Monday, July 1, 2013

The Ghosts of the Somme

97 years ago today, nineteen Allied divisions went over the top in an all out assault on the Somme.  When the sun set at the end of the day, 20,000 men lay dead.  Another nearly 60,000 were wounded, many stranded in no-man's land.  Stretcher bearers dared the machine gun fire to bring the fallen back to safety and medical aid, earning two of the nine Victoria Crosses awarded that day.  Wounded were recovered for the next seven (!) days from this day's assault, and then found that there were only 10,000 hospital beds for the 60,000 wounded.



The 1st Newfoundland Regiment had to leave the safety of the trenches 200 yards behind their own front lines, because the closer trenches were choked with dead.  The German machine guns mowed them down: the Regiment suffered 90% casualties in minutes.  Newfoundland may never have recovered from the loss of so many of its sons.

It was said that day that Lions were led by Donkeys. The ghosts of those lions are seen in this astonishing video from the battle.  You see one soldier shot just as he goes over the top.  His body slides back into the trench.


We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
   Loved and were loved, and now we lie
         In Flanders fields.
The Somme was perhaps the most stark example of the futility of the Great War.  By the end of the battle, a million men were dead or wounded.  For this cost, the Allies pushed the front lines six miles towards Germany, a cost of 31 men per foot gained.



This was the day that Europe committed suicide.  It's been a long, slow motion self-immolation, but that is now fair complete.  Sic transit Gloria Mundi.

9 comments:

  1. This war and another war. Europe hasn't learned anything yet.

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  2. Truly sad, and literally generational death... And it got done again in less than 25 years.

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  3. My grandfather lost a brother an uncle and a brother-in-law on the first day of the Somme he later was gassed and survived he died in 1943 while serving as a Sgt in the Home Guard mainly down to being gassed in the 1st war all those wet and cold nights out at night during the 2nd World War.

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  4. What Old NFO said -- in WW2 the French had a tiny army, mostly because the men who would have been fathers to ww2-age soldier lie dead in the trenches and in no-mans land.

    Brad

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  5. Nineteenth-century tactics with twentieth-century technology. We barely learned how badly those two pair up during the 2nd World War (and subsequent wars).

    There's a guy in the lower-left corner of the video, around the 1:55 mark, who could be a dead ringer for myself at a younger age. Sobering thought.

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  6. The haunting music is from Pie Jesu from Requiem by Sarah Brightman.

    A very moving presentation, Borepatch. The concept of the disproportionate impact on the Newfoundlanders gives one pause.

    The resolution of The Great War only set the stage for the next one.

    Not so very long ago in the scheme of things and profoundly sad.

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  7. libertyman, thank you. I rant against the Professors, but would take your class any day.

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  8. I mourn the dead of WW1 - it killed my grandfather. But I challenge the word 'futility'. The German empire had to be stopped and war was the only way to do it. The tragedy was that it took three years for us to develop the technology and techniques needed to win it.

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  9. Glenn: I disagree respectfully. No one needed to be stopped, and everyone was being an ass. It was a dick measuring contest between 7 men and the people who followed them blindly to the ruin of the entire 20th century.

    Drop over to my place at the link and check out my memorial day post for more elaboration.

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