Thiepval Battle of the Somme 100

Good morning from Thiepval in northern France for our special

coverage of events to mark the centenary of one of the most

destructive battles in history - and one of the defining events

of the First World War - the Battle of the Somme.

For many, the Somme is the battle that symbolises the brutality

and horrors of the trench warfare that cost so many lives.

100 years ago today, at 7.30 on the morning

of the 1st July 1916, British, Commonwealth and French

troops launched their offensive against German positions.

The battle would last 141 days - one million men would be killed

or wounded or captured in four-and-a-half months

of fighting along a 25-mile front on the plains of Picardy.

There were almost 60,000 British casualties on the first day alone.

So today at noon local time here in France - 11 o'clock

in the UK - a major international event will be held to remember those

In preparation for today's centenary, vigils have been held

in the United Kingdom and here in France - they took place

overnight as people reflected on the immense suffering and loss

which are the hallmarks of the global conflict widely known

At Westminster Abbey last night

the National Vigil was led by Her Majesty The Queen -

and there were other vigils observed in Wales,

Scotland, Northern Ireland and throughout England.

Here in France, at the Thiepval Memorial, Prince William,

the Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry attended

The vigils continued through the night until Zero Hour -

7.30 this morning - when the men were sent

This moment was marked across the United Kingdom

Today, we'll be focusing on the events of the 1st of July

1916 - but we'll also be talking about what happened in the 140 days

that followed, until the 18th November.

Thiepval is the site of the huge British memorial built to remember

the 72,000 missing of the Somme - those with no grave.

The event here will hear accounts of what happened - in poetry,

music and presentations - and pay tribute to those who took part

in the battle, explaining how the lives of millions of families

were affected by the events on the Somme.

So in the heart of the lovely countryside of Picardy -

our thoughts today turn to the fateful events

Let's join my colleague Dan Snow who can explain a little more about

Some of the 10,000 guests arriving. Everyone is enthusiastic about

taking part today. It strikes me here what a different scene this is

to 100 years ago. Back then this was a maelstrom of violence. That

monument is built on one of the strongest German positions. Two

battalions of British attacked up that slope, now covered in wild

flowers. The Salford Pals and Newcastle Commercials. They were

excited, motivated and brave. But they were and they were sent in with

the wrong tactics. They were massacred here. Beneath our feet the

remains of that battle still lie. We will be back with Dan later.

This event in Thiepval has been planned on a big scale,

with thousands of guests, reflecting a desire to underline

the scale of the fighting and the losses on the Somme in 1916.

But there are other events taking place on a smaller scale.

One of those services is coming to a close here in the shelter of the

trees of Sheffield Memorial Park. It's honouring the Sheffield City

Battalion which fought alongside the Barnsley anding rippingen to Pals.

This park was created on the old British front line. This ditch is

actually the remains of an old British trench. It was from here

that thousands of men who were serving alongside other men from

their own communities would have scrambled up and walked across

there. It was known as no-man's-land. The intimate nature

of the services being held here today are a poignant reminder of the

individual losses from that day, July 1st, 1916. What we had there

were friends, relatives, colleagues, who had signed up together fighting

together and often dying together and that meant back home you had

complete families, entire streets, whole towns who were devastated and

were forced to grieve together. One of the many smaller events

taking place there in parallel with this big event at Thiepval.

The offensive on the Somme had been planned in late 1915

The French had intended a battle of attrition to drain

and exhaust the German forces - and in the process to make

The British commander-in-chief - Sir Douglas Haig - was keen

to launch a major offensive, though not necessarily

Dan Snow explains how the Somme offensive came about.

From the November of 1914, bitter deadlock had

The Central Powers and Allies held each other at bay in a line

of trenches that stretched from the Swiss border

France and Britain planned a joint offensive.

But when the Germans attacked Verdun, the French had to defend.

So be leading role in the Allied attempt to break through the lines

Our force was dominated by volunteers from Kitchener's

army and, for many, this was to be their first

To pave the way for success, Britain's industrial might had been

set on a war footing, producing unprecedented amounts

of munitions that began battering German trenches.

For seven days and seven nights, over one and a half million

shells rained down on the enemy and when,

..the whistles blew and our soldiers went over the top.

The 1st of July 1916 became the bloodiest day

Nearly 20,000 men were killed and over 35,000 were wounded

Vicious fighting continued as the names of woods,

farms and fields became forever attached to the battalions

who traded their lives for these tiny parts of France.

During the four and a half months of the battle,

both sides paid a heavy price as more than one million

Commonwealth, French and German soldiers were killed,

As winter set in, temperatures plummeted and rain

The Allies had gained just six miles.

On the 18th of November, the order was given

for the British Army's offensive to stop.

The mud and cold had become too much.

Dan there explaining a little of the military context for us and some of

the reasons why the biggest allied offensive on the Western Front took

place here in the region of the Somme.

I'm joined by three guests with a rich blend of knowledge

Baroness Shirley Williams - the former Cabinet Minister whose

mother Vera Brittain described her experience as a nurse

in the Great War in 'Testament of Youth' - and whose uncle

Edward Brittain was awarded the Military Cross on the first day

The historian Dr Heather Jones - a specialist in First

World War Studies at the London School of Economics.

And I'm also joined by the author and historian Richard van Emden

who in the course of his work has interviewed over 270

Can I say it's a great pleasure to have you all with us. Shirley, can

we start with some of the letters written by your mother and by

Edward. They underline the fact there was an awareness of a

gathering storm. They knew what was coming. But they must not really

have imagined the extent of of it. They couldn't have done. They use

saying the celery was ripe. My mother was at that time in the

London First General Hospital in London, learned from her brothers,

sometimes just a postcode, a couple of sentences, had a good idea of

what was going on and much better than her parents could have had.

