During the 1916 Battle of the Somme – the British Army sustained 60,000 casualties in 20 minutes along a 10 mile front! These are tso6 drawings made by my youngest daughter – Kai-Lin – representing the Poppy Field through which the working-class ‘Volunteer’ Regimets of the British Army advanced on that fateful day! As the British High Brass did not ‘trust’ the workers to maintain discipline under fire – the regiments were ordered to form-up as if marching on a Parade – and with brass bands playing – slowly ‘walk’ toward the enemy trenches! Anyone caught ‘running’ or unecessarily ‘rushing’ had their name taken-down by responsible NCOs.
German accounts talk of their astonishment on this day! German soldiers could not believe what they were seeing as these columns of British soldiers – with rifles shouldered – marched calmly toward the German trenches, stepping through the poppy flowers as they went! Initially, many German machine-gunners refused to open-fire on such an obvious target – but were forced to do so by their Officers! The result was an absolute massacre! However, the British High Command accused these working-class regiments of cowardice – and pushed more and more men into the area for the next three-months! In some places the bodies lay stacked in 12-foot piles – and it was these natural barriers that the newly arrived British soldiers had to climb. Many advanced over the shattered bodies of their fathers, uncles, sons and brothers.
SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR) 