Today I want to highlight a particularly devastating battle in WWI: the Battle of the Somme. We think of battles being extremely violent, but quick and decisive. Because of the trench system, both sides were heavily fortified in well-defended positions, and it made attacking and capturing ground extremely difficult. The Battle of the Somme lasted 4 months, had artillery barrages that lasted more than a week, and saw over a million casualties with deaths in the hundreds of thousands. The first day of the battle was the deadliest day for the British Army, and even the men who survived were irrevocably affected by this horrific and brutal battle. Today I have a short video summarizing the battle, and then I would like you to read the attached packet (i have put it in Google Classroom and set it to send each of you a copy) with 3 accounts of the Battle of the Somme. Then, I would like you to complete the graphic organizer/table that is included in the packet. Cant print it? No problem...create it on a piece of paper, take a picture of it, and submit it to me using Google Classroom.
| somme_packet.pdf |
Song of the day
From today's selection in my Top 10 influential albums challenge. In the summer of 1987, I was getting ready to enter high school (at CHS, appropriately). Although we didn't really know it yet, globally we were at the end of the Cold War, but still had the Soviet Union as our biggest enemy. During that summer Billy Joel decided to undertake an historic 2 week/5 concert tour of the Soviet Union. It was unheard of that an American artist would travel behind the Iron Curtain and into Mother Russia, much less a rebellious rock-n-roller. I remember seeing a special of his concert on HBO, and deciding that I wanted to perform in some capacity. This is the opening track of his original Russian concert album, and the beginning of that HBO special I saw over 30 years ago. The song is called Angry Young Man. Enjoy!