The Somme is a river in Picardy, northern France. The name Somme comes from a Celtic word meaning “tranquility”. The department Somme was named after this river.
The river is 245 km (152 mi) long, from its source in the high ground of the former Forest of Arrouaise at Fonsommes near Saint-Quentin, to the Bay of the Somme, in the English Channel. It lies in the geological syncline which also forms the Solent. This gives it a fairly constant and gentle gradient where several fluvial terraces have been identified.
Somme or The Somme may refer to:
The Somme (A631) is a Durance class command and replenishment ship (French: Bâtiment de commandement et de ravitaillement, BCR) of the French Navy.
In addition to its primary duty as a fleet tanker, the Somme is configured as a flagship. Serving as the command vessel for the French forces participating in Operation Enduring Freedom, the Somme was attacked approximately 250 nautical miles (460 kilometres) off the Somalian coast in the night of 6 to 7 October 2009 by two motorboats of Somalian pirates who mistook the Somme for a civilian ship. The Somme repelled the assault rifle attack without sustaining damage or casualties and captured five of the pirates.
Somme (ISBN 0-7181-2254-2) is a First World War military history book by Lyn MacDonald, published in 1983 by Michael Joseph.
The Battle of the Somme started on Sunday, 1 July 1916 leading to the biggest losses by Britain in one single day (19,240 dead, 35,493 wounded, 2,152 missing and 585 prisoners for a total loss of 57,470). The battle ended on Tuesday, 21 November 1916. The main objective of this battle was to relieve the horrific battle at Verdun.
MacDonald has collected testimonies of soldiers involved in the battle of the Somme. Their stories are horrible. In the beginning, their stories show chauvinism, nationalism and patriotism, but later, with soldiers seeing the stalemate, despair of war. Afterwards everybody again agrees war is terrible.