|
|
|
|
|
|
© Stéphane Compoint
|
|
Battle of the Somme: British Thiepval Memorial. Towering 45 meters high, it is the largest British war memorial in the world: 72,205 names of soldiers dead are carved in stone of its pillars. It was built between 1929 and 1932 by Edwin Lutyens, the greatest British architect of his time. On 1 July 1916, at 7:28 am, this is the start of the Battle of the Somme and the beginning of a terrible carnage : 58,000 men killed or wounded in a single day. Four months later, the result is terrible: 1200000 men were put out of action, ifor a total of 3000000. It was the British, with about 420,000 dead, wounded, missing and prisoners on the only sector of the Somme, who pay the heaviest tribe to slaughter : 1st July 1916 was the worst day of their entire military history. There are 410 British cemeteries in the Somme.
|
|
|
|
|