Edward came out as a young officer and when he got to the front he

discovered that probably half the officers who were slightly older

than him had already been killed or wounded. So what happened to him

happened to a lot of young men who had come more or less from 6th form

at school and found themselves in months captains and First

lieutenants with huge responsibility of their men and in his case he

described what happened to him himself and I can give you a quick

account. He found himself as the leader of his men after a couple of

other officers had been killed, he then got to the front, this was the

first day of the Somme, and discovered that as he was in the

second wave, he was supposed to be the first wave that went ahead of

him, the first wave were largely wounded and they poured back into

the trench to escape from the effects of the shells. They were

already wounded but they couldn't fight on. The second wave turned out

to be panic-stricken and again forced back into the trench. He then

had to persuade his men to go over the top. He tells a touching story

about how he went back once and they wouldn't follow him. He went back a

second time and they wouldn't follow him. The third time he forced them

to go over the top. He says, he wouldn't want the VC for doing that

again, it was so awful. When he went over the top the second time he then

had to lead the men by going first into no-man's-land. He managed to

make 20 yards before he was shot. He was then - fell into a shell hole to

try and recover at least his strength. Fought his way back to

going on, got hit a second time, this time in the arm badly. And

finally managed to rest in a few hours I suppose, and then crawled

back through the no-man's-land. He tells his sister this terrible story

about how he came across the hand of a man who had been shot that morning

going green and yellow and then he said in a sort of public school way,

that made him give a spurt on because he was so horrified by what

he had seen. He later got the Military Cross for what had happened

but I don't think he could have imagined for a moment that was going

to be what the war was like. Shirley's contribution there really

does help us to understand really why the name of the Somme is assumed

- has assumed powerful resonance really throughout the world but

certainly for us in the UK, Heather. Indeed. It's become a touchstone for

all the carnage of the First World War, many military mistakes made,

much of the shock at the loss of innocents, many of these men were

volunteers. They had volunteered to fight in 1914. Some were regulars,

but the majority were untried volunteers who had come out and

didn't have to be here in a sense. This sense of shock that war was not

the war they had imagined in 1914, it was carnage. Shirley mentioned

the wounded and it's important to think many of the wounds were

life-changing injuries. We think of the dead, particularly on the first

day of the Battle of the Somme, high numbers, just about 20,000. Wounded,

losing limbs, losing the ability to work physically in a culture where

working-class men had to work with their bodies. It was devastating for

them. Richard, underline for us for viewers joining us and who may not

be aware of the story of the first day of the Somme in its horror and

brutality, underline for us what happened on that day in terms of

losses. The losses were extraordinary,

unprecedented, 20,000 killed and 40,000 wounded. The intention was to

break through the German first line, and then go another two miles and

break through the second wine and then be in open country. The

artillery that was supposed to have killed the Germans in the front line

Sibley hadn't so when the British attack, the artillery lifted onto

the German second-line meaning the men attacking the first line were

exposed to deadly machine gun fire. There was nothing to keep down the

heads of the Germans, hence the casualties. We will talk more about

the scale of the battle and what went wrong and some of the personal

experiences. What I would like to do now is underlying one element of

what happened on that day. So on that first day alone,

there were over 57,000 British victims of the battle - a third

of them killed, the others injured

or taken prisoner. It remains a one-day record

for the British armed forces. Many more lived to recount

the horrors of that first day - and in the decades that followed,

they were asked to record their memories of going 'over

the top' in the summer of 1916. Well, it was a rather terrifying

sight from the front line, because we opened up

with a terrific bombardment to try and

break through the wire. I can only say that I have never

been so excited in my life. This was like a boy going

to the play for the first time. Suddenly the whole earth heaved,

and up from the ground came the silhouettes of great, dark,

cone-shaped lifts of earth. He was walking up and down

the trench there, and of course, he was bulled up with rum,

and he was saying: "Ten minutes, When the order came,

about 4:45: "Number one, William, over," and over

I went in the first wave. Then somebody shouted,

"There they go, and I looked over to the left, and here were

the London Scottish running forward. Well, they allowed us to come

about a quarter of a mile, say, about that, before

they started peppering us. And my God, they didn't

half pepper us. Three of our chaps

had just got over. They'd been hit with a machine gun,

and they were still in their firing So moving and powerful to hear those

voices all those years later. And how grateful we are now that the

effort was made to record them in the 60s, 70s and 80s, because they

were such powerful stories to tell. When you listen to those men and

their experiences, Richard, at what point in the early days of the

Battle of the Somme, did they realise, and surely has given us

some sense of the first and second waves, what point did they realise

it was all going badly wrong? They knew very early. If you were in a

front line trench you would see very quickly. I remember one veteran who

was a serving officer who said, he watched them all go over, saw them

live down, and I thought, have they got new orders, as something

changed? And then it hit him, that they were casualties, dead. The

offices close by with no quickly that things were unravelling at

speed. The officers further back, it would take a fewer hours, and

sometimes they would think there was partial success when there wasn't.

In the front line, very rapidly. How quickly did the news started get

home, and how quickly were people aware it was going badly wrong? I

don't think for several days or weeks. Very often what they picked

up were clues from postcards. One of the amazing things was the

extraordinary success of the postal service, getting letters to the

front within a day or two of being written, quicker than newspapers. It

meant people were piecing together tiny clues to get some idea of what

had happened to their sons and husbands. That really took a long

time to come through. The press was reporting this as a big push, a

great victory, very exciting, and it's the casualty lists that gives

it away. The names were published in the newspapers in the First World

War, so people were seeing the length of the lists and seeing the

cost, men from the same family being killed. The scale, one in five of

those soldiers going over the top on the first day of the Battle of the

Somme, was killed. You could have five pages of a newspaper which was

full of nothing but the names of people who were killed. A lot of men

were being shunted back to England with minor wounds and were turning

back up at home and in hospital and saying how bad it was. My uncle

turned up at the hospital where my mother was a nurse. The message came

through, I think that your uncle might be somewhere in the office

of's award. She had to get permission from being a nurse, time

off, to go and see her brother. It was an extraordinary coincidence.

Very remarkable. At this point, let's establish the fact that we

always mention with the First World War, the way every community was

affected, because of the scale of the numbers. There wasn't a

community in the UK that wasn't affected by the scale of what was

going on. That has kept later by the memorials going up in every town and

village of the country. Also the system of morning, people wearing

black, but in black on the door knockers. People pulling the blinds

and curtains. Houses showing the sign of mourning. People people

volunteered in pals' battalions. People who knew each other all going

together. In one case a man shouted from a wounded train when he was

asked about the men of the town, he said, they all dead. The rumours

were spreading and people were aware it wasn't a success. There is an

amazing last sentence of the famous poem, at each slow dusk, the drawing

down lines. It is a culture of mourning we don't have the same way

these days. Much of what we know today

about life in the trenches Many of the soldiers in the trenches

kept diaries - even though it was discouraged - in case

they fell into enemy hands. And today some of those diaries

are still in the safe keeping Frank Meakin was my

husband's grandfather. The diaries - they are very

difficult to read. I love the fact that when Frank sat

and wrote them in the trenches, he didn't know what was

going to happen to him. At about 7:15am, I looked over

to see what the section on the right had done,

and saw Wardell standing up dead Then I saw the first wave

going over, so we got into the front The diaries were written by my uncle

Roddy Robinson. My imagination went into overtime

when I met Roddy for the first time. Both his arms had blue

patches of shrapnel. Stood to in the assembly trenches,

and a very heavy bombardment, I only went about 300 yards

when I got hit in the foot and head. Unexpectedly came out

with this diary, and almost threw it at me, saying,

"Here, lad, you might be Leeds got slaughtered as soon

as they got on top. The boys fighting

like men possessed. Hutchinson badly wounded,

and Ben Parker killed. When I hold this, it

transports me back. To think that on the morning

of the 1st of July, when he went over the top,

he actually had these diaries in his breast pocket,

you have a direct link It's only a diary, but I found it

tremendous inspiration, to get to know my father better,

and to really understand The words of three descendants that

have travelled to France at Thiepval in preparation for this

morning's commemorations. Dan is with Rachel Smith who has

also joined us today to remember her family members that

fought on the Somme. I have been chatting with the

descendants, Richard is with me. Why did you want to come out here today?

I am researching my relatives and we have a number of them who fought in

the First World War, so we thought it was thing to apply for the ballot

to come to this ceremony today. In a way it's a great atmosphere here

today. It feels like we are commemorating the huge contribution

they made. And talking to people and finding out their stories has been

fantastic, the best part of the morning so far. We have talked about

people, talks about their relatives, our relatives. So far, it's been

first class. You have served, what was your service? I was with the

Royal mechanical engineers and was a officer class one at the end. You

are wearing your ancestor's medals. My great uncle served in the Somme

area and was killed in 1918 on the second day of the German offensive.

The massive German offensive that steam-rollered through this area.

The fighting was awful, but is the war didn't stop there. We researched

his story, and we followed his story on the last day of our trip in a

couple of years ago. We went to where the trench was, and moved to

where we believed he was killed, and it was very moving, I must admit. We

went to the memorial where he is remembered. That's how we finished

that trip. Your experience is mirrored by hundreds of thousands of

others through the years. Thank you for your memories, enjoy the

ceremony, Richard. STUDIO: A great view of the memorial at Thiepval.

Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader is there today, alongside Emily

Thornberry, a Shadow Cabinet colleague. And the First Minister of

Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, who has just arrived for the event. All of

them proud to represent their parts of the United Kingdom. Jeremy Corbyn

representing the labour movement, and also London. Nicola Sturgeon

representing all those Scottish troops who fought. Cardinal Cormac

Murphy O'Connor, the former Archbishop of Westminster, the

former leader of Catholics in England and Wales. Some 10,000

people we think will attempt today. Richard van Emden is still with me -

and we've been joined by Dr Glyn Prysor, Chief Historian

at the Commonwealth It's a huge privilege to be hosting

this event and it's great to see people exploring the cemeteries and

memorials and discovering more about this battle and war. When people go

about looking for a name, they might be aware that somebody had been

involved in something like the Battle of the Somme. To what extent

can you help them with their search? Most people who thought he survived,

but many didn't, around a million from across the British Empire lost

their lives in the First World War. If you have the name of somebody who

you think might have died, go to the commission's website, and it has a

database of all those who lost their lives. You can also find out more

information, the unit they served with and perhaps details of the next

of kin, and where they are commemorative, a cemetery or grave

or a memorial. We are seeing images of the memorials. We talked about

the fate of the 38th Welsh division the other day. The work that goes

into maintaining these, they are in such good condition. It's a

privilege to visit them as well. In terms of visiting the region itself.

