0:00:02 > 0:00:05The Somme. Where one million casualties
0:00:05 > 0:00:09was the price paid for six miles of empty farmland.
0:00:09 > 0:00:14The 1916 battle has become a byword for futile military sacrifice.
0:00:16 > 0:00:21They were effectively the small change of that sort of war.
0:00:21 > 0:00:22It's very clear from this excerpt
0:00:22 > 0:00:26that Haig is prepared to take high numbers of casualties.
0:00:26 > 0:00:29But who were the men who fought here,
0:00:29 > 0:00:31and what drove them on?
0:00:31 > 0:00:33It was a thing about being with your mates,
0:00:33 > 0:00:37as opposed to dying for Ulster.
0:00:37 > 0:00:39That's their duty and their job,
0:00:39 > 0:00:43go and physically bomb the Germans out of those trenches.
0:00:43 > 0:00:47This is the story of the battle over four key days,
0:00:47 > 0:00:50told through the actions of seven of the men
0:00:50 > 0:00:54whose bravery won them the highest military honour,
0:00:54 > 0:00:56the Victoria Cross.
0:00:56 > 0:00:59They were the Heroes Of The Somme.
0:01:04 > 0:01:07A 141-day offensive.
0:01:08 > 0:01:1014 bloody battles.
0:01:10 > 0:01:1213 Allied nations.
0:01:14 > 0:01:17It was here, in Northern France,
0:01:17 > 0:01:21on the 1st of July 1916, that the massacre began.
0:01:24 > 0:01:27And where just 51 men won the Victoria Cross...
0:01:29 > 0:01:31..Britain's rarest military medal,
0:01:31 > 0:01:35awarded for conspicuous bravery.
0:01:36 > 0:01:40The Somme VC winners came from every rank, background and nationality.
0:01:42 > 0:01:45This is the story of seven of them,
0:01:45 > 0:01:48illustrated with original footage from the Western Front
0:01:48 > 0:01:50and historic reconstructions.
0:01:52 > 0:01:55Their experiences explain the entire offensive...
0:01:56 > 0:02:00..where the first Victoria Cross went to an Ulsterman.
0:02:01 > 0:02:05This name on the Thiepval memorial is that of my great uncle,
0:02:05 > 0:02:08William McFadzean, the famous VC from Ulster.
0:02:08 > 0:02:12He's in amongst 73,000 others of no known grave,
0:02:12 > 0:02:14so he's just one of many.
0:02:17 > 0:02:20The battle in which Billy fell was critical.
0:02:23 > 0:02:25After a year and a half of war,
0:02:25 > 0:02:27Germany still occupied Western France.
0:02:30 > 0:02:33The French were fighting back, but it was bloody.
0:02:33 > 0:02:37They had lost one million men and were demanding help.
0:02:40 > 0:02:43It was quite clear that the French expected the British
0:02:43 > 0:02:46to pick up their share of the burden,
0:02:46 > 0:02:51and so Britain had to fight somewhere in the course of 1916.
0:02:51 > 0:02:53There should be an inter-Allied offensive,
0:02:53 > 0:02:56where Britain, France, Russia and Italy will all hit Germany
0:02:56 > 0:02:59and hit the centre of Paris at the same time.
0:02:59 > 0:03:02So the Russians were going to attack in the East,
0:03:02 > 0:03:05the Italians were going to attack in the Southern Front
0:03:05 > 0:03:07and, of course, the British and the French
0:03:07 > 0:03:10were going to attack on the Western Front.
0:03:12 > 0:03:16Britain decided to stand tall, whatever the cost,
0:03:16 > 0:03:18and recruited a new army.
0:03:19 > 0:03:24Within two months, half a million men answered Kitchener's call.
0:03:24 > 0:03:27Volunteers from every corner of the Empire.
0:03:27 > 0:03:29They were sent to the Somme,
0:03:29 > 0:03:32where the first to fall were the sons of Ulster.
0:03:35 > 0:03:40In Belfast, Billy McFadzean is remembered as a Loyalist folk hero.
0:03:44 > 0:03:46He was born in Lurgan, County Armagh.
0:03:48 > 0:03:50He was a bit of a Jack-the-lad, as far as we know.
0:03:50 > 0:03:53If his school report is anything to go by.
0:03:53 > 0:03:56He liked to get into a bit of trouble and a bit of mischief.
0:03:56 > 0:03:59I think if you were in his company here in France,
0:03:59 > 0:04:03in the war, you would have had a good time.
0:04:03 > 0:04:07After school, Billy became a clerk in a Belfast linen company.
0:04:08 > 0:04:11But, by the time he was 19, he was on the Somme.
0:04:13 > 0:04:17So just a young man, here with all his mates -
0:04:17 > 0:04:19it was an adventure for them.
0:04:19 > 0:04:21I think they all wanted to come out here before the war was over,
0:04:21 > 0:04:25and they had to go back to their boring jobs in Belfast.
0:04:26 > 0:04:29Billy was part of the 36th Ulster Division.
0:04:29 > 0:04:3316,000 men recruited mainly from the Ulster Volunteer Force.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38An amateur militia set up, as they saw it,
0:04:38 > 0:04:41to defend Protestant Ulster from the threat of Home Rule.
0:04:42 > 0:04:47If Home Rule was actually enacted by the government in Westminster,
0:04:47 > 0:04:51then the Unionist party would set up a provisional government
0:04:51 > 0:04:54and it would take charge of the running of the nine counties
0:04:54 > 0:04:55of the historic province of Ulster,
0:04:55 > 0:04:57and then the UVF was there, essentially,
0:04:57 > 0:05:01to provide the military muscle to back that government.
0:05:01 > 0:05:05UVF organisers hoped offering men to fight for the King
0:05:05 > 0:05:08would be seen as an act of supreme loyalty.
0:05:08 > 0:05:12In return for which, plans for a Home Rule might be scrapped.
0:05:14 > 0:05:17But Billy was not a hardline UVF loyalist.
0:05:18 > 0:05:22He was originally a member of a very different organisation -
0:05:22 > 0:05:24the Young Citizen Volunteers.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28The YCV was formed as a non-sectarian,
0:05:28 > 0:05:30non-political organisation.
0:05:30 > 0:05:33There's records of Protestants, Catholics,
0:05:33 > 0:05:36Jews, Quakers in the organisation.
0:05:37 > 0:05:39But the YCVs were small in number.
0:05:40 > 0:05:43And as recruitment in Ulster gathered pace,
0:05:43 > 0:05:46the organisation was rolled into the UVF.
0:05:46 > 0:05:48They were drawn into the UVF
0:05:48 > 0:05:51just before they were coming into the British Army.
0:05:51 > 0:05:54But they maintained that individuality
0:05:54 > 0:05:56within the Royal Irish Rifles,
0:05:56 > 0:06:00because they were known as the 14th Battalion YCVs.
0:06:03 > 0:06:05In July 1916,
0:06:05 > 0:06:08all the men of the 36th Ulster Division
0:06:08 > 0:06:11were asked to make the same sacrifice,
0:06:11 > 0:06:13as they lined up in the trenches of the Somme.
0:06:16 > 0:06:21Throughout that spring, Britain prepared for the big push.
0:06:21 > 0:06:26They sent men, artillery, ammunition,
0:06:26 > 0:06:30dug trenches, built defences
0:06:30 > 0:06:32and established supply lines.
0:06:32 > 0:06:36The plan - hammer the German front line.
0:06:36 > 0:06:40Within a week, break through and begin the march to Berlin.
0:06:41 > 0:06:43By the 30th of June,
0:06:43 > 0:06:47120,000 British troops occupied an offensive line
0:06:47 > 0:06:4913 miles long.
0:06:53 > 0:06:55Gavin Hughes is a military historian.
0:06:55 > 0:06:58He's come to the Somme to piece together the actions
0:06:58 > 0:07:01of these seven Victoria Cross winners.
0:07:01 > 0:07:04He's starting by pinpointing the Ulster Division
0:07:04 > 0:07:06in the final hours before the battle.
0:07:09 > 0:07:12This is a copy of the battlefield map
0:07:12 > 0:07:15belonging to Major General Sir Oliver Nugent,
0:07:15 > 0:07:18commander of the 36th Ulster Division.
