Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Battle of the Somme (1916)

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Battle of the Somme (1916)[edit]

Absolutely effing brilliant. What else can I say? Johnleemk | Talk 15:44, 31 Oct 2004 (UTC)

  • Object. Support. (1) Some of the casualty figures (especially those in the infobox and the "Casualties" section, and the figures for the Germans) need to provide a breakdown into killed, wounded, POW, missing (or at least an estimate). (2) The claim about the first day on the Somme being the bloodiest day in British history is doubtful (estimates for the battle of Towton suggest 20,000–28,000 dead); maybe the claim could be qualified. (3) There ought to be a mention of the cultural response to the Somme. Siegfried Sassoon, Ivor Gurney, Robert Graves and other war poets were at the battle and left powerful accounts. Was there a corresponding German response? Gdr 21:09, 2004 Oct 31 (UTC) P.S. Otherwise, great article!
    • Storm of Steel by Ernst Junger is the best known personal German account of the battle. Geoff/Gsl 21:20, 31 Oct 2004 (UTC)
    • Re: "bloodiest day", I've qualifyed it as the "bloodiest day in the history of the British Army" which is how it is usually described. I obviously got a bit carried away in the translation... Geoff/Gsl 23:32, 31 Oct 2004 (UTC)
  • Support but I wonder if the total number of men who fought the battle could be listed. Revth 14:56, 1 Nov 2004 (UTC)
  • Support, but the British army casualty breakdown misses some 1300 soldiers. Jeronimo 15:34, 1 Nov 2004 (UTC)
    • The exact British & French casualty figures are from Edmonds official history (widely quoted in other books) but I don't have the breakdown he used. I know the Australian and New Zealand tolls and the approx. Canadian. The South African is a guess given that they lost 2000 at Delville Wood. What's left I assume to be British/Irish. A more reliable casualty list would be good but I've exhausted my resources. Geoff/Gsl 23:11, 1 Nov 2004 (UTC)
      • OK, maybe you can just add "others" (probably some Indians were involved as well?) to make the table add up. Jeronimo 07:59, 2 Nov 2004 (UTC)
  • Support, but I'd like to see something on the cultural impact, too. As well as the writers listed above, David Jones' great Modernist poem In Parenthesis gives a participant's view of the battle for Mametz Wood (he was wounded there). Filiocht 15:47, Nov 1, 2004 (UTC)
  • Object. On the basis of only one unnecessarily unclear paragraph that I have noted on the TalkPage. I would be glad to switch my vote. This is a great page. Great! Brilliant! ---Rednblu | Talk 22:28, 6 Nov 2004 (UTC)
    • Support. I see from the TalkPage how that little problem would be solved.  :)) ---Rednblu | Talk 00:33, 7 Nov 2004 (UTC)
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