The richness of the stories you come across and the fact people bring so

much of their personal experience to them, it's surely part of the

privilege of the job, learning more about people's contributions.

It's great people are still discovering stories. As soon as you

start looking at personal stories you realise the diversity of the

experience. On the memorial behind me with 72,000 names with no grave,

the youngest is 15, the oldest is 59. People doing all kinds of roles

from engineers to artillerymen, medics and people from all walks of

life. The Prime Minister's son died on the Somme. As soon as all kinds

of people from across the country and the British Empire, as well. The

network is interesting for us because we heard mention a few

moments ago of the Pals Battalions and again that really can broaden

our perspective as to how people got involved in this battle here and

indeed in the war effort, kitchenary's great drive which was

hugely successful. It was successful. It was, in August and

September 1914 the British Army took in vast numbers of men, but so many

of them were sort of filtered through into these battalions that

were raised from local communities, from towns. It became a source of

pride for that community and a source of pride not only to raise

one battalion but then two, three. It was a great way of getting into

the Army at that time to serve with your mates, to serve with friends

and those that you sang in the Church choir with or played football

with. The tragedy, of course, is when they came here, if that

battalion was hard hit, then so would be that Borough and town.

Let's pause for a second. There are live updates available on all the

commemorations happening, not just here in France, across the UK. Look

at our live page. If you go to that page you will get updates on all of

the events happening and indeed background information too. It's

well worth looking at that. The Commonwealth War Graves

Commission help to maintain a number The Sheffield Memorial Park is one

of the most popular locations It stands in commemoration

to a number of Pals battalions. I am with Roy millington whose

father was a stretcher-bearer collecting casualties from the

battlefield. Tell us about his experiences. Yes, it was pretty

dreadful for him. There had been rain and rain and rain. It was the

third August, late on in the battle and then further on it was 3rd

September when in fact they launched the attack and the whole area was a

massive mud and German casualties as well as British ones were strewn

around the field. My father went out with his friend and the other

stretcher-bearer. Shelling was so bad, mortar work and they decided

they better take a shelter. They went into a fox hole and suddenly

overhead a shell came over, buried the casualty and my father and

knocked out the other stretcher-bearer who was wandering

about the field and somebody rescued him. He said, well, looks as though

the casualty's gone. Two days later, they were clearing the site and

somebody says well he is not dead and that was my - and he was

unconshuz. They took him to casualty clearing and then to base hospital

and finally got taken home. Your father was discovered two days

later. Two days later, yes, in a terrible state. He eventually

recovered from his physical injuries but suffered from shellshock. How

did that follow him through his life? He was in business, he found

it very difficult at times. We went through the 20s and 30s under great

stress. He couldn't bear to hear Chamberlain in 1939 speak about the

declaration of war. That was all right until he said we are going to

have a salary enforced. On 12st September 1940 Sheffield was

blitzed. We were in the cellar, the lights went out, and the bombing and

shelling started. At the top of the garden gradually there was a bomb

blew the top of the house off and I can tell you what it's like, there

was my mum on one end, I am on the other end, between us we have a

father going through acute shellshock and when you see that at

the age of 12 you will never forget it. It must have been hard to see.

Thank you so much for telling us about your father. He will be in our

thoughts today and thank you for talking to us. He did live to be 90.

Thank you. We are glad he lived to be 90. Very

nice there. It's essential to record

that the losses on the allied side affected not just British and French

families - in villages, towns and cities across the United Kingdom

- they also affected communities Let's take the island

of Newfoundland - then a British Dominion -

now a part of Canada. The 1st Battalion Newfoundland

Regiment was fighting The historian David Olusoga

tells their story. Newfoundland was a self-ruling

dominion of the British Empire. It had no standing army,

but still, from the Christian, Catholic and Methodist boys' groups,

volunteers poured forth. They trained on the island's sports

grounds and in its fields, until the time came

that they were sent This was to be their first

engagement on the Western front. They'd presumed that

the unprecedented bombardment would obliterate

the German defences. What they didn't know

was that the Germans who had been in the Beaumont Hamel area for 20

months had dug deep into this ravine, right on the edge

of the battlefield. From down there, they could shelter

in deep bunkers that were immune At 7:20, a 40,000 pound mine

was detonated just It was a clear statement of intent,

and it gave the Germans a full ten minutes to prepare their positions

before the first wave of the attack. Soon the bodies of dead

and injured men overwhelmed the forward trenches,

rendering them impassable. In the chaos and the carnage

of the first hours of the battle, the order was given

for the Newfoundlanders to attack. Today, this caribou marks the site

where the Newfoundlanders were exposed to the German

machine-gun fire. From here, they had to cross open

ground before they could even They were the only figures moving

on the whole of the battlefield, and machine-gun fire was pouring

in on them from three directions. In the hail of bullets,

the men were pushed together as they struggled to get

through the narrow gaps that had The result was slaughter,

but still the Newfoundlanders pushed Their adjutant, Captain Raley,

later wrote: The only visible sign that the men knew

they were under this terrific fire was that they instinctively

tucked their chins into an advancing shoulder, as they had done so often

when fighting their way home in a blizzard in some little outpost

in far off Newfoundland. This small piece of land

was littered with the bodies of the dead, while the wounded

desperately struggled Among all the destruction of that

day, no one knows how many lived, how many died,

how many were injured. What we do know is that 800

men from Newfoundland left their trenches over there,

and by the next day, only 68 of them What happened here 100 years ago,

in this small field, devastated So important to realise when the

First World War started in 1914 Britain's influence in the world was

still considerable. The Empire provided not

just essential supplies. It also provided a supply of men

for the armed forces. A very powerful story. One case and

really opening up a world of a cross-section of what the Empire

contributed. What was that Commonwealth contribution? I think

you have to question whether or not the British Army could have been

here, could have held 20% of the Western Front in 1916 if it hadn't

been for the contribution that had already taken place, the Indians

coming here in 1914. Britain was an empire and that empire was drawn in

manpower in support in money, in logistics, to these fields in France

and Belgium. In some ways there is almost no division between the

British contribution and the imperial contribution. The majority

of the Canadian soldiers had been born in Britain. Those connections

were very, very deep. Is there a sense in which that contribution has

been underplayed over the years or not? I think historians haven't done

probably the job we should have in making sure we remember this was a

war of empires, when Britain and France fought in these fields that

was, Germany faced two empires. Germany was terrified about this.

It's interesting the Germans in 1914, their biggest worry as the war

was breaking out is if the British and French get into this, they're

going to join them, the Armies from the Empire are going to come. They

see it as a world war before we do. That's what they're scared of and

they had a reason to be scared, because the men from Canada, South

Africa, French soldiers fought and died in these fields and were

critical. The Newfoundland story you tell us there, tell us more about

the way those men considered their sense of duty, given they were

living in a different part of the world, their bond, if you like and

how they saw the bond with the United Kingdom? I think people in

colonies like Australia and South Africa and Canada, they saw the

Empire differently to people who had been recently drawn into the Empire

in West Africa. A lot had family in Britain. Some had been born in

Britain. Empire was imagined differently. There was an idea it

was a community of nations and that they had a duty together and if

Britain was at war, we were at war. That's difficult for us to

understand these days. But that sense of the Empire being connected

was very strong back then. Also, let's not forget these are young men

and there is a certain sense this is going to be the great adventure of

the world and that this part of France in the summer of 1916 is the

most important place in the world and they want to be here. We forget

people wanted to be out. It's important to underline. When we look

at the kind of support network of the Empire, it's important to

realise that we are not just talking in terms of manpower, we are talking

in terms of all kinds of supplies. Well, the connections, the

connections that had built the Empire were put to use when the war

starts. When men moved from the Merchant Navy to the Royal Navy or

they joined the Army to come here, other men from other parts of the

Empire, often Africans or Indians, take their place. There is a huge

logistical supply network that's global. The copper used to forge

many of the shells and cartridges fired comes from the Congo. It's a

global war of empires, we must never forget that. David, it's a pleasure

to talk to you. Thank you very much. There will be thousands of guests

gathering here in Thiepval today - ranging from heads of government

and members of the royal family to military leaders and descendants

of those who took part. And some of those descendants have

come from all over the world. Let's join Dan again.

