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The brutal horror of the Battle of the Somme is unveiled in colourised photos released ahead of the 106th anniversary of World War One, with July 1st marking the start of the battle. The battle was one of the most bloody of World War One which saw such figures as JRR Tolkien, British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, Otto Frank - the father of Anne Frank - and Adolf Hitler fight in the battle. Over three million men fought in the battle which saw over a million killed or injured, scarring the earth in one of the deadliest battles in human...

Attention John Durham, reference Stephen Somma “Carter Page alleged in a lawsuit filed last week that an FBI counterintelligence agent used an alias during interviews with him in 2017. A retired FBI official who has worked in undercover operations says that an agent using an alias in that situation would be highly unusual. Page said in the lawsuit that Stephen Somma, a veteran counterintelligence agent, introduced himself as Steve Holt during their interviews. An inspector general’s report criticized Somma’s actions during the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane probe. (Snip) According to Page, veteran FBI counterintelligence agent Stephen Somma introduced himself as Steve...

Incredible colourised photos from the Battle of the Somme have provided a glimpse into the brave sacrifice of British and Commonwealth troops ahead of tomorrow's 105th anniversary of the start of the horrific carnage. In one picture, a German prisoner assisted wounded British solders as they made their way to a dressing station after they fought on Bazentin Ridge on July 19, 1916. Another image showed Australian gunners who stripped off in the summer heat, serving a 9.2 howitzer during the Battle of Pozières which took place during the Battle of the Somme. The torrential rain of October 1916 which...

An extraordinary collection of patriotic First World War recruitment posters have been unearthed after 100 years stashed under the stairs of a pensioner's Brighton home. In total, 10 morale-boosting posters were found - all of which belonged to an elderly former airport worker now in her 90s. The haul was discovered as part of a house clearance. The colourful posters had been stashed under the stairs of the woman's house for many decades One carries a powerful image of a soldier stood in France reaching out his hand to a fellow Brit in civilian costume, urging him to 'come lad,...

More than a million men were killed or wounded on all sides at the Somme. The Battle of the Somme, one of WW1's bloodiest, was fought in northern France and lasted five months, with the British suffering almost 60,000 casualties on the first day alone... This was followed by the hymn Abide With Me... "It was in many ways the saddest day in the long story of our nation."

IN the summer of 1916, a young Oxford academic embarked for France as a second lieutenant in the British Expeditionary Force. The Great War, as World War I was known, was only half-done, but already its industrial carnage had no parallel in European history. “Junior officers were being killed off, a dozen a minute,” recalled J. R. R. Tolkien. “Parting from my wife,” he wrote, doubting that he would survive the trenches, “was like a death.”

A massive artillery bombardment on the morning of February 21st 1916 signalled the start of the German attack on Verdun, the longest single battle of the First World War. More than 1,200 guns opened fire before German troops began their assault on fortifications of major symbolic inportance to France. Even by the standards of the Great War, the Battle of Verdun was a particularly brutal campaign of attrition, fuelled by the determination of both sides not to give way as the struggle wore on. The battle was to last 300 days, almost until Christmas, on a narrow front stretching no...

'A 13-year-old boy who ran away to join up fought on the front line in the First World War until his mother sent his birth certificate to the War Office and pleaded that he should be sent home. Sidney Lewis, who has been recognised as Britain's youngest soldier to serve in the Great War, enlisted with the East Surrey Regiment in August 1915, five months after his 12th birthday, and was fighting on the Somme by the age of 13. But within weeks he was ordered home to his mother, Fanny Lewis, in Tooting, south London, after she told officials...

The unearthing of the extremely rare statue in Northern France has been given the rather grand title of 'Lady of Villers-Carbonnel' and is thought to be connected to a cult who worshipped a specific fertility goddess. Immaculately preserved the 8 inch statue was made from local earth or clay and closely resembles figurines found across the Mediterranean. Earth mother: With a curvacious figure the discovery of the statue found in the ruins of a kiln in Northern France shows how far the essence of beauty has come in the last 6,000 years It is unusual for a find to found...

The oldest survivor of the First World War, Henry Allingham, is celebrating his 113th birthday with a party organised by the Royal Navy. The veteran soldier also holds the record as the last survivor of the Battle of Jutland, the last surviving member of the Royal Naval Air Service and the last surviving founding member of the Royal Air Force.

Henry Allingham, who was born in London on 6 June 1896, is also the last surviving original member of the Royal Air Force - formed 90 years ago... Now partially deaf and almost blind, Mr Allingham, who was born in Clapham, London, now lives at St Dunstan's home for blind ex-servicemen, in Ovingdean. His life has spanned six monarchs and has taken in 21 prime ministers. Mr Allingham is the last survivor of the Battle of Jutland in 1916, and also fought at the Somme and Ypres where he was bombed and shelled. He joined the Royal Air Force when...

From a military guy: Dear Jonah,The favorite indoor outdoor sport of public intellectuals these days is of course the historical analogy. Iran is the new Germany and this is 1938. Bin Ladin is the new Saladin and this the 12th Century or whatever. A new one dawned on me yesterday. I am currently reading a book called Through German Eyes: The English on the Somme. The author has gone back and read German unit histories and intelligence reports and tried to write a history of the battle as the German’s saw it. What emerges is the whole myth of an...

LONDON -- You might think London a curious locale from which to celebrate July 4th, or Independence Day as we say. But the city abounds with British citizens who admire our country. I spent the evening of July 4th in the vast and glorious edifice that is the English-Speaking Union, observing the 90th anniversary of one of the bloodiest battles of all time and certainly of World War I, the Battle of the Somme. "July 4th," one of the assembled Brits remarked, "it is the 230th anniversary of one of your happiest moments. Tonight we are observing one of our...

LONDON - A crude wooden sign carries an uneven scrawled epitaph: "He died as he lived. Brave and fearless, a true British hero." In 1916, British soldiers erected the simple tribute to a singular British hero in the French town of Becordel-Becourt to mark the grave of artillery officer Alan Lloyd, one of 125,000 soldiers from Britain and the Commonwealth killed during one of the most vicious conflicts of World War I. British war veterans were gathering near that memorial for the 90th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme on Saturday. The Battle of the Somme raged across northern...

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. (CP) - Canada will send a delegation to France this summer to commemorate one of the bloodiest battles of the First World War. Veteran Affairs Minister Greg Thompson says Ottawa will send a group of veterans, youth and government officials to northern France to honour the 90th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme. The battle was one of the most devastating in Newfoundland's history. On July 1, 1916, 801 Newfoundlanders went into battle bear the French towns of Beaumont and Hamel. Only 68 entered roll call the next day. The delegation will take part in ceremonies...