Somme
1916 battlefield waterway
The Somme is a river in northern France, primarily known as the site of one of the bloodiest battles in history.
The Battle of the Somme (1916) was a prolonged World War I offensive in which British and French forces attacked German positions, resulting in over a million casualties combined.
The name has become shorthand for the senseless carnage of trench warfare: His grandfather died on the Somme. (Lowercase somme is a French word for "sum.")
Elongated ground excavations
- no-man's-landUnclaimed disputed territory
- over-the-topExcessively dramatic or extravagant
- artilleryLarge-caliber battlefield weapons
- infantryGround combat troops
offensive · casualties · frontline · shellshock · barrage · Kitchener · tank · attrition
Tomb without a body
- remembranceAct of holding something in mind
- poppyScarlet bloom, opium source
- commemorationAct of honoring memory
- cemeteryPlace for interring remains
graves · wreath-laying · ceremony · veterans · silence · pilgrimage · inscription · sacrifice
trenches
Elongated ground excavations
- no-man's-landUnclaimed disputed territory
- over-the-topExcessively dramatic or extravagant
- artilleryLarge-caliber battlefield weapons
infantry · offensive · casualties · frontline · shellshock · barrage · Kitchener · tank · attrition · machine-gun
cenotaph
Tomb without a body
- remembranceAct of holding something in mind
- poppyScarlet bloom, opium source
- commemorationAct of honoring memory
cemetery · graves · wreath-laying · ceremony · veterans · silence · pilgrimage · inscription · sacrifice · fallen
estuary
Tidal mixing zone
Amiens · bay · flow · stream · bank · current · confluence · delta · meander · sediment
Verdun
WWI battleground city
- YpresFlemish city, wartime ruins
- trenchesElongated ground excavations
- doughboysWWI American infantrymen
Tommy · biplane · dogfights · U-boat · zeppelin · Gallipoli · Marne · Flanders · stalemate · conscription
- British BattlesHastings, Waterloo, Trafalgar, Agincourt, Blenheim
- Ireland WWIEaster Rising, Gallipoli, Western Front, war dead, Irish nationalism
- World War Itrenches, trench warfare, eastern front, Western Front, soldiers
- WWItrenches, no man's land, no mans land, trench warfare, armistice
- Battle SitesGettysburg, Normandy, Waterloo, Antietam, Stalingrad
- BattlesAntietam, Leipzig, Gettysburg, Waterloo, Bunker Hill
SommeAusterlitz
Decisive Napoleonic victory site
decisive victory · D-Day · Six-Day War · Desert Storm · Inchon
SommeArmistice Day
WWI ceasefire commemoration
V-E Day · liberation · triumphalism · heroic sacrifice · Waterloo
- the SommeNorthern French river, WWI battlefield
- Battle of the Somme1916 Franco-British offensive
- Battle of SommeMassive 1916 Franco-British offensive
sum, summary, summarize, summery, summation, summative, assumable, Seine