On this day 95 years ago the allied forces lost 57,470 brave men, including 19,240 British and Irish in the Battle of the Somme. By the end of the Battle in November 1916, the allied forces casulty numbers had risen to about 620,000 with roughly another 150,000 missing. Those men give their life for the civil liberties that so many in this country take for granted these days. Lest We Forget.
All because field marshall Haigh wanted to move his drinks trolley half inch nearer to Berlin. Somme you win Somme you lose
Bollocks. They gave their lives because they were sheep and didn't have the wherewithal to kick out a government who dragged the country into an unnecessary war. Plus ça change..
WW1 was an ideological battle as much as anything else. i seem to remember that the kaiser said after the german advances that this proved that democracy was a failed idea
Britain was still in a colonisation frame of mind going into the Great War and had to be seen as a strong military force in much the same way that the US does today. Plus there were all those working class men with nothing to do so what better than to send them off to war and die?
One of the few divisons to make advancements on the first day was the proud Ulstermen of the 36th Divison. 107th Brigade 15th (Service) Battalion (North Belfast), the Royal Irish Rifles 8th (Service) Battalion (East Belfast), the Royal Irish Rifles 9th (Service) Battalion (West Belfast), the Royal Irish Rifles 10th (Service) Battalion (South Belfast), the Royal Irish Rifles 1st Battalion, the Royal Irish Fusiliers 1st Battalion, the Royal Irish Rifles 2nd Battalion, the Royal Irish Rifles 107th Brigade Machine Gun Company 107th Trench Mortar Battery 108th Brigade 9th (Service) Battalion, the Royal Irish Fusiliers 12th (Service) Battalion (Central Antrim), the Royal Irish Rifles 2nd Battalion, the Royal Irish Rifles 11th (Service) Battalion (South Antrim), the Royal Irish Rifles 13th (Service) Battalion (County Down), the Royal Irish Rifles 1st Battalion, the Royal Irish Fusiliers 108th Brigade Machine Gun Company 108th Trench Mortar Battery 109th Brigade 9th (Service) Battalion (County Tyrone), the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers 10th (Service) Battalion (Derry), the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers 11th (Service) Battalion (Donegal and Fermanagh), the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers 14th (Service) Battalion (Young Citizens), the Royal Irish Rifles 1st Battalion, the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers 2nd Battalion, the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers 109th Brigade Machine Gun Company 109th Trench Mortar Battery Lest We Forget.
All wars are money-making scams by the powers that be. Vietnam has got to be the best example of that. Human life is ****-all compared to profit for some.
Lest We Forget Zico, your views and opinions mean nothing compared to the men that gave their life 95 years ago today.
i'd disagree as at the beginning of the war the UK was on the defensive and although an arms race with germany had been going on for years our armed forces at the time were relatively small. i think the aims of politicians at the time became more imperialistic as the war went on so that their objectives went from survival to expansion. and dont knock a decent world war, its what we need right now. full employment!
My great-grandfather served and lost a leg in the somme. Never talked about his experiences. It's important to remember history so we don't make the same mistakes again.......
I don't think can apply to WW2. A true battle of good vs evil if ever there was one. WW1 made the current conflict in Afghanistan, where every single life lost is honoured, look like a playground tiff, as thousdands of lives a day were snuffed out. And its fallen shouldn't be mocked, however idiotic the commanding officers and politicians involved were
Leave the blind, misty-eyed patriotism to the Americans. They're good at it. Zico is alive and his opinions are therefore infinitely more important than a pile of rotting bones in a field.
Horrible comment. You do realise that no doubt you too could possibly have ancestors that died in World War 1 or The Battle of Somme itself. Show a bit of respect.
Medro does this kind of post as a windup, it's pathetic. Next he'll jump on his moral high-horse and claim I'm disgusting for even suggesting this. Grow the **** up
They're not our mistakes to make. If you think remembering a war will prevent one in the future, you're sorely mistaken. What is this maudlin nonsense? My grandfather was an Italian-Scot. He spent the majority of the war as a P-O-W after the community he'd served for years turned on him and his like. He never harboured a grudge and he never mentioned his experiences. Never. Stop bin-raking. Leave the past in dignified silence. This kind of moping does noone any good.
