INTRODUCTION
The day 1 July 1916 saw the start of a campaign that devastated the lives of thousands of men, many under age, serving under the British Empire. It was a day chosen to begin what had been called the Big Push, a desperate attempt to overwhelm the German Front Line and bring an end to a two-year long stalemate on the Western Front.
I t has become hard to believe that we have reached the hundredth anniversary of the Somme battle. For many, accounts of that day would have been passed on to them by their fathers or grandfathers but as the years have moved on the veterans have faded and now their stories can only be told in written accounts.
The Battle of the Somme has become tightly woven into the memory of the British nation and stands as a testimony to the conflict which took the lives of thousands of working-class men. Towns, cities and even villages bear some sort of memorial of remembrance to a sacrificed youth drawn from its own communities.
A soldier on the battlefield, shrouded in fog and confusion, can only relate what happened in one corner of a very large picture; it may be a disjointed account of events, but it then takes a military historian to study the events and piece together the facts using various sources from all sides.
This publication, SOMME THE BATTLE 100 YEARS ON, has been published by Pen & Sword Books Ltd, with the purpose of creating an awareness and an interest in the Somme battles of 1916.
For nearly thirty years, Pen & Sword Books Ltd has published numerous titles covering various Pals battalions formed for the Big Push. They have also been fore-runners in setting up the Battleground Series guides, which are packed with then and now illustrations, using battle maps from the time and road maps of the sites today. They are all specifically designed to take the tourer safely through these now historic sites. Many more books have been written and published by Pen & Sword on the other battles of the First World War.
Only a small portion relating to 1 July 1916 has been taken from each book appearing in this publication. Much more information can been gleaned from reading about the events of the Somme battles and the awful aftermath of the day through reading the books mentioned at the end of each extract.These publications would not have been possible without the skill and dedication of our authors who have painstakingly researched and written about the subjects that bring to light these historic events.
Pen& Sword Books Ltd would like to thank; Major & Mrs Holt, Roni Wilkinson, John Grehan, Martin Mace, Jack Sheldon, Nigel Cave, William Langford, Richard van Emden, Paul Oldfield, Trevor Pidgeon, Andrew Rawson and Michael Stedman, whose works have appeared in this publication, SOMME THE BATTLE 100 YEARS ON.
PEN & SWORD
First published in Great Britain in 2016 by
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire
S70 2AS
Copyright Pen and Sword, 2016
Edited by Jodie Butterwood
Design by Paul Wilkinson
ISBN: 978 1 4738 8752 7
PDF ISBN: 978 1 4738 9890 5
EPUB ISBN: 978 1 4738 9889 9
PRC ISBN: 978 1 4738 9888 2
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
All right reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.
Printed and bound in the United Kingdom
For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact:
PEN & SWORD BOOKS LIMITED
47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire,
S70 2AS, England
Email:
Website: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
Major & Mrs Holt
Roni Wilkinson
John Grehan & Martin Mace
Jack Sheldon
Nigel Cave
William Langford
Richard van Emden
Paul Oldfield
Trevor Pidgeon
Andrew Rawson
Michael Stedman
Richard van Emden
THE SOMME
BATTLEFIELD
A map showing the Somme battlefield with
the British and German Front Lines on
1 July 1916.
THE SOMME: THE BATTLEFIELD TOUR
On 1 July 1916 a mainly volunteer British Army of sixteen divisions in concert with five French divisions attacked entrenched German positions in the Department of the Somme in France. Over-reliance by the British on the destruction of enemy defences by preparatory artillery bombardment led to almost 60,000 British casualties on the first day and more than 400,000 before the fighting ended on 17 November 1916. Total German casualties, estimated to have been about the same as the British and the French, were almost 200,000. There are more than 100 sites of particular interest to be seen on the Somme battlefield of 1916. Here is a selection of those places whose names or memorials feature in the top requests made to us over the years.
This article was extracted from Major & Mrs Holts Concise Illustrated Battlefield Guide The Western Front South published by Pen & Sword Books Ltd.
Albert/Golden Madonna/ Somme 1916Museum/Mac Carton Mural/0 miles/45 minutes/RWC/Map 5/1 Fierce fighting around Albert began in the early months of the war, the first enemy shelling being on 29 September 1914. By October 1916, when the Somme offensive had pushed the German guns out of range, the town was a pile of red rubble. On 26 March 1918, during their final offensive, Albert was taken by the Germans and retaken by the British on 22 August, the East Surreys entering the town at bayonet point. Albert was a major administration and control centre for the Somme offensive, and it was from here that the first press message was sent announcing the start of the Big Push.
The golden figure above you is the Virgin Mary holding aloft the baby Jesus. It stands on top of the Basilique of Notre-Dame des Brbires. Before the war thousands of pilgrims came annually to see the black Madonna inside the church which, legend says, had been discovered locally by a shepherd in the Middle Ages (hence the churchs name, from brbis, the word for ewe). In January 1915 German shelling toppled the Golden Madonna on the steeple to an angle below horizontal, but it did not fall. Visible to soldiers of both sides for many miles around, the statue gave rise to two legends. The British and French believed that the war would end on the day that the statue fell (it is said that the Allied Staff sent engineers up the steeple at night to shore it up to prevent raising false hopes). The Germans believed that whoever knocked down the Madonna would lose the war. Neither prediction came to pass. During the German occupation from March to August 1918 the British shelled Albert and knocked down the Golden Madonna. The figure was never found and todays statue is a replica. The townspeople strongly resisted the suggestion to remount it in its wartime leaning position. The Basilique was rebuilt to the original design by the son of the original architect, Duthoit, with sculptures by Albert Roze. Most of the town (notably the station) was rebuilt in the 1920s in the distinct Art Deco style then in vogue. The idea to declare it a Zone Rouge (too dangerous to rebuild, like some of the battlefields around Verdun) was also strongly resisted by the inhabitants of Albert. To the right of the church is the entrance to the Somme 1916 Museum.
