What were you doing at 7.30 this morning

[7:29am]

7AM alarm rings

7:10AM drag myself out of bed.

7.20AM washed dressed and draining my coffee cup.

7.30AM on my way to work and in my mind listening to a distant roar, whistles blowing, the shouts cheers and cries of thousands of men and watching the lines going over the top the sun reflecting of their helmets as they march over French Fields.

9.30AM can't get the tack, tack, tack out of my head!

.. sorry to say not my turn to change history today!!!

[Jonathan Saunders]

Jim your sentiments are spot on but it has got me slightly worried because, and I might be wrong, but my thoughts were concentrated at 6:30 UK time this morning.

Whilst it doesnt really matter as it is the remembering that is important, did British summer time apply in 1916 and can anyone confirm whether the combined Allied attack was at British or European time?

Thanks.

[Landsturm]

At 7:30 (Finnish time) I was drawing (I didn`t sleep last night) a story for my war comicbook. I left to the city at 9:40 and when I got back (around 12) I put up a journal to my page in DeviantART;

"Today, 89 years ago, at 7.30 a.m British and French soldiers went over the top, as the battle of Somme begun, after eight-days of preliminary bombardment. Spare few minutes to remember and honor the victims -those who didn`t make it and those who survived- of this battle and the Great War. By the end of this date, British had suffered 58000 casualties, third of them dead.

As the battle closed in November 1916, only six miles of blood-soaked ground had been gained. British, French and German totalled casualties had reached into notorious 1,2 million men.

Lest we Forget..."

[John W]

Spent some time thinking about the casualties from the Leeds Rifles, they seem to get forgotten in the rush to remember the Leeds and Bradford Pals from the West Yorkshires.

JOhn

[bernardmcilwaine]

Spent some time thinking about the casualties from the Leeds Rifles, they seem to get forgotten in the rush to remember the Leeds and Bradford Pals from the West Yorkshires.

JOhn

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

not by me john,my g/father was west yorks/mgc,and he survived the war in body,it was his nighmares that killed him,heres a toast to all those that died,both sides,bernard

[Staffsyeoman]

Sorry for cross-posting.. didn't see this one before the 1 July 2005 thread.. Moderator feel free to delete that one!

Well, I was at the Cenotaph at 0730 this morning (from 0720, actually) and I did get some funny looks - particularly from the Richmond House denizens.. Why ? I wasn't strangely dressed, but I was the only person there...

[DirtyDick]

Asleep at 7-30am, rushed to get to work for 9am.

Did manage to get a few German prisoners en route, however. Most surprised: they claimed they were merely tourists. A likely story.

[bmac]

Jim your sentiments are spot on but it has got me slightly worried because, and I might be wrong, but my thoughts were concentrated at 6:30 UK time this morning. 

Whilst it doesnt really matter as it is the remembering that is important, did British summer time apply in 1916 and can anyone confirm whether the combined Allied attack was at British or European time?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

British time, as I understand it. German accounts are all an hour later, i.e. attack went in at at 0830 hrs.

[bmac]

Three years ago at 7.30 am I was sitting alone on the grass verge outside Gommecourt Cemetery No. 2. The mist was just burning off and the day promised to be hot and clear - just as in 1916. There was hardly any movement along the main road from Gommecourt to Bucquoy but, after a few minutes, a car with French number plates drove down the narrow sunken lane from Hebuterne, the lane that the 1/12th London Regt (Rangers) crossed in hope and re-crossed in defeat ninety six years before.

The car stopped a few yards past the cemetery and a middle aged man jumped out. He rattled off a few quick words in French to me and I shrugged my incomprehension. Smiling nonetheless, he searched in his pocket and produced a little lapel badge. The badge was in the shape of a cross. On it was written 'Hebuterne 1915'. He pressed the badge into my left hand, shook the right vigorously then jumped into his car and drove off at typical Gallic speed.

A magical moment I shall remember forever.

[Note: In June 1915, the French 2nd Army, attacking SE from Hebuterne towards Serre, lost 11,000 men in seven days heavy fighting. Nearly thirteen months later, the 56th London Division lost 4,300 men on 1st July in a diversionary attack NE from Hebuterne. The ghosts of the dead, and of their German counter-parts, haunt the rolling farmland still.

[marina]

It's thinking of the Somme at night that frets me - the men stuck out there, hurt and crying out. It's unbearable.

Marina

[CROONAERT]

Asleep at 7-30am, 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ditto. Snoring my head of at this unearthly hour (after only having been in bed for 3 hours at this point and having a long drive to do a few hours later).

It'll be different next year though, where I'll probably be stood in the Sheffield Memorial Park near Serre explaining what's what to a group of people who are to shoot off to Calais immediately afterwards, leaving me and "Shank's Pony" to make it southwards on our own!

Dave.

[john w.]

In the shower....

John