The Battle of the Somme: 1 July 1916

It's 7:28 BST (British Summer Time).  100 years ago it was two minute to zero hour, and the mines beneath the trenches of the German 2nd Army were detonated.  Two minutes later the British 3rd and 4th Armies along with the French 6th Army went "over the top".  It was the worst day in the history of the British Army.  The British 4th Army suffered 57,470 casualties that day, of which 19,240 were killed.  When the battle ended over four months later, the Allies has lost 623,907 men of which 146,431 were killed or missing. had taken.  The Central Powers had taken around 465,000 casualties, of which 164,055 were killed or missing.  Those number are mind boggling, all for a few miles of blasted land.  The British are observing two minutes of silence at 7:28 BST to honor all of those who were forever silenced on that day.

100th Anniversary of the Battle of Jutland

The Destruction of the British Battlecruiser HMS Invincible

100 years ago today, on May 31 1916,  The German High Seas Fleet attempted to destroy a portion of the British Grand Fleet by luring them into a trap.  The British turned the table on the trap, and what resulted was the largest Battleship engagement of the First World War, known to the British as the Battle of Jutland and to the Germans as the Skagerrakschlacht.  Despite being outnumbered, the German High Seas Fleet made a good accounting of itself, due in part to superior gunnery.  In the end, the British lost 14 ships and over 6,000 men, while the Germans lost 11 ship and over 2500 men.  The result was a strategic victory for the British, and the German High Seas Fleet spent most of the rest of the war in port acting as a fleet in being.  

The German Battlecruiser SMS Seydlitz in port after the battle

Today only one ship from that battle survives.  The British Light Cruiser HMS Caroline is docked in Belfast and is currently being restored for the 100th anniversary of the battle.

The HMS Caroline in Belfast

There is plenty of more information about the battle available in many other locations.  I just like ships.