POV Preserved: 110 Years Later

Third Army. “Panorama of Gommecourt.” Monochrome panoramic photo-mechanical print, 20 May 1916. War Office: Directorate of Military Survey and Geographical Section General Staff: Maps and Plans. The National Archives, Kew, UK. WO 316/38.

This photograph of the British trenches looking out on to No Man's Land at the Somme was taken on 20 May 1916. Royal Engineer photographers carried heavy large format cameras into the trenches, created thirteen overlapping exposures on glass plate negatives which then had to be developed and painstakingly stitched together into a single panoramic image that would have been nearly six feet wide.

The bombardment started seven days before the assault. 1,400 guns. 1.5 million shells. The earth across No Man's Land would be churned to nothing.

The morning of 1 July, a divisional commander told his men: "Good luck, men. There is not a German left in their trenches, our guns have blown them all to Hell."

The infantry who stepped onto No Man's Land at 07:30 that morning, carrying full kit, walking at the steady pace they'd practiced, toward what they had been told were empty positions.

By the end of the day, 57,470 men were casualties. This is what they saw that morning.