Day after day, Ball records casualties and reports of rain and knee-deep mud. A rumor has it that his outfit will be pulled out of the Ypres Salient and sent south to the Somme. “This will be an eventful happening,” says Ball, “as Canadians stood their ground in this place and have held it since.” The Battle of the Somme was horrifically bloody. On the first day, July 1, 1916, British generals launched a series of assaults into withering German artillery and machine-gun fire. British troops fell by the thousands. By the time the day was over, more than 57,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers were killed, wounded, or missing. The battle would continue, sporadically, until November 18. By then, Germany had suffered 500,000 casualties; France, 200,000; and Britain, 420,000. Of the British casualties, 27,000 were Canadians; 23,000 Australians; 7,400 New Zealanders; and 3,000 South Africans. A German officer, Friedrich Steinbrecher, wrote, “Somme. The whole history of the world cannot contain a more ghastly word.”
Grad a coffee and read the whole thing.