0:07:18 > 0:07:23As a historical document, this map is indispensable.
0:07:23 > 0:07:26We know exactly where our battalions are,
0:07:26 > 0:07:30we know where the enemy is and, when we correlate this
0:07:30 > 0:07:32with the landscape features that we've got,
0:07:32 > 0:07:35we can pretty much negotiate our way around the battlefields.
0:07:38 > 0:07:42The map shows Billy McFadzean's 14th Battalion was here,
0:07:42 > 0:07:43in Thiepval Wood.
0:07:45 > 0:07:47Just part of the 36th Ulster Division's
0:07:47 > 0:07:49three-mile sector of the front.
0:07:49 > 0:07:54At some points, less than 300 yards from the German trenches.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58Billy McFadzean could have looked out from Thiepval Wood
0:07:58 > 0:08:01and seen his enemy on this very ridge.
0:08:02 > 0:08:04He was trained as a bomber...
0:08:05 > 0:08:07..and, in the small hours of the 1st of July,
0:08:07 > 0:08:11was preparing the vast supplies of hand grenades
0:08:11 > 0:08:14when, before the battle even began,
0:08:14 > 0:08:19an act of extraordinary bravery won Billy a Victoria Cross.
0:08:20 > 0:08:23Just before zero hour,
0:08:23 > 0:08:26the bombardiers of the 14th Royal Irish Rifles
0:08:26 > 0:08:29are priming the grenades for the assault.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32These trenches are crowded with advancing troops
0:08:32 > 0:08:36getting ready to make their assault on the German lines over there.
0:08:36 > 0:08:39We don't know how it happened, but one of the boxes of grenades
0:08:39 > 0:08:42falls from the trench into the bottom,
0:08:42 > 0:08:45and two grenade pins fall out.
0:08:45 > 0:08:47Billy McFadzean, being a bomber,
0:08:47 > 0:08:49would know exactly what had happened.
0:08:49 > 0:08:52He would have either heard the striker going down
0:08:52 > 0:08:54or heard the lever coming off
0:08:54 > 0:08:56and knew immediately what has happened.
0:08:56 > 0:08:58If they explode,
0:08:58 > 0:09:01they are going to send burning hot fragments of shrapnel
0:09:01 > 0:09:02throughout this trench.
0:09:02 > 0:09:06There will be body parts everywhere.
0:09:06 > 0:09:07Men will die.
0:09:08 > 0:09:11If you're in a packed trench, do you turn and run?
0:09:13 > 0:09:15Yeah, of course you do.
0:09:15 > 0:09:19And the decision he makes, seeing his friends around him,
0:09:19 > 0:09:22is that he collapses upon the box,
0:09:22 > 0:09:27smothering the blast and actually killing himself instantly.
0:09:27 > 0:09:28EXPLOSION
0:09:37 > 0:09:40Billy's actions saved the lives of all of the men in his trench...
0:09:42 > 0:09:44..and won him the very first Victoria Cross
0:09:44 > 0:09:46of the Somme offensive.
0:09:49 > 0:09:53Today, Billy McFadzean is part of Loyalist folk history,
0:09:53 > 0:09:56remembered as a hero who made a blood sacrifice
0:09:56 > 0:10:00in the name of the King to save Ulster from Home Rule.
0:10:03 > 0:10:06His name comes up on so many issues.
0:10:06 > 0:10:11The majority would be to do with the Loyalist faction in Ulster.
0:10:11 > 0:10:13There was a ballad of Billy McFadzean,
0:10:13 > 0:10:16which is a local Belfast-based folk song, I suppose,
0:10:16 > 0:10:21but again, it's been adopted by people of the Loyalist tradition.
0:10:21 > 0:10:24But Billy's great-nephew doesn't believe politics belongs
0:10:24 > 0:10:26at the heart of the McFadzean story.
0:10:27 > 0:10:30Sometimes you think, has his...?
0:10:30 > 0:10:31Say his face on the mural -
0:10:31 > 0:10:34has it ever encouraged a young lad to pick up a brick
0:10:34 > 0:10:36and throw it at somebody?
0:10:36 > 0:10:39If it has, then I'm ashamed.
0:10:39 > 0:10:41Um...
0:10:41 > 0:10:44And my gut feeling is it probably has over the years.
0:10:44 > 0:10:47As far as I can see, Billy McFadzean was a young lad going off to war
0:10:47 > 0:10:50for a great time and a bit of a laugh, and he was an eejit.
0:10:50 > 0:10:54And that's probably why he died for his fellow soldiers,
0:10:54 > 0:10:58because the bond he would have had with them would have been intense.
0:10:58 > 0:11:02So it was...a thing about being with your mates,
0:11:02 > 0:11:05as opposed to dying for Ulster.
0:11:05 > 0:11:07That's probably the last thing on anybody's mind, you know,
0:11:07 > 0:11:09on the morning of the 1st of July.
0:11:11 > 0:11:14Billy McFadzean died before the battle even began.
0:11:15 > 0:11:19Within hours, thousands more Ulstermen would join him.
0:11:24 > 0:11:26The commander-in-chief of the British Army
0:11:26 > 0:11:28was General Sir Douglas Haig.
0:11:28 > 0:11:33His job, to turn political necessity into a military master plan.
0:11:37 > 0:11:40Haig ordered an artillery barrage,
0:11:40 > 0:11:43the like of which had never been seen.
0:11:43 > 0:11:48For seven days, Britain's guns rained 1.5 million shells
0:11:48 > 0:11:50on the German front lines.
0:11:50 > 0:11:53The aim - destroy their dugouts,
0:11:53 > 0:11:55disable their guns,
0:11:55 > 0:12:00and cut the thickets of barbed wire blocking no-man's land,
0:12:00 > 0:12:04so British foot soldiers could simply walk straight at the enemy.
0:12:04 > 0:12:08Haig was confident this plan would work.
0:12:08 > 0:12:10The night before the battle, he wrote,
0:12:10 > 0:12:13"The wire has never been so well cut,
0:12:13 > 0:12:17"nor the artillery preparation been so thorough."
0:12:17 > 0:12:19He talks about the splendid spirits of the men.
0:12:19 > 0:12:23We know from other sources that there is a sense of optimism
0:12:23 > 0:12:25about what this offensive will achieve.
0:12:27 > 0:12:29But had Haig's barrage worked?
0:12:31 > 0:12:34The 36th Ulster division was about to find out.
0:12:35 > 0:12:38And this man was about to become a hero.
0:12:40 > 0:12:43Robert Quigg was born about three miles away from here, Bushmills.
0:12:43 > 0:12:46Like most of the other residents there,
0:12:46 > 0:12:48the young fellows there,
0:12:48 > 0:12:51he left school, probably around the age of 12 or 13,
0:12:51 > 0:12:54and he became a farm labourer.
0:12:55 > 0:12:58Robert Quigg worked at the big house for the Macnaghten family.
0:12:59 > 0:13:02In September 1915,
0:13:02 > 0:13:04young Sir Harry Macnaghten and Robert Quigg
0:13:04 > 0:13:09volunteered to serve in the 12th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles.
0:13:09 > 0:13:12But Robert agreed to an extra responsibility.
0:13:13 > 0:13:17Lady Edith, who was Sir Harry's mother,
0:13:17 > 0:13:22called Quigg into the big house, or certainly to the kitchen steps,
0:13:22 > 0:13:24and said, "Look, I want you to look after young Harry
0:13:24 > 0:13:27"because he is very young and you're sensible.
0:13:27 > 0:13:29"Make sure he's OK."
0:13:29 > 0:13:31He was an older man, he was 31,
0:13:31 > 0:13:34and Sir Harry was just 20.
0:13:34 > 0:13:37So I suppose there was a sort of fatherly feeling as well,
0:13:37 > 0:13:40you know, and he had a sense of responsibility for him.
0:13:42 > 0:13:46Robert Quigg stood less than a mile from Thiepval Wood.
0:13:46 > 0:13:50Now, only hours after Billy McFadzean's death,
0:13:50 > 0:13:53he and thousands of fellow Ulstermen
0:13:53 > 0:13:56prepared to be the first to face the enemy.
