#Somme100: Soldiers emotionally pay tribute to fallen men of WW1’s bloodiest battle

This morning, commuters all over the country were stopped in their tacks by an extraordinary piece of performance art.

Battle of the Somme

by Hannah Mellin |
Published on

To commemorate 100 years since the devastating Battle of the Somme, where thousands of World War 1 soldiers lost their lives, a group of young men did something incredibly moving.

The actors wore the exact same military uniforms of the fallen comrades, and the young men gathered in groups and in line formations, handed out business cards to commuters, which have the names of those who died, the battalion they fought in and the date of their death and their age.

They encouraged people to use the poignant hashtag #wearehere to remember those who died in the Battle of the Somme 100 years ago.

People took to Twitter to share snapshots of their emotional commute this morning. One lady wrote:

“With all that is happening in the country right now, this really puts things into perspective #wearehere #Newcastle”

The Battle of the Somme was the bloodiest battle in English history. Tens of thousands of British and French soldiers charged onto the Somme battlefield to fight the German empire.

However, with many inexperienced and German machine guns being fired across no man’s land, 19,240 lives were lost on the first day of the battle, with over 1 million casualties in total.

The battle lasted 141 days, ending finally on November 18, 1916.

**Lest we forget. **

If you saw the soilders on your morning commute, please share your experiences and photos with us on Facebook and Twitter (@CloserOnline).

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