The finest dressed men on the premises here.

Tell us where you are from. Bermuda. That's the national formal dress?

Yes, an adaptation of a British military dress for the warm weather.

Turned into the business attire down there. It's brave, it's chilly here

but hopefully the rain stays off. What's your connection with the

battle here? My great-great uncle came as part of the Bermuda

contingent. They were spread out along, and did their part in the war

100 years ago. It's an honour to be here as a descendant. You are

currently a serving soldier Yes, it's poignant really to bring the

past into the present and carry it forward into the future. Alex,

what's your connection? My uncle was a soldier in the Royal

Bircher regiment, he passed away on the August 18 1916. It's an honour

to be here. Why do you guys go to the trouble to go here today? I was

coming to the UK anyway. I heard back home they were looking for

descendants. A relative of mine passed away earlier this year and I

looked at a family tree and saw a connection, and the last the day

they were looking for nominations. It was quite lucky. Alex, why are

you here? The governor had reached out to me and I knew Paolo from

Bermuda. I was living in London, so it made sense for me to be here.

More of the visitors in Thiepval al today, the great monument dedicated

in 1932, dominating the landscape here in northern France. As Dan Snow

was explaining, it stands on the spot of one of the most terrible

conflicts in the history of the British Armed Forces, and indeed in

the history of armed conflict worldwide. The Archbishop of

Canterbury Justin Welby has just arrived. One of 10,000 people

invited today. Representatives of different faiths, First Minister

Nicola Sturgeon, joined by Welsh counterpart Carwyn Jones, and the

First Minister of Northern Ireland, Arlene Foster, who will represent

their parts of the UK. Later, David Cameron will be here as Prime

Minister of the UK, joined by the Prince of Wales and Prince William

and other members of the Royal family.

By September 1916 - just two months after the start of the battle -

There was no progress being made, and the British troops

These days we often talk of 'disruptive technologies'

when we come across developments which can transform forms

brought its share of disruptive technology to the battlefield.

As an artillery man in the Guards Division,

we moved to the Somme about August 22 1916.

There had been battles backwards and forwards.

We'd lost a lot of men, and we hadn't gained as much

We're stuck with this whole machine-gun business,

as we can't make any advance without being pretty well murdered.

Going over the top, and the sooner you get over there,

Sometime about September, early September, one

of the fellas came dashing up, he said, "Oh, this is it.

We went down the roadway, and there were some tanks.

We came back buoyed up - "Oh, this is it.

Get a few of these lads over, and we're going to be

On September the 15th, two tanks were given orders

We'd volunteered for the job, and we had a go.

We saw the tanks beginning to lumber, and they came up one

behind the other, and of course, the first lot went sailing over

the trenches, and we thought, if they can get through the third

line defences, we can put the cavalry through, and the whole

And our starboard guns were trained on about 400 bewildered Germans

who were burrowing down like rabbits, seeking cover

And Corporal Sanders said, "Where to, sir?"

But I had in my path about 2000 dead British and German.

An attempt to clear any British dead man from our path

was impossible because of the shelling.

I climbed back in the tank, and we ploughed over the lot.

The searing experiences of a century ago. Really difficult to put that in

the context of today. We are here in the heart of the glorious

countryside of northern France, trying to imagine what the situation

was here for all those men 100 years ago. Heather and David are with me

now. It's worth pointing out that when the battle of the Somme started

you had elements of old forms of warfare, not least cavalry, and then

we had the tank, these two things came together, one gave way to the

other. Exactly, the war of cavalry and U-boats and poison gas, but it

was a point where military technology leaps ahead of military

strategy and tactics. Nobody had any idea how to break the deadlock. The

British, French and German, all the major powers on the Western front,

launching attacks in 1916 that were in their own ways disastrous. It's a

modern version of a siege. It's much easier to defend technology than

attack. People looking at how to gain the offensive. The first day of

the Somme was an example of that. The British trying to combine

artillery at certain times. That changes as the battle goes on and in

September they turn to the tank is a way of possibly breaking the

deadlock. Caterpillar tracks could go over the barbed wire that

couldn't be removed on the first day of the Somme. We realise the

infrastructure needed to support this. It's a remarkable thing,

entire city built with supply lines for the numbers of men involved.

Indeed, temporarily railway tracks laid down to bring men to the front.

You have a whole range of tumbling systems underneath the battle

ground. The first day of the psalm you had the explosion of mines.

Massive concrete German defences along the ridge where we are

sitting, that protected them from the terrible bombardment of the

British forces. It's a very long front with guns spread too thin

along it, one of the reasons they don't succeed at the start of the

battle. Lots of attempts to try to innovate and protect men better, and

try to regain the offensive. If somebody was to ask what was the

lesson learned in military and strategic terms in the four months

of the Battle of the Somme, what would it be? I think the British,

French and Germans all took different lessons from what happened

in these fields. But it was a awful and tragic stepping stone. The

answer to the stalemate on the Western front was in one piece of --

wasn't one piece of technology. It was a lesson learned over many

years. I think the lesson was coalition warfare. The French

achieved their objectives. They had learned attritional war and had

learned better tactics on the battlefield. The French hadn't

learned that from their allies. By the end of the Battle of the Somme

there was a better ability to exchange information.

Let's join my colleague Sonali Shah with her guest

I'm with Jack Wardle who has just laid a wreath at the Barnsley

memorial. I see from your jacket that you are from a military jacket.

What's your link to the Barnsley Pals? My grandfather and his two

brothers worked in the colliery and joint in 1914, Lord Kitchener's

army. They served in Egypt, and then on the first day of the Somme, they

were in the battle for sea air. Your family was involved in the creating

of the memorial here. For years we came to the trenches to page B to

the Barnsley Pals. There was never a blow or real, just a piece of wood

on the tree. -- never a memorial. My father wanted a proper memorial and

got the ball rolling. He spoke to several foundations including

Barnsley town hall. After a few years we got permission to do the

top of the memorial stone and bring it down. We brought it down in 1998.

Today we saw a ceremony that was very moving. It was very moving

here, and I was very honoured to be here. Thank you for speaking to us

on such a significant day for your family. We really appreciate it.

This week is the first time I have been visiting the battlefields of

the Somme. What has struck me is how peaceful it is here. Now the

ceremonies have finished, the commemorations, the overwhelming

sound is birdsong. Coming here reminds you of the lives not lived

and the people left behind 100 years ago. The women who lost their sons

and husbands, and all the children who had to grow up without fathers.

The giant Thiepval Memorial bears the names of more than 72,000

British and South African missing servicemen - those with no known

They fell in the fields that surround us today, and their names

are carved into the panels of the memorial - designed

by Sir Edwin Lutyens and consecrated in 1932.

It's built on a high ridge and can be seen for miles around.

Kitty Morter lost her husband on the Somme.

Very big and fair and he was all that a young woman would wish to see

and we made our minds up that we would get married

and we was very, very happy because we was very much in love.

He thought the world of me and I thought the world of him.

And I was terribly upset and I said I didn't want him to go and be

a soldier because I didn't want to lose him.

He said, there has to be men to go and fight for the women.

Then he had to go overseas and I never saw him

In the meantime, I was fully working at Noblett's leather works.

Later on, I was getting ready to go to work,

there was such a big knocking on the door

and this voice shouted, open the door, the Gerries are here!

And in he came, you know, all mucky and what have

And he only got six days leave, so he didn't have very long.

He says, now, Kitty, what would you like for a present?

And I says, do you know, I've seen a beautiful hat

I said, I would like it, but it was such a terrible dear hat,

it was 19 and 11p and he said, well, come on.

So, he bought it me, I took him to the works

and they all shook hands with him and how pleased and proud I was.

I went back to work afterwards and then I found out that

And I worked there till I was seven months.

On the Monday morning, I heard the postman come.

I ran down in my nightdress and opened the door and snatched

the letter off the postman and it was from his Sergeant and it

just said, Dear Mrs Morter, I'm very sorry to tell

Well, that was as far as I could read.

You see, I couldn't read anything else.

I don't remember the baby being born and I felt I didn't want to live.

I'd no wish to live at all because the world had come to an end

then for me, because I'd lost all that I've loved.

