Canada ping!
Please FReepmail me to get on or off this ping list.
Posted on 06/08/2006 8:05:35 AM PDT by Clive
ST. JOHN'S, N.L. (CP) - Canada will send a delegation to France this summer to commemorate one of the bloodiest battles of the First World War.
Veteran Affairs Minister Greg Thompson says Ottawa will send a group of veterans, youth and government officials to northern France to honour the 90th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme.
The battle was one of the most devastating in Newfoundland's history.
On July 1, 1916, 801 Newfoundlanders went into battle bear the French towns of Beaumont and Hamel.
Only 68 entered roll call the next day.
The delegation will take part in ceremonies in France from June 27 to July 5.
Ceremonies will also be held in St. John's and Ottawa on July 1.
-
Canada ping!
Please FReepmail me to get on or off this ping list.
(4) Philip Gibbs, a journalist, watched the preparation for the major offensive at the Somme in July, 1916.
Before dawn, in the darkness, I stood with a mass of cavalry opposite Fricourt. Haig as a cavalry man was obsessed with the idea that he would break the German line and send the cavalry through. It was a fantastic hope, ridiculed by the German High Command in their report on the Battles of the Somme which afterwards we captured.
In front of us was not a line but a fortress position, twenty miles deep, entrenched and fortified, defended by masses of machine-gun posts and thousands of guns in a wide arc. No chance for cavalry! But on that night they were massed behind the infantry. Among them were the Indian cavalry, whose dark faces were illuminated now and then for a moment, when someone struck a match to light a cigarette.
Before dawn there was a great silence. We spoke to each other in whispers, if we spoke. Then suddenly our guns opened out in a barrage of fire of colossal intensity. Never before, and I think never since, even in the Second World War, had so many guns been massed behind any battle front. It was a rolling thunder of shell fire, and the earth vomited flame, and the sky was alight with bursting shells. It seemed as though nothing could live, not an ant, under that stupendous artillery storm. But Germans in their deep dugouts lived, and when our waves of men went over they were met by deadly machine-gun and mortar fire.
Our men got nowhere on the first day. They had been mown down like grass by German machine-gunners who, after our barrage had lifted, rushed out to meet our men in the open. Many of the best battalions were almost annihilated, and our casualties were terrible.
A German doctor taken prisoner near La Boiselle stayed behind to look after our wounded in a dugout instead of going down to safety. I met him coming back across the battlefield next morning. One of our men were carrying his bag and I had a talk with him. He was a tall, heavy, man with a black beard, and he spoke good English. "This war!" he said. "We go on killing each other to no purpose. It is a war against religion and against civilisation and I see no end to it."
World War I marked the beginning of Europe's long slow suicide, which is continuing to this day.
World War I led to European intellectuals rejecting Judeo-Christian values and the thinking of the enlightenment. A society has a hard time maintaining itself if so many of the learned people are trying to tear down the pillars of its culture.
Now Europe does not have the will or self-confidence to resist the Islamic onslaught.
The Soviets had well over 500,000 artillery and rocket launchers firing at one time during the final assault on Berlin. The noise was heard by large portion of Germany.
Lions led by donkeys...!
But the Brits still kept Haig on to lead another slaughter at Passchendaele a year or so later. He should have been sacked after the Somme calamity. Easy to say in hindsight, I guess.
Only 68 entered roll call the next day.
A good time to reflect on the bravery and fortitute of our Canadian brothers.
Everyone that has been in war, wishes it was the last...
I doubt it will happen nowadays...it seems that nations don't fight nations anymore.
Yeah, but just when you start to think "it can't happen", well, surprise, it has a way of happening. Many in the nations of Europe pre-WWI thought that a big war wouldn't happen because it would bankrupt everybody (which it did) were lulled into thinking the same thing. Human nature, being what it is, has a way of making things happen that can't happen. We need to learn the lessons of history, and be ready for whatever might come, as best we can be.
It's hard to imagine a situation nowadays, that would have a mass attack of 20K men.
Its a shame that few people in this world even know about the meat grinder that was the Somme. Something like 30,000 troops were like vaporised in the shell fire. Men went into battle and not a trace of them was ever seen again. Human bodies became part of the breastworks. Noble were the men who had their lives taken from them. Criminal was the mode of warfare of the day.
Loud and clear, professor.
The google search that I did talks about numbers for the campaign of 400k British, 200k French and 500k German.
Newfoundland was also at Gallipoli.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.