1 July 1916.

[Mike_Oettle]

Both of my wife’s grandfathers took part in the Battle of the Somme.
Her maternal grandfather entered Delville Wood at Longueval with the South African Scottish, and was one of a handful of men who walked out.
General Tim Lukin cried as he inspected the survivors.
Her paternal grandfather was next to enter the wood, with the Royal Welch Fusiliers. (He had joined the Lancashire Fusiliers, but was one of a group transferred to the Welsh regiment because they were so short.)
He walked out of the wood carrying a Lewis gun. When it was taken from him, he collapsed.
Recommended for the VC, he received the Military Medal, as well as an illuminated address from his hometown, Salford (now in Greater Manchester).
My maternal grandfather was a medical orderly in East Africa.
My paternal grandfather came from a family that had left Germany, as his father was wont to put it, so that “my sons would not be conscripted to fight for the German Reich”.
Although they were of a pacifist inclination, one of my grandfather’s brothers did join up.
In the Second World War, my father and his younger brother both joined up.
We were blessed not to lose any lives to either war, but after my father was shot (by a heavy-calibre artillery piece) his mother received a telegram informing her that he was “gravely wounded, not expected to live”.
Regards,
Mike

[OC Richard]

My grandfather fought there and (fortunately for him, and me) survived... I remember several of his "war stories" and for me WWI is not all that distant a thing.

He came home with a glass eye and numerous scars and quite a bit of shrapnel. From time to time one of those tiny bits of metal would work its way to the surface.

West Virginia has always had a higher proportion of its men serving in the military than most places in the US, and there's a War Memorial at the Capitol in Charleston honouring the people killed in various wars. There are a large number of names for such a small state. My uncle is on the WWII section. I think of him often.