Here we are on the morning of the 1st of July 2016. 100 years after

the start of the Battle of the Somme in 1916. The congregation for the

service, a big audience for the event itself, which will take place

shortly. There we have the First Minister of Scotland having an

animated conversation. We have other government guests here today.

Lots of them watching the big screens. There is the First Minister

of Wales ex-to Jeremy Corbyn. They're watching the Imperial War

Museum film from 196. It's a remarkable archive, remshgable

treasure. They're seeing that to give them a little bit of the

context of the day. So they can reflect on that when the

event happens and the poetry and music and presentations that will

take place. Military leaders here. Heads of Government, heads of state.

Indeed we are expecting the President of the French Republic,

former President of Germany, David Cameron will be here, the Prince of

Wales, the Duke of Cambridge. And unmistakable from the Royal

Hospital in Chelsea, we have a contingent of Chelsea Pensioners and

it's very good to see them here, as well.

500 of the guests here today are descendants of those who fought.

There are regimental representatives. There are

representatives from across the UK, from across France and indeed

countries of the former British Empire and today's Commonwealth.

Lots of hard work has gone into preparing for today's event to make

it a proper and appropriate reflection and tribute to those who

fought on the Somme. A round of applause for the Chelsea

Pensioners, which is always guaranteed.

Some 8,000 members of the public have been invited.

6,000 of them, roughly, tickets allocated to British citizens and

that was via a public ballot. There was high demand for the tickets, as

you can imagine. 500 Irish citizens and the President

of the Irish Republic will be here today.

And there are hundreds of French citizens too. I have to say, the

welcome of French people in the Somme has been magnificent in the

last few days. They want this event to be an

appropriate and dignified event. They value the fact that people come

here in their hundreds of thousands every year.

To show their respect to the hundreds of thousands of people who

died in this battle 100 years ago. So what we have now is a remounting

of the vigil that was taking place overnight.

It ended this morning at Zero Hour when those whistles blew in the

trenches 100 years ago and the men were sent over the top.

The formal overnight vigil ended at that time. What we have now is a

remounting of that vigil before the commemorative event starts. This

involves military representatives of seven nations. With close links to

the Battle of the Somme, British, French, German, Irish, Australian,

New Zealand and Canadian. Bow heads!

A moment of silence at Thiepval. There we see the glorious vista of

the countryside of Picardy on either side of this memorial.

This is a great powerful statement in this part of northern France,

dominating the skyline. A statement to anyone who comes

within miles and sees this great monument, to the missing of the

Somme, 72,000 of them named on the monument but representing, of

course, many more who lost their lives or were badly injured in that

battle. There will and guard of honour too,

mounted very soon by the Irish Guards and we will also be seeing

the Band of the Welsh Guards who will be taking part in the

commemoration itself. So, the vigil has been remounted. Shirley and

Heather are back with me. It's worth at this moment reflecting on the

impact of the Somme on what was going on at home. The impact on

communities at home. We talked earlier about the fact that the news

took days to come through. But my goodness, when people realised the

full scale of what was happening, that must have had a huge

psychological effect on morale at home? I think village after village

was hollowed out by the effect of removing all their young men. In

particular, in some parts of the countryside you really got the

desert that came instead, old people and young people looking forward to

nothing expect the effects of bereavement for years to come. One

of relatives committed suicide because he couldn't stand the loss

of his son. Testimony weighed on him long after the war had ended and

that happened to many people, not just shellshock but the effects of

loss, huge effects of loss. Also in many cities an example of that we

saw was South Shields where a whole industrial area emptied into a

regiment that was then slaughtered. You are right, you got a very patchy

different effect but in some places it was like an endless parching of

emotion and feeling that lasted for a very long time. It was very moving

listening to the widow who was working in the factory describing

the sequence of events that led to her finding out that - and she was

pregnant at the time, that her husband had been killed. But she

represents many hundreds of thousands of people who suffered

similar losses. Absolutely. Across Germany and the United Kingdom and

all of Europe really at the time there are women experiencing this,

getting news either from someone who served with their loved one or by

letter or telegram to say that the person is dead. The shock of that

letter arriving is very, very clear. Also the sense of masculine duty,

this honour culture that existed in Edwardian Britain. Men felt they had

to go to fight. That's been contested in 1916 because it's the

year of the introduction of conscription. An attempt to share

that burden of grief across the whole of the country. So, I think

really she really explains many themes of what happened here and

what happened in the war generally. One thing also that was mentioned

clearly there is the memorial to the missing. One of the reasons why this

battle and many battles were devastating is nobody actually knew

where the missing were. Families lived on in hope that perhaps their

loved one was one of the lucky ones who was a prisoner. Perhaps they had

suffered terrible shellshock want was still alive somewhere. For years

they couldn't accept the death because they couldn't see the body.

This memorial had a clear function to give people a site to go to, to

mourn those whose bodies were never found. There was another effect

which has been written about much less and that was summed up by my

mother. She wrote a poem, there were thousands upon thousands of young

women given the attitudes and strict sexual behaviour at the time, who

knew they would never marry, they would never have children. They were

in a sense cast to the margins and that was something we never talk

about. But it was a huge additional loss that was felt. She says in that

poem, who will give me my children? It's a powerful image of women left

wondering about their futures and class divisions came into play too.

People were restricted in the pool of people they could marry in these

cultures. So, it was very difficult for many of these women to find

their own way into the future and some had to become more independent

as a result. It's yet another dimension when we think of the

concept of loss. It's another powerful dimension. It's losing your

future. Of course. . We are nearing the time when this

event will start. It's a good moment to join Dan again.

The atmosphere here is very special. It's very unusual. Usually when we

go and commentate on these events there are veterans surviving, but

here there are no veterans and yet there is a huge bond. Everyone here,

nearly everyone here, seems to have a personal connection with this

battle. Perhaps someone who fought. There is a strong feeling that our

lives, our lives have been affected by the people who fought in this

battle. They continue to exert and influence on us even from beyond the

grave. Whether it's our great-grandfather and the way that

he raised his children. I have been talking and exchanging stories with

so many people here. Lots of them know about my personal story which

is my great-grandfather was a General here just up the line. Many

of the men whose names on there are there because of the decisions made

by my great-grandfather. By the same token my other great-grandfather was

a doctor who served in this region and my great-grandmother was a

nurse. We got the band coming in now. I think the ceremony is about

to begin. That's a wonderful sight. That's the

band of the Welsh Guards led by the Senior Director of Music of the

household Division. They'll be providing lots of the music today.

There we have the guard of honour provided by number one company 1st

Battalion Irish Guards, captain of the guard of honour is Major Sprke.

They're the ones responsible for this very smart display today.

We have been watching lots of preparation for the last couple of

days and they are taking great pride in representing the Household

Division at this event today. The Guard of skaf honour making its

way led by the Welsh Guards. Let's have a conversation before the

event gets under way and it will be getting under way quite soon. David

is back with me and Heather and Richard is here too.

A thought about the experience that these men went through over the 141

days of the battle. How they sustained themselves. In the

conditions, maybe you can say something about the conditions,

Richard, and how they managed to keep going, those who weren't

injured or indeed some who were injured and managed to keep going.

In your many, many conversations with veterans, over 200 of them,

what did they say? Well, on one level it was the comradeship. You

were there, you were there with your friends. You had to keep going.

There was no other option. There was nothing else you could do. You kept

faith with the people around you. I thought about a man today and it

came back to me, he went over the top in July at a place not far from

here, Highwood and the battalion suffered horrendous casualties, the

first roll call I think there were 26 men. He came out of that

uninjured and, my God, I have survived, I got through! Having

survived something like that and then he said it hit him like a

spade, oh my God, I have to do this again. This wasn't a one-off. I am

not going home now. I continue and I continue until I am killed or

wounded. That took a terrible toll psychologically on the men here. But

they had no choice. They just had to continue. Even the injured, part of

the med calm services job was to patch you up and send you out again.

-- medical. If the injury took you to a regional hospital you could be

back out here. Psychologically it was hard to recover from that. Men

had to adapt and every veteran I have spoken to, not as many as

Richard, they talk about a process of becoming a different person, of

being hardened, accepting things that two years ago they wouldn't

have dreamed of being able to tolerate. But they adapted. A

thought about the way the battle progressed. We talked about

stalemate and deadlock earlier. As we look into November, what were the

circumstances in which the battle ended? Well, it ended in a morasse.

