The true faces of the Somme – uncoloured by the new nationalism

A hundred years ago, the battle of the Somme marked a terrible chapter for Europe, but in the new climate of jingoism, a worldwide tragedy is being reduced to a sentimental fiction for little England

Their faces look back at us from the abyss. Faces of the doomed. In photographs of British soldiers on the eve of the Battle of the Somme, which started 100 years ago on 1 July 1916, we see men who are about to die or suffer appalling wounds. The British army suffered 57,470 casualties on the first day of the Somme, including 19,240 men killed.

Related: Letters of fallen Somme soldiers released to mark battle's centenary

Related: ‘The roaring of the shells was diabolical.’ It was zero hour on the Somme

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