Battle of the Somme 100 year anniversary

Irn Bru wrote:This is a good thread Syl. Millions of men and women lost their lives in that battle including many on the very first day. It was a slaughter and all that it achieved was advancing just a few miles.

Many of those that lost their lives came from the pals battalions which was men who signed as pals together rather than just being incorporated into units chosen by the Army. They came from all walks of life from all over the country including your home town. You can read about them on here.

http://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-pals-battalions-of-the-first-world-war

HoratioTarr wrote:

SEXY MAMA wrote:Gone but never forgotten X

Didge wrote:

Syl wrote:

SEXY MAMA wrote:Gone but never forgotten X

A 2 minutes silence was held here and in France this morning. Live footage being shown on TV all day. There is also a big commemoration in Salfords Heaton Park this evening. Thats just local to me, no doubt there will be remembrance services somewhere near you all today.

Gone but never forgotten is so true SM. x

Syl wrote:

Irn Bru wrote:This is a good thread Syl. Millions of men and women lost their lives in that battle including many on the very first day. It was a slaughter and all that it achieved was advancing just a few miles.

Many of those that lost their lives came from the pals battalions which was men who signed as pals together rather than just being incorporated into units chosen by the Army. They came from all walks of life from all over the country including your home town. You can read about them on here.

http://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-pals-battalions-of-the-first-world-war

Thank you for posting that Irn, I am going to save the link, show it to my son when he comes home tonight, he will find that very interesting, as will many.
I have been listening to some stories about people who's grandads, great uncles etc died or were injured at the Somme.
The battle stated at 7.30am and before the day was over 20000 British men, many of them young lads, lay dead.
The Somme was the bloodiest battle in British history.

Here is a local account of the Eccles pals.

http://salfordonline.com/26796-ecccles-pals-decimated-first-day-battle-somme.html

Syl wrote:

Didge wrote:

That a very moving tribute Didge...thank you. x

I wonder how many of us here had relatives, maybe ones we didn't even know about, who died in bloody battle 100 years ago.
I have no one left to ask....but maybe some here do.

Didge wrote:

Syl wrote:

That a very moving tribute Didge...thank you. x

I wonder how many of us here had relatives, maybe ones we didn't even know about, who died in bloody battle 100 years ago.
I have no one left to ask....but maybe some here do.

I think just about everyone will have some relative no matter how distant that will have fought in the First World War, a war that was fought stupidly on Pride, greed, through the endless expasion of European Colonialism. It sadly was a war that was inevitable, where many nations had been close to going to war on many occasions previously to the assassination of the Archduke. If the countries had of known what horrors chemical warfare would produce, its reasonable to assumne, they would have avoided war at all costs. But that is easy to say in hindsight. One of the biggest failings of the First World War, is they simply learn no lessons from the American Civil. Where later trench works were used extensively and why there was so a high loss of life in that conflict.

Tommy Monk wrote:My great grandad was there... he got blown up by a shell but managed to crawl to a red cross tent where they saved his life... but he list complete use of one of his arms... the medics wanted to amputate it as it was in such a sorry state... but he said no.


I remember meeting him as a young boy.

Syl wrote:

Irn Bru wrote:This is a good thread Syl. Millions of men and women lost their lives in that battle including many on the very first day. It was a slaughter and all that it achieved was advancing just a few miles.

Many of those that lost their lives came from the pals battalions which was men who signed as pals together rather than just being incorporated into units chosen by the Army. They came from all walks of life from all over the country including your home town. You can read about them on here.

http://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-pals-battalions-of-the-first-world-war

Thank you for posting that Irn, I am going to save the link, show it to my son when he comes home tonight, he will find that very interesting, as will many.
I have been listening to some stories about people who's grandads, great uncles etc died or were injured at the Somme.
The battle stated at 7.30am and before the day was over 20000 British men, many of them young lads, lay dead.
The Somme was the bloodiest battle in British history.

Here is a local account of the Eccles pals.

http://salfordonline.com/26796-ecccles-pals-decimated-first-day-battle-somme.html

Syl wrote:We are so cosseted today in comparison to the men who fought the first 2 world wars.
The things they saw, the injuries they suffered, and the 'lucky' ones who made it back must have gone through hell with little understanding of the lasting mental effects.

The women and kids who welcomed them home had no idea that the husbands, sons and fathers who came back would be changed forever by the hell they had endured.

HoratioTarr wrote:

Syl wrote:We are so cosseted today in comparison to the men who fought the first 2 world wars.
The things they saw, the injuries they suffered, and the 'lucky' ones who made it back must have gone through hell with little understanding of the lasting mental effects.

The women and kids who welcomed them home had no idea that the husbands, sons and fathers who came back would be changed forever by the hell they had endured.

We have whole generations of young people who don't know what it's like to go without.   To really struggle.  I know we have poverty here, and homelessness, but I mean a whole nation, as they did in two world wars.   Everyone pulled together in those days, mostly.   Nowadays, you can drop down dead and people will step over you.   I remember seeing a lad run over on Deansgate, he went up in the air and went under the wheels of this van, and got dragged about 50 yards down the tarmac.   I was the only one who ran to him straight away.   I put my carrier bag of shopping under his head. Most people just stood and gawped.   Shock probably but I was appalled at how slowly they came forwards, and then it was only a handful of us.

Irn Bru wrote:

Syl wrote:

Thank you for posting that Irn, I am going to save the link, show it to my son when he comes home tonight, he will find that very interesting, as will many.
I have been listening to some stories about people who's grandads, great uncles etc died or were injured at the Somme.
The battle stated at 7.30am and before the day was over 20000 British men, many of them young lads, lay dead.
The Somme was the bloodiest battle in British history.

Here is a local account of the Eccles pals.

http://salfordonline.com/26796-ecccles-pals-decimated-first-day-battle-somme.html

I read up on the Eccles lads and it was really quite detailed about individual soldiers. I know the Accrington pals suffered very badly with the unit being pratically wiped out but they reformed with new recruits and went to fight on. Brave men they all were

In Edinburgh we had McCrae's Battalion and when the Heart of Midlothian football team signed up follwed by their supporters and players and supporters from other clubs it sparked a wave of more sportsmen doing the same. There's a trubute somg to them which you can listen to here.

.