Episode 135: The Somme’s Northern Disaster

At 7.30am on the morning of 1st July 1916, whistles blew along a front stretching more than twenty miles. Tens of thousands of British soldiers climbed from their trenches and began walking towards the German lines. By nightfall nearly 20,000 of them would be dead. It remains the bloodiest day in British military history. But that catastrophe was not evenly spread across the battlefield. Some sectors were disasters.

Others achieved limited success. To understand what happened, we need to begin in the north, where the British offensive would suffer its greatest failures.

A Family History of the Somme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHGcFvlDUds

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- Guest: James Taub - Production: Linus Klaßen - Editing: Sander van Kammen

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