The Battle Of The Somme

Friday the 18th November marked the 100th anniversary of the ending of the Battle of the Somme. It was a battle that lasted months and would become one of the most famous in the years to come. Over the last few months, A Wartime Life has been reflected on what each day was like in our The Somme News series. On the last post of this series, I published how great the news was but in reality, for the soldiers on the front, it was probably just another day - after all, the war was still raging and would carry on for another two years. 

From The Somme News series, you would have seen what really happened on the Somme battlefield and will be able to make your own mind up about whether it was a success or a failure. You will probably be able to see why so many men were lost or devastatingly injured and will now know that the Battle of the Somme was not a battle going forward, but one filled with gaining land as well as retreating with a lot of stalemate in between. 

But what makes the Battle of the Somme so special and such a turning point in history is the release of The Somme film in the Autumn of 1916. It was designed to be a propaganda piece but it ended up being so much more. For the first time ever, news reels shown in the cinema showed real fighting and death. It made people understand what killed in action really meant - it wasn't dying in your sleep peacefully. Instead it was usually dying of wounds, in pain and all alone. 

In fact, The Somme film was so popular that within just six weeks of the film being released, 20 million people had been to see it. For the first time, women on the home front were able to get an idea of what their menfolk were going through and what wartime was like on a battlefield far away. For one woman, she would get more than she bargined for when, at the cinema watching the film, she saw a clip of her husband on a stretcher. The horrors of war were there for all on the home front to see and I would imagine it really proved itself as a propaganda piece. It showed fathers, husbands, sons, brothers, all in the thick of it and of course the families at home, watching the film would be looking at the faces shown, to see if it was one of their loved ones. 

The Somme film gave the home front a reason to continue doing their bit and not to complain, because it was nothing compared to what the brave soldiers on the front were enduring. I believe this to be a turning point in the war, because it gave the people of Britain the strength and drive to carry on and eventually the energy to win the war. It gave those, who maybe weren't as of yet, doing anything to help win the war, a reason to do so. Whether it be something as simple as knit socks for soldiers or something more, it all helped.