07:30 1st July 1916
…I, that on my familiar hill
Saw with uncomprehending eyes
A hundred of Thy sunsets spill
Their fresh and sanguine sacrifice,
Ere the sun swings his noonday sword
Must say good-bye to all of this;-
By all delights that I shall miss,
Help me to die, O Lord.
(The last poem of William Noel Hodgson, written just before the Battle of the Somme.)
At 07:30 the Battle of the Somme began, and on the first day British suffered 57,420 casualties, including 19,240 dead – the second bloodiest day in the history of the British Army to this day (after Towton).
Lest We Forget
Their God rest each and every one of them ..
Though, one cannot help but wonder what the “flower” of a generation would make of the Country today, the one in whose name they made the ultimate sacrifice ?
It would have been a very different place if they had lived, that’s for sure.
Lost times, missing virtue.