 1916, the Allies were forced to adapt their plans. The British Army took the lead on the Somme, though the French contribution remained significant. The opening day of the battle saw the British Army suffer the worst day in its history, sustaining nearly 60,000 casualties. Because of the composition of the British Army, at this point a volunteer force with many battalions comprising men from particular localities, these losses (and those of the campaign as a whole) had a profound social impact. The battle is also remembered for the first use of the tank. At the end of the battle, British and French forces had penetrated 6 miles (9.7 km) into German occupied territory, with the British Army still three miles (5 km) from Bapaume, a major objective. The German Army maintained its frontline over the winter of 1916-17, before withdrawing from the Somme battlefield in February 1917 to the fortified Hindenburg Line. The unidentified soldier (right) was part of the First Australian Imperial Force during WWI The conduct of the battle has been a source of controversy: senior officers such as General Sir Douglas Haig, the commander of theBritish Expeditionary Force and Henry Rawlinson, the commander of Fourth Army, have been criticised for incurring very severe casualties while failing to achieve their territorial objectives. Other historians have portrayed the Somme as a preliminary to the defeat of the German Army and one which taught the British Army tactical and operational lessons. The original British Expeditionary Force, six divisions strong at the start of the war, had been wiped out by the battles of 1914 and 1915. The bulk of the army was now made up of volunteers of theTerritorial Force and Lord Kitchener's New Army, which had begun forming in August 1914. The expansion demanded generals for the senior commands, so promotion came at a rapid pace and did not always reflect ability. Haig started the war as the commanding officer of British I Corps, then was promoted to command the British First Army and then the BEF, an army group eventually comprising sixty divisions in five armies. This vast increase in numbers diluted troop quality and undermined the confidence inexperienced commanders had in their men; this was especially true of Rawlinson. Allied war strategy before the Somme The Allied war strategy for 1916 was largely formulated during a conference at Chantilly between 6–8 December 1915. It was decided that for the next year, simultaneous offensives would be mounted by the Russians in the east, the Italians (who had by now joined the Entente) in the Alps and the Anglo-French on the Western Front, thereby assailing the Central Powers from all sides. An overall view of the front in the region of the Somme before the battle. By 19 December 1915, General Sir Douglas Haig had replaced General Sir John French as Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force(BEF). Haig favoured a British offensive in Flanders— it was close to BEF supply routes via the Channel ports and had a strategic goal of driving the Germans from the North Sea coast of Belgium, from which their U-boats were menacing Britain. Although there was no formal order of seniority, the British were still the "junior partner" on the Western Front and had to largely comply with French policy, even though Haig did not report to General Joseph Joffre, the French Commander. In January 1916, Joffre had agreed to the BEF making their main effort in Flanders but after further discussions in February, the decision was reached to mount a combined offensive where the French and British armies were to launch their assault astride the Somme River in Picardy. During February 1916, plans for the joint offensive on the Somme were still in the hands of the General Staff when the Germans began an offensive against the French at Verdun. As the French committed themselves to defending Verdun, their capacity to carry out their role on the Somme was significantly reduced and the burden shifted to the British. France would end up contributing three corps to the opening of the attack (the XX, I Colonial and XXXV Corps of the 6th Army). As the Battle of Verdun dragged on, the aim of the Somme offensive changed from delivering a decisive blow against Germany, to relieving the pressure on the French army, the balance of forces changing to 13 French and 20 British divisions at the Somme. Strategic differences between Haig and Rawlinson A disagreement over tactics arose between Sir Douglas Haig and his senior local commander, General Sir Henry Rawlinson, General Officer Commanding the British Fourth Army. Haig ordered that the objectives were "... relieving the pressure on the French at Verdun and inflicting loss on the enemy." ('G.H.Q. letter O.A.D. 12 to General Sir H. Rawlinson, 16 June 1916 Stating the Objectives')[13] and that preparations should be made for an advance of 7 miles (11 km) to Bapaume should German resistance crumble, "If the first attack goes well every effort must be made to develop the success to the utmost by firstly opening a way for our cavalry and then as quickly as possible pushing the cavalry through to seize Bapaume...." (Note O.A.D. 17, Dated 21 June 1916).[14] He prepared to do this by first bombarding the enemy relentlessly for a week with a million shells. Following up this massive display of artillery would be twenty-two British and French divisions, passing through the barriers and occupying the trenches filled with stunned German soldiers so that his divisions could head off into the open.[15] He wrote to the British General Staff that "the advance was to be pressed eastward far enough to enable our cavalry to push through into the open country beyond the enemy's prepared lines of defense." Rawlinson anticipated an advance in the form of "bites" into the German defenses. This "bite and hold" method was based upon his experience, as in the Second Battle of Ypres where the Germans used 2,000 yards (1,800 m) worth of solid defence in the face of fire to achieve success.