The Somme
We watched a really moving documentary yesterday about and archaeological expedition to try to uncover a German dug-out that had been occupied by the poet Wilfred Owen during the Battle of the Somme. Owen lead a platoon into No Manâs Land to try to occupy an abandoned German dug-out near the village of Serre. Life in the trenches was hazardous enough, but crossing No Manâs Land under bombardment was tantamount to suicide. Owen later recalled in his harrowing poem The Sentry how the Germans knew they were there, and kept them under constant attack:
Weâd found an old Boche dug-out, and he knew, And gave us hell, for shell on frantic shell Hammered on top, but never quite burst through.
Owen survived the hell of the dug-out and a bout of severe shell shock, only to die in action a week before Armistice Day.
Inevitably, the archaeologists discovered human remains during their excavations; two British soldiers and one German, distinguishable only by their metal buttons. It isnât much to show for a life, is it? All that remains of your short but precious life are some buttons, a comb, a broken mirror, and the lid of a polish tin that reminds you of home.
Iâm certainly not the first to say it, but the Battle of the Somme (in fact the whole of the First World War) was such a monumental waste of life. In the Battle of the Somme, 20,000 British soliders were killed and 40,000 injured on the first day alone. Men went over the top and were immediately cut down. The statistics are mind-numbing; a total of 420,000 British casualties, 195,000 French and 650,000 Germans, all to move the Front 5 miles.
Iâm not sure that you can say that either side won the war, rather that the Allies were the last ones standing. We were the âwinnersâ so we could afford headstones for our war dead, while the Germans could only manage wooden crosses. But they all ended up as countless identical monuments in a fieldâa whole generation wasted.
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it averaged out to 5,200 dead per day, all nationalities...
wasted lives, yes, but if the kaiser had won?
well, i suppose i could go on, but talk never cooked rice...
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If you are thinking of the Somme you would want to hear Margarita..http://www.harveyandrews.com/catalogue.html
The mp3 snippet gives you no clue, but the 2nd verse starts.'Kiss me again , Margarita, give me a memory of you. They say in France, Margarita, one more push, we'll be through. Oh, I'll write, but where from? All they'll say is The Somme. So kiss me again, Margarita, give me a memory of you..'.
You will like Harvey's songs....
by zimm @ 14/03/2004 11:03 pm • Permalink •
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a war caused totally by the sheer arrogance of european nationalism, royal families, upper classes and their totally incompetent military leadership. The ostensible cause of the war is still being fought out in the remains of Yugoslavia. What sheep the men of europe & (eventually)America were to allow themselves to be slaughtered in such numbers for nothing except to set the stage for world war two. If you want to round off your world war one melancholy try these songs: " The band played Waltzing matilda" with June Tabor & (a real futility of war favourite of mine) "The green fields of france (no mans land)" with The Men They Couldn`t Hang.
by john @ 16/03/2004 4:04 pm • Permalink •
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john-- "sheer arrogance of european nationalism" well, that might be an accurate expression; although the little bit of saxon nobility in my ancestry inclines me to see it as the kaiser's ego...
and at the risk of sounding indignant, in 1914 there was NO ONE in the US who hadn't seen a mangled war veteran... i can't speak for the europeans, but i can assure you that the americans who went to end that war were not sheep.
unlike the americans of today...
by stacy @ 16/03/2004 5:04 pm • Permalink •
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stacy: Of course, things would have been different if the âother sideâ had won, and goodness knows I donât mean to belittle the heroic efforts of all the people who fought.
john: Like stacy, I donât think that the soldiers were sheep. I think that they genuinely believed in what they were doing, even if they became utterly disillusioned once they had seen the situation at the front. I think that it is an enormous tribute to those men that even when they knew that what they were being asked to do was madness and suicide, they kept on. Iâm sure that some were worried about being shot as deserters, but many more must have stayed because they would be deserting their friends and comrades. I may be wrong, but I donât think that this sense of honour still exists.
I know the June Tabor song (itâs very good), but I havenât heard the other. Iâll seek it out.
zimm: Sounds interesting (from the short clip). Another artist Iâll have to look up.
by bsag @ 16/03/2004 7:04 pm • Permalink •
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Wilfred Owen's poetry really flew in the face of the blind patriotic fervour of the early part of the war where poets such as the flowery, romantic Rupert Brooke were hugely popular - his poem "Anthem for Doomed Youth" says it all. Siegfried Sassoon was another poet who protested against the futility of the war.
The very first essay I wrote when I started Uni (for the first time ever at 33) was about Owen, so I just had to comment!
by KF @ 17/03/2004 4:04 am • Permalink •
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OOPS! I apologize if I offended and started a controversy while being a guest on your site. My personal arrogance was assuming that my world view of world war 1 as being a tragicly stupid war was an uncontroversial generally accepted concept. Once again I apologize, I sincerely didn`t mean to start a debate on your site.
by john @ 17/03/2004 9:04 am • Permalink •
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KF: Iâve always liked Owen and Sassoonâs poems for that very reason. We did them at school, and they made a deep impression on me at the time.
john: Donât worry! I like debate, and you didnât offend me, at least. I do agree that WWI was a âtragically stupidly warâ, but I donât think that the soldiers were sheep (except in the sense that they were used and slaughtered by those in authority).
by bsag @ 17/03/2004 7:04 pm • Permalink •
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I had always considered that people of that era WERE sheep. They were not considered to have worthy thoughts and opinions and these thoughts and opinions would not have been taken into the "mix" by the powers that be anyway. Democracy was neither broad nor deep. History was still considered as the province of "important people" not of the little man.
"And the Band played Waltzing Matilda" is an Eric Bogle song which is sung by June Tabor.
by Julie @ 20/03/2004 10:03 am • Permalink •
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