Almost 100 years
ago, in April 1918, Allied and German troops stood down from the second Battle
of the Somme River.
On the ground, it
was a German “victory” that advanced their lines by almost 40 miles closer to
Paris.
In the big picture, the Germans not only shot their “Big Bertha” shells toward the French capital, they also shot their wad. American soldiers made their first entry in World War I, joining their French and British brothers in arms during the 15-day battle. The war ended in November of that year.
We don’t remember
the grisly roll call of casualties during WWI.
In this second
battle of the Somme, nearly 400,000 soldiers were killed or wounded in their
trenches and in no-man’s-land between the lines. About 100,000 men on both
sides were taken prisoner.
That amounts to more
than 33,000 casualties a day during the battle.
That’s too many dead
men. Too many Gold Star mothers.
Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2015
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