111. Reminiscences of 1915, the Somme and Verdun

The City of London Corporation has a special outdoor exhibition: Fields of Battle – Lands of Peace and Prof. Gary Sheffield, in a related lecture, described the immediate aftermath of the Somme in WWI and the way we regard it now (Lonsdale Cemetery right). The battle, like many of the period, continued for months and was not decisive. It contrasted markedly from battles fought in the nineteen century and earlier. Even the ground fought over was not strategically important. He did dispel a number of myths about the purpose of and leadership in the battle.