We took these photographs on a cold rainy day at the Somme Battlefields, in June 2016.
That year
marked the centennial of the Battle of the Somme, which actually comprised a series of bloody trench-warfare battles between the British
and French armies, and the armies of the German Empire.
Across nearly five months, three million soldiers fought and more than one million were killed or wounded. On the first day of the battle, the British suffered 57,470 casualties, of which 19,240 were fatalities. Most historians agree that neither side won.
Across nearly five months, three million soldiers fought and more than one million were killed or wounded. On the first day of the battle, the British suffered 57,470 casualties, of which 19,240 were fatalities. Most historians agree that neither side won.
As is the
case in many World War I cemeteries, more than one thousand of the headstones bear the
inscription, A Soldier of the Great War, Known Unto God.
Here are
two quotations that I like.
Every
war is ironic because every war is worse than expected. Every war
constitutes an irony of situation because its means are so melodramatically
disproportionate to its presumed ends.*
Never such innocence,
Never before or since,
As changed itself to past
Without a word – the men
Leaving the gardens tidy,
The thousands of marriages,
Lasting a little while longer:
Never such innocence again.**
*Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory (1975).
**Last verse of MCMXIV, by British poet laureate Philip Larkin (1964).
