The Battle Of The Somme [DVD]

July 1 1916 - this day is forever marked as the worst day in British military history. 57,000 British casualties; imagine a town anywhere in the world with precisely that population and suddenly wipe it off the face of the earth - forever. Can't really make that leap can you? Well, that was the return from the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

This battle earmarked the first real time that Kitchener's New Army faced the enemy - raw recruits who had joined up all starry-eyed and full of jingoistic fervour from those heady days in 1914; many who had never left their towns now found themselves in the front line. Most of them hardly took ten paces out of the trenches before being mown down by the German machine gunners who had lain in wait.

During the film, we learn about the "Pals" Battalions. In 1914, to encourage the vast numbers Kitchener said Britain would need, men were enlisting to be with their "pals" or their "chums" so that they could be kept together - but those that join up together were tragically often being killed together. With the benefit of hindsight, I invite you to be on a street in a working-class neighbourhood on say, July 3 or 4 1916 when the dreaded telegrams were being delivered and imagine the utter disbelief of whole streets of bright young men in the prime of their lives being sacrificed for Haig's ideals. Doesn't bear thinking about does it?

Nowadays, we can see the folly of this strategy but it was a different story in 1916. This was a new kind of war that most of the Generals could not understand - the brilliant military minds were being stretched to think up new ideas and strategies. However, when we think of the Somme, we must also think of General Sir Douglas Haig. Most historians criticise Haig in extremely harsh terms, using words like "butcher" or "murderer". It is hard to be objective, particularly when 57,000 casualties were recorded on one day alone. This would be have been the most painful duty for the person or people who were responsible in tallying these figures.

This film gives us the ideas behind the offensive as it was designed to take the pressure of the French at Verdun (another mindless slaughter)through to the initial bombardment prior to the start of the battle, then on to the bloody battle. It is no wonder that men could not talk about what they had experienced - you simply had to be there to understand. Nowadays, we call it Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. In 1916, you kept your chin up and had to make the best of it.

It is now over 90 years since those battles and it is hard to understand the reasoning. World War I was a holocaust of sorts - it is because of those battles, the unbelieveable numbers of casualties, the way it touched millions of lives that we can learn from it. World War II was fought in a very different way and perhaps it is the lessons learned from World War I that this was the case.

This DVD is a very useful tool for those who are studying the period or for those of us who are interested in this part of history as it certainly did set the 20th Century in motion.

A run of the mill DVD offering nothing I hadn't seen before. Same old footages and I wouldn't reccommend it

Bought as a gift, recipient loved it. should be part of the school curriculum on history, so that youngsters know how we got where we are now! and the deprivations of very young men, who gave their lives for this country and others. Woulod focus minds who complain about what they do not have.