The Story Of The Battle Of The Somme
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- Опубліковано 3 жов 2024
- Documentary narrated by Leo Mckern to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the Battle Of The Somme. Shown in 1976. This is a public domain video available at The Moving Image Archive and uploaded by www.WW1Photos.com
June 1977 was very wet, Wimbledon was badly affected. In those days, the BBC did not put on endless re-runs of old games. As a 17 year old, I looked outside at the rain and decided to stay in. The BBC instead re-showed this programme from the previous year. After just 10 minutes of watching this, I knew this evening would be the most important of my young life. I learned for the first time about the Somme and the Pals battalions of my home town of Bradford. That was almost 40 years ago now. Now, a published author on the Somme and schools battlefield guide, I spend most of my time immersed in making sure the soldiers of 1914-18 are not forgotten by their families. In 2006, I was involved in raising a memorial to the Leeds Pals in Bus-les-Artois. This year for the centenary I have been helping in the raising of a second twin memorial to stand by its side - this time to our Bradford Pals. These memorials are not to their destruction at Serre on 1/7/16, but to recall that last day in Bus on 30/6/16 when the Bradford and Leeds Pals shared a final 'perfect' afternoon, the bandsmen of the 1st Bradford Pals took out their instruments and played a concert for all there before they packed up and made their way forward for the attack the following morning. Their casualties on the day were appalling . Yes, please do watch this documentary, it may seem dated especially the technology used in making it - but for me, the hour or so I spent back in 1977 watching this documentary certainly changed my life and now in turn has this affected the lives of many others...
thumbs up!!!
David Whithorn wonderfully written- I am the son of a Bradfordian though I live in Canada - my grandfather fought in Mons - what have you written? I would like to read it :) cheers from 🇨🇦
man this is youtube not a in-class essay keep it short
Ned Thcf
Jesus you twat show some respect. Mommy didn’t teach you any manners boy?
A memorial? What horseshit. "The soldiers on all sides should shoot their officers and come home." George Bernard Shaw (on WW1).
The passion with which Leo McKern tells this story is remarkable - and very moving.
Leo Mckern is extremely articulate and eloquent. Such a beautiful voice.
A documentary deserving of the highest accolades. Intelligently narrated by the brilliant Leo McKern. The pace of this documentary allows the viewer to reflect on what is being said. Quality adult productions like this are no longer made for today's impatient masses only interested in fast-paced, action-packed visuals. The closing words are most moving. Story presentation at its finest!
"..Quality adult productions like this are no longer made for today's impatient masses only interested in fast-paced, action-packed visuals..."
My thoughts exactly. Now everything has to be hyped with up with "unsolved mysterys", graphics, ridiculous re-enactments, and hyper fast action. Our culture suffers from ADHD.
It so happens the Leo is an Aussie who parrots the usual errors
Excellent my friend.......
@@WilliamBrownGuitar it’s forced with no option, now we have to reflect.
You sir hit the nail right on the head and drove it plum through the board. People today have to have whatever they are looking for in 5 minuets or less. And I’m only 38 years old and even I see the difference between then and now. God help us
My maternal grandfather and his 3 brothers were at the Somme. His brothers were killed on 1st July 1916. Grandad survived. I was about 8 and asked him about the war. I still remember him freezing, standing up and leaving the room. My mother grabbed me, took me into another room and said 'If ever you ask grandad about the war again, I will kill you!' I never did, but years later she told me how he saw one brother about 20 yards in front and to his right vanish as a shell exploded. None of my great uncles have a know grave. Rest in peace my brothers in arms and all who fell in that terrible slaughter.
Your mom threatened to kill you when you were 8 for asking a question? Damn.
@@mikehiggins946 You seem to have a problem with my mother protecting her father. Pity you parents didn't give you a good hiding. Goodbye!
@@mikehiggins946 Grow. up little boy.
What a brilliant Documentary. Timeless. The narrator is fantastic!
If they still made high quality programs like this, I might watch. Thank you for posting 🤘🏼
I thought I had seen every scrap of film about the Great War, but just found this masterpiece. Thank you so much for posting it and placing another piece of the jigsaw.
