"Remember the Somme"

[brindlerp]

"Remember the Somme"

(Filed: 01/07/2006)

"Ninety years ago, beginning at 7.30am, the Army sustained its worst-ever casualties in a single day:

19,240 dead, 40,000 wounded or missing.

The first day of the Battle of the Somme obliterated trust in the ruling classes.

The "Pals" battalions, about which Sir John Keegan writes movingly, meant that many communities found most of their menfolk dead.

Local war memorials provide a constant reminder of an almost unthinkable human cost.

Yet as the last of its veterans near the end of their lives, even the young acknowledge how much the First World War has shaped our world - in poetry, music and art, and in our notion of valour.

"Men marched asleep" wrote Wilfred Owen in Dulce et Decorum, perhaps the finest poem of the war, remembering the gas, the suffering and the sacrifice.

But today we can also keep the promise to remember - not just the waste and the horror, but also the heroism of that day."

From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jh...7/01/dl0103.xml

Attached photograph: "Pictures of the day for Friday 30th June

The sun rises over wild growing poppies with the Thiepval Memorial monument silhouetted in the background.

This week marks the 90th annivesary of the Battle of the Somme in which 72,000 troops from Britain and the Empire lost their lives."

From the Daily Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk

regards

Richard

"Remember the Somme"

[AndyHollinger]

For all the discussion ... and opinions ... THIS post was wonderful ... and I am in tears looking at the photo ... thank you for this post.

Andy