Tag Archives: battle of the somme

Ghosts of the Somme

Posted on by Leave a comment

With the five month hell of the Somme remembered forever as the bloodiest battle of the British Empire’s history (481,842 killed, including a staggering 19,240 on the first day alone), some 1,400 reenactors in the UK have pulled down a very effective commemorative in the #WeAreHere movement in which, dressed as 1916 Tommies, they ride public transport and mill around many of the same locations that British soldiers of the time would have, handing out calling cards of those past to interested observers.

We are here Somme BEF reenactor wwi tommy We are here Somme BEF reenactor wwi tommy 2 We are here Somme BEF reenactor wwi tommy 3 We are here Somme BEF reenactor wwi tommy 4 We are here Somme BEF reenactor wwi tommy 5

Joe Sacco’s view of the Somme

Posted on by Leave a comment

If you are a student of war, you are aware of the Great War, also known as the War to End All Wars. Fought between 1914-1918 (or 1911-1922 if you include the Italic-Turkish/Balkan Wars and the Greco-Turkish and Russian Civil Wars), it was later eclipsed by another war fought just a generation later by most of the same cast of characters.

Today we just call it World War One, to put that later war into perspective.

And talking about perspective, Joe Sacco, a Malta-born cartoonist who came after both of these wars, did an amazing 25-foot long mural  of the Battle of the Somme.

The Somme, in 1916, was where the flower of British manhood died and a lost generation sprouted. In a front where gains and losses were measured in inches and feet, not miles, all or Europe bled white.

The first world war wasnt so much as won as it was lost.

And Saccos illustraions show a very deep and varied eye for the battlefield.

war pic 6

war pic 4

war pic 3

war pic 2

war pic 1