Seen it in 1976, and seen it again in 2021. Thank you.
The horror these men lived through, for nothing really, just to be forgotten... 😢
not by all...some still remember.
i was born in Accrington, Lancashire. the 'ACCRINGTON PALS' will never be forgotton. they attacked the village of SERRE on the first day. a small battalion made up from friends from East Lancahire were decimated within half an hour. not many survived. GOD BLESS THE PALS.
My late friend Stanley Bewsher was awarded the MM on the 1st July serving with the Accrington Pals at the Somme.
Damn,I swear no one does history better than the Brits,cheers from the states
Thank you Tim, we are pretty good at it, cos we do have so so much of it and Leo McKern is a wonderful narrator. The good old BBC was based on education not commercial gain and so more serious work was delivered and treated people with respect not dollar signs
Still propaganda unfortunately.
History is always told as seen through a national lens
@@judithinsley9358 I find you have to hear everyones version then the general historians study on it to feel confident one knows the truth .
The Brits and Ken Burns.❤
Stunning. A wonderful documentary. Well researched and beautifully presented.
@@Ronnie-Jones Not forbidden, just crap.
@@Ronnie-Jones You people would be the first snatched up by Hitlers gang and tossed into the Moore. 2nd Possibility is you all would be sent in the first wave to test enemy defenses (expendables).
I do like these older documentaries which don't rely on heavy use of music and loud crashing sound effects, often with a dumped down naration.
I thought I'd seen every British documentary on the battle of the Somme, apparently not. This one is exceptionally good. Simply unimaginable what these men suffered, witnessed and endured.
Visiting the battle site, and Verdun are certainly on my bucket list.
the greatest documentary about the somme battle ever many thanks to all concerned in finally putting it on you tube my old version on vhs is wearing out i watch it at least once a year my great uncle fought on the somme at beaucourt 13-18 november and was k.i.a at gavrelle 28 -4-1917and has no known grave
Superb. Ive visited a lot of the scenes featured in this film. They are no different today from how they were in 1976.
Wow. What a great piece of work. Moving and respectful.
check him out in Man for All Seasons.
what an amazing documentary, why can't they make quality films like this any more?!
What a terrible waste of good men. It must have broken so many towns and families. Good documentary. Thank you for posting.
Excellent 🙏
What a brilliant documentary, the British certainly know how to honor their fallen and give them the respect they so rightly deserve. Watching this really makes you think about what is was like for these brave men who fought this battle and what they went through. Now some 100+ plus since the battle occurred I think it's important that these men never be forgotten and to appreciate the time in which they lived and fought. Of all the wars from history WW1 is the war which interests and amazes me the most. From the conditions they fought in, who the people were, the circumstances and just the overall historic effect this war had on the future of this world is truly remarkable. Believe it or not I wish I could have fought in this war just to experience it and see for myself how this war actually was for the common soldier. Thank you all for your service.
Same man.. i've been researching WW1 these past 4 months and i would have loved to be on the line for a day just to see what its like
Hell on earth is what it was like watch the shell shock footage of soldiers from world war 1, The old lie that it is a good and fitting thing to die for your country, wifref Owen, ww1 was pointless mass slaughter driven by men far far away from the front line
Shame they can't treat the living with the same....
"The Generals would accept huge loses." Well isn't that very gracious of them. !!
Yep, it surely meant promotion, up the ranks. I can see those bastards writing furious letters to parliament demanding more guns, more men, more shells, because the previous attack failed only because of a lack of these. Oh, besides, it wasn't a failure really; the previous attack was a resounding glory and all goals were met (finally) and now it was time for the final push. It was just the weather wasn't good enough. That damnable mud. More sunshine needed. High regards, General this and that, sitting safely 15 miles behind the front line, his only worry the occasional reverberation of a huge explosion deep into the night that made sleep a little uncomfortable at times and it rattled the china and the medals on the wall. Fortunately, the general had staff to quickly whisk away the wet bed sheets in the early morning. He then gave some orderly a maths puzzle: Let's assume for general purposes that 250 meters of no-man's land had to be taken and for every meter two men would die and one would come back maimed, how many men were needed over a stretch of land 6 miles wide? Please taken into account our artillery's glorious effect per square meter, also remembering 40% of shells can be presumed duds. Furthermore, the Germans are reported to have low morale and the barbed wire is smashed through. I want a full report by noon! Gotta impress the prime minister. Maybe he can find some more villages and towns to send all their youngsters to me.
