Bolton Wanderers Football Club Fan Forum for all BWFC Supporters.


You are not connected. Please login or register

Lest we forget - The Somme - 1st July, 1916

+5
boltonbonce
wanderlust
Reebok Trotter
whatsgoingon
Sluffy
9 posters

Go down  Message [Page 1 of 1]

Sluffy

Sluffy
Admin

A hundred years to the day of the greatest loss of life on a single day in British military history.

Incredibly brave men.

We shall remember them.

RIP.


Lest we forget - The Somme - 1st July, 1916 _90129887_gettyimages-80457874

British troops were sent into battle on 1 July 1916. It was the bloodiest day in the history of the British army, which suffered 57,470 casualties, including 19,240 deaths. The Somme offensive was intended to achieve a decisive breakthrough for the British and French allies after 18 months of trench warfare,

whatsgoingon

whatsgoingon
Frank Worthington
Frank Worthington

Here here, figures you really can't get your head round

Reebok Trotter

Reebok Trotter
Nat Lofthouse
Nat Lofthouse

60,000 casualties on the first day. 40,000 wounded and 20,000 killed. So hard to comprehend. RIP..brave lads.

whatsgoingon

whatsgoingon
Frank Worthington
Frank Worthington

Why is it not being recognised with a 2 minute silence nationally, it should be? we should all have a couple of minutes to contemplate the mass sacrifice and put it into perspective

wanderlust

wanderlust
Nat Lofthouse
Nat Lofthouse

I find it upsetting to think about those poor naive kids who joined Kitchener's army with their mates in the blind belief that we were invincible and they were going to have a big adventure kicking the Kaiser's butt. How wrong could they be? Generals who still harboured a Crimean War mentality and zero strategy happily sending thousands of innocents over the top to get mown down in a futile attempt to gain 50 yards of some French backwater. Absolute cannon fodder driven on by idiots who thought that other people's bravery was a substitute for a plan.
My own granddad had his lungs burnt out with mustard gas and is buried near the Somme.
So let's not forget the kids that were sacrificed but let's also not forget the price of blind pigheaded nationalism and piss poor leadership as it's as relevant today as it was then.

boltonbonce

boltonbonce
Nat Lofthouse
Nat Lofthouse

Let's not forget those shot at dawn for cowardice.

Private Thomas Highgate was the first to suffer such military justice. Unable to bear the carnage of 7,800 British troops at the Battle of Mons, he had fled and hidden in a barn. He was undefended at his trial because all his comrades from the Royal West Kents had been killed, injured or captured. Just 35 days into the war, Private Highgate was executed at the age of 17.
Many similar stories followed, among them that of 16-year-old Herbert Burden, who had lied that he was two years older so he could join the Northumberland Fusiliers. Ten months later, he was court-martialled for fleeing after seeing his friends massacred at the battlefield of Bellwarde Ridge. He faced the firing squad still officially too young to be in his regiment.



To their far-off generals, the soldiers' executions served a dual purpose - to punish the deserters and to dispel similar ideas in their comrades. Courts martial were anxious to make an example and those on trial could expect little support from medical officers. One such doctor later recalled, 'I went to the trial determined to give him no help, for I detest his type - I really hoped he would be shot.'
Those condemned to death usually had their sentences confirmed by Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig on the evening following their court-martial. A chaplain was dispatched to spend the night in the cell with the condemned man and execution took place the following dawn, with some men facing their last moments drugged with morphine or alcohol.
When the time came, the offender was tied to a stake, a medical officer placed a piece of white cloth over the man's heart and a priest prayed for him. Then the firing line - usually made up of six soldiers - was given orders to shoot. One round was routinely blank and no soldier could be sure he had fired a fatal shot.
Immediately after the shooting, the medical officer would examine the man. If he was still alive, the officer in charge would finish him off with a revolver.
'So many of those who were executed were just boys,' argues Shot at Dawn campaign leader John Hipkin. 'They made no allowance for that. They and their families were let down. The whole issue was, and still is, a disgrace.'

gloswhite

gloswhite
Guðni Bergsson
Guðni Bergsson

Poor souls, May they rest in peace.

We learned almost nothing from this terrible day, other than to find more efficient ways to continue the fight. Because of the way the Regiments were formed, when they were wiped out, whole communities back home lost their young men, and their next generation.

okocha

okocha
El Hadji Diouf
El Hadji Diouf

[size=30]Children's Crusade
Sting[/size]
Young men, soldiers, Nineteen Fourteen
Marching through countries they'd never seen
Virgins with rifles, a game of charades
All for a Children's Crusade
Pawns in the game are not victims of chance
Strewn on the fields of Belgium and France
Poppies for young men, death's bitter trade
All of those young lives betrayed
The children of England would never be slaves
They're trapped on the wire and dying in waves
The flower of England face down in the mud
And stained in the blood of a whole generation
Corpulent generals safe behind lines
History's lessons drowned in red wine
Poppies for young men, death's bitter trade
All of those young lives betrayed
All for a Children's Crusade

okocha

okocha
El Hadji Diouf
El Hadji Diouf

Excerpt from Dulce et Decorum Est (1917-18)
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning





The most famous WW1 poet, Wilfred Owen......died one week before the German surrender and the signing of the armistice.

BoltonTillIDie

BoltonTillIDie
Nat Lofthouse
Nat Lofthouse

A terrible number of casualties. RIP

Bollotom2014

Bollotom2014
Andy Walker
Andy Walker

Lions led by donkeys!

boltonbonce

boltonbonce
Nat Lofthouse
Nat Lofthouse

#wearehere has been incredibly moving. Well done.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-36683549

Sponsored content



Back to top  Message [Page 1 of 1]

Permissions in this forum:
You cannot reply to topics in this forum