[BartSimpson]

Lots of stories today about the centenary observations of this horrific battle.

I think this one is the best.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/ ... -uk-france

The best part...

$1:

Cameron read one of their stories, that of a nameless British soldier who had been caught, badly wounded, on the barbed wire of the enemy lines; one of his officers, Major Anderton, climbed into no man’s land, walked to the line and carried the man back without attracting a single German shot. “Even at the height of the battle,” said the prime minister, “there were still moments of humanity and mutual respect between enemies.”

[BartSimpson]

Images from the battle including some Canadians.

[Sunnyways]

It was a sort of General Grant/Stalin move where the numerically superior side just hoped to bleed the other out first. The technically superior side, Germany, hoped to kill so many more that its smaller numbers wouldn't run out. The Somme took the heat off the French at Verdun so there was a logic to it by the mad standards of the war. Verdun and the Somme were the Stalingrad moment where the Germans began to realise their better army was going to be slowly ground down.

Despite their ultimate success, the Allied powers all learnt an important lesson from the war - avoid fighting the German army as long as possible. The Germans learnt precisely the wrong lesson from their victory on the Eastern front and came a cropper in Russia a few decades later as a result.