BBC - Western Front (1999) Part 4 Commanding The Front
For most British people, the First World War was the Western Front, the trench line stretching from the Swiss Frontier to the North Sea. It was there that the majority of nearly nine million British and Dominion soldiers who enlisted during the war served, and where most of the 947,000 who were killed met their deaths. This detailed series covers everything from how the front was created and the experiences of the British Army in France, how the First World War was fought in trenches, forts and bunkers to the battle of Verdun and the last hundred days of the war. Professor Richard Holmes, the military historian, skilfully clarifies the complexities of the Western Front, highlighting the political, military and human dilemmas of this the most bitter and bloody of wars.
Part 4: Commanding the Front
Richard Holmes discusses the Battle of the Somme, which took place in northern France in 1916 and saw 60,000 British soldiers killed or wounded in a single day.