The Somme valley is a beautiful region but it has carved its place into modern history by the statistics of a slaughter that will forever be associated with it: over 1,000,000 casualties in the fighting between July and November 1916, with 57,470 British casualties on the first day of the battle alone. 19,240 of these men died. The toll was relentless.
Many battalions were composed of men recruited from the same town or village. The idea was that this bound them together; it made for good morale. It also made for the devastation of local populations. Of the 720 men of the ‘Accrington Pals’ who went into battle on the 1st July 1916, 584 became casualties. In this centenary year of the Battle of the Somme, death like this is inconceivable. But it remains with us, as do the deaths from all those conflicts since. And so we remember.
Death in war is sacrifice. The huge wars of the last century and many conflicts since have been fought by people who have died or been damaged for the benefit of other people. This includes people of other nations and races. In sacrifice, lives are joined. Whether out of a conflict that compels men and women to act as they must, or out of sympathy that urges them to act in unison for the benefit of others, sacrifice shows that we live and die together.
‘Who is my neighbour?’ Jesus was asked and his answer knew no limit. We are not separate. Geographical or political boundaries put no boundary on how connected we are to one another. Whilst sacrifice of life remains the ultimate act by one person for another, living in sympathy and kindness with others is a remembrance that can mark the heartbreak of war with the possibility of peace.
Benjamin Myers