the purely blind hatred of generals does nobody any service , this was a war like never before and everyone had to adapt to the new horrors it brought with it , if it meant sacrificing thousands then so be it
@@callusdoc thats not relevant cause its true lol , many veterans after the war realised it , society today still doesnt cause people tjink with their emotions rather than thinking objectively
@@Fortress333 No Commanding General with several Whole Armies could lead them from the front lines. Doesn't work that way. They give an order and it trickles down through Army, Corps, Division, Brigade, Battalion, Company and so on to the Private. People get chewed up no matter who is in Overall Command. Haig Held the Line other Generals would crack under those circumstances. There were Commanders at the Somme that halted other waves and against order.... that was their jobs. Its Ignorant to make ridiculous comments about ppl you don't know in a time you don't understand.
@@generalbooger9146 Obviously, you sound like someone with first-hand experience of trench warfare. I eat my words. My apologies.
I'm 37 and live in the USA and 95% of the people I ask if they know what Verdun or the Somme they don't know and it makes me smh this is world history
World war one was not popular here even during the war itself.
My friend didn’t even know what Gettysburg was. I have learned far more watching UA-cam docs about history than anything I was taught throughout K-12.!
@Make Me Believe unfortunately you are correct.
@@garymckee8857 He is . LAFAYETTE , Nous Ici ... is lost on so called patriots
If they did know, they wouldn’t care. The modern generations live in their own prime time TV dramas. Playground popularity is the meaning of life to those who know no worse.
I do like these older documentaries which don't rely on heavy use of music and loud crashing sound effects, often with a dumped down naration.
He knew something of war himself. He was an Australian and a Sapper in the Royal Australian Engineers in World War II, despite having lost an eye in an accident when he was aged 15.
I remember seeing this on TV in New Zealand in 1979. Ever since then, for the last 42 years (2021 now), I have been fascinated by the Somme battle and the First World War in general.
Excellent choice of narrator. He told the story simply and effectively and it was in no way about him.
Thank you a fitting tribute to the men who fought this campaign. My great uncle, Pvt Robert Ryder VC, was awarded the VC for his actions during the Somme on 26 September 1916 and unlike so many of those awarded this medal actually lived to tell the tale. He died at the age of 83. This is footage of him returning home. ua-cam.com/video/drZiM-zsvJc/v-deo.html
Actually more VC winners survived 1914-18 war than died. It was the opposite in 1939-45.
my great grandfather was shot to pieces that day he was sent home to Ireland but died shortly after he in the royal munsters field artillery arrived in 1914
Just a moving story.
Bless the bravery of men who are put to task, to effect the ego of 'The Brass and Government'.
Great
Neither the Battle of the Somme nor the war itself had anything to do with ego.
@E G I don't dispute that there was some ego involved, but to attribute the entire war to ego would be a major over-simplification.
Britain didn't enter the war to satisfy Haig's ego, but because the government objected to Germany's invasion of Belgium. Similarly, Germany didn't invade Belgium on von Moltke's personal whim but because it had only one (very rigid) plan to deal with a declaration of war from Russia.
Haig certainly didn't want to abandon the Battle of the Somme and have nothing to show for it, but at the outset, the battle was an agreed-upon course of action to divert German troops from Verdun. Bear in mind that with respect to the Western Front, Britain was very much the junior partner - the vast majority of the front was in France, and it was the French Army's show.
Britain should have NEVER fought in WW1.
We have never owed the French ANYTHING, and when we have involved ourselves with that country it’s ALWAYS cost us dearly.
It was the end. The end of a great nation and a world power.