[18] He perceived this to be a sort of siege warfare that would be limited but positive as in action inMessines in 1915. Rawlinson would soon compromise with Haig's plan, despite his views on the matter. He gradually changed his mind over the tactical approach offered by Haig and even went so far as to tell his men that "the infantry would only have to walk over to take possession." German preparation on the eve of battle The German Army, on the defence, held the high ground and were aware of the intended attack; they had been practically unmolested since October 1914, which had allowed the time needed to construct extensive trench lines and deep shellproof bunkers. British intelligence had underestimated the strength of the German defences. The German bunkers were up to thirty feet deep and could resist artillery fire. Barbed wire obstacles in front of the German positions would require a lot more to break through and any shells that happened to strike the wire had merely tangled it more, making it even more dangerous. A report from a senior British officer in the field, General Aylmer Hunter-Weston of the VIII Corps, added to the myth that the wire could be cut by bombardment when he wrote that "the troops could walk in." This contradicted a junior officer who was serving under his command, who saw that the wire had not been removed effectively, that he"could see it standing strong and well." Uncut wire posed a severe hazard to attacking infantry. Battle of Albert, 1–13 July Battle of Albert (1916) Before the infantry advanced, the artillery had been called into action. Barrages in the past had depended on surprise and poor German bunkers for success; however, these conditions did not exist in the area of the Somme. To add to the difficulties involved in penetrating the German defences, of 1,437 British guns, only 467 were heavies, and just 34 of those were of 9.2" (234 mm) or greater calibre. In the end, only 30 tons of explosive would fall per mile of British front. Of the 12,000 tons fired, two thirds of it was shrapnel and only 900 tons of it was capable of penetrating bunkers.[23] To make matters worse, British gunners lacked the accuracy to bring fire in on close German trenches, keeping a safe separation of 300 yards (270 m), compared to the French gunners' 60 yards (55 m)—and British troops were often less than 300 yd (270 m) away, meaning German fortifications were untouched by the barrage.[23] The infantry then crawled out into no man's land early so they could rush the front German trench as soon as the barrage lifted. Despite the heavy bombardment, many of the German defenders had survived, protected in deep dugouts and they were able to inflict a terrible toll on the infantry. First day on the Somme: 1 July Main article: First day on the Somme "Before the blackness of their burst had thinned or fallen the hand of time rested on the half-hour mark, and all along that old front line of the English there came a whistling and a crying. The men of the first wave climbed up the parapets, in tumult, darkness, and the presence of death, and having done with all pleasant things, advanced across No Man's Land to begin the Battle of the Somme." The Old Front Line, John Masefield Explosion of the Hawthorn Ridge mine, 7:20 am, 1 July 1916. Photo by Ernest Brooks. Zero hour was officially set at 7:30 am for 1 July 1916 Ten minutes prior to zero hour, an officer detonated a 40,000-pound (18,000 kg) mine beneathHawthorn Ridge Redoubt. Originally the mine was supposed to be set off at zero hour but as the VIII Corps commander, Lt-Gen Hunter-Weston (who had wanted to detonate four hours earlier, a proposal which was vetoed by the Inspector of Mines at BEF GHQ), remembered, both the 29th Division commander and the Brigade commander that were involved in the planning fought for ten minutes prior to zero hour. He said that they were concerned about large pieces harming the advancing British infantry.[27] A Royal Engineer in the 252nd Tunnelling Company confirmed this, saying after the war that after he complained about the earlier time to the VIII Corps staff, they told him that the reason for the time was that they "feared the results of their men going across."[28] Soon after, the remaining mines were set off, with the exception of one mine at Kasino Point, which detonated at 7:27 a.m.[29]When zero hour came, there was a brief and unsettling silence as artillery shifted their aim to a new line of targets and the time of the infantry to advance had come. The attack was made by thirteen British divisions- eleven from the Fourth Army and two from the Third Army) north of the Somme River and eleven divisions of the French Sixth Army just to the south of the river. They were opposed by the German Second Army of General Fritz von Below. The axis of the advance was centred on the Roman road that ran from Albert in the west to Bapaume 12 miles (19 km) to the northeast.[30] British infantry attack plan for 1 July. The only success came in the south at Mametzand Montauban and on the French sector.  North of the Albert-Bapaume road, the advance was almost a complete failure.[31] Communications were completely inadequate, as commanders were largely ignorant of the progress of the battle. A mistaken report by General Beauvoir De Lisle of the 29th Division proved to be fatal. By misinterpreting a German flare as success by the 87th Brigade at Beaumont Hamel, it led to the reserves being ordered forward.[32] The eight hundred and one men from the 1st Newfoundland Regiment marched onto the battlefield from the reserves and only 68 made it out unharmed with over 500 of 801 dead. This one day of fighting had snuffed out a major portion of an entire generation of Newfoundlanders. British attacks astride the Albert-Bapaume road also failed, despite the explosion of two mines at La Boisselle. Here another tragic advance was made by theTyneside Irish Brigade of the 34th Division, which started nearly one mile from the German front line, in full view of German machine-guns. The Irish Brigade was wiped out before it reached the front trench line. In the sector south of the Albert-Bapaume road, the British and French divisions found greater success.[31] Here the German defences were relatively weak, and the French artillery, which was superior in numbers and experience to the British, was highly effective. From Mametz to Montauban and the Somme River, all the first-day objectives were reached.[35] Though the French XX Corps was to only act in a supporting role in this sector, in the event they would help lead the way. South of the Somme, French forces fared very well, surpassing their objectives.[35] The I Colonial Corps departed their trenches at 9:30 am as part of a feint meant to lure the Germans opposite into a false sense of security. The feint was successful as, like the French divisions to the north, they advanced 5 miles (8.0 km). They had stormed Fay, Dompierre and Becquincourt, extending the capture of German lines along a fourteen mile (21 km) front from Mametz to Fay.[36] To the right of the Colonial Corps, the XXXV Corps also attacked at 9:30 am but, having only one division in the first line, had made less progress.[36] The German trenches had been overwhelmed, and the enemy had been surprised by the attack. Over 3,000 German prisoners had been taken and the French had captured 80 German guns. The first day on the Somme achieved success for the southern Allied forces but suffered tactical disaster on 2/3 of the British front. Assessments of the success of the assault have been limited. Middlebrook claims that 1 July was a British success, for the Germans immediately started closing down their attack at Verdun. The British assault had been on such a scale that success, in this limited sense, had been inevitable. The terrible losses made it a success hardly worth having.