We will remember them

At 7.30am on 1 July we attended a commemoration of the event which began what we know as the Battle of the Somme. It was held on the edge of Lochnagar Crater, which is a massive hole in the ground, caused by the British blowing up the German command post. However, their belief that this and other bombardment had knocked out most of the German artillery was incorrect. When the soldiers poured over the ridge, it was into heavy machine-gun fire, and 60,000 were killed on that first day.