It’s almost 100 years since The Battle of the Somme began on June 30, 1916. More than 310,000 were lost in four months, most of whose remains were not recovered, and many of those buried are marked as ‘Known Unto God.’ You can find the names of the allied dead at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
The late Martin Gilbert’s 2006 book ‘The Somme: Heroism and Horror in the First World War,’ is special in that the battle is told more through the letters and poems of the soldiers than the Generals and politicians.
It is worth remembering these soldiers and their fates.