[38] A wounded man of the Newfoundland Regiment is brought in at Beaumont Hamel Edmonds refers to disastrous loss of the finest manhood of the United Kingdom and Ireland for only a small gain of ground to show.[39] He also writes that a substantial success had been won upon half the total frontage of the Allied attack; for the French astride the Somme, and the British between Maricourt and Fricourt had driven the enemy from his front position. In this area at least he had lost heavily in killed, wounded and prisoners, much of his artillery had been destroyed, and considerable disorganisation had set in.[40] It would have been in accordance with the tactical principles of "siege-warfare in the field" if Sir Douglas Haig had stopped his attacks after the limited success of 1 July and proceeded to try elsewhere. Unfortunately such a course was not possible. Although the Allied armies had not achieved all that they had hoped and expected on 1 July 1916, Philpott asserts that they momentarily gained the upper hand. While the German defence had not been broken completely, it had all but collapsed on a large section of its front astride the Somme. By the early afternoon, a 'broad breach' existed north of the river. 'However clumsy the British offensive, it had wrested the initiative from the Germans and was inflicting punishing casualties on them. Allied strategy was working.'[43] The British had suffered 19,240 dead, 35,493 wounded, 2,152 missing and 585 prisoners for a total loss of 57,470.[44] This meant that in one day of fighting, 20% of the entire British fighting force had been killed, in addition to the complete loss of the Newfoundland Regiment as a fighting unit. Haig and Rawlinson did not know the enormity of the casualties and injuries from the battle and actually considered resuming the offensive as soon as possible.[45] In fact, Haig, in his diary the next day, wrote that "...the total casualties are estimated at over 40,000 to date. This cannot be considered severe in view of the numbers engaged, and the length of front attacked." Continuing the attack: 2–13 July An aerial view of the Somme battlefield in July, taken from a British balloon nearBécourt German reaction by the General Staff to the first day's events was one of surprise; they did not expect such a big attack by the British. General Erich von Falkenhayn, agitated by the additional losses in one sector of the Somme front, sacked the Chief of Staff of the Second Army and replaced him with Colonel Fritz von Lossberg, his operations officer.[47] Lossberg did not readily accept this promotion, as he vehemently disagreed with the conduct of the offensive at Verdun. He wanted it stopped and Falkenhayn agreed to this condition. He ultimately took control of the Second Army but Falkenhayn did not keep his promise and attacks in the Verdun sector went on.[47] Von Lossberg contributed greatly to the German defence in his part of the front, scrapping the old ideas of front line defence with a new 'defence in depth' idea. Lines of German defenders would be held in reserve, poised at the ready while the thin front line would ensure a much smaller amount of casualties.[47] The decisive issue of the war depends on the victory of the Second Army on the Somme. We must win this battle in spite of the enemy's temporary superiority in artillery and infantry. The important ground lost in certain places will be recaptured by our attack after the arrival of reinforcements. The vital thing is to hold on to our present positions at all costs and to improve them. I forbid the voluntary evacuation of trenches. The will to stand firm must be impressed on every man in the army. The enemy should have to carve his way over heaps of corpses..."[48] Assessments by Haig and Rawlinson on 2 July were lacking in the failure to secure objectives during the first day of the offensive. Despite this, planning for their next move was conducted between Haig, Rawlinson and Joffre. Haig felt that gains in the south should be exploited, Rawlinson wanted to stick to the original plan by pressing along the entire front and Joffre demanded that Haig aim to capture the heights of Thiepval Ridge[49] but Haig would not agree to this and Joffre then referred him to General Foch to settle the matter. Foch remembers that Haig was "upset with his losses... and that therefore he was not much inclined to attack again at Thiepval-Serre, but proposed to exploit the success farther south. This infuriated Joffre, who simply went for Haig, and was quite brutal."[50] On the morning of 3 July, the northern part of the front bisected by the Albert-Bapaume road had been a problem for the British, as only a part of La Boisselle had been taken. The road to Contalmaison beyond La Boisselle was important to the British because the town of Contalmaison enjoyed a high position where the Germans protected their artillery, a focal point in the center of the front line.[51] The position south of the Albert-Bapaume road proved to be much more favourable to the advancing British, where they had achieved success. The line from Fricourt to Mametz Wood and on to Delville Wood near Longueval was overrun in due course, however the line beyond was more difficult to navigate because of dense forests.[52] As the British struggled to jump-start their offensive, the French continued their rapid advance south of the Somme. By 3 July, only three of the twelve original divisions of the British army slated for attack had been active since the first day. Since a period of stagnation had set in on the British part of the front, a simmering hostility rose up among the rank and file of the French army. Officers in the Sixth Army even went so far as to call the offensive that had taken place so far "for amateurs by amateurs."[53] Despite the negative feelings, the I Colonial Corps pressed on and by the end of the day, Méréaucourt Wood, Herbécourt, Buscourt, Chapitre Wood, Flaucourt and Asseviller were all in French hands. The first town to be captured was Frise which held a 77-gun battery, found intact by French soldiers. In so doing, 8,000 Germans had been made prisoner, while the taking of the Flaucourt plateau would allow Foch to move heavy artillery up to support the XX Corps on the north bank.[55] The French continued their attack on 5 July as Hem was taken. On 8 July, Hardecourt-aux-Bois and Monacu Farm (a veritable fortress, surrounded by hidden machine-gun nests in the nearby marsh) both fell, followed by Biaches, Maisonnette and Fortress Biaches on 9 July and 10 July. Rethondes, zoom on Maréchal Foch Rethondes, Statue of Maréchal Foch who signed the end of the World War I on 11th November 1918. Ferdinand Foch OM GCB (2 October 1851 – 20 March 1929) was a French soldier, military theorist, and writer credited with possessing "the most original and subtle mind in the French army" in the early 20th century.