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''The Somme – From Defeat to Victory'' is a 2006
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
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documentary film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...
made to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the
Battle of the Somme
The Battle of the Somme ( French: Bataille de la Somme), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place bet ...
.
Production
The film was produced in conjunction with the
Open University
The Open University (OU) is a British public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate students are based in the United Kingdom and principally study off- ...
and was intended to go beyond the standard histories that end with the British defeat at the end of the first day to demonstrate how the British learnt from their failures and developed radical new tactics that would help the allies to win the war. The film mixes dramatic re-enactments and archive footage augmented by readings from the diaries, letters and reports of the men involved.
Plot
The 16th (Service) Battalion (2nd Salford),
Lancashire Fusiliers
The Lancashire Fusiliers was a line infantry regiment of the British Army that saw distinguished service through many years and wars, including the Second Boer War, the First and Second World Wars, and had many different titles throughout its 28 ...
was one of the
Pals battalion
The Pals battalions of World War I were specially constituted battalions of the British Army comprising men who had enlisted together in local recruiting drives, with the promise that they would be able to serve alongside their friends, neighbour ...
s that had been created to allow friends and colleagues to fight side by side. On 21 June 1916, Cpl. Stephen Sharples quells the fears of Pte. Walter Fiddes and best friend L/Cpl. Thomas Mellor that the war would be over before they could see action with the announcement that their battalion would soon take part in the ''big push''. The three men were among the volunteers that had joined up in 1914 in response to
Lord Kitchener's call to make up the bulk of the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
. To relieve the French at
Verdun
Verdun (, , , ; official name before 1970 ''Verdun-sur-Meuse'') is a large city in the Meuse department in Grand Est, northeastern France. It is an arrondissement of the department.
Verdun is the biggest city in Meuse, although the capital ...
, an Anglo-French diversionary attack is to be launched at the
River Somme
The Somme ( , , ) is a river in Picardy, northern France.
The river is in length, from its source in the high ground of the former at Fonsomme near Saint-Quentin, to the Bay of the Somme, in the English Channel. It lies in the geological ...
. German divisional commander Gen. Baron Franz von Soden relies on the experience of veterans such as Cpl. Friedrich Hinkel against the biggest British military deployment in the war thus far. The British go over-the-top at on 1 July expecting little resistance after a 7 day's artillery bombardment of enemy positions but are met by machine-gun fire within minutes.
Cpl. Hinkel faces the
36th (Ulster) Division, which is quickly forced into retreat while away Capt. Thomas Tweed leads the 2nd Salford Pals' B-Company in an attack on the
Thiepval
Thiepval (; pcd, Tièbvo) is a commune in the Somme department in Hauts-de-France in northern France.
Thiepval is located north of Albert at the crossroads of the D73 and D151 and approximately northeast of Amiens.
Population
First World ...
Plateau that sees the death of Mellor. The Ulster division regroup to take the stronghold of the
Schwaben Redoubt
The Capture of Schwaben Redoubt () was a tactical incident in the Battle of the Somme, 1916 during the First World War. The redoubt was a German strong point long and wide, built in stages since 1915, near the village of Thiepval and overlooki ...
and Maj-Gen. Sir Edward Percival recommends committing the reserves to secure the position and take Thiepval from the north but corps commander Lt.-Gen. Sir
Thomas Morland
General Sir Thomas Lethbridge Napier Morland, (9 August 1865 – 21 May 1925) was a senior British Army officer during the First World War.
Early life
Born in Montreal, Canada East, Morland was the son of Thomas Morland and Helen Servante. Edu ...
rejects the new plan. With two-thirds of his company dead or wounded Tweed takes refuge for two hours behind a bank in no-man's land. Sharples disappears attempting to capture the enemy machine gun nest and Fiddis is wounded taking a message to battalion requesting withdrawal. Moorland, some from the front, follows the failure of the first and second attacks on Thiepval by sticking to the battle plan and ordering a third. The more adaptive German commanders retake the Redoubt rescuing Hinkel's position and forcing the Ulstermen into a bloody retreat.
The bloodiest day in British military history ends with and devastating communities like
Salford
Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...
but this was just the beginning of a battle that would last for four months. The British learn from their failures and over the following month they make steady gains along the front, by removing inflexible commanders like Morland and delegating to officers on the spot such as Brig-Gen. Herbert Shoubridge, who commands the 26 September attack on Thiepval spearheaded by Lt-Col.
Frank Maxwell V.C. The artillery fires the new ''
creeping barrage
In military usage, a barrage is massed sustained artillery fire (shelling) aimed at a series of points along a line. In addition to attacking any enemy in the kill zone, a barrage intends to suppress enemy movements and deny access across tha ...
'' with the 12th Battalion,
Middlesex Regiment
The Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge's Own) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 until 1966. The regiment was formed, as the Duke of Cambridge's Own (Middlesex Regiment), in 1881 as part of the Childers Re ...
following immediately behind, easily to overrun the first German trenches but failing to keep up; Maxwell's men comes under fire from Infantry Regiment 180. A slaughter is averted when British tanks arrive, forcing the terrified Germans into retreat only to be ditched and disabled a short time later.
Soden is distracted by an official visit from the Kaiser's adjutant Gen.
Hans von Plessen
Hans Georg Hermann von Plessen (26 November 1841 – 28 January 1929) was a Prussian Colonel General with the rank of Generalfeldmarschall and Canon of Brandenburg. He held the office of His Majesty's Orderly Adjutant General (german: SM diensttue ...
and when communication lines are cut he is rendered helpless. Meanwhile, the British Generals are kept up to date by reports from artillery observers and air observations, allowing them to order re-bombardment of enemy held positions. Maxwell moves forward with his men to set up a command post at the Thiepval Chateau from where he controls the attack. With the infantry rapidly running out of officers it is left to the initiative of men from the ranks like Pvt.
Frederick Edwards to secure a British victory. Plessen waits for six hours at Soden's HQ for news of the attack, by which time it is too late to order a counterattack and Thiepval is lost. The victory allows the British to secure all their objectives from 1 July and the French at Verdun are able to launch a counter-attack to push back the Germans. Thiepval is now the site of the
Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme
The Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme is a war memorial to 72,337 missing British and South African servicemen who died in the Battles of the Somme of the First World War between 1915 and 1918, with no known grave. It is near the ...
commemorating the the casualties with no known grave including Sharples, Mellor and Fiddes.
Cast
Media information
The film was released on Region 2 DVD by
BBC Video
2 Entertain (stylized as 2 , entertain) is a British video and music publisher founded in September 2004 by the merger of BBC Video and Video Collection International in 2004. Under CEO Richard Green, the company operated as a joint venture b ...
on 3 July 2006.
References
External links
''The Somme – From Defeat to Victory''at Open University
Battle of the Sommeat BBC History
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Somme - From Defeat To Victory, The
BBC television docudramas
2006 films
Documentary films about the Battle of the Somme
BBC television documentaries about history during the 20th Century
2000s British films