A lot of people say it could have been called off in October.

Certainly, the final fighting just over the ridge there on 13th

November, that was a battle delayed from October. Simply because the

weather was atrocious. The issue really for the British Army is how

do you resupply these men? How do you - six miles now of absolutely

horrendous soup effectively to get ammunition, to get water across. It

is terrible. In the end, the weather simply forces it closed down.

Obviously the Germans take the lesson they should carry out a

strategic retreat after the Somme. In the spring of the following year

they retreat back to lines easier to defend. Different lessons about how

the men are going to endure. The Germans must protect it better. The

British lesson is to train men better. You see by September in the

Battle of the Somme better training, the troops, many Irish troops have

better training on model battlefields before they're sent to

the actual terrain where they're going to fight. A greater sense that

you need to know the ground which was one of the big errors of July.

We talked about the battle coming to an end, the territorial gain was

very modest, it's fair to say. It's measured in miles. The idea of the

breakthrough, this idea that behind the lines it's open country. The

cavalry will come through, that's a fantasy. Britain and France learn

that's a fantasy here in 1916. Thank you all very much.

Nothing is more powerful than the experience of listening

to the testimony of those who lived through the First World War - those

who left behind thousands of friends and comrades who lie buried

in countless cemeteries, and others whose names are carved

So as we approach the commemorative service - let's pause to listen

Mud in the trenches, mud in front of the trenches,

Every shell hole was a sea of filthy, oozing mud.

Company Sergeant Major Dick Thomas, he was an old rugby international

forward, and he was a big, huge man, lying down in front of me.

And he got up on his knees, and went down - killed like that.

After the Germans had stopped shelling a little while,

we heard one of their big ones coming over.

Next, I found myself face downwards in the mud.

He tried to lift me up, and I said to him, "Don't

A friend and I were on fire step duty, and he said,

"Well, I'll take one last look," and he put his head

He was shot straight through the forehead.

And his body fell into the bottom of the trench.

That was emotionally a shock for me, but it was one I had to survive.

The next thing, I found myself sinking down in the mud,

and this time, I didn't worry about the mud.

It seemed like a protective blanket covering me,

and I thought to myself, "Well, if this is death,

The next day, we had to collect the pay books of our dead.

As you rolled each man over, to get at his breast pocket,

of course, you could see why he was dead, how he'd been killed.

All the horror of war was in front of us there.

I mean, we were all in the same boat together.

So good to hear those voices as we approach this commemorative event

here at the Thiepval memorial for the centenary of the Battle of the

Somme. Shirley WIlliams, I know you have prepared a message for French

people, because you have been telling me frequently over the last

24 hours it's important to recognise the French contribution. Of course

we are here to pay tribute to all the British lives lost, and all the

people injured, but there is a great French contribution we need to

recognise. You have done it in French. I will allow you to do it in

French I will then attempt my own translation.

I will attempt a translation. We are here in front of this great monument

to pay tribute not only to the many thousands of British and

Commonwealth soldiers who were killed and wounded, but also to

honour the courage and bravery of the people of France, who endured

such a great suffering. But they also earned a great victory. I pray

and hope Europe will follow the path of peace and cooperation that we

have enjoyed, benefited from, for the past 60 years. Lots of people

listening will appreciate that message. Why is it so important to

pay tribute to the French contribution? I think this was the

point at which France in a sense through the line for civilisation.

Although there was another world war that came after, again involving the

French, what happened at the beginning of the period of peace

between the two world wars, there was the realisation that if Europe

was to survive and prosper, and also provide a future for its children,

we had to learn the lessons of the wars and one of those major lessons

was that it should but happen again. Heather, your perspective? I agreed.

In the 1920s there is no real sense of impetus for European

reconciliation, it does fail, but it leads to other things after 1945.

You see the French and German sides aware of the need for

reconciliation. There is a sense of needing to rebuild a better world,

and this kind of carnage should never happen again. The battlefield

behind me was a sight of immense human suffering and the skeletons

are still sometimes dug up. In the 20s people were aware this was an

appalling outcome of international relations and Europe needed to

reconcile and move forward in a different direction. Can we say with

confidence that the Battle of the Somme, which started in 1916, was it

a turning point? By November of that year, could we say that we

recognised it was a turning point or not? If by turning point you mean

victory, a signal that we had learned a lot during the Battle of

the sun, and those lessons were carried forward ultimately to

victory, and it was a sign the Germans were not going to be able to

resupply and bring forward new recruits in a way that was going to

keep them in the war. So it was a turning point, but a very gradual

turning point. We still had significant battles afterwards,

before eventually in 1918 we had victory. It's the building blocks of

success that we begin to get here, but it's still a long way off. It's

the double whammy of the Battle of the Somme and Verdun that laid the

foundation for the victory. This was the of introduction of steel helmets

in these armies. It's a different understanding of warfare from 1914,

the different kind of war, the lunar landscape, that's where the Somme

and Verdun bring us to, and ultimately German can't win because

it doesn't have the manpower. We also learned that the transformation

of a country and continent takes a long time and we are still in the

process of that transformation. But we have come a long way since 1918,

thank God. I think all those who asked relatives and friends and

lovers in the Somme can be proud of that. -- all those who lost. In

terms of the resonance of the Somme, thinking about what happened 100

years ago. We can focus on the centenary and it's what we can

understand, but do you feel that in the years that followed after this

centenary, as it becomes ever more distant, the Somme will lose some of

that resonance? I'm not saying I want that to happen, but do you fear

it? Inevitably the process of the passing of time begins to fade the

colours and memories. To some extent I think we are looking at a new

generation that only just remembers the Somme, and remembers it from

books and films and not personal relations to grandparents. What we

have to therefore remind ourselves of again, by looking at what

happened at the Somme, were the colossal consequences, terrible

losses and Aretha and, and now deciding to do something different.

I think we are on the way to doing that. A message that lots of people

will be applauding. We can have a look at the memorial itself and see

what's happening. We have some of the elite French troops. Back with

the band of the Welsh Guards. They are entertaining the crowd before

the main, principal guests arrive. The musical duty has been shared

between the Welsh Guards and the band of the French army. They have

been hard at work in the last few days as well. I would go suck faster

say there has been an edge of competition between the two bands.

-- I would go so far as to say. They are keeping an eye on each other

very sharply. They are taking turns to perform, and they are at the

approach road to the memorial where we expect to see the president of

the Republic arriving. Francois Hollande. The president of the Irish

Republic, Michael D Higgins. David Cameron, Prime Minister of the

United Kingdom. The Prince of Wales and the Duke and Duchess of

Cambridge. Prince Harry will be here as well. They will be gathering near

the spot where the bands are. The national anthems will be played, the

United Kingdom and France, and then they will take their places among

the crowd of thousands of people when the commemoratives event will

take place. It's a clever and moving event of poetry and reading some

performances, artistic performances. All of them will reflect the events

of 100 years ago. There are lots of words in their taken from letters

and poems written by those who took part. A round of applause for the

Welsh Guards. And they are ready for the French military band.

The Army band plays on while the president of the French Republic,

Francois Hollande, arrives at Thiepval.

Wearing his poppy, and the cornflour, the French version of the

poppy. They have the collection every year, just as we have the

poppy collections as well. The president wearing both today is a

simple of this joint French and British event. The band of the Welsh

Guards are starting to play again now.

Vice-admiral there on behalf of the War Graves Commission greeting the

President. Part of the British delegation.

The head of the French armed forces. What's going to happen is the heads

of Government and heads of state will gather at this point. They will

wait there until all of the principal guests are here. Then the

anthems will be played before they take their places in the crowd

that's gathered here. They've been here by the way for a few hours,

they've been waiting patiently for at least three hours at this point.

President Hollande, who is facing an election contest in the not too

distant future. He has been in power for four years virtually.

All the signs are that will be a very competitive contest in France.

Here we have part of the British presence here in Thiepval. We have

the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry.