[1] He served as general in the French army during World War I and was made Marshal of France in its final year: 1918. Shortly after the start of the Spring Offensive, Germany's final attempt to win the war, Foch was chosen as supreme commander of the Allied armies, a position that he held until 11 November 1918, when he accepted the German request for an armistice. In 1923 he was made Marshal of Poland. He advocated peace terms that would make Germany unable to pose a threat to France ever again. His words after the Treaty of Versailles, "This is not a peace. It is an armistice for twenty years" would prove exactly prophetic; World War II started almost twenty years later Result of the battle Thus, in ten days of fighting, on nearly a 121⁄2 miles (20 kilometres) front, the French 6th Army had progressed as far as six miles (10 km) at points. It had occupied the entire Flaucourt plateau (which constituted the principal defence of Péronne) while taking 12,000 prisoners, 85 cannon, 26 minenwerfers, 100 machine guns, and other assorted materials, all with relatively minimal losses. For the British, the first two weeks of the battle had degenerated into a series of disjointed, small-scale actions, ostensibly in preparation for making a major push. From 3 to 13 July, Rawlinson's Fourth Army carried out 46 "actions" resulting in 25,000 casualties, but no significant advance. This demonstrated a difference in strategy between Haig and his French counterparts and was a source of friction. Haig's purpose was to maintain continual pressure on the enemy, while Joffre and Foch preferred to conserve their strength in preparation for a single, heavy blow. The fact that the French and British lacked an overall commander was hardly a benefit for the Entente. British generals wouldn't accept that their soldiers should stand under French command, and the French generals argued in the same way for their soldiers. (It was first at the last winter of the war, in 1918, after strong pressure from the United States on the United Kingdom, that the French fieldmarshal Ferdinand Foch became supreme commander of the entire western front.) Joffre and Pershing in the Governor's Gardens, Paris"Joffre and Pershing in Governor's Gardens, Paris" "Joffre and Pershing! Here are two men who accepted responsibilities and made decisions which affected the lives of millions, which influenced the destinies of nations: "Papa" Joffre, as the French affectionately called him, Marshall of France and Commander-in-chief of her armies in those fateful early days of the war when everything hung upon the right decisions; and General Pershing, "Black Jack", as the American soldiers dubbed him in appreciation of his stern soldierly qualities, Commander-in-chief of our armies overseas. "By winning the Battle of Marne, Marshal Joffre saved Paris and in saving Paris saved France and in all probability the world; by driving the Germans from St. Mihiel, that arrowhead thrust threateningly towards the heart of France. by his co-operation with Marshal Foch at Soissons, Chateau-Thierry and many other places, and by the terrific force of his drive in the Argonne, General Pershing arrested the march of the victorious German host and dealt the final blow which led to its defeat. "The fame of these men will live secure in the hearts of their countrymen. Joffre was chosen a member of the French Academy, one of the greatest honors that France can bestow. Pershing, aside from the decorations given him by his own country, has received honorary degrees from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, in England, and the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor from France, the Grand Cross of the Bath from Great Britain, and a number of other Allied nations the highest military decorations within their power to bestow" Once Fair Village of Coucy, near Reims, France "Village of Coucy, Near Reims "It seems like a city of the dead, this once fair French village, a city of days gone by, a replica of the ruins of Pompeii or the time-worn temples of Greece, exposed to modern eyes by th pick of an explorer. Not a living soul is visible, not a sign of animal life is to be seen! There is nothing but ruins and rubbish which the shells of heavy guns have churned over and over.   "The ground is pitted with shell holes, broken and lined with trenches. The inhabitants have fled, driven from their homes by a war that spared neither man, woman, nor child. Desolation has settled upon the place. Even the trees seem lifeless, scorched by the hot breath of war. What a scene for the villagers when those who survive return! "The inhabitants of many French towns and villages experienced the same fate as those of this village. Caught between the contending armies, they were forced to flee for life while their homes were ground to fragments. At most they could carry with them but a small part of their possessions. Often they were forced to depart with almost nothing, to live upon the charity of strangers. After the war was over, returning with hope in their hearts-- for a Frenchman always returns to his home-- they found ruins. That is what this war brought to a large part of France, this war entirely unprovoked on her part. "No town in the neighborhood of Reims escaped unscathed. Reims, held for a few days by the Germans early in the war, became the object of their resentment. Since they could not retake it, they smashed it; it and the villages in the neighborhood. Coucy but shared the fate of others." Trenches & bomb craters. Battle of the Somme. I World War.Canadian Battlefield Memorial Park. France. Devasated [sic] Arras, "Grande Place" Section Visited by Peace Conference Delegates, France Tanks attack on Thiepval Tank moving across a battlefield at Thiepval, France. The tank appears to be moving over the top of a trench. In the trench there is a group of soldiers carefully watching it, they are all wearing steel helmets. There are also two soldiers standing next to the tank and some men visible further along the trench. The ground is extremely muddy and uneven, and strewn with debris. The tank was developed and introduced by the British and French during World War I. It was first used at the Battle of the Somme on 15 September 1916, in a desperate bid to break the deadlock. Trench mortar school mascot on a German trench mortar. Man standing next to a captured German trench mortar. There is a tiny monkey sitting on the barrel of the trench mortar. The man is holding the monkey's hand and is looking closely at the monkey's face. They are standing on an area bordered by trees and bushes. There is a duckboard path running across the ground directly behind them. It is a charming and sweet photograph offering a momentary escape from the madness of war. Many soldiers adopted animals, often abandoned or left behind by their owners, and kept them as pets or mascots. Front view of a tank coming out of action Front of a tank. According to the photograph's original caption it is returning from a battle. The caterpillar