0:13:57 > 0:14:01All along this line, you have the Ulster Division,
0:14:01 > 0:14:03you have the 9th Irish Fusiliers,
0:14:03 > 0:14:06and then you have Robert Quigg's battalion,
0:14:06 > 0:14:09the 12th Irish Rifles, actually here.
0:14:09 > 0:14:12And this is where they are going to go against.
0:14:12 > 0:14:14They have to go down this valley,
0:14:14 > 0:14:17cross no-man's land and then back up
0:14:17 > 0:14:19against the German front-line trenches there.
0:14:21 > 0:14:25Robert's mission - cross no-man's land
0:14:25 > 0:14:29and seize the first three lines of German trenches.
0:14:29 > 0:14:33Just 400 yards away, where, for a week,
0:14:33 > 0:14:36the Allies had been raining shellfire
0:14:36 > 0:14:39to destroy the enemy defences.
0:14:39 > 0:14:42General Haig was confident there would be little resistance,
0:14:42 > 0:14:45and the 36th Ulster Division believed him.
0:14:47 > 0:14:49All the official reports say
0:14:49 > 0:14:52that not a German will survive those trenches
0:14:52 > 0:14:55after the artillery barrage.
0:14:55 > 0:14:56That was the official story,
0:14:56 > 0:15:00and that's why they thought there'd be no opposition.
0:15:03 > 0:15:06At 5am, the barrage intensified.
0:15:07 > 0:15:08At 7:20,
0:15:08 > 0:15:12giant underground mines were detonated along the front.
0:15:14 > 0:15:18Robert Quigg was about to find out if General Haig was right.
0:15:18 > 0:15:22And at 7:28, the Ulster Division was ordered over the top.
0:15:24 > 0:15:26Quigg had his answer.
0:15:26 > 0:15:28EXPLOSION ECHOES
0:15:34 > 0:15:35GUNFIRE
0:15:35 > 0:15:38The German defences were not destroyed.
0:15:41 > 0:15:44Britain's great barrage had failed,
0:15:44 > 0:15:47leaving Quigg and the Ulster Division stranded in no-man's land.
0:15:56 > 0:16:00From all quarters, they are getting German machine guns from there,
0:16:00 > 0:16:03German machine guns from here and German machine guns from there,
0:16:03 > 0:16:07long-range machine gun fire which effectively is sweeping them away.
0:16:08 > 0:16:11Companies are being decimated.
0:16:13 > 0:16:15All along Britain's battlefront,
0:16:15 > 0:16:20tens of thousands of men walked straight at the German guns.
0:16:20 > 0:16:23By lunchtime, 20,000 were dead.
0:16:23 > 0:16:2640,000 more wounded or missing.
0:16:27 > 0:16:31This was the worst day in British military history.
0:16:32 > 0:16:37But, in his diary, General Haig seems to have been unconcerned.
0:16:38 > 0:16:41Haig writes, "This cannot be considered severe
0:16:41 > 0:16:45"in view of the numbers engaged and the length of the front attacked."
0:16:45 > 0:16:47That's quite an interesting reflection.
0:16:47 > 0:16:50It's very clear from this excerpt that Haig is prepared to take
0:16:50 > 0:16:52high numbers of casualties.
0:16:52 > 0:16:55As Robert Quigg crawled back to his trench,
0:16:55 > 0:16:59thousands lay bleeding to death on the battlefield.
0:16:59 > 0:17:03Somewhere among them, Sir Harry Macnaghten.
0:17:03 > 0:17:05Robert didn't forget his promise.
0:17:06 > 0:17:10That's when Robert Quigg, who must have already been exhausted,
0:17:10 > 0:17:13he decides he's going to go out there
0:17:13 > 0:17:16and bring Harry Macnaghten back again.
0:17:16 > 0:17:20And so, I suppose, in trying to fulfil
0:17:20 > 0:17:21his duty to Lady Edith,
0:17:21 > 0:17:24he crawled out into no-man's land to search for him.
0:17:25 > 0:17:29Robert searched the battlefield for Sir Harry for seven hours.
0:17:30 > 0:17:34But, while he did so, he could not ignore the cries of the wounded.
0:17:36 > 0:17:40He goes out seven times, and on each occasion,
0:17:40 > 0:17:43he brings back a wounded man.
0:17:43 > 0:17:46Under shellfire and machine gun fire.
0:17:46 > 0:17:48The last man...
0:17:48 > 0:17:53Quigg is so tired, he actually drags him back on a groundsheet,
0:17:53 > 0:17:55from within yards of the German wire.
0:18:00 > 0:18:03I suppose it reveals his sense of duty
0:18:03 > 0:18:08and his sense of duty to those of his comrades who had been injured.
0:18:08 > 0:18:11Being back in the trench at the end of the battle
0:18:11 > 0:18:15and hearing the cries of the wounded from no-man's land,
0:18:15 > 0:18:18his heart just went out to those poor souls
0:18:18 > 0:18:21who are lying out there, suffering.
0:18:22 > 0:18:25Robert Quigg was awarded the Victoria Cross
0:18:25 > 0:18:28for saving the lives of his comrades.
0:18:28 > 0:18:31But Sir Harry Macnaghten was never found.
0:18:34 > 0:18:37There were nine VCs won that day.
0:18:37 > 0:18:38Four went to Ulstermen.
0:18:40 > 0:18:44Quigg, McFadzean and Eric Bell...
0:18:44 > 0:18:45and George Cather.
0:18:47 > 0:18:51Their bravery helped the 36th Ulsters to achieve its objectives,
0:18:51 > 0:18:54the only British division to do so.
0:18:54 > 0:18:58Their commander, Oliver Nugent, was filled with pride.
0:18:59 > 0:19:01He writes, "My dearest,
0:19:01 > 0:19:04"the Ulster Division has been too superb for words.
0:19:04 > 0:19:05"The whole army is talking
0:19:05 > 0:19:09"of the incomparable gallantry shown by officers and men."
0:19:09 > 0:19:12But Nugent lost nearly 6,000 soldiers.
0:19:14 > 0:19:18And the 36th Ulster Division was almost wiped out.
0:19:18 > 0:19:20Nugent talks about how,
0:19:20 > 0:19:24"I'm very proud but very sad when I think of our terrible losses."
0:19:24 > 0:19:28For him, the 6,000 men he mentions, and the 150 officers,
0:19:28 > 0:19:30are real people.
0:19:31 > 0:19:34They were the victims of German machine guns
0:19:34 > 0:19:37and Britain's own failed artillery barrage.
0:19:39 > 0:19:41Their hundreds of thousands of shrapnel shells
0:19:41 > 0:19:45were, quite simply, the wrong tool for the job.
0:19:45 > 0:19:48And throughout the campaign, their artillery teams
0:19:48 > 0:19:50remained dogged by failure of a different kind.
0:19:52 > 0:19:56What we have here is an unexploded shell.
0:19:56 > 0:19:59It's thought that there could have been half
0:19:59 > 0:20:03of all the millions of shells that were fired
0:20:03 > 0:20:08up and down this entire front actually were duds.
0:20:08 > 0:20:13That explains very, very easily why the British barrage didn't work.
0:20:15 > 0:20:18Another reason was the German dugouts.
0:20:18 > 0:20:20They were up to 30 feet underground
0:20:20 > 0:20:24and cast in thick, reinforced concrete -
0:20:24 > 0:20:27impervious even to the Allies' heaviest artillery.
0:20:32 > 0:20:36The 36th Ulster Division went to the Somme to serve the King
0:20:36 > 0:20:39and was nearly obliterated.
0:20:39 > 0:20:43The shattered division of Ulster Unionists was withdrawn.
0:20:44 > 0:20:48And, in September, a new division lined up on the Western Front -
0:20:48 > 0:20:53the 16th Irish Division, made up of nationalists.
0:20:55 > 0:20:58One of its officers was John Holland,
0:20:58 > 0:21:01the son of a vet from Athy in County Kildare.
0:21:03 > 0:21:06John went to Clongowes Wood College,
0:21:06 > 0:21:09a prestigious Catholic boarding school...
0:21:09 > 0:21:12founded by Jesuits to educate a middle-class
0:21:12 > 0:21:15ready to lead a new, independent Ireland.
0:21:20 > 0:21:25One past pupil was John Redmond, leader of the Irish National Party.
