Railway Hollow, Serre

Railway Hollow Cemetery, Serre, on the Somme battlefield, N. France - with a

storm brewing. The cross on the far right is one of two French graves here.

After a lifetime of watching documentaries and reading books on WW1, I

thought I was reasonably hardened to the facts and to the astonishing waste

of human life. Hundreds of thousands of volunteers (initially) and then

conscripted troops slugged it out for four years in a despairing, disgusting,

badly-led and politically-motivated stand-off; four years of attrition and slaughter

in trench systems where millions died because of the feckless, ill-conceived and

often idiotic planning by the General Staff and betrayal by politicians and

industrialists with their own agendas at home. Followed by a peace treaty at

Versailles that virtually guaranteed another war with Germany.

But I cracked up when 'Nimrod' came up on the car radio outside Ploegsteert

Wood Military Cemetery, having spent days visiting these beautifully preserved

sites, and after several 'Last Posts' at the Menin Gate in Ypres. Taking carefully

composed pictures felt like an intrusion, so this is one of only four pictures that

I took on that long weekend on the Somme. One of the most heart-breaking

things is how much better the men are looked after now, in their graves, than

they ever were at home in their short lifetimes by our ever-callous

governments.

Railway Hollow Cemetery, Serre, on the Somme battlefield, N. France - with a storm brewing.

The cross on the far right is one of two French graves here.

After a lifetime of watching documentaries and reading books on WW1, I thought I was

reasonably hardened to the facts and to the astonishing waste of human life. Hundreds of

thousands of volunteers (initially) and then conscripted troops slugged it out for four years in a

despairing, disgusting, badly-led and politically-motivated stand-off; four years of attrition and

slaughter in trench systems where millions died because of the feckless, ill-conceived and often

idiotic planning by the General Staff and betrayal by politicians and industrialists with their own

agendas at home. Followed by a peace treaty at Versailles that virtually guaranteed another

war with Germany.

But I cracked up when 'Nimrod' came up on the car radio outside Ploegsteert Wood Military

Cemetery, having spent days visiting these beautifully preserved sites, and after several 'Last

Posts' at the Menin Gate in Ypres. Taking carefully composed pictures felt like an intrusion, so

this is one of only four pictures that I took on that long weekend on the Somme. One of the

most heart-breaking things is how much better the men are looked after now, in their graves,

than they ever were at home in their short lifetimes by our ever-callous governments.