No conflict better encapsulates all that went wrong on the Western Front than the Battle of the Somme in 1916. The tragic loss of life and stoic endurance by troops who walked towards their death is an iconic image which will be hard to ignore during the centennial year.
Hugh Sebag-Montefiore was a barrister before becoming a journalist and then an author; he wrote the best-selling Enigma: The Battle for the Code. One of his ancestors was evacuated from Dunkirk.