The cost was immeasurable and folly unmatched in human history.
Lost a Great Uncle in 1918. Nothing but respect for this generation. Prefer the company of veterans these days. USMC RETIRED
outstanding,sombre,reflective....
I had never seen those photographs before on the first morning of the assault. Those pictures were astonishingly haunting.
With all thats going on in the world right now, its easy to forget what a good and safe life most of us are enjoying. We are sitting in our warm homes and are complaining about simple problems while our ancestors got their legs amputated because they got infected in the mud. Blown into pierces from artillery or shot in the field and bled out in the barbed wire, somewhere in the middle of nowhere...
We still have troops all over the world getting turned into " Pink Mist " ...nothing has changed but that we have gotten numb
comfortably numb. pink floyd the wall. it's all there
BRILLIANT..THANKYOU SO MUCH X.
60th Anniversary Program... watching in Newfoundland on the 105th anniversary.
"Better Than the Best"
Good to hear "mademoiselle from armentieres" used in both this fantastic documentary, as well as in They Shall Not Grow Old. Such a catchy song.
Excellent!!!!! 👍👍🇺🇸🇬🇧🇫🇷
absolute insanity !
never seen this before! its always nice to find a documentary made before the 'modern' era style of documentaries. just a calmer style, more impactful imo.
brilliant video , and very moving.
thank you for sharing...
A very moving film.
great documentary. would be good to re make it thanks for sharing
How sad for the WW1 generation of men. All brought about by the 3 grandsons of the Queen.
ž nž. Mm.
Žn.
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WWI destroyed generations in 3 countries. Even the youth that survived were in bad shape and the novels written about the post war era show a generation without goals, drifting from one excess (alcohol, drugs, sex) to the other. A certain nihilism prevailed. Hemingway captured it in Sun Also Rises. In France there's Henri Troyat. IN the UK, you have Somerset Maugham and Razor's Edge. Despite all, some amount of idealism and belief in humanity survives to face the nihilism of fascism and nazi behavior, so that the generation eventually challenges Hitler and Mussolini . IT is ideally captured in the last scene off Casablanca. There's hope in that last scene with La Bergman crying and leaving with her beau wh's fighting Nazis..
a terrorist act in the Balkans had nothing to do with it?? And the Habsburg murder victim was not even a relative of the Queen? u oversimplify.
They call the generation born between 1893-1900 the “Lost Generation” because of this war.
The soldiers words are beautiful/sad/funny. Like: "Who fired those shots ! Don't they know someone's going to get hurt !"
Excellent. Leo certainly adds gravatis
Leo McKern was the ideal choice to narrate this with his unique mixture of gravitas and humanity. On paper the offensive looked feasible even lthough the Allies had advance knowledge of the impregnable German trench system which they chose to ignore for some reason.
Many of these young men were little more than children under military age. It is difficult for us today to accept the extent of this slaughter. It was - and still is - inconceivable. The generals had learned nothing since the charge of the Light Brigade disaster sixty years before when British soldiers were hurled against the guns and massacred.
The British had machine guns which might have been deployed in front of the advance - just in case the Germans were regrouping. But then the relentless shelling was assumed to have exterminated all resistance. I suppose given the thinking and weapons of the day the action was inevitable, alas.
"...lions led by donkeys." - General Erich von Falkenhayn.
Wrong! That quote comes from a British politician Alan Clark in his Book, Lions Led by Donkeys 19060s.
My great uncle Dan was killed at the Somme.His body was not found.His name is on the Thiepval memorial and on the Ardrossan memorial in Scotland.He was not a career soldier.
People love this shit. We keep doing it over and over again.
"It was a magnificent display of trained and disciplined valour, and the assault failed of success because dead men can advance no further."
Frank Dawe 100% and 2 think what 19yr olds r doing 2day. Pathetic isnt it.
@@adamwilliams1216 I know. We are not raising men these days, it isn't politically correct.
There was still people who experienced the Somme in 1976 the last died in 2005 plus the last ever veteran died in 2009
what about the foreign legions and other third world colonials who were conscripted from all over the world, and fought in France in WW1?
