Why?

In four short years, from 1914 to 1918, over 10 million men and women serving in armed forces on fronts around the world were killed, while double that number were wounded, disabled and disfigured; and at least another 7 million civilians lost their lives as well. Most died horrific deaths. But as time passes by we tend to forget, a century later, how many sacrifices were made day after day on both sides of one the most deadly conflicts in human history. Civilized Productions has produced a wonderful choral album, Sacrifice and Solace, which features an octet called the Toronto Valour Ensemble who sang these carefully selected and uniquely composed songs from that era. It is available on CD Baby. The simple translation of the Arabic word "jihad" is struggle.

Sunday, October 16, 2016

The Struggle for a Film Audience

While the Battle of the Somme was winding down in October a hundred years ago, having claimed the lives of 157,000 British and her allies' soldiers, over 20 million people across Britain (and around the world) had watched a film produced by W.F. Jury, which had been released in August 1916 and distributed by the British Topical Committee for War Films. Simply called The Battle of the Somme, it was a silent black and white film that ran over 74 minutes in length, divided into 5 parts.
Two cinematographers had been tasked a year earlier by the British Topical Committee for War Films (endorsed and fully supported by the War Office) to shoot newsreel footage of the efforts that were underway in France to defeat Germany. One of the two (Edward Tong of Jury's Imperial Pictures) having fallen sick in the field was replaced by John McDowell, of the British & Colonial film company, and together with Geoffrey Malins were on location when British artillery gunners opened up on June 24 and began their bombardment of German positions.
When they had arrived in France Tong and Malins filmed soldiers in the rear diligently stockpiling munitions and eagerly marching to frontline trenches, commanders addressing their troops and local farmers tending their crops. Months later, McDowell and Malins captured the preemptive barrage and the detonation of the mine under the Hawthorn Ridge Redoubt. They also included in their film re-enactments of tending to the wounded, going "over the top", soldiers advancing through No Man's Land and the treatment of captured prisoners.
Significantly, on 01 July 1916, Malins was attached to the 29th Division (VIII Corps) and was in the vicinity of Beaumont Hamel, in order to film the mortar shelling of Hawthorn Ridge, which he did as German bombs fell nearby. When the order was given to go "over the top", Malins had been filming the 1st Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers waiting to advance, many of whom would be dead within the next 24 hours, before heading back at dawn to famously film the massive explosion of the mine underneath the Hawthorn Ridge Redoubt minutes before Zero Hour.
Although his equipment was cumbersome (and was damaged) and the camera hand-cranked in those days, he persevered, and throughout the early days of the battle continued to shoot historical footage and left for London a week later, but was returned soon after to film new sequences of additional shellfire (a tactic still in its infancy) and troops advancing from their trenches, though staged for the camera, near St Pol.
McDowell was assigned to an area further south near the villages of Fricourt and Mametz with the 7th Division (XV Corps), where their actions proved more successful than units in the northern sector, which were being annihilated. The success of the 7th Division enabled McDowell, who was posted to cover the vicinity of Carnoy and the dressing-station at Minden Post, to critically film the captured German trenches near Fricourt and Mametz, especially useful for the War Office as effective propaganda.
The film, comprising its five reels, was quickly edited and first screened a month later in August at the Scala Theatre. Preceding its screening, however, a letter from (soon-to-be Prime Minister) Lloyd George was read, to "see that this picture, which is in itself an epic of self-sacrifice and gallantry, reaches everyone. Herald the deeds of our brave men to the ends of the earth. This is your duty."
Originally planned to be a joint Anglo-French offensive to liberate territory in northern France, when the Germans suddenly launched their own attack at Verdun, for the British troops under General Haig (who had stated his preference to allocate his own limited resources to re-capture land in Belgium to access vital seaports; keeping in mind, Britain had declared war on Germany in defense of Belgium) the Battle of the Somme was never intended to actually end the war, but to put their forces in a better position by the end of the year, to push on in 1917, while also relieving the intense pressure felt by the French at Verdun.
Today, lest we forget, at the entrance to the Sunken Road, where on 01 July the Lancashire Regiment were wiped out (the position was held through the night by just one officer and 25 men; the battalion having lost 163 killed, 312 wounded and 11 missing), is a huge white Celtic cross commemorating the men of the 1/8th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders who finally took Beaumont-Hamel on 13 November 1916, five days before the Battle of the Somme was mercifully declared over.
Its solemn inscription reads:
The mighty heroes of the Great War
The heroes who went before us

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