0:21:27 > 0:21:30He secured the promise of Home Rule for Ireland.
0:21:32 > 0:21:34To ensure that promise was kept,
0:21:34 > 0:21:37Redmond offered to recruit a division of Irish nationalists
0:21:37 > 0:21:41to serve in the British Army on the Western Front.
0:21:41 > 0:21:46When Redmond swung the Irish Party behind the recruitment campaign,
0:21:46 > 0:21:51that was certainly a major factor in getting Clongownians to enlist.
0:21:51 > 0:21:56There were over 600 Clongownians enlisted, and as far as I'm aware,
0:21:56 > 0:22:00that's the second largest number of any school in Ireland.
0:22:02 > 0:22:05John Holland was adventuring in South America
0:22:05 > 0:22:07when war broke out in Europe.
0:22:07 > 0:22:09Straight away, he returned
0:22:09 > 0:22:14and enlisted in John Redmond's newly-formed 16th Irish Division.
0:22:15 > 0:22:19In late 1915, they headed for the Somme,
0:22:19 > 0:22:24ready to make their sacrifice in the name of Irish nationalism.
0:22:25 > 0:22:28He was serving with the 16th Irish Division,
0:22:28 > 0:22:31but they didn't actually go on to the offensive
0:22:31 > 0:22:34until September 1916.
0:22:34 > 0:22:36So this was their first big test.
0:22:38 > 0:22:42September 3rd, day 65.
0:22:42 > 0:22:48By now, 285,000 Allied casualties,
0:22:48 > 0:22:50and the line had advanced by,
0:22:50 > 0:22:52at most, just three miles.
0:22:53 > 0:22:59The Somme was in stalemate, the idea of a sweeping offensive abandoned,
0:22:59 > 0:23:03as Allied command made do with small-scale gains.
0:23:04 > 0:23:07The Somme is clearly deadlocked in this period.
0:23:07 > 0:23:10The defensive has the upper hand
0:23:10 > 0:23:14over the offensive on the battlefield of the First World War.
0:23:14 > 0:23:15Um, think of it this way -
0:23:15 > 0:23:21if you put a man in a trench, he's quite a difficult target to hit.
0:23:21 > 0:23:24If you have a man advancing across a field towards a trench,
0:23:24 > 0:23:28he's exposing his whole body to being hit.
0:23:30 > 0:23:33This simple fact was not lost on German command.
0:23:33 > 0:23:37One of their generals, Crown Prince Rupprecht, wrote...
0:23:38 > 0:23:41.."Their losses in human life are prodigious.
0:23:43 > 0:23:45"Amply and in full coin,
0:23:45 > 0:23:48"the Allies have paid for every foot of ground we sold them.
0:23:51 > 0:23:53"They can have all they want...
0:23:53 > 0:23:55"at the same price."
0:23:58 > 0:24:01The territory that's been lost to particularly the British
0:24:01 > 0:24:04is not very much, and Germany can afford to sacrifice this.
0:24:04 > 0:24:06This is French soil.
0:24:06 > 0:24:10It can afford to allow Britain to really hammer the German lines
0:24:10 > 0:24:13and lose such huge casualties in the process.
0:24:15 > 0:24:18It was a price General Haig was prepared to pay.
0:24:19 > 0:24:21He was determined to break the stalemate
0:24:21 > 0:24:23with a second major offensive.
0:24:25 > 0:24:29But to do that, he first had to push the Germans back beyond Ginchy
0:24:29 > 0:24:31and Guillemont.
0:24:32 > 0:24:34If you go to the village of Guillemont today,
0:24:34 > 0:24:39it's immediately obvious it's a really tough nut to crack
0:24:39 > 0:24:41if you're an attacking army.
0:24:41 > 0:24:43It's a ghastly killing match.
0:24:43 > 0:24:46Of all the battles on the Somme, the Guillemont, Ginchy,
0:24:46 > 0:24:49they're right up there for sheer horror.
0:24:52 > 0:24:55Haig knew this only too well.
0:24:55 > 0:24:59The British Army had failed to take Guillemont eight times already,
0:24:59 > 0:25:02but now they planned very different tactics.
0:25:05 > 0:25:09By this stage, the British have got beyond the clumsy tactics
0:25:09 > 0:25:11of the 1st of July.
0:25:11 > 0:25:15They are no longer simply forming up in waves, in long lines,
0:25:15 > 0:25:17advancing slowly towards the enemy.
0:25:19 > 0:25:21On the morning of the 3rd of September,
0:25:21 > 0:25:24John Holland and the 16th Irish Division
0:25:24 > 0:25:26planned to attack Guillemont.
0:25:26 > 0:25:30Not in a single wave, but in small, deadly teams.
0:25:32 > 0:25:36John Holland was a bombing officer with the 7th Leinsters,
0:25:36 > 0:25:40about to lead just 26 men out of the woods towards the village.
0:25:42 > 0:25:46And you can see the objective of Guillemont right ahead.
0:25:46 > 0:25:52They would have seen the shattered remnants of the tower
0:25:52 > 0:25:53and they would have known that dead ahead,
0:25:53 > 0:25:55that's where they had to get to.
0:25:56 > 0:26:01John Holland's bombing company were armed with grenades and bayonets
0:26:01 > 0:26:04and prepared for bloody hand-to-hand combat.
0:26:06 > 0:26:09He has to get them and their grenades across there.
0:26:09 > 0:26:11That's their duty and their job,
0:26:11 > 0:26:14to actually go and physically bomb the Germans
0:26:14 > 0:26:16out of those trenches.
0:26:16 > 0:26:19And he and his men run for their lives
0:26:19 > 0:26:24across the pockmarked, shell-strewn, exploding hell
0:26:24 > 0:26:27between here and Guillemont.
0:26:29 > 0:26:34His job was to lob grenades right into those German trenches
0:26:34 > 0:26:39and clear those trenches with bomb, revolver and bayonet.
0:26:39 > 0:26:41In fact, the official historian
0:26:41 > 0:26:44actually tells us what the 7th Leinsters did
0:26:44 > 0:26:46when they got to the front line.
0:26:46 > 0:26:51He says that they bombed, captured and brained with their rifle butts
0:26:51 > 0:26:54all of the Germans in the first trench.
0:26:54 > 0:26:58And that is men like John Holland, over there.
0:27:00 > 0:27:04John Holland captured the first trench at the edge of the village.
0:27:05 > 0:27:07But he didn't stop there,
0:27:07 > 0:27:11and drove his men onwards into the centre of Guillemont.
0:27:11 > 0:27:15This shattered town was a fortress of German concrete dugouts.
0:27:17 > 0:27:21They survived nine weeks of intensive British bombing
0:27:21 > 0:27:23and still survive to this very day.
0:27:33 > 0:27:39Well, this is a perfect example of why the Germans were so safe.
0:27:41 > 0:27:44The ceiling, solid concrete.
0:27:45 > 0:27:50Brick, leading to other chambers with blast walls.
0:27:50 > 0:27:53We've got two dugout entrances on top,
0:27:53 > 0:27:55but it leads to a third chamber.
0:27:57 > 0:28:02This is exactly the kind of dugout, if not actually one of the dugouts,
0:28:02 > 0:28:05that Lieutenant John Holland would have actually attacked
0:28:05 > 0:28:07on the 3rd of September, 1916.
0:28:07 > 0:28:10You can tell how difficult it would have been
0:28:10 > 0:28:12to take this kind of dugout.
0:28:12 > 0:28:16He would have been using Mills bombs - grenades.
0:28:16 > 0:28:21That's the first and foremost method of attacking a dugout like this,
0:28:21 > 0:28:25rolling the grenades down into the dugout.
0:28:25 > 0:28:30One goes off, two goes off, hopefully the men come out.
0:28:30 > 0:28:35If not, you have to go in and more grenades,
0:28:35 > 0:28:38more grenades, bayonet men, fight.
0:28:38 > 0:28:42It ends up becoming a brutal carnage.
0:28:42 > 0:28:48Every dugout was a miniature battle, and John Holland knew that.
0:28:58 > 0:29:01As dusk fell on the 3rd of September,
0:29:01 > 0:29:04Lieutenant Holland had bombed and brained his way
0:29:04 > 0:29:07into the very heart of Guillemont.