My grandfather was a POW and survived. but never did he tell his story!
My Dad was a POW in WWll, but he never told us anything unless it was funny
Very sad, that is something you want to pass on in your family. But still it is completely understandable that he didn't want to talk about it.
Its sucks I never had the chance 2 even ask my grandpa. He died when I was 4 or 5, so I.....well u know
We shall remember them
Brilliant, informative and respectful documentary I have never seen before. No irritating near continuous background music the B.B.C. insist on using in their programmes nowadays.
Jack Sheldon has a wonderful book on the German side of the Somme battle. full of first person accounts. 'This Carnival of Hell' by Richard Baumgartner is also an incredible book on German fighting on the Somme. Also my favorite WWI book by a mile. Practically break out in goosebumps reading what those men witnessed and somehow, against all odds lived to tell the tale.
The Somme was the pinnacle of insanity like receiving a death sentence and not committing a crime.
We still characterize insanity as " Going Over the Top " to this day .
because they received a death sentence for somebody else's crime? Like Sadaam Hussein receiving a death sentence for Bin Laden's terrorist attack?
Try reading the Battle of Verdun.
The horror and insanity of this war makes this former soldier’s tears flow and my blood feel cold.
Those who went over the top were noble fools.
Those who gave the order were criminally incompetent.
Haig was certifiably insane.
Joe Biden is actually already certified medically incompetent. A dangerous, immature sociopath is waiting in the wings to take "over" er, "orders" from her puppet string manipulators... "WE WON'T GET FOOLED AGAIN" - lyrics from a pop hit by The Who (Brit rock band)
That's an easy judgement to make 100 years later. There were tangible reasons for going to war in 1914 (though some were better than others!), and the Battle of the Somme had specific strategic objectives.
It is absolutely true that mistakes were made and tactics needed to be improved. It is also easily demonstrated that lessons were learned from the Somme campaign.
Many people forget that as far as the western allies went, the British Army was not acting on its own initiative. The war was largely fought on French soil, and the French Army command had the final say. We may not like all of Haig's actions (I do not), but he had his orders.
@@stephenp448 Lessons were learned from The Somme Campaign, but the most important lesson, "stop the war these cats are killing each other" wasn't one of them. It was all folly and madness and bloody murder you dolt.
@@davisworth5114 Are you suggesting that the allies should have allowed the (right wing, militaristic) Germans to advance unopposed into Belgium and France then, committing atrocities as they went?
You may prefer to be ruled by an aggressive, racist dictator, but the courageous people of 1914 preferred liberal democracy. A thank goodness they did.
The reasons for going to war was the re-shaping of Europe and society as such. The old world of the Edwardian era was gone. What followed was the same cold, inhumane system we live in up until today. Money, corporations, globalization. They had to slay an entire generation to install their new system. They got them by their old noble values and emotions. They wouldnt have missed that show for their lives.....and their lives they gladly gave....but for what...for instagram, climate change and gender neutral toilets. Such betrayal. Unforgivable.@@stephenp448
This documentary is going back to 1976! Wow, looks like what I'd be watching at my Grammy's on Boston's WGBH in Boston as a 10 yo. I'll never forget the day she took me to see her/my Great Great Uncle who'd fought in WW I. His young Doughboy portrait sitting a few feet from his creaky old bed-ridden body as he smiled at me there in his elder years. It was my immediate connection to that Great War. This documentary reminds me of that day. Now they're both gone.
My Grammy was a Canadian, so knew many who'd gone to fight for "The Empire" from her home country.
Paternal grandfather: October, 1916, buried by a large German shell and received a "blighty" wound from it. His war was over.
today is the 103rd anniversary of the battle of the somme. July 1st 1916 to July 1st 2019
17 days ago, it was the 108 anniversary of the battle of somme
A generation of Newfoundlanders lost in no mans land…and for what?
Happy 105th anniversary of the battle of the Somme
Happy? 🤣🤣🤣
Happy 108th anniversary of the battle of the somme
Thanks to Covid 19 stay at home and the movie 1917 just knew about this battle.
