Pictures from World War 1

Hawthorn Ridge Mine Explosion

At 7.20 am on the 1st July 1916, ten minutes before zero hour, the huge mine that had been laboriously placed beneath the German redoubt at Beaumont Hamel was exploded, thereby warning the enemy that attack was imminent. Eight minutes later, the remaining eighteen mines were fired and the artillery increased their range to hammer the enemy support lines.

Over the top!  1st July 1916

At 7.30 am precisely, whistles blew all along the British front, and the first assault waves scrambled out of their trenches.

The Battle of the Somme had begun.

German heavy machine gun

German heavy machine-gun with its crew, waiting to go into action. It was these guns that caused such heavy losses during the initial assault.

The battlezone - Courcelette Oct 1916

General view of the battlefield. Bodies, and bits of bodies, lie in profusion across the desolate ground with, near the centre, what appears to be a pair of booted legs protruding upside down from a shell-hole or what was once a trench.

The battlefield - 1st July 1916

Muddy marvelous!

Thiepval memorial