Battle of the Somme: How Britain learned the truth Digital media means news of a soldier's death can now be shared almost instantly. But in an age of letters, telegrams and censorship, how did Britons learn the disastrous truth of the Battle of the Somme? In the days following the start of the "big push" on the Western Front, the people of Tynemouth, near Newcastle, had collectively held their breath. With dread, they watched the post-boy, who delivered the official death notices, appear in the streets around Milburn Place. Onlookers felt a mixture of sympathy and relief as the boy walked to one of the first houses. But then he crossed to another house. Then another. In the days that followed, he returned to criss-cross the area. Door after door, family after family. Eighty-five men from the town died on the first day of the battle alone. Across Britain, the scene was repeated as the legacy of the Somme took shape. Some 20,000 British soldiers were killed in total on the first day. Yet, in a time of censorship, compliant media barons and slow communications, the scale of the disaster took weeks to become apparent. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-36149839
I have the War Diary for the 1st Battalion Kings Own Royal Lancaster Regiment. The Diary for July 1916 starts- 30th June to 1st July 1916 Account of Operations on 30th June to 1st July 1916 "Owing to the fact that there are so few Officers and men now with the Battalion who made any substantial progress in the attack on the 1st July it is neither possible to give an account nor detailed account of the operations. This account is based on information obtained from Officers and men who took part in the attack and are now serving with the Battalion. Also on different categories of casualties sustained by different companies according to their different dispositions." At the end of June the Battalion had 984 OR's and 41 Officers. At the end of July 1st 120 men remained. 7 Officers were killed 13 wounded (2shellshock) and 3 missing. Diane
I watched a BBC short documentary yesterday about cinematographer Geoffrey Malins and his filming of the Somme battlefield and the reaction of the people back home when they viewed his film. A very informative programme and worth watching. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_of_the_Somme_(film) http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/n3ct19x8
On July 1st, 1916, the Newfoundland Regiment attacked Beaumont Hamel with 780 officers and men. Within 20 minutes the entire unit was virtually wiped out. Only 68 answered the roll call the following day. This was a devastating event for the small island population of 240,000. In 1921, Newfoundland purchased the battlefield and erected a magnificent memorial while also preserving the battle grounds. http://www.macleans.ca/society/why-beaumont-hamel-so-close-our-hearts/
What happened to the men of Cumberland and Westmorland and some other counties? Cumberland and Westmorland have been completely ignored and even on the map there is a blank space. A number of local battalions (e.g. the Lonsdale Battalion, 11th Battalion The Border Regiment) had a large number of casualties in the first few days of the 1916 Somme offensive. It makes it look as though there was no impact whatsoever on local communities in Cumberland and Westmorland, which is far from the truth.
Jos just searched Cumberland in CWGC and it comes with 59 men and as you know there will be more Cumbrian's who died but don't have any details. Westmorland has 26 casualty's and again there will be more that don't have any details on CWGC. But like you Jos I will not be forgetting the men of Cumberland and Westmorland who gave their lives. Mike.
I've just looked up what happened to 11th Border on the first day of the Somme offensive, Of 25 officers and 800 O.R.s who took part in the assault on the morning of 1 July 1916: Officers - 11 killed (including the C.O., Lt.-Col. Machell); 14 wounded O.R.s - 100 killed; 371 wounded; 19 missing Most of these soldiers were drawn from Cumberland and Westmorland, and that is what happened on the first day of the Somme offensive to just one of the 'pals' battalions.
"Although it is impossible to access the subjective pain born out of the carnage of the First World War, those bereaving families, friends ,and communities left their mark. Their grief is etched out in monuments across the French landscape and in communities across participating nations. While it is common for contemporary viewers to see in the monuments of the Great War the politics of the day, as historian Jay Winter reminds us in Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning, the Great War monuments were informed by personal loss in the face of unprecedented mass death in war. “Their ritual significance,” he states, “has often been obscured by their political symbolism which, now that the moment of mourning has long passed, is all that we can see”. http://canadianmilitaryhistory.ca/commemorating-the-somme-100-years-later-reflections-on-memory-and-remembrance/
This is a link to another BBC news feature about the Somme offensive concentrating on what happened to the Lonsdale Battalion which drew most of its number from Cumberland and Westmorland (now Cumbria): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-36683457
And from a slightly different perspective: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/marigolds-for-remembrance-as-india-finally-mourns-somme-dead-8knlhfmg5?shareToken=f1209ecd76dec558ca7e77bc545bca5a
A piece I read a few years ago about the shock of war on a local community (Middleton, near Rochdale), seems very poignant... In 1977 John Bagot, the then editor of the Middleton Guardian, was asked about his memories of growing up in the town. This was his reply: "One thing that has always stuck in my mind was during the First World War. As a boy I saw a postman sitting on the kerb at the top of Cheapside, crying and sobbing like a chlld and wiping his tears away with a big red and white handkerchief. He had been delivering War Office telegrams to nearby cottages. As he cried the women in their houses were screaming, except one white-faced, shawled and clogged old lady who sat on the pavement flags next to the postman and simply held his hand"