1917 was not the year of the Somme. It 1916.
Get a grip.
The worst day in the history of the British Army was July 1, 1916. 57,000 casualties. In America's 60 Families Ferdinand Lundberg wrote that the US entered WW I to make it last longer and bankrupt our Allies in England, France and Russia. This is according to a partner of JP Morgan. The Somme offensive was to relieve German pressure on the Verdun front where the French were losing. By comparison, the US had 53,000 casualties on both sides over 3 days at Gettysburg July 1-3, 1863 during the Civil War. The British government tried to give a spin to the events of July 1st but the public soon learned otherwise when they received so many telegrams telling them of the deaths of the fathers, brothers, husbands and sons.
Our first congresswoman in the US was Jeanette Rankin from Montana who was elected in 1916 and voted against entering WW I. She was asked many times about that vote. She said, "Women have been asked to send their fathers, brothers, husbands and sons off to war but were never allowed to vote for or against war. I thought that as the first woman in history allowed to vote that I ought to vote No."
@Gorgeous George America lost 130,000 soldiers and 8,000 blinded after 1915. What did your nation lose? We paid taxes and lost men in Korea and Vietnam because Russia was deliberately bankrupted so a Communist state could take over Russia. The Japanese Emperor tried to surrender in 1936. In March of 1939 the German military offered to arrest Hitler and fight a war against the Nazis if they could have peace. His Majesty's Jewish Government said No.
War is Tragic. When will you people learn? -Bill Howes.
What's tragic was the German leadership trying to take over the world. That had to be stopped.
+William Brown The Germans were fighting because they were allied with one of the main belligerents - the same as Britain. WWI was initiated by Austria-Hungary against Serbia which was supported by Russia. Germany was allied with Austria-Hungary and had pledged to defend them from the Russians and their French allies, so it was Germany who manned the line of the Western Front. Don't confuse this with WWII; the conquering was not to be of the world but the Balkans, and it was to be driven by Austrian hands. Britain could have stayed out, and they could have ended the war a year early, but the warhawk MP's wanted glory, and France wanted blood, so German calls for armistice negotiations were ultimately ignored. Wilhelm II was a fool to be sure, but he wasn't the traitor to humanity that was Franz Josef I of Austria.
It is not we people , its the beautiful people who never learn nor want to
@@n0denz Germany fucked up by invading a neutral country and it cost them dearly in terms of the Armistice .
@@WilliamBrownGuitar Great Britain and France were too
RIP
To the 95,675 British troops, 50,729 French troops, and 164,055 Imperial German troops who were killed in the Battle of the Somme
You are quoting casualties not deaths.
@@anthonyeaton5153 So what??? Not all numbers are accurate! This is the far as I can go! Any problems, too bad because I don’t care!!!
The 2016 documentary The Somme 1916: Both Sides of the Wire is a more informative programme introduced by WW1 Archeologist Pete Barton. He provides evidence to suggest the Battle of the Somme ended in January 1917 and lays bare why the British failed overrall and how organised and prepared the Germans were throughout 1916-17.
100 years ago tonight was the last for 19, 000 British troops.
Noddles ...Please watch the Somme then and now in full hd
Yeah i've been reading a lot on it before bed. What year is the doc from?MC C
Noodles 2016 made by myself but please don't be put off by that
Okay i ll give it a look : )MC C
fuck em
I'm a old man now my grandfather fought in the great war. I remember him and his brothers talking about somethings, about what a waste. How can people not know about all that were lost on both sides what a shame
Because they don't teach it. They just gloss over it. Otherwise everyday people would have the pattern recognition to say, "No more."
Hypnotic insistence on the traditional view
'Hypnotic insistence on the traditional view'. And your view presumably is the Gary Sheffield view.
I highly recommend, "Goodbye to All That," by Robert Graves.
n0denz An excellent and poignant book
Yes, a first class work of fiction.
@@henrypulleine8750 Midwit take
And today you could ask 100 people, I'm afraid they couldn't answer when and where.
