A Trip to the Somme Battlefields

Members of the cast of “Oh What a Lovely War” travelled to the Somme battlefields during the half-term break.

The Somme has, over the past century, become a byword for futility. It is widely regarded, in Britain at least, as a uniquely terrible slaughterhouse. Almost 20,000 British troops lost their lives on 1 July 1916 – the opening day of Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig’s “big push” against German forces – in what remains the bloodiest day in the history of the British Army. By the time the battle had ground to a halt 141 days later in November, Britain had suffered an estimated 420,000 casualties (killed, wounded and missing).

Tracing the frontline, pupils visited British and German war graves and explored the trenches where, at 7.30 am, men from the Fourth Army went “over the top” following a seven-day barrage. At Thiepval Memorial, the show’s musical director, Sam Hall, Old Roffensian and former Cathedral Chorister, laid a wreath to commemorate Harold Albert Brand, a member of Rochester Cathedral Choir, and one of 68 King’s pupils killed in the “Great War”, while scenes from the production were poignantly recreated at the Schwaben Redoubt and the Newfoundland Memorial Park.

At the grave of Captain Nevill, who gifted his men four footballs to kick across no-man’s land in what was billed as the “East Surreys v Bavarians: the First European Cup”, the group listened silently to a reading of Sassoon’s poem, “Suicide in the Trenches” before singing “Keep the Home Fires Burning” as the February sun set below the horizon.

The visit offered an informative and moving insight into the experiences of the ordinary Tommy, which will provide new layers for those participating in Joan Littlewood’s ground-breaking musical drama later this term.