100 years ago today....

[Nicos]

The whistle blew to start the attack at 7.30 am....

In pictures: Battle of the Somme - BBC News

My grandpa served there and survived.
give the lads a few minutes of your thoughts today will you?

[SusieG]

>>>>Yes, of course Nicos ..... If it weren't for those brave young soldiers, things would likely look a lot different today .....<<<<<
God bless them.......

Just had to wipe away some tears of sorrow, they were only young boys .........

[Deano's "Diggin It"]

Watched the "Vigil"

Quite moving actually!

Yep! My thoughts are certainly with ya Lads!

[Lumpy]

This is a beautiful picture, sorry I could not make it bigger.

[ESBkevin]

My maternal grandfather served at Ypres and was shot in the leg. He was lucky and survived but the wound was very obvious decades later. He was under age (like many) and lied to volunteer. He volunteered again for WWII but was too old for the front and stil limping so they sent him to Canada to train others to use machine guns.
Three years ago I had the honour of taking my frail mother, partner and youngest son(16) to Ypres where we stayed overnight and visited a selection of Museums including sancuary wood trenches and Hooge craters. It was interesting that my son was the age of my grandfather when he was wounded in action.The fields seem remarkably calm but are still littered with ammunition with piles at the roadside, also about every mile there is a cemetary to one country or another. Very sobering.

We should never forget what can happen when civilised nations can't be civilised.

[bramble]

My husband and son are at the Somme ceremony today.
My husbands grandfather was killed on tha first day.
He left a wife and three young sons behind.
Three years later his wife died with the black flu and the extended family brought them up.
He was 23.His name is on the momerial as his body was never recovered.

[Nicos]

Very sad bramble.
Lovely to hear he is being represented and remembered.

[Alison]

My dad took me to visit the graves and memorials about 30 odd years ago. Don't think I knew much about it then as the history we learnt at school was far more ancient and I didn't have any family members I knew that were involved. My grandad's step father had served but, although he survived, he'd died before I was born. One of my gran's would have been old enough to remember but she never talked about the past (for unrelated reasons). The main two things I remember about our visit was the sheer numbers of graves (and the fact that so many were so young and only a couple of years older than I was then) and a realisation of how close the lines were. Terribly sad and even sadder that war is still so much a part of some people's lives today

[JanieB]

My maternal grandpa was an observer in the RFC. I'm pretty sure he was at the Somme in 1916. He volunteered to be in a cavalry regiment and was seconded to the RFC whilst training on Salisbury Plain. He never really talked about it, I only know he was identifying the separate fronts in Europe, mainly France.

[Potstubsdustbins]

1,000,000 casualties in five months the mind boggles at such figures. I spent a two week holiday exploring the WW1 battle fields a very humbling experience in deed.

My old regiment was deployed to Gallipoli in WW1 another killing field, one I have yet to visit.

WW11 they were in North Africa and then after El Alamein were bought back to blighty to prepare for D Day were they went ashore in DD tanks in the first wave. I went to visit the beach they landed on and tried to work out how they survived the run in.

[Cadalot]

Both Granddad's served in WWI and one also re enlisted for WWII the other had lost his wife and had seven daughters to bring up. We should never forget.

[JanieB]

I mentioned grandpa 1. The other was a gunner in the desert. He eventually died in 1952 of a disease he picked up during wwi. I remember him holding meupsidedown by my ankles and pretending that sweeties were falling out of me. He died in his fifties of a form of hepatitis he'd picked up during the war.

[Nicos]

I remember my paternal grandpa still having malaria attacks during the 60s and 70s which he caught during WW1

[JanieB]

I'm watching the news. Both of my grandpas were teenagers. They both survived wwi or I wouldn't be here. I can't imagine their terror. Neither of them ever spoke about it. Actually my dad was in the next one and he didn't ever discuss that either.

[noviceveggrower]

Hope this link works

https://becausewearehere.co.uk/

This has made a lot of people think about those who were lost. These guys didn't speak just handed out cards with soldiers names on, regiment and how old they were. Such a simple act seems to of made a lot of people think.
Can't believe over 19,000 men died on the first day. Just so sad.