Looking forward to the event. They were here last night. They were

taking part in the vigil. It was started late last night and went on

overnight, no fewer than 28 changes or rotations in that vigil which was

started here at Thiepval and ended at Zero Hour, 7. 30am this morning,

French time. The Duke of Cambridge, who gave a reading at that vigil

service. Quite a short service, 20 minutes or so, but it was solemn and

moving. Earlier, they enjoyed a bit of a guided tour of the site itself,

with our previous guest here, Dr Glyn of the Commonwealth War Graves

Commission who took them to the top of the memorial. There we have David

Cameron, the Prime Minister, being greeted by President Hollande.

It's difficult not to reflect at this point that it's one of the last

events David Cameron will attend as UK Prime Minister, this kind of

commemorative state event, given the events of the last week or so.

David Cameron saw President Hollande at the summit in Brussels earlier

this week. They had plenty to talk about.

So, we are waiting now for the arrival of the former President of

Germany, we are not expecting Chancellor Merkel today. We have a

serving Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, we have a serving President

of France, but we have a former President of Germany attending, who

will be arriving shortly. Then we have after the arrivals we will have

the Irish President joining us too. The Duchess of Cambridge there,

interesting to point out that three of her great uncles were killed in

the First World War, including one who was killed on 16th July 1916 at

the Battle of the Somme, he was 24. Indeed, her great-grandfather

supported front line troops as a driver at the Somme. So, there are

all kinds of connections really today for us to reflect on.

Prince Henry and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge greeting the

former President of Germany. The former President here

representing his nation, and we think of the half a million German

casualties suffered during the Battle of the Somme. And that famous

quote from a German field officer who described the Somme as the muddy

grave of the German field Army. Sir Tim Lawrence there chatting to

the Prime Minister. And the Duke of Cambridge. We are

now waiting for the arrival of Michael D Higgins, the President of

the Irish Republic. We think of the thousands of Irish

lives lost too in the Battle of the Somme.

As we expect Michael D Higgins to join us, he is arriving now,

Heather, maybe a thought from you on what President Higgins' presence

here today is signifying. I think it's very significant. The first

official state commemoration of the Battle of the Somme in the Republic

of Ireland took place in 2006. It's incredibly recent that people have

started to talk about the memory of Irish soldiers who served in the

British Army in the First World War in the Republic of Ireland.

Obviously, there's always been a strong Ulster memory and every year

a pilgrimage in a way here by those who lost relatives from the North.

It has been less cross-community and recently it's become something

that's shared by all Irish people looking at our common history in a

complex and rich way. Two Irish divisions, 36th Ulster Division,

16th Irish Division serving, as well as Irish battalions serving in other

divisions, so a strong presence. Myingle D Higgins -- Michael D

Higgins being greeted there by the other guests invited today,

representing organisations, including the Commonwealth War

Graves Commission, and other nations throughout Europe.

So we have a growing gathering of heads of Government and heads of

state and members of the Royal Family.

I think we are now expecting the Prince of Wales to arrive and the

Duchess of Cornwall and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester too. :

A busy time for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. They opened a memorial

to the visiting centre. They viewed the Somme tapestry which is there.

They have been meeting British and French school children, as well. By

the way, there will be 600 school children taking part in today's

event. 300 French school children and 300 British. All across the UK,

all parts of France. They will be appearing a little later taking

their places in the cemetery, which is the other side of the memorial,

the cemetery divided, on the left, French graves. The children will be

laying flowers at each crosses and gravestones in that cemetery itself.

It's a very beautiful tranquil site. The cross of remembrance dominating

the scene there. There we have, as we look at this shot, we have the

French graves on the right and the British graves on the left.

The gravestones for the British and crosses for the French. The children

will line throughout the rows of stones and crosses, they will line

every junction and they will lay flowers at each of these crosses and

stones. We will be waiting for the arrival

of the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall and Duke and Duchess of

Gloucester. Later on today the Prince of Wales will be attending a

ceremony to mark the centenary of the Battle of the Somme at the

Ulster memorial tower, and that's not far away. It's half a mile away,

maybe. Not much more than that. It's visible from another part of the

site here at Thiepval. They'll be attending there. Again, Heather,

underlining the Ulster contribution, I am using the world Ulster, it's

part of the regimental tradition. Very managed to achieve the aim of

getting in and that monument represents their destruction and

sacrifice they made. It's important for people in Northern Ireland,

particularly from the unionist tradition where they really see

themselves as part of that legacy of that sacrifice. The tower memorial

here is a model of the tower back in Northern Ireland, it's a link to

home for those who come here to remember those dead.

I mentioned there were 300,000 visitors in a nrmal year, Richard.

-- normal. That number has grown in recent years and that reflects the

fact there is a sharper focus, I suppose. A growing interest in what

happened in the Great War. Absolutely. I have been coming here

since 1985 and I have just seen the numbers of people here grow and grow

and grow. It just reflects the fascination that the British people

have had for their relatives, for those last veterans we have seen on

TV in the last 20 years. It's wonderful really. So many of them

are school children too. It's so important that schools bring their

classes out here to see and to really get a feel for the Somme and

what happened here. Whether it will continue to grow after that 100th

anniversary, I don't know, but it's been fantastic and wonderful to see

for the last 100 years. Sorry, for the last 20 years I should say. It's

not surprising, Shirley, because as I know with my own children, the

curriculum often has been changed, and that also has in one case I know

has focussed sharply on the events of the First World War, to do with

Lloyd George and his munitions drive and then to do with political and

military mistakes that were made but there is a lot of interest in that

period. That's true. There is also a tremendously rich artistic heritage.

One looks at the war poets from Owens and Sassoon, they're

remarkable contributions to literature. On top of that, and one

has to say a contribution to French and German literature, as well. Then

things like that marvellous war requiem capturing in an

extraordinary way suffering and sorrow and desperation of that First

World War. We have such a legacy in literature, particularly from the

Somme. We have the poetry of Robert Graves and Sassoon. They were both

here on the Somme and their books are absolutely fantastic. But there

is so much more. There is Other books that are lesser known. But are

just superb pieces of literature. It's really helped to focus people's

memories on the Somme, perhaps more than any other battle. I mentioned

Lloyd George and the political context, let's not forget that we

had a Prime Minister who lost a son, Asquith. We think of other prominent

people who lost loved ones, but remarkable when we think that a

Prime Minister, the impact of that in terms of public consciousness

must have been pretty significant. It's very striking compared to some

of the experiences of wars like the Vietnam war. The so-called elite

lost their children just as much as the ordinary men and women who

volunteered from Newcastle to Bristol. I think that's very

important. It creates a sense of togetherness, of being in it

together. It was very, very special. Indeed, statistically officers were

more likely to die and more likely to die in a shorter space of time on

the Western scant front because they had to lead, they were visible.

Trench warfare became about because it protected you from the artillery.

Once you went over the top you didn't have that shelter and

officers were particularly vulnerable to that. I have always

been fascinated by the fact that people think of the Generals sending

up lads to their death and politicians, well, what do they

care? They were so intimately involved in the Battle of the Somme,

so many of those people all lost children and nephews and because of

intermarriage of that social group too, one person's son was another

politician's nephew. There was a huge loss amongst those people who

knew exactly what the decisions they were making would cause.

And much made of it by the more serious newspapers of the time,

quite long obituaries of the young men and women who were born of the

famous people. Asquith's Sun is buried close by to Asquith's nephew.

We would love to have a microphone in this conversation, Jeremy Corbyn

chatting with Carwyn Jones, the First Minister of Wales. I doubt

they are discussing Labour business. Carwyn Jones might be telling him

the fate of some of the poor Welsh volunteers. Interesting, I don't

want to drift into a party political discussion, but it's a very

turbulent time. Jeremy Corbyn determined to be here today. And to

his credit, yes. I think we can mention politicians died here as

well, Irish party MP Tom Mike Kettle died here in September in the Battle

of the Somme. Looking at the carpet of flowers, a tranquil and beautiful

spot dominated by this imposing memorial. I think it's worth telling

viewers, especially those who have just joined us, that they are

looking at this Thiepval Memorial and this gloriously rural scene, but

100 years ago, on this very spot... It was the key point of the German

defence on the Somme. It was a veritable fortress. The fact that a

couple of hundred yards down the hill we exited the wood and

attempted to take this, but on the 1st of July, we didn't get here

until the 26th of September, showing you how important this was. If we

had taken it on the 1st of July, we could have unlocked the whole German

defence, but we couldn't. There is a plaque in a chapel in the town of

Thiepval saying the living close the eyes of the dead, the dead open the

eyes of the living. In that way, the Somme is a wake-up call for the

living. The Prince of Wales arriving at Thiepval. The main event. Within

a few minutes. The Duchess of Cornwall being greeted by Michael D

Higgins, and Sir Timothy Laurence. The Duchess of Cornwall, we were

talking about links with the Somme, and her family suffered the loss of

three brothers, who would have been her great uncle is in the First

World War. One of those was serving with the

Coldstream Guards, leading men over the top, mentioned in dispatches.