0:29:07 > 0:29:09By doing so, he'd allowed the 16th Irish Division
0:29:09 > 0:29:12to sweep into the village and capture it.
0:29:12 > 0:29:15The only problem was, of his 26-strong bombing section,
0:29:15 > 0:29:17only five had survived.
0:29:22 > 0:29:25But John Holland lived
0:29:25 > 0:29:29and became the 32nd man in the Somme to win the Victoria Cross.
0:29:32 > 0:29:34He received a huge welcome in Ireland.
0:29:34 > 0:29:37In Athy and in Kildare,
0:29:37 > 0:29:41the councils had special meetings and passed resolutions,
0:29:41 > 0:29:44saying what a fine fellow he was. And...
0:29:44 > 0:29:49the Athy town council presented him with a silver tea service
0:29:49 > 0:29:52to commemorate the event.
0:29:52 > 0:29:56Certainly, public opinion was prepared to acknowledge his,
0:29:56 > 0:30:01his courage and his bravery and that he was, you know, an Irish hero.
0:30:01 > 0:30:05John Holland's actions came after Ireland's Easter Rising,
0:30:05 > 0:30:10yet he was still hailed a hero by Irish nationalists,
0:30:10 > 0:30:12just as McFadzean, Quigg,
0:30:12 > 0:30:16Cather and Bell were hailed as heroes by Ulster Unionists.
0:30:18 > 0:30:23But, in Ireland, not every VC winner was remembered in the same way.
0:30:25 > 0:30:29Thomas Hughes also attacked Guillemont on the 3rd of September.
0:30:29 > 0:30:31He, too, won the VC.
0:30:31 > 0:30:35But, over the years, his story was forgotten.
0:30:38 > 0:30:43Thomas was from farmland near Castleblayney in County Monaghan,
0:30:43 > 0:30:47a town that would soon end up on the south side of Ireland's new border.
0:30:50 > 0:30:53No British soldier was mentioned around this area anyway, like.
0:30:53 > 0:30:57You know, we are three or four miles here from Crossmaglen, you know,
0:30:57 > 0:31:02and South Armagh. You didn't dare mention any member of your family
0:31:02 > 0:31:05being near the British Army, like.
0:31:05 > 0:31:10Politics meant Thomas Hughes' story was forgotten
0:31:10 > 0:31:14and it's only now that his family is piecing his life together.
0:31:14 > 0:31:19The 1901 census, he was 16, working in Cowley's as a farm hand.
0:31:19 > 0:31:20So that made up for what he was.
0:31:20 > 0:31:23So he obviously, you know, he worked from a young age, like,
0:31:23 > 0:31:25and it was a hard life.
0:31:25 > 0:31:29In 1915, Thomas was 29 and out of work,
0:31:29 > 0:31:34so he seized the chance of a decent wage by signing up as a Private
0:31:34 > 0:31:36with the 6th Connaught Rangers.
0:31:38 > 0:31:43He more than earned his pay when, on the 3rd of September,
0:31:43 > 0:31:46he attacked Guillemont with the rest of the 16th Irish.
0:31:47 > 0:31:50When the Connaughts actually get into Guillemont,
0:31:50 > 0:31:53they realise that their commanding officer, whom they love,
0:31:53 > 0:31:55Lieutenant Colonel Jack Lennox Cunningham, has been killed.
0:31:55 > 0:31:58It enrages them and they push on,
0:31:58 > 0:32:00even though they were not supposed to,
0:32:00 > 0:32:03and Hughes is one of the men who does that as well.
0:32:04 > 0:32:07In the charge, Thomas was hit.
0:32:07 > 0:32:11Somehow, he made it to a field dressing station
0:32:11 > 0:32:13but refused to stay there.
0:32:13 > 0:32:18Instead, he insisted on returning to the fight.
0:32:18 > 0:32:20He's obviously walking wounded but he decides,
0:32:20 > 0:32:24"No, that's where I should be, I should be there at Guillemont.
0:32:24 > 0:32:28"I'm not that badly wounded that I can't take part in this."
0:32:28 > 0:32:31And, luckily for the 6th Connaughts, he does go back.
0:32:34 > 0:32:38Thomas knew his comrades were at the mercy of a deadly weapon.
0:32:41 > 0:32:47The threat that Thomas manages to spy is the MG08 machine gun,
0:32:47 > 0:32:51which is a devastating weapon which is cutting down the Connaughts,
0:32:51 > 0:32:53cutting down the Leinsters,
0:32:53 > 0:32:55cutting down the first waves of the 16th Irish.
0:32:58 > 0:33:01Like tens of thousands of other men in the Somme,
0:33:01 > 0:33:04Thomas's comrades were being annihilated
0:33:04 > 0:33:06by the German machine gun.
0:33:06 > 0:33:09He knew he needed to disable it.
0:33:09 > 0:33:13It meant risking his life and he was already injured,
0:33:13 > 0:33:16but Thomas didn't hesitate.
0:33:18 > 0:33:20He dashed out in front of his company...
0:33:22 > 0:33:24..shot the gunner...
0:33:24 > 0:33:25GUNSHOT
0:33:27 > 0:33:29..and captured the gun.
0:33:31 > 0:33:34And as he says, he shoots the four chaps and that's how he manages
0:33:34 > 0:33:37to spring the surprise on them, kills them,
0:33:37 > 0:33:41captures the gun and takes prisoners at the same time.
0:33:42 > 0:33:46The 16th Irish poured into Guillemont and seized the town.
0:33:48 > 0:33:52Thomas Hughes won the Somme's 33rd Victoria Cross...
0:33:53 > 0:33:56..but at huge personal sacrifice.
0:33:57 > 0:34:01He had been shot in the legs and never walked properly again.
0:34:02 > 0:34:04In 1917,
0:34:04 > 0:34:10he was welcomed back to his hometown of Castleblayney as a hero.
0:34:10 > 0:34:13It seems like the whole town wanted to turn out to celebrate
0:34:13 > 0:34:16their local hero, the return of the native son.
0:34:17 > 0:34:19Judges, doctors,
0:34:19 > 0:34:22everybody with any sort of letters after their name
0:34:22 > 0:34:24seems to have come out.
0:34:24 > 0:34:28You know, I don't think the fanfare lasted very long afterwards,
0:34:28 > 0:34:30once the initial euphoria had died down.
0:34:32 > 0:34:35By 1921, Ireland was partitioned...
0:34:36 > 0:34:38..and the Monaghan hero of the British Army
0:34:38 > 0:34:43now found himself living in the new Irish Free State,
0:34:43 > 0:34:46where attitudes to war veterans changed dramatically.
0:34:48 > 0:34:53Because he had taken the King's shilling, as everyone called it,
0:34:53 > 0:34:55he would have been seen as one of the enemy.
0:34:55 > 0:35:00It just showed how the community feeling had turned
0:35:00 > 0:35:05from 1917, the hero, 1940 whatever, the enemy.
0:35:07 > 0:35:11Thomas spent the rest of his life in and out of the workhouse.
0:35:12 > 0:35:16After he died, his sister was forced by her own poverty
0:35:16 > 0:35:18to sell his war medals.
0:35:18 > 0:35:21And the only memory of Thomas left in Monaghan
0:35:21 > 0:35:25was a gravestone erected by the Royal British Legion.
0:35:27 > 0:35:32Today, attitudes to Ireland's Great War heritage have softened,
0:35:32 > 0:35:35and Thomas Hughes's family are now learning about his Somme story
0:35:35 > 0:35:37for the very first time.
0:35:40 > 0:35:43I went to France on the bike last September
0:35:43 > 0:35:45and into Belgium, you know?
0:35:45 > 0:35:47Just went to Guillemont, where his act was.
0:35:47 > 0:35:51It was nice to go there, just nice to be where he fought, you know,
0:35:51 > 0:35:54and something I always wanted to do. I got to do it last year.
0:35:54 > 0:35:57Just look, just look at him, here, he's smiling, he's happy,
0:35:57 > 0:36:01even though he's wounded. I think he just wanted to get on with life.
0:36:02 > 0:36:05It is sad, the way that life hit back at him afterwards.
0:36:05 > 0:36:06It's not fair.