tracks are caked in mud from the battlefield. There are two viewing holes at the front of the tank and on the side there is a weapon, a machine gun or cannon. A soldier wearing an overcoat and leather boots is standing to the left of the tank. Tanks were developed and introduced during World War I, by France and Britain. Initially Germans were scared by what they saw, however, it quickly became apparent that these large machines were rather unreliable and unwieldy. Throughout the war, tank design underwent further development and refinement. Drawing rations from the railhead Soldiers unloading supply trains, France. This image shows a scene at a railhead, with the contents of two long lines of railway carriages being unloaded. Between two sets of railway tracks there are soldiers and horse-drawn carts milling around. Some of the carts are loaded with hay or straw, probably food supplies for the horses. It is a scene of much activity, with supplies being moved from the railway carriages onto the horse-drawn carts. Railways were vital throughout the war for transporting large supplies of food, arms and equipment to the Front. In the transportation of food it was particularly important to get supplies to the troops quickly and efficiently Bringing in the wounded Two soldiers carrying a wounded soldier on a stretcher, France. This is a rather disorientating picture as a lot of different backgrounds are portrayed. The soldiers are walking through what appears to be a field of corn. In the distance there are large grass embankments. Sandwiched between the two are large mounds of building rubble. The soldiers are uniformed and wearing their helmets. The soldier on the stretcher has had his helmet removed. Sergeant Gilbert Feiro commented in a letter written in December 1918, that after a German air raid 'I got them [the wounded] fixed up and sent back for ten litter bearers and finally about daylight got them started back for the hospital.' When a train is signalled they all rush off to their ambulances Ambulance drivers preparing to meet an incoming train, France, during World War I. There is a row of ambulances parked facing away from the camera, along the back of the photograph. They are canvas-covered trucks with crosses painted on them and a vent opening at the back. They are fenced in by tall trees. There are seven women running, fanned-out, across the muddy open ground in front. They are wearing long, heavy coats and leather helmets. Driving an ambulance, along with nursing, was one of the few callings which allowed women to participate in the war near the front line. I heard the Ancre flow Context: nearby where the D73 crosses the Ancre below Thiepval ridge lie these scenes. Are they the remains of the mill or bridge in Edmund Blunden's poem The Ancre at Hamel: Afterwards.... Where tongues were loud and hearts were light I heard the Ancre flow: Walking oft at the mid of night I heard the Ancre flow. I heard it crying, that sad rill, Below the painful ridge By the burnt unraftered mill And the relic of a bridge

"The Battle of the Somme is a 1916 British documentary and propaganda film. Shot by two official cinematographers, Geoffrey Malins and John McDowell, the film depicts the British Army's preparations for, and the early stages of, the battle of the Somme. Premiered in London on 10 August 1916 and released generally on 21 August, while the battle continued in France, the film gave a very graphic depiction of trench warfare, showing dead and wounded British and German soldiers. The film was a massive success, selling some twenty million tickets in its first six weeks of release in Britain and going on to be distributed in eighteen other countries. A second film, covering a later phase of the battle, was released in 1917 as The Battle of the Ancre and the Advance of the Tanks. Preserved in the film archive of the Imperial War Museum since 1920, the film was inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in 2005. The film has since been digitally restored and released on DVD in 2008. A soldier is watched by his comrades as he sleeps in the trenches in France during WWI. The image reflects the basic conditions soldiers were forced to endure. The British 21st Division attack on Bazentin le Petit, 14 July 1916. The area captured by 9.00 am is shown by the dashed red line. The Somme, France. Peronne Historical Museum During the battle of the Somme in 1916 Peronne lay in the French sector. In March 1917 the Germans retreated to the Hindenburg Line, leaving the town in ruins. In March 1918 the German army recaptured the town and held it until September 1918 when it was finally taken by the 2nd Australian Division. The Historical Museum was opened in 1995 and is housed in a restored medieval Chateau. The Somme, France. Peronne Historical Museum During the battle of the Somme in 1916 Peronne lay in the French sector. In March 1917 the Germans retreated to the Hindenburg Line, leaving the town in ruins. In March 1918 the German army recaptured the town and held it until September 1918 when it was finally taken by the 2nd Australian Division. The Historical Museum was opened in 1995 and is housed in a restored medieval Chateau. The Somme, France. Peronne Historical Museum During the battle of the Somme in 1916 Peronne lay in the French sector. In March 1917 the Germans retreated to the Hindenburg Line, leaving the town in ruins. In March 1918 the German army recaptured the town and held it until September 1918 when it was finally taken by the 2nd Australian Division. The Historical Museum was opened in 1995 and is housed in a restored medieval Chateau. Somme Winter 1916-1917 Diorama Sculpture: Wallace Anderson Painting: Louis McCubbin, George Browning Somme winter, 1916–17 depicts a trench located west of Gueudecourt. It shows the grim conditions Australians fought and lived in. The small funk hole, roofed by duckboard and covered with a waterproof sheet, is where the men mostly slept during winter. Work began on the diorama in 1923. The work was previously referred to as Gueudecourt and Life in the trenches at Gueudecourt, Somme 1916–17. It was first displayed at the Memorial in Aeroplane Hall and relocated to the Western Front gallery in 1970. During the Battle of Somme, the town of Gueudecourt had comprised one of the most distant objectives for the British drive that opened on 15 September 1916, a drive that has come to be known as the Battle of Flers-Courcelette. Although the British had not been able to take Gueudecourt during the battle’s commencement, continual fighting had brought the town within reach by September 25, when the Battle of Morval opened. The primary trench-lines that guarded the town, and through which the 21st Division of the XV Corps had to assault, were Goat Trench, Gird Trench, and Gird Support. The 10th King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry and the 1st East Yorks (64th Brigade) attacked Gird Trench, but