Drone reveals Somme battlefields 100 years on - BBC News 

In 1974, I went with a few members of my regiment and some veterans of WWII to France. We went to places they fought, met people they liberated and visited the cemeteries. I too returned home a changed man.

you father was correct..bringing a drone is wholly inappropriate.

you should have brought the drone. You would have seen detail you can not see from the ground level. Outlines of shell holes trenches etc. You coulld have flown it at a level high enough where it would not have been heard. However if your parents paid for the trip, then you need to listen to them as you should always.

I went on a similar tour in 2015 and what really moved me the most was just how small No Man's Land was in some parts. Men fell in their tens of thousands for what amounted to basically nothing. In my town in England, there are public parks larger than that. My uncle has a back garden larger than that.

Lots of people do drone videos. Look up Steven Upton here on YT. He has a great WW1 battlefield drone channel. The videos help bring the battlefields to people like me. I'm in a wheelchair and will never be able to make the trip from Denver. Sorry Simon Floyd but you're wrong about this.

Unfortunately it has happened as recently as 40 years ago.

Absolutely nothing. The powerful were bored so they decided to have a glorious war and sent millions to die for "patriotism."

@@coolbreeze2.0-mortemadfasc13 Over simplified crap. Read a book. Julian Thompson, my commander in the Falklands wrote an excellent history on this subject.

for the "great empires" that fell - particularly the austro hungarian. look at modern nations today - really, nothing could have been done to avoid this??? absolutely tragic. those poor people

Just a month or two ago, I watched a video about "shell shock" in WW1 veterans, and it just made me want to cry. They showed footage of men who had pretty much lost their minds, and couldn't even walk normally, just spasmodically lurching around. It was so sad...

After seeing what they saw could you imagine how they would feel

Not sure what your point is? You have the ABC to point out your part on WW1. The BBC is a British company reporting on a British aspect.

You sound like you want to take away the honour of the British and french whom also fought and died in northern France along side the Australians and Canadians. please do some research and you will see many more British died than allied soldiers in northern France excluding the french - 57,470 British casualties on the first day of the Somme battle alone . Do you somehow feel that Australian honour is worth more than British and french? are you resentful?

@@MrLeighman actually the Canadians and Australians fought under the banner of Britain. But not to acknowledge that makes it sound like they weren't there. Of the 400k lost, nearly 50k were Canadian and Australian.

We still have some of your guys buried here in Nova Scotia from both world wars. It astounds me that they traveled half the world to defend an ally...only to be forgotten by their ally. The lack of gratitude surprises me.

@@rosestewart1606They haven’t been forgotten by their allies though. Why would you think they have?

Impressive images and music. Powerful video.

Some of the graves were dug during the war, the ones neatly lined up are from after.

The same can be asked about France and Germany also. As a Canadian, my country was changed profoundly by the loss of so many capable men.

Those men fought to save France & Belgium from German Rule & again in WW2 after Germany invaded Poland 17 million voted Leave to save UK from such Rule. Those who engage in 'Cultural Bullying' (Political Correctness) against Leave Voters are the lowest of the low - Backstabbers of Jeremy Corbyn & Borris Johnson to Uni union Cultural Bullies of the classroom

It was Nato that prevented these wars, The Eu rewriting history again i see. Oh and a load of British, US and others died for that peace.

You are ashamed we had a democratic vote as well?

dulls what about the Germans who died? They had more casualties you fuck.

I believe they were on the other side at the time? Or did that escape you? I am not even sure what your answer is about and why the swearing or do you lack the social skills needed to debate?

Don't you mean Brussels? There's an World of Difference between an Country & an Capital.

Nick Muscat You could say that however Britain entered WWI under the excuse of defending Belgium

Wtf did you just try to say?

What did they die for ?...They were promised to come home to a ''land fit for hero's'' after the war, yet within five years of the wars end thousands of brave men who survived the horrors of the Somme ect, stood and queued for hours on end for a bowl of soup. The thanks of a grateful nation.

Shanaye Hughes your goddam right

Agreed 100 percent. If you want to know the real history of anything stay away from American documentaries...and especially American textbooks. The Americans weren't even in the First World War until several years in.

Ralf Rath The British attacked Germany because Germany invaded Belgium, Luxembourg, France, and Poland. While the Russians were fighting the Austro-Hungarians.

Hello Doctor - you are wrong here - Poland did not exist in 1914! And Russia attacked Germany in the east and France attacke Germany in Elsacre. Only Britain could not attack Germany becasue Germany did not declare war on Britian or mobilsed any troops to attack Britain in 1914 - Clearly Britain was the agggressor!

Ralf Rath Oops, got the part about Poland wrong. However, the reason Britain attacked Germany was due to Germany attacking France and neutral Belgium. It was not an act of aggression, it was in the defense of France and Belgium.