0:36:06 > 0:36:09It's not just Thomas Hughes, there's a lot of Castleblayney men,
0:36:09 > 0:36:12a lot of local men went and you'd like to see them all remembered.
0:36:12 > 0:36:14How many of these medals have been won?
0:36:16 > 0:36:19Not too many. They are few and far between.
0:36:19 > 0:36:21And you know,
0:36:21 > 0:36:24all I can say is, I'm proud to be related.
0:36:24 > 0:36:26Well done, Thomas.
0:36:33 > 0:36:38Thomas Hughes, John Holland and the 16th Irish Division
0:36:38 > 0:36:40left Guillemont in Allied hands.
0:36:42 > 0:36:49And the British front advanced by 4,500 yards, at a massive cost -
0:36:49 > 0:36:514,000 lives.
0:36:54 > 0:36:56But it broke the stalemate.
0:36:58 > 0:37:0115th of September,
0:37:01 > 0:37:03Day 77.
0:37:04 > 0:37:08Haig could now begin his second great offensive,
0:37:08 > 0:37:12a large-scale advance on the villages of Flers and Courcelette,
0:37:12 > 0:37:17and then onwards to the German stronghold of Bapaume.
0:37:17 > 0:37:22The British launch the second great offensive after the 1st of July,
0:37:22 > 0:37:27a major operation intending to break the German positions.
0:37:27 > 0:37:30The battle of Flers-Courcelette, which is the name
0:37:30 > 0:37:32that was subsequently given to the great attack,
0:37:32 > 0:37:36this is most famous, of course, for the first use of tanks.
0:37:36 > 0:37:41With tanks added to the quite seriously improving British infantry
0:37:41 > 0:37:44and artillery, there is a real chance of actually,
0:37:44 > 0:37:48finally breaking into and through the German positions.
0:37:50 > 0:37:52Haig placed his faith in new technology
0:37:52 > 0:37:54at the Battle of Flers-Courcelette.
0:37:56 > 0:37:58As important would be the fighting spirit
0:37:58 > 0:38:01of men like Lieutenant Colonel John Campbell.
0:38:07 > 0:38:12His military heritage is preserved at London's Wellington Barracks...
0:38:13 > 0:38:17..headquarters of the Guards Division,
0:38:17 > 0:38:22and home to the hunting horn that made Campbell a legend.
0:38:24 > 0:38:27Well, the Campbells are a very strong military family.
0:38:27 > 0:38:31No less than 15 Campbells served as Coldstream officers
0:38:31 > 0:38:34between 1741 and 1970.
0:38:34 > 0:38:38And it's a bad average - seven of them died in active service.
0:38:40 > 0:38:44John Campbell, who in fact was my mother's godfather,
0:38:44 > 0:38:47joined the Army in 1896.
0:38:50 > 0:38:53By September 15th, 1916,
0:38:53 > 0:38:56John Campbell was a 39-year-old Lieutenant Colonel.
0:38:57 > 0:39:00Tucked into his belt was a hunting horn,
0:39:00 > 0:39:04a reminder of his favourite pastime back home in Shropshire.
0:39:05 > 0:39:08He commanded the 3rd Battalion Coldstream Guards
0:39:08 > 0:39:12as they launched an attack from Ginchy,
0:39:12 > 0:39:16when his men quickly found themselves under heavy fire.
0:39:16 > 0:39:17There was a problem.
0:39:17 > 0:39:21They knew on the flank that there was a nest of machine guns,
0:39:21 > 0:39:23but there was a plan to deal with this,
0:39:23 > 0:39:25using new technology - the tank.
0:39:27 > 0:39:30This was the first time a tank had ever been used in battle.
0:39:32 > 0:39:36They would become one of the key weapons of 20th-century warfare
0:39:36 > 0:39:41but this, their first outing, did not go smoothly.
0:39:41 > 0:39:46Unfortunately, the tanks all broke down and weren't there,
0:39:46 > 0:39:50so there was the worst possible position.
0:39:50 > 0:39:53The tanks that arrived on the Somme were untested prototypes,
0:39:53 > 0:39:55rushed into service by Haig
0:39:55 > 0:39:59against the advice of the machines' designers.
0:39:59 > 0:40:03They sent 50, with no guarantees they would work.
0:40:03 > 0:40:09Of those, only 25 or so actually made it into the front line.
0:40:09 > 0:40:12And then a lot of the tanks, when they went down into trenches,
0:40:12 > 0:40:14couldn't get out again. The trenches were too deep,
0:40:14 > 0:40:16too wide, too much mud in them.
0:40:16 > 0:40:19Also, they were simply bogged down because they didn't work.
0:40:19 > 0:40:21They were experimental.
0:40:23 > 0:40:26The failure of the tanks left John Campbell's Coldstream Guards
0:40:26 > 0:40:29dangerously exposed to German machine gun fire.
0:40:31 > 0:40:35Campbell and his Coldstreams are crossing this ridge and you can see,
0:40:35 > 0:40:38it's a perfect, beautiful view from here.
0:40:38 > 0:40:40The only problem is
0:40:40 > 0:40:43this is where the German machine gunners are sited,
0:40:43 > 0:40:47along this sunken road, and they have a perfect field of fire
0:40:47 > 0:40:49for the Coldstreams as they come across.
0:40:49 > 0:40:52They cut down rank upon rank of the Coldstreams.
0:40:55 > 0:40:58It was devastation.
0:40:58 > 0:41:04The first two lines were massively hit, and the 3rd Battalion,
0:41:04 > 0:41:07on the left, had to deflect to try and deal with the problem.
0:41:09 > 0:41:11This was the moment that John Campbell realised
0:41:11 > 0:41:14that something had to be done and had to be done now.
0:41:14 > 0:41:18He has to rally those men who are basically keeping their heads down
0:41:18 > 0:41:21because to raise them is almost certain death.
0:41:21 > 0:41:23But he does a really strange thing,
0:41:23 > 0:41:27and actually, as one account puts it,
0:41:27 > 0:41:30"They heard what must surely have been the strangest sound
0:41:30 > 0:41:32"that ever rose above the war of a battlefield."
0:41:33 > 0:41:37They looked and saw their colonel standing in their midst,
0:41:37 > 0:41:39a hunting horn to his lips.
0:41:41 > 0:41:43With this action,
0:41:43 > 0:41:47what Lieutenant Colonel Campbell has done is taken personal control
0:41:47 > 0:41:50of his men by blowing that hunting horn,
0:41:50 > 0:41:53and it says he only plays one sharp note.
0:41:53 > 0:41:57When he tells them, "We're going to take that sunken road,"
0:41:57 > 0:42:00the men instantly rally.
0:42:01 > 0:42:06The magic of it fired their blood as no words could have done.
0:42:06 > 0:42:10The Coldstream rose, what was left of them, and swept on.
0:42:14 > 0:42:15It was unique to him.
0:42:17 > 0:42:21With the sound of the horn, they knew to move now, together,
0:42:21 > 0:42:23as a team, and that's why it worked.
0:42:24 > 0:42:27John Campbell was awarded the Victoria Cross
0:42:27 > 0:42:30for his bravery and leadership.
0:42:30 > 0:42:33His was the 37th,
0:42:33 > 0:42:39and, thanks to his hunting horn, he became known as the "Tally-Ho VC".
0:42:45 > 0:42:48Another Guardsman won a Victoria Cross for his actions
0:42:48 > 0:42:50north of Ginchy that day.
0:42:53 > 0:42:56Fred McNess came from a very different world
0:42:56 > 0:43:00and won his VC at horrendous personal cost.
0:43:01 > 0:43:05Fred lived in Yorkshire before the war and he was a carrier,
0:43:05 > 0:43:07a delivery man, if you like,
0:43:07 > 0:43:13working for a small firm in and around Bramley and Leeds.
0:43:13 > 0:43:16The pictures we have here show Fred on his wedding day,
0:43:16 > 0:43:18with his wife, my grandmother.
0:43:18 > 0:43:22And he's surrounded by members of his and her families.
0:43:24 > 0:43:25In his life before the war,
0:43:25 > 0:43:30his primary interest was to earn a living and look after his family
0:43:30 > 0:43:34and ensure that he and his family had as good a life as possible.
0:43:35 > 0:43:40But in 1915, Fred did exactly what was asked of him.