The Duchess of Cornwall was here ten years ago attending the 2006

commemoration, the 90th commemoration of the battle. A

return visit for her. The heads of state and government,

members of the Royal family, making their way towards the Thiepval

Memorial for this commemoratives event on the centenary of the first

day of the Battle of the Somme. The national anthems of France and the

United Kingdom will be played, and then this event will begin. A series

of readings, musical performances, the BBC Symphony Orchestra is also

here. They will play their part in the event itself.

Guard of honour, Royal Salute. Present arms.

MUSIC... God Save The Queen. MUSIC... La Marseillaise.

The French Army band and the band of the Welsh Guards, they have played

the national anthems and we await the arrival of the King's Troop

Royal Artillery. They will fire the initial salvo that will mark the

start of the ceremonial event at Thiepval. A stronger wind, the

French and British national flags snapping in the breeze above the

memorial itself. The gun detachment of the King's

Troop is on the way. And they are a great site, led by Captain Nick

Watson, the parade commander. Guard of honour, general salute, present

arms. The commanding officer, Warrant

Officer class one Grantham. The Prince of Wales and the

president of the French republic taking the salute as the King's

Troop makes its way towards the memorial and will position itself

the other side near the cemetery. The guns will be fired to start the

event itself. Earlier today we saw the King's

Troop firing rounds in Parliament Square. Colleagues in Thiepval

preparing to take a prominent role in today's event. Captain Nicholas

Watson leading the Troop. He will give the orders.

The royal party and other guests making their way to their seats. The

Duke and Duchess of Gloucester have just arrived.

The Prince of Wales and President Hollande walking side-by-side. A

guard of honour, the Irish Guards on their way.

The guns are 13 lbs quickfire guns, which entered service in 1904. The

guns on parade were used in the First World War. One of the King's

Troop guns today was believed to have been used in the Battle of the

Somme. Taking their position near the

cross, the two French guns already in place on the left-hand side of

the cross. The guns are from the 40th Field Artillery Regiment. That

Regiment participated in many campaigns of the First World War,

including the Somme. You're in the war that Regiment won five

citations. The French guns in place. The King's Troop now leading their

guns into position. Each gun weighing 1.5 tonnes, the

total weight with the limber, 54 feet long, the entire unit. And the

guns are in effect the colours of the Regiment.

Looking across the rolling countryside, the view from the

memorial itself. The King's Troop and French troops

in position. They will fire all four guns in unison to mark the start of

this event. The guard of honour, the Irish

Guards, they have taken their position in front of the memorial

itself. They have been joined by the elite Academy, the French equivalent

of Sandhurst. In their very distinctive uniforms. They will

provide the other guard of honour. Stand by!

Fire! Quick march!

So the vigil has ended near the Stone of Remembrance.

The guns have been fired and the commemorative event for the

centenary of the Battle of the Somme is about to begin.

For four and a half months in 1916, the fields around us saw one

of the defining events of the 20th century.

The Battle of the Somme was one of the most significant battles

of the First World War, yet it did not bring

about an end to the war, as the Allies had hoped.

On 24 June 1916, in an attempt to destroy German defences

here on the Somme, British and French guns began the largest

Henry Holdstock of the Sixth Squadron,

Royal Naval Air Service, wrote:

On the eve of the battle, the night before they were to go

over at dawn the next morning, the combined armament

up through the earth, through your limbs,

You were all of a tremor, just by artillery fire only.

Not so much from the crashing of the shells, as the gunfire from

the rear, all concentrating in one wild blast of gunfire.

The whole ground trembled, and you felt sorry for anyone

within half a mile of wherever they were piling it.

The Germans waited out the terrifying bombardment

A delay of two days for rain increased the tension amongst those

Among those preparing to attack uphill not far

from here at Thiepval Wood was the 36th Ulster Division,

including the 21-year-old Billy McFadzean.

Private Billy McFadzean grew up in Belfast and joined

the Belfast Young Citizens' Battalion.

He became an expert grenadier, or 'bomber' as they were known.

At 06.45 on the 1 July 1916, he was at Thiepval Wood

As he was preparing for the attack, an ammunition box turned over

and spilled two live grenades, primed to explode.

He was killed at once, but his action saved the lives

In a letter to Billy's parents, his commanding officer described it

as one of the finest deeds of a war that is so full of big things.

Billy was awarded the highest award for gallantry, the Victoria Cross.

Private Donald Cameron was with the 12th Battalion,

York and Lancaster Regiment, from Sheffield, attacking

They lay down about a hundred yards in front of our own barbed wire.

Then the second wave went over, and lay down about 30

During this time, there was high explosives,

shrapnel, everything you can imagine, coming over.

It was soul destroying, but I wasn't frightened:

I was impatient, I wanted to get moving.

like ninepins on either side, we bent double, and in the end

After a while, three of us, and Sergeant Gallimore,

I used to go to church when I was a lad, but I prayed more

in that shell-hole than I ever prayed in church."

By the summer of 1916, the British Army's ranks had been

They came from every walk of life: coal mines,

building sites, offices, factories and farms.

In France, they were joined by men from every corner

Some of those who attacked on 1st July belonged to 'Pals' Battalions,

drawn from the same workplace, social club or community.

They had enlisted together, trained together, and now

For many, the Somme was their first taste of battle.

# They were summoned from the hillside.

# And the country found them ready At the stirring call for men.

# Let no tears add to their hardships.

# And although your heart is breaking.

# While your hearts are yearning, # Though your lads are far away

# Through the sacred call of "Friend."

# Though your lads are far away they dream of home.

#Turn the dark cloud inside out 'Till the boys come home.

At dusk on 1 July, as roll calls were taken, the gravity

of the losses became clearer, but only later did the full scale

of the British Army's casualties emerge: nearly 60,000 casualties;

of these, nearly one third were dead or would die from their wounds.

It was the greatest loss of life in a single day

Yet there was no question of calling off the battle.

The scale of the casualties required unprecedented medical care.

Alongside the devoted staff of the Royal Army Medical Corps

were thousands of nurses, women of all ages and backgrounds.

One volunteer nurse present from the start of the battle

was a schoolteacher called Olive Dent.

On and on we worked, forgetful of time and remembering our own meal

Whatever our hand found to do on that memorable day and the four

following days we did with all our might.

Laughter, tears, immense satisfaction and pleasure,

immeasurable pain and disappointment were commingled that day.

Today's stories of the fighting, told to us red-hot from the lips

of the boys who lived them, those stories and the many little

incidents we have all witnessed, have shown us that while war may be

a great wastage, it is also a great purifier.

It has brought out valour indescribable,

patience and magnificent endurance untellable.

I am too tired to sleep, too tired to do anything but lie

and look up at the wooden roof of the hut, too tired to do anything

and mind the passionate appeal of two dying eyes and the low faint

whisper of, "Sister, am I going to die?"

In early July, the 38th Welsh Division took Mametz Wood,

No tree in the wood was left unbroken.

Other British forces then took Bazentin Ridge, in a

But soon the battle became a struggle of attrition,

with fierce fighting for every village, farm,

As the weeks turned into months both sides were reluctant to pull back

During an assault on Delville Wood, the 17th Battalion of

the Middlesex Regiment, known as the Footballers' Battalion,

One member of the Footballers' Battalion was William

Jonas, who played for Clapton Orient, now called Leyton Orient.

He was a popular player, receiving 50 fan letters a week.

His fellow player Sergeant Major Richard McFadden wrote to the Club

to inform them of his fate at Delville Wood.

"I, Richard McFadden sadly report the death of my friend and Orient

colleague William Jonas on the morning of Thursday