Members of the public are being invited to join a ballot for tickets to attend ceremonies marking the centenary of the Battle of the Somme in France next year.
The first day of fighting, on 1 July 1916, cost 60,000 British casualties, including 20,000 dead. After another 140 days the allies had lost more than 600,000 lives and gained just a few metres of mud.
The British attack was intended to be a swift and decisive break through the German lines, but it was so thoroughly signalled in advance that the Germans had plenty of time to dig in and arm themselves well, and the battle became a byword for bloody stalemate. The first British troops were ordered to walk slowly towards the German lines, and were mown down by machine-gun fire – which they had been assured had been destroyed by pre-battle shelling.
The ballot opened on Monday and will continue until 18 November, the date the battle finally ended. Thousands of pairs of free tickets will be given out to attend the commemorations, which will begin with a vigil at the memorial in Thiepval on the eve of the centenary, 30 June 2016, and continue daily until 18 November, with a major international ceremony on 1 July. The memorial, designed, like the Cenotaph in London by Sir Edwin Lutyens, bears the names of 72,000 men who died on the Somme and have no known grave.
The French secretary of state for veterans and remembrance, Jean-Marc Todeschini, said: “On 1 July 2016, France and the United Kingdom have an appointment with their history.”
There will also be events across Britain to mark the anniversary.
David Cameron said he hoped many would join in those events, or travel to the Somme: “The first world war, with that mixture of horror and courage, suffering and hope, has become a fundamental part of our national consciousness. Perhaps nothing brings home the sheer scale of the sacrifice and loss more starkly than the Somme, a battle where 20,000 were killed in a single day.”
The culture secretary, John Whittingdale, said he believed the Thiepval ceremony would be incredibly moving. He added: “But it’s not just about Thiepval – the events at the Battle of the Somme left a deep mark on the nation – almost everyone in the UK will have an ancestor who fought or died at the Somme. It’s important that everyone has the chance to remember and honour the sacrifices made both here and in France.”