0:43:40 > 0:43:42He enlisted.
0:43:42 > 0:43:45I guess he had a sense of duty and commitment
0:43:45 > 0:43:48to family, King and country, as it were.
0:43:49 > 0:43:52On September 15th, 1916,
0:43:52 > 0:43:57Fred demonstrated that commitment to duty beyond question.
0:43:57 > 0:44:00He was a bomber with the Scots Guards.
0:44:00 > 0:44:03That morning, Fred's platoon was leading the charge
0:44:03 > 0:44:05on a line of German trenches.
0:44:05 > 0:44:09Lance Sergeant Fred McNess was the first of his Scots Guard platoon
0:44:09 > 0:44:12to enter the first line German trench.
0:44:12 > 0:44:16When he got here, it was a fierce hand-to-hand battle.
0:44:16 > 0:44:20He bombed them back along the trench, but the Germans fought on.
0:44:20 > 0:44:23He kept on fighting, bomb after bomb,
0:44:23 > 0:44:25traverse by traverse,
0:44:25 > 0:44:29until his bomb supply was almost exhausted.
0:44:29 > 0:44:31When that nearly happens, he builds a barricade.
0:44:33 > 0:44:36Fred McNess was determined to keep hold of the trench
0:44:36 > 0:44:41his men had seized, but with no grenades, what was he to do?
0:44:41 > 0:44:43The interesting thing is Fred McNess
0:44:43 > 0:44:44is falling back on his training, here.
0:44:44 > 0:44:47He's a bomber, so he actually realises
0:44:47 > 0:44:49that there must be something in this trench
0:44:49 > 0:44:52that he can use against the Germans, and he finds it.
0:44:52 > 0:44:54German grenades.
0:44:54 > 0:44:56He works out how to actually use them
0:44:56 > 0:44:59and they start flinging these back at the enemy.
0:45:01 > 0:45:03Armed with the enemy's own ammunition,
0:45:03 > 0:45:06McNess and his men fought the length of the trench,
0:45:06 > 0:45:08taking section after section,
0:45:08 > 0:45:13until he and his men were right on top of the Germans.
0:45:13 > 0:45:15It is at this point that, in that McNess's own words,
0:45:15 > 0:45:18he sees a German throw a grenade.
0:45:18 > 0:45:21It explodes near his dial, as he calls it.
0:45:21 > 0:45:24It actually removes part of his jaw, his teeth, into his neck.
0:45:24 > 0:45:27It is a fierce wound, a terrible, terrible wound.
0:45:27 > 0:45:31But despite this severe injury, he refuses to leave his post.
0:45:31 > 0:45:34In fact, what he does is actually encourage his men
0:45:34 > 0:45:36to continue the fight against the Germans,
0:45:36 > 0:45:38and with his last bit of strength,
0:45:38 > 0:45:41he continues to throw bombs at the Germans,
0:45:41 > 0:45:44until, through loss of blood,
0:45:44 > 0:45:46he's eventually persuaded to leave his post
0:45:46 > 0:45:48and go to a dressing station.
0:45:51 > 0:45:55Fred's savage injuries sent him back to London,
0:45:55 > 0:45:57one of thousands who returned from the Somme
0:45:57 > 0:46:00with devastating facial disfigurements.
0:46:01 > 0:46:06Their treatment led to a new medical discipline, reconstructive surgery.
0:46:07 > 0:46:11Specialised hospitals were set up to deal with this flood of patients.
0:46:14 > 0:46:18After the first day of the Somme, the 1st of July, 1916,
0:46:18 > 0:46:22200 casualties were expected but 2,000 arrived.
0:46:25 > 0:46:27The Somme battlefield, of course,
0:46:27 > 0:46:29produced every injury you could think of in every part of the body.
0:46:29 > 0:46:32From the face point of view, if one looks at the records,
0:46:32 > 0:46:35there are injuries to the jaw, injuries to the lip,
0:46:35 > 0:46:38injuries to the cheek, injuries to the eye socket
0:46:38 > 0:46:40and there are injuries to the forehead
0:46:40 > 0:46:43and particularly, of course, major injuries to the nose.
0:46:43 > 0:46:46Some people lost their nose completely.
0:46:46 > 0:46:50So it was a very protean collection of every type of facial injury
0:46:50 > 0:46:52you could possibly think of.
0:46:54 > 0:46:57Fred McNess was missing part of his lower jaw,
0:46:57 > 0:47:01but surgeons used the latest technique to rebuild it
0:47:01 > 0:47:03using a piece of his rib.
0:47:03 > 0:47:06The treatment took a year and a half,
0:47:06 > 0:47:09but it restored his speech and the use of his mouth.
0:47:12 > 0:47:17Fred was awarded the Somme's 38th Victoria Cross in 1917,
0:47:17 > 0:47:19for showing dash under fire.
0:47:22 > 0:47:27For 40 years after the war, he worked as a shoemaker,
0:47:27 > 0:47:30but his face always showed the scars of the Somme.
0:47:31 > 0:47:35I can show you this rather poor photograph of him,
0:47:35 > 0:47:37after he'd come out of hospital.
0:47:37 > 0:47:40Yes, he's lost the contour of the jaw, just here,
0:47:40 > 0:47:43and there's this great hollow underneath it.
0:47:43 > 0:47:45He's lost some of the overlying soft tissue.
0:47:45 > 0:47:48That's not uncommon, to get that sort of hollowing out.
0:47:48 > 0:47:51You never recreate the sort of thickness of the tissue.
0:47:53 > 0:47:57Fred's family believes he also carried psychological scars
0:47:57 > 0:47:59from his experiences on the Somme...
0:48:01 > 0:48:03..and that these never healed.
0:48:05 > 0:48:09Tragically, Fred took his own life in 1956,
0:48:09 > 0:48:13almost 40 years after the event
0:48:13 > 0:48:16for which he was awarded the Victoria Cross.
0:48:16 > 0:48:19There is probably a question over whether he was suffering
0:48:19 > 0:48:22from what we now call post-traumatic stress disorder.
0:48:24 > 0:48:28The official version was that he found it difficult
0:48:28 > 0:48:32to continue to live with the discomfort and pain
0:48:32 > 0:48:34of the injuries that he received.
0:48:45 > 0:48:48November 13th, 1916.
0:48:49 > 0:48:52Day 136.
0:48:52 > 0:48:56560,000 Allied casualties.
0:48:56 > 0:49:02In the north, the front line had still barely shifted since day one,
0:49:02 > 0:49:03and winter was coming.
0:49:04 > 0:49:08It is clearly getting to the point of the year in which the Allies
0:49:08 > 0:49:12are going to have a great deal of difficulty carrying on operations
0:49:12 > 0:49:14because the weather has broken.
0:49:14 > 0:49:19The mud is terribly deep, terribly sticky.
0:49:19 > 0:49:22And I think they are aware that this is probably
0:49:22 > 0:49:25the Allies' last throw in the fighting on the Somme.
0:49:28 > 0:49:31Haig was under political pressure to secure victory
0:49:31 > 0:49:33before winter made fighting impossible.
0:49:35 > 0:49:40His plan, a new assault on the same high ground the 36th Ulster Division
0:49:40 > 0:49:43had fought for on the 1st of July,
0:49:43 > 0:49:47which the Allies had been fighting for ever since,
0:49:47 > 0:49:51and which was still littered with horrific reminders of their failure.
0:49:53 > 0:49:57Some British troops have a really horrible experience
0:49:57 > 0:50:00of attacking across a battlefield
0:50:00 > 0:50:04and the dead of the battle of five months before are laying around.
0:50:06 > 0:50:10Central to Haig's plan was to take Beaucourt,
0:50:10 > 0:50:13a heavily-defended hilltop village.
0:50:13 > 0:50:16Where we are now, on the approaches to Beaucourt itself,
0:50:16 > 0:50:21pretty much the same place that Robert Quigg was fighting
0:50:21 > 0:50:23on the 1st of July.
0:50:23 > 0:50:27This, of course, is the key to the whole Somme battle
0:50:27 > 0:50:29on this side of the front.
0:50:35 > 0:50:38The man trying to win Beaucourt this time was an adventurer,
0:50:38 > 0:50:41who left home looking for a fight...
