This morning Twitter’s been busy and I’ve picked out a few highlights amongst the tweets I’ve received.

Via a retweet from Peter Doyle, I came across Professor Frank McDonough’s recommendation (@FXMC1957) of the 1976 BBC documentary, The Battle of the Somme.

Most evocative image to reach me, so far,  was Paul Reed’s Poppies on the Somme, (@sommecourt) with its solitary surviving poppy.

I found the selection of words from the actual participants in a few tweets from  @GreatWarRugby moving.  These stood out for me:

“an old film that flickered violently…everybody in a desperate hurry…the air full of black rain”

“…small bodies of men simply disappeared…”

“I remember feeling there was not enough air to breathe…”

“…some of them stopped and fell down slowly…”

To think that this was the day which was reported in an evening dispatch thus: “The day went well for England and France”.