Wars can only take place when there is a suspension of conscience. "War is nothing but legalized murder" --Harry Patch, last surviving Tommy of the Great War.
Notice how rare the story of the German soldiers is ever told.....
Straight up.
It's a British documentary you ninny. Let the Germans tell their own stories.
My grandfather served England at the Somme
First raf
Is there anyone else out there who can connect
He survived, lucky, described as a a very good gunner on discharge
He emigrated to Oz after as did so many
Fingers crossed xx
Felix harding
Sorrowful remembrance of this terrible day in history.
I honestly still have no idea why this war was fought 🌹
Start reading books from c1910.
I would rather be the last to go... not the first
Wasted the cream of European manhood. A massive pointless cull. No more. Criminal from any angle.
Each country involved had their own reasons for getting involved in the war, though some were better than others. Then men who enlisted voluntarily - especially early in the war - certainly believed that they were taking part in a just and justifiable war. At one point, I would have agreed with you that it was pointless, but no longer. I don't think the war solved much, but that has more to do with the peace treaties (particularly Versailles) than it had to do with the fighting itself.
Look at it this way: if the assassination of a relative nobody in Sarajevo could set off a war this bad, do you REALLY think that the peace in Europe was going to hold much longer?
Since the last general European war, there had been huge advances in technology and weaponry. By 1914, artillery alone was far advanced from that in 1871. The development and widespread adoption of rifled, breech loading guns had reduced the interval between shots from a minute to mere seconds. A shot could be accurately placed at a range of thousands of yards instead of just a few hundred. Machine guns, firing hundreds of rounds per minute, were in increasingly widespread use. Unfortunately, the generals of 1914 had gotten used to mostly fighting colonial wars with a vast technological advantage. They had lost sight of the fact that all European armies were equally well-equipped. It really took until 1917 for tactics to catch up with the military reality of the industrial age.
I don't dispute the wastage of life. I have to disagree on the ideas of pointlessness and criminality.
I just want to know who were the commanders watching this unfold? This is LEGAL MASS MURDER
Find a book and read out about.
Wonderful, moving documentary. Brilliantly researched, produced, and magnificently presented by Leo McKern. This is a throwback to when the BBC still made top quality documentaries. Not the endless Woke dross it spews out today, sadly...
I've been to Albert it's a fascinating place
"the mass empty graves ready for the fallen were bad for moral" no shit!
Passchendaele...... 😭
Harry patch passchendaele
Look it up
*The attack on the German positions was preceded by a week of artillery bombardment, where the British fired around 1.5 million grenades, in addition to ten tunnels dug under German trenches that were filled with explosives of 20 tons each. They thought that reaching the German trenches was going to be a Sunday walk, but the opposite happened, the Germans massacred them.*
Shrapnel shells, rather than grenades. Shrapnel is a very effective anti-personnel weapon if the men you're targeting are at ground level. Unfortunately for the British, the German soldiers were deep underground where shrapnel would have no effect. It was also useless against barbed wire, which the artillery was expected to destroy.
High explosive shells with contact fuses would have been a much more effective choice.
The Germans didn't know when the shelling would stop though did they 👈😑
Wars should be fought by all these old geezers who start them
Fantastic documentary, it spares us the bleeding heart emotional manipulation of more recent efforts and tells the story plainly. Also, i remember reading a story from when the film of the battle was first shown in Britain in 1916. A man recalled sitting in a dark movie theatre, the audience watching in stunned silence when a woman suddenly stood up, with tears streaming down her face, and shrieked "MY GOD! THEY'RE REALLY DEAD!"
And in 2021 the band is slowing getting back together 🇬🇧🇦🇺🇺🇸 Will the drums of war be forced upon us again?
10 minutes before the attack, just to get footage. They HAD THE ELEMENT OF SUPRISE!!!! But they quite literally, blew it.
Between Agincourt and the Somme approx. 600 years. And yet 'man' learned nothing....