could make no headway, while the 1st Lincolns were stopped by shellfire in the British frontline. The 8th and 9th Leicesters (110th Brigade) had greater success, taking Goat Trench, but machine-gun fire prevented them from taking Gird. On the morning of September 26, at 6:30 am, a tank came up Pilgrim’s way to assist in the capture of Gird trench—the Battle of Morval marked only the second use of tanks in war. Behind the tank, bombers of the 7th Leicesters followed, driving the Germans from Gird Trench. The tank moved towards the Southeast of Gueudecourt before retiring from the scene. A combined thrust of infantry (6th Leicesters) and cavalry (19th Lancers and South Irish Horse) occupied the town that evening. The final position in this sector, as of September 26, was a little short of the Gueudecourt—Le Transloy road. Somme Winter 1916-1917 Diorama Sculpture: Wallace Anderson Painting: Louis McCubbin, George Browning Somme winter, 1916–17 depicts a trench located west of Gueudecourt. It shows the grim conditions Australians fought and lived in. The small funk hole, roofed by duckboard and covered with a waterproof sheet, is where the men mostly slept during winter. Work began on the diorama in 1923. The work was previously referred to as Gueudecourt and Life in the trenches at Gueudecourt, Somme 1916–17. It was first displayed at the Memorial in Aeroplane Hall and relocated to the Western Front gallery in 1970. During the Battle of Somme, the town of Gueudecourt had comprised one of the most distant objectives for the British drive that opened on 15 September 1916, a drive that has come to be known as the Battle of Flers-Courcelette. Although the British had not been able to take Gueudecourt during the battle’s commencement, continual fighting had brought the town within reach by September 25, when the Battle of Morval opened. The primary trench-lines that guarded the town, and through which the 21st Division of the XV Corps had to assault, were Goat Trench, Gird Trench, and Gird Support. The 10th King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry and the 1st East Yorks (64th Brigade) attacked Gird Trench, but could make no headway, while the 1st Lincolns were stopped by shellfire in the British frontline. The 8th and 9th Leicesters (110th Brigade) had greater success, taking Goat Trench, but machine-gun fire prevented them from taking Gird. On the morning of September 26, at 6:30 am, a tank came up Pilgrim’s way to assist in the capture of Gird trench—the Battle of Morval marked only the second use of tanks in war. Behind the tank, bombers of the 7th Leicesters followed, driving the Germans from Gird Trench. The tank moved towards the Southeast of Gueudecourt before retiring from the scene. A combined thrust of infantry (6th Leicesters) and cavalry (19th Lancers and South Irish Horse) occupied the town that evening. The final position in this sector, as of September 26, was a little short of the Gueudecourt—Le Transloy road. Thiepval Morning - The Somme Another morning and the mist rises from the Ancre river valley. Thiepval Viewed from near the Ulster Tower, in the foreground the remains of a German machinegun post and in the background the Ancre CWGC, Newfoundland battlefield park on the Hawthorn Ridge and the village of Hamel. Tread lightly on the Somme Seen near Pozieres, an unexploded German morter bomb and a shell. Newfoundland on the Somme Taken in the Newfoundland battlefield park above Beaumont Hamel, this earlier photo shows original battlefield debris still in the shellholes. Leipzig Salient - The Somme Looking back to Thiepval Memorial the area in the trees was the tip of the strong German defences in Queens CWGC Serre - The Somme In No-Mans-Land this is as far as most soldiers got on the 1st July 1916. The "Pals" battalions were decimated in the attack. The church spire of their objective, the village of Serre, is on the skyline. THE PALS "Two years in the making, ten minutes in destroying" The "Sunken Lane" - Beaumont Hamel The Somme This lane near Beaumont Hamel is located in no-mans-land and was used as a forward assembly point for the attack on the 1st July 1916. The attack took place from the lane towards the left of the photo. The Hawthorn Ridge and mine crater is in the rear centre-left. Here is an authentic cip from the film "Battle of the Somme" showing soldiers in the lane most of whom would not survive the attack. Near Wedge Wood - The Somme "Elephant Iron" dugout roofing on the edge of the wood.   P9080227-2 Somme Canal, from the bridge at Gouy. P9080215-2 Somme Canal, from the bridge at Pinchefalise. On the East side of St-Valery-sur-Somme, the start of a 17km stretch of straight tree lined canal.   Somme, France Somme, France A church in Somme France Somme mist, Delville Wood. Scene of bloody fighting during the battle of the Somme, 1916; now South Africa's memorial for its dead in all wars overseas. Somme sunset. After a huge thunderstorm, a quiet sunset over the village of Longueval, destroyed during fighting for Delville Wood in 1916 and rebuilt in the '20s. Taken with a Cokin grey grad filter. Poppies in the Somme Valley. The 1916 Battle of the Somme saw well over a million casualties. Today it is fields of grain, and children ride bicycles along the roads between the ubiquitous foreign-cemetery markers. And poppies grow there. The Somme, France. Peronne Historical Museum During the battle of the Somme in 1916 Peronne lay in the French sector. In March 1917 the Germans retreated to the Hindenburg Line, leaving the town in ruins. In March 1918 the German army recaptured the town and held it until September 1918 when it was finally taken by the 2nd Australian Division. The Historical Museum was opened in 1995 and is housed in a restored medieval Chateau. The Somme, France. Peronne Historical Museum During the battle of the Somme in 1916 Peronne lay in the French sector. In March 1917 the Germans retreated to the Hindenburg Line, leaving the town in ruins. In March 1918 the German army recaptured the town and held it until September 1918 when it was finally taken by the 2nd Australian Division. The Historical Museum was opened in 1995 and is housed in a restored medieval Chateau. The Somme river Context: The river Somme marked the southern limit of the British sector at the start of the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916. This image is taken from the escarpment above the Somme near Vaux, looking south-east down the river to the French sector on the far escarpment near Frise.   Somme, Berny-en-Santerre This is around this little village probably in one of these flat (battle) fields   Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot, But he'll remember with advantages What feats he did that day: then shall our names. Familiar in his mouth as household words Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter, Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester, Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd. - Shakespeare. Henry V

