Saturday marks the 90th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme in the first pan-European Civil war of the last century. The sound of a series of whistles broke the morning still. By the end of that day, the British Army had suffered its bloodiest day ever. 19,240 British lay dead or dying in the fields of France. Barely an inch of soil had been gained. Measures designed to protect the troops until the last possible moment were unused.
To give an idea of the size of the death toll, factor it up to the current population of the USA. If the same proportion of the population had been killed, over 133,300 Americans would have died. Every one of those now serving in Iraq would be dead and then some. That was the first day of one battle.
The Somme became one of the great icons of the futility of war for the British. The young men who so hopefully joined their local regiments in “old pals brigades” still serve today under the serried ranks of headstones. Many only “known unto God”.
That one day became iconic for the British and its futility served to spur on the peace movements of the 20s and 30s. The war ended with some 800,000 British dead – the equivalent of nearly 5.6 million Americans today. Other countries had greater proportions of their population killed. For the first time, bombs had rained from the skies on civilian populations. Sady the determination that this would be “the war to end wars” became as hollow as the British government’s promise of “a home fit for heroes”.
It took another generation and another almost six years of total war to bring a final cease-fire. Isolationism, the undermining of the League of Natins as a peacemaking body and the greedy exploitation of the defeated countries meant that the second outbreak of fighting was inevitable. That second conflict caused tens of millions more deaths. In the industrialised killing similar numbers of civilians were wiped out in a single day. Many times that were wiped from the Earth in a single instant in two Japanese cities. Through all of this the American homeland remained safe. On the mainland barely a handful of civilians were killed by enemy action.
In commemorating the day, there was a drumhead service in from of Lutyens great memorial arch at Thiepval. These are the first words of that service which perhaps illustrates how different British and European atitudes to war are from the American.
We gather together to give thanks to Almighty God for the heroism and sacrifice of those who fought in the Battle of the Somme. We pray that we may ever honour and be mindful of the high cost which has ensured our enduring liberty and peace. In honouring their memory we renew our pledge to strive for a world where justice and mutual respect is extended to all peoples and nations throughout the world.
