Tommy
Thanks to Andrew Stuttaford at NRO, have a look at this amazing story in the Independent Online about some motion pictures from the First World War:
Sheltering in a sunken road near the French village of Beaumont Hamel on 1 July 1916, Captain Edmond McNaghten “Pongo” Dawson believed the first British thrust during the Battle of the Somme would be swift and decisive.
The German lines had been subjected to heavy bombardment for an entire week, and the Allies had the advantage of vastly superior numbers.
As the order came just after dawn to send the troops over the top, Captain Dawson was captured on film ushering his men, of the 1st Lancashire Fusiliers, along the trench. As commander of the company, he was one of the first on to the parapet. A few seconds later, he was also one of the first to be cut down by German machine-gun fire.
For decades, historians have argued over the veracity of the film shot that morning, the first day of the Battle of the Somme. Certainly, some scenes were re-enacted and filmed for propaganda purposes. But now, using a series of new scientific techniques, analysts have proved for the first time that most of the images are genuine, enabling them to identify many of the combatants and trace their surviving relatives.
It’s things like this that make me revere History.
