Remembering the Somme

Photograph: Nitya Kanoria/PA

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/01/somme-centenary-commemorations-silence-fitting-memorial-uk-france

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/30/the-guardian-view-on-the-somme-centenary-rest-in-peace

Men dressed as First World War soldiers handed out cards on the 100th anniversary of the Somme on July 1st. Each card had the name of a soldier that died. 

What's happening in the picture?

Why are the people dressed in those clothes?

explain the story

At 7:30 on 1st July 1916, British soldiers began an assault on German lines in Northern France. Within an hour there were 30,000 British casualties and by the end of the day the total had risen to 57,470 with 19,240 dead. The battle, along a 20 mile stretch of the river Somme in France, lasted for four months. At the end there were 420,000 British casualties, 200,000 French casualties and 500,000 German casualties.

The Somme is today remembered as a symbol of the human cost of war.

- Why are we remembering the battle of the Somme 100 years later?

- why are people handing out cards with names on?

- look at the picture; what do you notice about the soldiers? Is everyone of the same ethnicity? (More than 4 million men and women volunteered from British colonies in WW1    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/nov/10/first-world-war-colonial-soldiers-racism)

- Who fought in World War 1? Did different countries fight together as allies?

- What did Europe learn from two world wars?

The following is an extract from The Guardian editorial 30/06/16:

"The peace in Europe, which was appallingly hard won in the years through to 1945, is our shared inheritance. We were part of Europe then. We are still part of Europe now. We shall always be part of Europe. Its peace and ours are one and the same."

- what does this writer mean by "It's peace and ours are one and the same"? 

- There are people in living in different countries around Europe today with different ethnicities, speaking different languages, following different faiths, and with different customs and cultures. Can we get along with people who are different? 

- What do we say in our school about being different? How does our belief in No Outsiders make sure peace continues.