Somber Somme

One hundred years ago today the battle of the Somme began. Technically, I suppose the centennial
was a week ago, as the Brits preceded their suicidal death charge with a week long artillery bombardment.

We have written before how us Yanks don't always appreciate the Great War. We certainly don't appreciate the Somme.

Before this awful battle, the British had been fighting the Germans with their professional army, honed in 1914 and whittled down in the bloody battles of 1915. The army that went over the top in the Somme was new, hundreds of thousands of men specially recruited for the grand push, the 'pals' battalions. These were  regional units. An American Civil War buff will know what happened next.

Whole towns got wiped in the opening minutes. Postwar Britain was a good place to be a swinging bachelor. The British lost 60,000 men on the first day and their can-do, optimistic Edwardian virtue. The Somme is the most important thing to happen to the Brits in the 20th century.

The nation has never really recovered. Twenty years later Britain passed off leadership of the English speaking world to the United States. During the great conferences of World War II, the British were very reluctant to invade Europe. In 1944 Marshall finally told the Brits, either we go this year, or we are going to shift our focus to the Pacific. A knowing British officer told Marshall, 'You are arguing against the casualties of the Somme.'