Desolate Waste on Chemin des Dames Battlefield, France Repairing Field Telephone Lines During a Gas Attack at the Front German Tanker Armed with Flamethrower A crewman from A7V 506 at San Quentin, March 21, 1918, the opening day of the Kaiser's Battle. Serving dismounted in a shock troop, he is armed with a Kar 98AZ and a ring-shaped portable flamethrower that is not the Wex M.1917. It may be an experimental model manufactured by the L. von Bremen Company specifically for the use of tank crewmen. The flamethrower has been fitted with a cloth cover and is disconnected from the lance. Although A7V tanks were originally intended to carry flamethrowers on board, the idea was abandoned as too dangerous. Instead, infantry patrols carried the devices, which the dismounted tankers used when serving as shock troops. WWI American Field Service. WWI American ambulance drivers serving with the American Field Service stationed in the Toul Sector of the Western Front, France. WWI American Sailor 1918 photograph depicting an American sailor posing in front of his country's flag WWI French Machine Gun Crew, detail from a WWI photograph depicting French machine gunners at the front. German Model 1916 Portable Flamethrower Captured Kleif M.1916, distinguishable form the 1917 model by the three metal legs and external propellant line on the left side. The igniter is live; however, the ball valve of the lance is in the "open position. It's likely that the flamethrower is therefore empty. The rubber hose is sleeved in linen and wrapped in steel wire to prevent folding or kinking. German Flamethrower Regiment Grenadier Grenadier of the 12th Company, Guard Reserve Pioneer Regiment. He wears the M1915 blouse with regulation black shoulder straps piped in red and the death's-head sleeve badge awarded July 28, 1916. Equipment includes M1916 steel helmet, M1916 metal gas-mask container in the "alert" position, M1916 and M1917 stick grenades (Stielhandgranaten) and Kar 98AZ carbine. Joseph Chambers Wounded at the Battle of the Somme. Killed 16th August 1917. 9th Battalion. Royal Irish Fusiliers. His cousin John was killed at the Battle of the Somme Flamethrower Pioneer of Assault Battalion Rohr On the left is a Gefreiter of Infantry Regiment No. 382. His companion is an Unteroffizier of the flamethrower platoon of Assault Battalion Rohr. This photo is a mystery. The flamethrower platoon of Assault Battalion Rohr was awarded a Guard Pioneer Pickelhaube on June 6, 1916, a helmet that featured a Brunswick death's-head badge on the front. Assault Battalion Rohr became Assault Battalion No. 5 in December of 1916, five months after the flamethrower platoon was awarded the Prussian death's head-sleeve badge. This Unteroffizier wears an M1915 blouse (Bluse) with field-gray shoulder straps that feature red piping and a red number "5." If still a member of the flamethrower platoon, he should also be wearing the death's head sleeve badge. However, he displays an unauthorized Brunswick death's head on his cap instead. He may have transferred into the Assault Battalion proper before being awarded the death's-head sleeve badge but retained his Brunswick badge as a matter of pride. German Flamethrower Pioneer Pionier of the 6th Company, Guard Reserve Pioneer Regiment. He wears the M1907/10 service jacket and the M1908 peaked cap. This photo was likely taken between April 20, 1916, when the flamethrower regiment was established, and July 28, 1916, when the death's head sleeve badge was awarded.   Fallen German Flamethrower Pioneer Pionier Kurt Böhme, 2nd Company of the Guard Reserve Pioneer Regiment (Garde-Reserve-Pionier-Regiment), who died in hospital on July 18, 1916, of wounds received at Verdun. He was twenty years old.He wears the M1907/10 service jacket and is equipped with a pioneer shovel and Kar 98ZA carbine. Flamethrower pioneers were issued carbines instead of rifles. WWI French Railroad Gun at Night WWI photograph depicting a French railroad gun firing on German positions at night. On the left hand side of the photo, the silhouetted figures of French soldiers are seen, the light from the muzzle flash outlines their Adrian helmets and uniforms Lieutenant Robert Alexander Bougue MC Lieutenant Bogue, (1888-1917) holder of the Military Cross, was an officer in A Company of the 16th Battalion of the Highland Light Infantry - affectionately known as the ‘Boys’ Brigade’ Battalion. He was the son of John and Isabella McLaren Bogue, of 7 Radnor St. Glasgow and was the husband of Mary Risk Henderson Bogue, of 296 Bath St., Glasgow. Lieutenant Bogue MC is fondly remembered on this family headstone, although actually buried in Hillfoot, New Kilpatrick cemetery. Half a million Scots fought in the First World War; sadly more than 125,000 were killed in action – one sixth of the British casualty list. Thiepval, mentioned on the headstone, is the region in France where The Battle of the River Somme took place. At 7.30am on the morning of 1st July 1916, a fierce artillery attack on the Germans attempted to cut their barbed wire defences and destroy their long line of deeply dug trenches as a prelude to a British attack. Tragically, the bombardment had little impact; even the explosion of huge mines under the German front line did little to stop their machine-gunners slaughtering the waves of advancing British infantry. The 15th, 16th and 17th Battalions of the HLI were known as the 'Glasgow pals' battalions, as the recruits shared work or social associations. Men of the 15th Battalion were with the Glasgow Tramways, the 16th were ex-members of the Boys Brigade, and the 17th with the City of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce. Within ten minutes of the attack at Thiepval, some 550 men of the 17th HLI ‘Chamber of Commerce’ Battalion lay dead - almost half of its complement. A further 500 members of the 16th HLI ‘Boys’ Brigade’ Battalion were also killed at the Somme. A monument to the 51st Highland Division looks to Beamont Hamel where many of the 16th died. Its Gaelic inscription translates poignantly as ‘Friends are good on the day of battle.’ Lieutenant Robert Alexander Bogue MC was so severely wounded during the dawn attack at Thiepval that he died fifteen months later on the 26th Sept. 1917. The 16th Battalion of the HLI received one DSO, two MCs, eleven DCMs and twenty-two MMs at the Somme - the highest number of awards to any one battalion. Somme mist, Delville Wood Scene of bloody fighting during the battle of the Somme, 1916; now South Africa's memorial for its dead in all wars overseas. Red among the ranks Grandcourt Church Postcard view one of the villages on the Somme battlefield , Grandcourt French memorial church, Rancourt MONTAUBAN WINDMILL Postcard view one of the villages on the Somme battlefield , Montauban windmill Kemmel Tower PC A postcard view of part of the Ypres battlefield, Kemmel observation Tower The Thiepval Memorial Context: The Memorial to the Missing at Thiepval has carved on it the names of 72,086 United Kingdom and South African soldiers who died in the Somme sector before 20 March 1918 and have whose remains were never found....... Over 90% of those commemorated died between July and November 1916. This image is taken looking north along the front line - over the Ancre with Beaumont Hamel and the Redan Ridge in the distance to the left. http://