Is there any survivor from the battle of Somme who is still living today? I am looking for my great grand Native father who either died in Somme or SSMendi. Please can somebody help. His name is Mphahlele Chueuyekgolo. My name is Zacharia Mogaladi from Limpopo South Africa.
Check the Somme Memorial with over 50,000 names on it. Tony Robinson did. Time Team Special on the architect who designed it. It's said to have all the names on it. It's roster must be online somewhere. Good Luck and God Bless your Kin who fell in this war.
Mafagahlele Mogaladi check the Commonwealth war graves website. You have his name and if you know what regiment then you may get the details of were he is buried or listed as missing.
Mafagahlele Mogaladi type in WW1 and then a record of names should come up and you click onto the one you need. It's free for the basics info. I've found a family member buried in France during WW1 and he was from Jamaica the British West Indies Regiment. I've recently travelled on a Battlefield tour to the Somme and Ypres. Emotional and humbling. Good Luck in your search
Blake, you need to brush up on your military history
No , Harry Patch died 2011 as the last Tommy . He was very outspiken about what lousy people the worlds leaders all are .
one of the many statements in this great documentary is two years in the making. ten minutes in the destroying comes from the best book ever about the battle of the somme covenant with death by john harris a must read for anybody interested in the great war
a brilliant book, I'm reading it for the third time now,
Remember it is fiction but a good read
Oh dear God
I always wondered why they never tried walking artillery. I know they of course knew/ know more then i do, but why not go over while the large extended bombardment took place or why not start consistent precise artillery as close and as safe as they could to the men. Germans duck and the artillery would keep littering the sky with dirt and smoke so the soldiers could walk behind and if worse case scenario the germans started firing then the men could dive into the previously created craters everywhere
people forget that the 1st battle of the somme lasted for 3 months and cost 600000 live on both sides...what a complete cluster fuck
cluster fu@@?? how about four years of shell shock, as you rotate out of the trenches to recuperate, then rotate back in, and if you survive to the end of WW1, you are a trembling invalid in a veterans hospital for the rest of your short, brutal life?
The deaths for both sides was less than 200,000
@@fritzvold9968 shut up kid
The spanish flu killed most
People don't forget how could they. Get you numbers right Approx 95,000 British AUSTRALIAN and Canadian troops were killed the total casualties for the Somme was c350,000. 600,000 were not killed. The Somme let the Germans realise that for the first time that that may lose. Those who moan about the method of attack never sy how it should have been done.
No, men are not like that now 1:09:45 From the poetry, books and letters written at that time, there's no doubt that these men were made of different stuff.
No , not at all ...they like every man are products of their time ...
20:00 Sounds like a good plan.
The arrogance and inflated egos of the majority of British officers never ceases to amaze and anger.They always insist that they are right, seldom listen to advice, and get people killed with monotonous regularity.This is an excellent video, well presented by Leo Mckern.
'The arrogance and inflated egos of the majority of British officers never ceases to amaze and anger.' I think you mean senior officers, the top brass. Junior officers took the same risks as the men they led, sometimes greater risks.
We can never train for the battle ahead of us, only the one we just fought. The British Army, like all other Armies in the Great War, were learning the hard way, just as we do with every other war. The High Command was trying to fight the Second Boer War in Flanders. It didn't work very well. The biggest lesson we all learned from it was flexibility. It was a lesson slowly learned and it didn't really take a firm hold until 1940, but learn it we did. It's why the Americans were able to have the success we had in 1918. When we were training up to join the fight, a Scottish Sergean Major was dressing down a battalion of American troops for the way they were preparing. Some wag in the back of the formation yelled back "it hasn't done you lot much good, has it?" We weren't better than our allies, we just had the luxury of learning from their mistakes. The same thing happened in 1942, after some nasty mistakes of our own, like Kasserine Pass.
Training erases personality
@@channelfogg6629 Of course that is what he meant
@@104thDIVTimberwolf The US fought an atrocious Civil War in which stalemate by trenches had happened ....thee leadership learned nothing and so taught nothing in its regard .
The song right at the start is the song at the beginning of The Queen is dead by The Smiths.
Right!
what's the song at the very end?