0:50:42 > 0:50:46..and found it on the battlefields of World War I.
0:50:49 > 0:50:51His name was Bernard Freyberg.
0:50:54 > 0:50:58My grandfather was born in 1889
0:50:58 > 0:51:00in Richmond in Surrey.
0:51:00 > 0:51:04And the family emigrated to New Zealand when he was two and a half.
0:51:04 > 0:51:07Although born in England, he was brought up as a New Zealander.
0:51:07 > 0:51:11He lived in some awful shack and there was almost no money,
0:51:11 > 0:51:14and so he had to catch rabbits in order to have food to eat.
0:51:16 > 0:51:19Bernard was a natural adventurer and news of a civil war
0:51:19 > 0:51:23on the other side of the world was too tempting to resist.
0:51:25 > 0:51:29At the first opportunity, he left New Zealand for America.
0:51:29 > 0:51:31- There was a war going on. He liked the idea of it.- Mm.
0:51:32 > 0:51:35So he went out, down to Mexico,
0:51:35 > 0:51:39and allegedly fought with Villa Pancho
0:51:39 > 0:51:42before coming back at the onset of the First World War
0:51:42 > 0:51:44to England to enlist.
0:51:47 > 0:51:50Bernard Freyberg signed up with the Royal Naval Volunteer-Reserve.
0:51:52 > 0:51:55He served in Belgium, then the Mediterranean,
0:51:55 > 0:51:59where he won a Distinguished Service Order for his heroism at Gallipoli.
0:52:01 > 0:52:05By that time he arrived on the Somme, he was a Lieutenant Colonel,
0:52:05 > 0:52:11still only 27 years old, still full of fighting spirit.
0:52:13 > 0:52:16The small hours of the 13th of November,
0:52:16 > 0:52:20Freyberg prepared his Royal Naval battalion to attack Beaucourt.
0:52:23 > 0:52:25At 5:45am,
0:52:25 > 0:52:29he burst from the Allied trenches and charged through the darkness,
0:52:29 > 0:52:31fog and shellfire, at the Germans.
0:52:34 > 0:52:36He drove so far, so fast,
0:52:36 > 0:52:39that he was in danger of running into the Allies' own barrage
0:52:39 > 0:52:41that fell in front of him.
0:52:43 > 0:52:47Through sheer grit and determination and his own character,
0:52:47 > 0:52:50he ends up being hit by shell splinters
0:52:50 > 0:52:52on the way up to this position,
0:52:52 > 0:52:55largely because he's so keen to get ahead
0:52:55 > 0:52:57that there are actually British shells
0:52:57 > 0:52:59that are actually exploding above them.
0:53:01 > 0:53:04Freyberg was hit twice, but each time,
0:53:04 > 0:53:07he got back on his feet and led his men onwards.
0:53:09 > 0:53:15And they take three trench lines, all the way up to this point.
0:53:15 > 0:53:19And that's an amazing feat of arms and courage,
0:53:19 > 0:53:23because they do it in the early hours of the morning, in a mist.
0:53:23 > 0:53:25The fight is brutal.
0:53:25 > 0:53:30And, by the end of it, the men are shattered
0:53:30 > 0:53:32and they can probably see Beaucourt just down there.
0:53:32 > 0:53:36They can certainly hear the Germans. The Germans are sniping at them.
0:53:38 > 0:53:41By nightfall, Freyberg was on the very edge of Beaucourt...
0:53:43 > 0:53:47..but with just 300 men and so far forward,
0:53:47 > 0:53:49in danger of being surrounded.
0:53:50 > 0:53:54However, Colonel Freyberg had no intention of surrendering.
0:53:56 > 0:53:59He gives this rallying cry to his men,
0:53:59 > 0:54:02who are dispirited when they get to this point.
0:54:02 > 0:54:06And he says, "Not only are we going to hold our position here tonight,
0:54:06 > 0:54:09"but tomorrow morning, we are going to take Beaucourt."
0:54:09 > 0:54:14With so few men, Freyberg had only one option -
0:54:14 > 0:54:17gather reinforcements and attack before sunrise.
0:54:17 > 0:54:21There's a report about how they actually, um...
0:54:21 > 0:54:24go and put the bayonets onto their rifles
0:54:24 > 0:54:26by muffling them with their greatcoats,
0:54:26 > 0:54:29cos they don't want the noise of their attack
0:54:29 > 0:54:31to even be heard by the Germans.
0:54:33 > 0:54:36The first man out of the trench was Freyberg.
0:54:36 > 0:54:38Straight away, a bullet hit his helmet...
0:54:38 > 0:54:40BULLET WHIZZES AND CLANGS ..and threw him to the ground.
0:54:40 > 0:54:41GUNFIRE
0:54:42 > 0:54:48But he got up and, to cheers from his men, charged on.
0:54:49 > 0:54:54He and a small force captured some 500 German prisoners
0:54:54 > 0:54:57and, by noon, Beaucourt had fallen to Freyberg and his men.
0:55:00 > 0:55:01But his luck ran out.
0:55:03 > 0:55:09On this very spot, Freyberg is actually telling his officers
0:55:09 > 0:55:13how to prepare for the inevitable, as he sees it, German counterattack,
0:55:13 > 0:55:16when a shell explodes pretty much directly above him,
0:55:16 > 0:55:19sending a fragment burning into his neck.
0:55:19 > 0:55:22And it's a really bad, bad wound this time,
0:55:22 > 0:55:25but he will not leave his men
0:55:25 > 0:55:27because he's actually trying to tell them
0:55:27 > 0:55:31how to prepare the defences for the German attack that's going to come.
0:55:31 > 0:55:34And that again speaks volumes about the man.
0:55:38 > 0:55:42Freyberg staggered to a dressing station, nearly died,
0:55:42 > 0:55:44but pulled through,
0:55:44 > 0:55:49to win the 51st and final Victoria Cross of the Somme campaign.
0:55:50 > 0:55:54Freyberg fought throughout the rest of the First World War
0:55:54 > 0:55:58and the Second, in which he was commander of the New Zealand Army.
0:55:59 > 0:56:02And I think he just enjoyed an army life.
0:56:02 > 0:56:05It was something that suited him. He liked the challenge of it.
0:56:05 > 0:56:09He was very, very fit and he wanted to win,
0:56:09 > 0:56:12and he wanted to achieve something, and that's what he did.
0:56:22 > 0:56:27Bernard Freyberg and his men left Beaucourt in British hands at last.
0:56:27 > 0:56:31Within a week, the Somme offensive was over,
0:56:31 > 0:56:34but not because Britain made a decisive breakthrough.
0:56:36 > 0:56:40The Somme offensive fizzles out in the end,
0:56:40 > 0:56:42I think largely through mutual exhaustion.
0:56:44 > 0:56:46Both sides were reeling from their losses.
0:56:48 > 0:56:52The British had suffered 400,000 casualties.
0:56:52 > 0:56:56The French, 200,000.
0:56:56 > 0:56:58Germany, around 500,000.
0:57:00 > 0:57:04Today, we still debate who actually won the Battle of the Somme.
0:57:06 > 0:57:08It makes you feel physically sick,
0:57:08 > 0:57:11thinking about those sorts of losses.
0:57:11 > 0:57:17And yet, they were effectively the small change of that sort of war.
0:57:17 > 0:57:20One of the reasons why this scale is possible
0:57:20 > 0:57:23is a different attitude to human life
0:57:23 > 0:57:27and a different attitude to ideas about citizenship and human rights.
0:57:27 > 0:57:30Ghastly as those losses are,
0:57:30 > 0:57:37we mustn't try to superimpose our views, our morality, even,
0:57:37 > 0:57:40on what happened 100 years ago.
0:57:42 > 0:57:44One man made war an adventure.
0:57:47 > 0:57:50For another, adventure turned into sacrifice.
0:57:52 > 0:57:55One's bravery was remembered for a century.
0:57:57 > 0:58:00Another's forgotten within a decade.
0:58:02 > 0:58:05One soldier fought because it was his heritage.
0:58:07 > 0:58:09Others because it was their duty.
0:58:11 > 0:58:13They all risked everything.
0:58:15 > 0:58:18They all won the Victoria Cross.
0:58:20 > 0:58:23They are all Heroes Of The Somme.