Yesterday was the 94th anniversary of the start of the Battle of the Somme, the most terrible and costly battle in British military history: 20,000 British soldiers were killed on the first day - July 1, 1916 - and another 40,000 injured. By the time the battle ended, on November 18, British forces had lost almost 96,000 dead and 324,000 wounded. It was a high price to pay for nothing. There was no breakthrough of the German line.
"Idealism perished on the Somme," wrote A J P Taylor. "The enthusiastic volunteers were enthusiastic no longer. They had lost faith in their cause, in their leaders, in everything except loyalty to their fighting comrades. The war ceased to have purpose. It went on for its own sake, a contest in endurance."
