Post by stuart1974 on Jun 30, 2016 22:48:37 GMT
As you wake up on Friday morning, spare a thought while you eat your breakfast that 100 years ago 57,000 British and Empire soldiers, maybe including our own grandfathers or great grandfathers, went over the top only to be felled by a hail of machine gun fire.
Of that number, some 19,000 were killed. That was in just one day.
To put that in context, the British casualties would almost fill The Emirates Stadium and the fatalities would fill the Mem more than one and a half times over.
This doesn't include the many French and German casualties on that day.
While Jutland and Kut were perhaps more strategically significant during 1916, the Somme for us and Verdun for France seem to embody what was wrong with the War and holds a disproportionate impact on our collective thoughts.
We must never forget their sacrifice.
Of that number, some 19,000 were killed. That was in just one day.
To put that in context, the British casualties would almost fill The Emirates Stadium and the fatalities would fill the Mem more than one and a half times over.
This doesn't include the many French and German casualties on that day.
While Jutland and Kut were perhaps more strategically significant during 1916, the Somme for us and Verdun for France seem to embody what was wrong with the War and holds a disproportionate impact on our collective thoughts.
We must never forget their sacrifice.
