Saturday American History tv documents america story. On sunday, book tv brings you the latest on nonfiction books and authors. Funding for cspan two comes from these Television Companies and from more. And from broadband. Buckeye broadband, along with these Television Companies supports hes been to as a public service. Good afternoon. We had finished talking about the battle of ridden last wednesday. Which many people see as the epitome of the tragedy of the First World War however, verdun does not have the distinction, if you want to use that term, of the bloodiest battle of the First World War. Instead, that distinction is at this place called the somme which occurred in the same here 1916 there was no strategic objective at the somme. Its a little river valley in northern france. The only reason the site was selected for this major offensive is, as you can see down here at the bottom, it is where the french lines in the british lines came together. The idea was both armies could at
we have to shining the barrel very done yesterday. which may let people epitomized the tragedy of the first world war however, verdun does not have the distinction, if you want to use that term, of the bloodiest battle of the first world war. instead, that distinction is at this place called the somme which occurred in the same here 1916 there was no strategic objective at the somme. it s a little river valley in northern france. the only reason the site was selected for this major offensive is, as you can see down here at the bottom, it is where the french lines in the british lines came together. the idea was both armies could attack together, break through the german lines into open country and have that cavalry charge that the generals were always talking about. many of the soldiers who would be fighting at the somme at least in the british army, were those the volunteers who had enlisted when they call to arms came in 1914. they had seen morticians or appeal to them. for