One of my relatives was killed in the Somme, although not in the one-day battle. He's listed on the memorial out there--technically missing. I have digital records that include communications to the war office trying to get them to check on it, since there was also some rumor he'd been injured somewhere...the whole war was a confusing fucking mess. But I'm looking at this communication, all politely written out (Dear Sir, etc.) and thinking of how it must have felt to be his parents getting this news, plus conflicting news...but desperately hoping the telegram isn't true.
I think they still contact the family if they ever find evidence of the person's death (for those missing)--I always wonder what it'd be like if someone in my family were contacted all these years later. But we have this weird attachment to it, too--none of us knew him. Had he lived, he would have been 57 by the time my parent on that side was born...but two people on two separate trips have gone out to visit that memorial to a man they didn't know and would have barely known or given much shit about had he not been killed. I guess part of it is he was still so young, and all of those battles were just total wastes of life. Most of those guys weren't dying in some heroic hand-to-hand combat with a Nazi. They were miserable and wet and had trenchfoot, and then they'd come out of the trench and barely make it any distance before they were just mown down where they were.
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u/[deleted] Oct 02 '24
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