But Docter - do you have forgotten that France and Russia had already encircled Germany in the prewar times - why? Defense of France? Fact is France had territorial claims in middle europe - Elsacre - so why defence France if France wanted war and encircled Germany with Russia in east and west??? Was Germany here the aggressor? I have doubts!

After Serbia attacked Austria-Hungary, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. The Russians, being allied with Serbia, kinda had to help. However, since the Austro-Hungarians were allied with Germany, Russia had to declare war on both. That's when the Germans thought it would be a good time to enact The Schlieffen Plan, which meant declaring war on Russia and France. However, France showed no signs of wanting to go to war with Germany, Germany didn't have a good reason to declare war on France. So, in order to declare war on France, they falsely claimed that France bombed Nuremberg. That's when they started marching towards France. But there was one problem, when they asked Belgium to let them pass through to get to France, Belgium refused. So Germany invaded neutral Belgium in order to get to France. That's what caused the British to give them an ultimatum, to which Germany refused. And so they declared war on Germany.

Correction, the United League of Nations (United Nations today) was created to establish peace and control across the world to fall into a globalisation of a government which is still weak and does not apply to every nation in the world. The European Union was created to establish easy and fair trade until it transitioned into a political group that would oppress some nations and ruin nationalism and that is why the U.K leavers left, since their pride was being trampled on. Good luck U.K.

+ anton leimbach Only 21 years between WW1 & WW2 but 30 years after war 2 that UK joined EU for Free Trade. It was called "The Common Market" a free trade zone. Not countries reduced to states, united by being subservient to costly Rule makers, but Countries trading without tariffs. NATO was established to be stronger militaraly. It was Churchill who refused to join The Common Market now EU when it was founded

Churchill was more interested in becoming a part of the USA actually old boy.

Churchill said "If it is a choice between Europe and the open sea, the open sea be it"

Paul Rillo Read my post again, stupid. I said "according to the Guardian." I'm one of them.

mea culpa

Paul Rillo Easily done. ;-)

Ralf Rath The (not so) funny thing is that in the Balkan wars of 1912/13 the destructive potential of new weapons like the machine gun was already revealed. Newspapers showed pictures of trenches and body piles. Both wars were only resolved after the Greater European powers (GB, France, Russia, Germany, A-H) stepped in and arranged peace conferences. But nobody learned any lesson.

Yes I agree. The modern warfare was already invented in the prewar 1914 times. Germany was encircled and so they only reaction was: they build up a new navy and the german army. But Kaiser Germany was peacefully they had no intrest in eurpean war but on the other side they did nothing to avoid war in europe. France wanted Esacre back and Russia expansion in the east was danger for peace too. Only Britain had other options but was already ally with France and Russia - and if Russia and France wanted war - so they had to go to war. What a disaster! Pointcare, Grey and the Russian Zar were the agressors in europe.

you invent the history: Germany was never "peacefully": was continuously an agressor of France between 1870 up to 1945 , the Kaiser was completly foolish, and had expansive politics size 1870, and France's president Pointcarré never "wanted war", but not forgott that germany had stole a large part of France (Alsace and Moselle) after the defeat of 1871 and this injury was allready open (the 1870-71 war was prompt by the manouvers of Bismark who was the real master of Germany, and Napoleon 3, was forced to a inevitable war declaration against the german empire...but the french army was not ready for this...

*Unsubscribed Worry about your own spelling, my friend. Theirs is correct. www.theguardian.com/world/live/2016/jul/01/battle-of-somme-centenary-commemorations-live

April Shattuck *you're

+Crouchy232323 *your

+Crouchy232323 "You're" is a contraction which shortens the two words "you" and "are" into one. "Your" is possessive. I'll use them each in a sentence: "*You're* going to have to finish *your* spelling homework before *you're* allowed to play with *your* toys." Understand?

+Crouchy232323 so to sum this up, you know nothing about world war one as complained about the BBC spelling a word wrong (which they didn't, Somme is a place in France), and then you went on and spelt subscribed wrong.

2moonsMaster........it wasn't nationalists that caused "these problems" it was internationalists, those who think they can run other peoples countries better than they can. A perfect example is Angela Merkel when she invited in millions of "refugees" into Germany without the consent of the German people. Then and now is seeking to force other countries in the EU to follow the same policy against their will. Their is your trouble makers.

I'm sure the folks in Iraq and Afghanistan see Tony Blair, David Cameron, Obama, Gordon Brown and George Bush the same way. I don't think we can blame Trump or Brexit for those.

Mr. Bozack........exactly, here's to the end of meddling in other peoples countries. Make respect not war.

+SuperLuckyLad was ein quatsch

All bitter and twisted are we because we no longer belong to the EUSSR? There are still plenty of other countries you can run to who are still slaves. I'm proud of my country for standing up to the malignant failed EUSSR.