The Struggle for Seven Miles on the Somme

The Battle of the Somme, conceived by Allied generals in 1915 to enable their amassed forces to break through the German lines from the outset, in fact lasted 141 days and was certainly one of the wars' bloodiest. It was a horrific battle fought along a 15-mile front that cost both sides over one million dead and wounded. Their efforts were officially halted in mid November a hundred years ago, sadly, without gaining much ground, having carried out the final battle on the River Ancre.

In early 1916, while also eagerly tunnelling underground and reporting on enemy positions and troop movements (as well as fighting) well overhead, the entrenched armies facing each other from across No Man's Land were being bombarded nightly and daily. Although the generals' original intention was to end this vicious stalemate, when the Germans attacked Verdun, the French found themselves desperate for a relief engagement and relied on the British and their Commonwealth armies to strike a hard blow and weaken the German Army.

When the massive combined offensive was launched, the British troops were enthusiastic patriotic volunteers yet poorly trained by commanders experienced in (for lack of better terminology) colonial warfare. Upon the battlefield today visitors will find the huge Memorial to the Missing of the Somme - and the names of 72,085 soldiers killed, blown to mist or buried in the mud of Northern France with no known grave.

Nearby, there is another memorial, an obelisk which commemorates the actions (and losses) of the 18th Eastern Division, whose men finally captured Thiepval in September - demonstrating successfully new tactics in doing so, which would prove invaluable to their renewed efforts in 1917. Initially, on 01 July, the 32nd Division's 96th Brigade were tasked to capture the "Spur" at Thiepval. In short, they were massacred within minutes of launching their assault.

By August, in response, the Germans were able to divert 42 divisions to the Somme.

As the battle progressed, recognising changes were needed in the field, certain commanders, such as British Major-General Maxse employed a creeping barrage, as well as launching the attacks of his 18th Division later in the day, rather than at dawn. Thus, when they achieved their objectives of capturing enemy trenches, machine-gun emplacements and numerous strongholds, remaining daylight would be minimised and soldiers would be able to take cover in the darkness. It was Maxse and his men, after three days of intense fighting, who took Thiepval.

A few months later, the now-popularised 'creeping barrage' was used at Ancre, for example, with great success while troops stormed the various heavily-fortified German positions and crossed the river. The 51st Highland Division eventually took Beaumont Hamel and the 63rd (Royal Naval) Division took Beaucourt and captured 7,000 German prisoners as winter set in.

The lessons that were learned at great cost during the Somme were duly analysed in the coming months by the British, who then issued two manuals in February 1917 and by April the Allies were a much more effective fighting force. However, over those 141 days, the Allies had advanced only seven miles and failed to break the defensive lines of the Germans (though indeed inflicting incredible casualties), who by March had retreated to the infamous  Hindenburg Line, as opposed to resuming fighting once again along the Somme.

The war was still, a century ago, two years away from being won.

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

The Struggle for the Italians

Not all battles in 1916 were being waged along the Western Front. While the Somme Offensive was nearing its conclusion, slowing in the mud, and French forces were still fending off the Germans at Verdun, the Italian army on 10 October launched the Eighth Battle of the Isonzo against the armies of the Austro-Hungarian empire, trying to extend the bridgehead gained in prior months at Gorizia.

The various battles fought along the Isonzo River fell in the eastern sector of the Italian Front, in present-day Slovenia. During #WW1 the river - running north-south - was located mainly inside the borders of Austria, its head was, however, at the head of the Adriatic in Italy, flanked on both banks by mountains. The Austro-Hungarians held the higher ground and had fortified their positions. The Italians were fighting an uphill battle from the outset.

Following promises made by Allied leaders during the Treaty of London (26 April 1915), Italy then entered the war intending to annex Littoral and northern Dalmatia, as well as the territories of present-day Trentino and South Tyrol with a surprise offensive. Unfortunately, their actions soon bogged down into trench warfare at high altitudes, amid extremely cold winters.

At the time of the Eighth Battle 100 years ago, keeping in mind the regions sought by Italy when the Treaty was signed over 45% of the 1.5 million people were Italian speakers (the rest were Slovenes, Germans and Croats), many thousands of re-settled civilians were dying of malnutrition and facing the prospect of freezing to death in refugee camps in the mountains.

With respect to the fighting along the coastal plain of the Isonzo, the Italians, led by Chief of Staff Luigi Cadorna, could not achieve any success and, as with their earlier attacks, heavy casualties required that their 2-day initiative be called off pending the army's recuperation. The year prior, from October to November, the Italians amassed 1,200 heavy guns and had launched their Third and Fourth Battles of Isonzo, which ended in early December due to lack of munitions and much-needed supplies for the troops.

Although nothing strategically was gained by taking Gorizia during the Sixth Battle, apparently morale and spirits along the Italian line were boosted. The subsequent battles of the Isonzo in the following months accomplished little - except wear down the simply exhausted armies of both nations.

It should be noted discipline in the Italian Army was harsh, with severe punishments for infractions not known in the German, French, and British armies. Also, shellfire in the rocky terrain caused 70% more casualties per rounds expended than on the soft ground in Belgium and France. Thus, as with the forces on the Western Front, tunnels were built into the rock of the Dolomites, and even through glacial ice, attempting to break the stalemate by going underneath No Man's Land and placing explosive charges beneath enemy positions.

Sadly, on 13 December 1916, a day known as 'White Friday', 10,000 soldiers were killed by avalanches in the Dolomites. In a war of attrition, the Italian soldiers who survived the nine offensives waged through to the end of 1916 had seen 70,000 of their comrades killed and in the two offensives of 1917 they would see another 76,000 more die.

Not surprisingly, the number of casualties during the numerous and admittedly disappointing battles of the Isonzo were enormous for the Italians from 1915 to 1916, but the worst was yet to come. In 1917, with the Pope calling for an end to the war, a joint German and Austro-Hungarian assault broke through the Isonzo line, which destroyed the Italian Second Army and removed 275,000 Italian soldiers from the battlefield, almost all of them captured.

In total, incredibly, there were 1.2 million casualties suffered along the Isonzo.

The Struggle of Man versus Bomb

The Great War, from 1914 to 1918, caused over 37 million casualties: 8.5 million deaths and 21 million wounded, while the remainder are identified as “missing”, such as those who are commemorated at Thiepval Memorial. During the war, heavy artillery was mobile, accurate and powerful. Shells and shrapnel killed more soldiers than any other weapon. During the Battle of the Somme in 1916, for example, 1.8 million heavy artillery shells were fired at German lines in a single week. Visit the highlighted link to view a short clip of vintage footage.