The Somme panorama

The panorama above is an eight-foot roll. Part of it can be seen on the Home Page video. It was stored in a roll with Bertie’s possessions and letters, retained by Esther, his sister. It captures a landscape empty and devoid of human forms. The only corpse visible is the countryside itself, battered and bleak, standing in stark contrast to the area today.

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To capture these photographs and avoid spending long periods exposed with their heads above the parapet, leaving them open to sniper fire, army photographers used trench periscopes. The photographs were developed within mobile darkrooms then pieced together; the resulting panoramas were studied and annotated, providing information about enemy positions and key locations for future operations and targeting.

 

Visiting this area in 2016 with my father, one hundred years after the Somme Offensive, I took a similar panoramic photograph of the same countryside, from the same position as the 1916 panorama. Both pictures were taken northwest of the village of Bazentin-le-Petit. The land has returned to its arable state, much like it was before the war.

 

Although the villages within the corridor of the Somme assault were destroyed; many were later rebuilt after the war.

 

The picture below shows an enlargement of the 2016 section shown above, set in the correct position against the 1916 panorama above it.  The pictures were taken looking towards Bucquoy, where the video on the Home Page shows the destruction caused by the Somme offensive.