P9080250_01-2 The Thiepval Monument on the Somme battlefields, #2. The names of each and every one of 72,000 British and French soldiers lost in battle, 'freres d'armes pour l'eternite', carved in Portland stone.   Devasated [sic] Arras, "Grande Place" Section Visited by Peace Conference Delegates, France WWI US Army Signal Corps WWI photograph depicting a group of soldiers serving their country in the US Army's Signal Corps. The soldier in the center of the photo seen posing with a morse code key. WWI French Railroad Gun at Night, detail no.1 Detail from a WWI photograph depicting a French railroad gun firing on German positions at night. On the left hand side of the photo, the silhouetted figures of French soldiers are seen, the light from the muzzle flash outlines their Adrian helmets and uniforms. WWI US Army Recuiters in Oakland California WWI photograph dated 1919 depicting the soldiers of the Central Auxiliary Recruiting Station of Oakland, California. A major stroke of collectors luck was finding the names of these men typed on the back after I unframed the photograph. As typed on the back exactly: " Reading from left to right. Standing: Sergeant Patrick Pepper in charge, Sergeant Lee S. Colgrave, member of Party, Private Joseph A. Walker, member of party, Sergeant Sam Rosen, member of party, Private Louis R. Lowd, member of party. DOWN. Private Bert Scales, Corporal George Murphy, Sergeant Ernest J. Lachance, Corporal William H. Williams, Sergeant Austin H. MacDonald, Private Vincent Rebeck WWI German Artillery. WWI photograph depicting a German artillery position within a wooden area, a number of pine trees and large branches seen around the gun. More than likely these would be used for concealing the gun enplacement. WWI German High Command. WWI photograph depicting the German high command exiting a church. WWI US Soldiers in the Rhine, detail. A detail from a WWI photograph depicting American soldiers marching towards the old gateway in the Roman Wall of Ahrweiler, Germany. A magnificent photograph with the unusual aspect of the soldiers marching away from the viewer. The photo was taken just after the war in 1919 when these soldiers served with Army of Occupation WWI German Soldiers gathered on English Tank. A photograph taken behind the front lines of the Western Front during World War One. Depicted are German soldiers and officers gathered around and on top of an abandoned British Army tank. In the background smoke rising from a fire. The tank has no visible damage and may have been abondoned due to mechanical failure. More than likely taken shortly after a failed offensive thrust into German lines. Reconsructed Canadian Trench System,Vimy P9080255_01-2-2 The Thiepval Monument on the Somme battlefields ...Commemorating 72,000 British and French soldiers missing in action during WW1, which cost the lives of 2.5 million ...This vast cathedral-like monument echoes with the bravery of past sacrifices. The Somme Site of the Battle for Serre (1st July 1916). The British Front line was where the trees are today. The Somme Cemetery at Serre. The Somme Delville Wood. Yanks in the trenches. Two American soldiers rest after taking a German machine-gun position. Found in Bernafay Wood Context: Bernafay Wood lies towards the southern end of the Somme battlefield, close by Trones Wood and south of Delville Wood. On the first day of the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916 the British attack almost made it to Bernafay Wood. Trenching tools from Bernafay Wood Context: Bernafay Wood lies towards the southern end of the Somme battlefield, close by Trones Wood and south of Delville Wood. On the first day of the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916 the British attack almost made it to Bernafay Wood. These picks and shovels were collected over the years in the wood. A group of British soldiers celebrate in this photograph from WWI called 'Tommy enjoys possession of newly captured Hun trench' The Thiepval Memorial Context: The Memorial to the Missing at Thiepval has carved on it the names of 72,086 United Kingdom and South African soldiers who died in the Somme sector before 20 March 1918 and have whose remains were never found....... Over 90% of those commemorated died between July and November 1916. Thiepval from across the Ancre Context: The Memorial to the Missing at Thiepval is oriented east-west on a ridge above the river Ancre. This image shows the ridge from about a mile away on the far (western) side of the Ancre. The commanding position of the location betrays its origin - as the site of the German Leipzig Redoubt. The scene of intense fighting from the start of the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916, this day one objective was finally taken in September. Battle of the Somme, the Attack of the Ulster Division by J P Beadle. Beadle's painting is one of a number displayed in the Ulster Tower, a memorial to the men of the 36th (Ulster) Division. The Tower is located near to the Schwaben Redoubt, which the Division attacked on July 1, 1916, and is also close to the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme.  James Princip Beadle (1863–1947), was an English painter of historical and military scenes. Born in Calcutta on 22 September 1863, his father was Major-General James Pattle Beadle.   Somme Poem The Somme The rise and fall of ground I walked shows nought of battles fought a gentle wood where birds now sing is now as heaven thought but souls remain their place unmarked where unknown stood so strong their names now left to trees and a gentle breeze to whisper lists so long with honour and the side of right first soldiers thought as games your countries plight has need of you as propaganda claims this won’t take long in sorting out we’ll all be back by tea alas how wrong this would all turn out and home they’d never see the Generals safe and far behind did plan by dated ways as many died in no man's land as down they fell in swathes they said again that hill must fall and the cost its worth to all but a telegram is all they get for loss of sons that fall and thoughts are now of widows who’s child will not be born to carry forth his name and future, now all alas forlorn friend and foe were family men and both will bear the scar that war is hell so the fight for peace is a better way by far when you leave this place of war and peace, look back with hope and pray that war will have no need again to pass along this way. poem by ironmonger