Prelude: 'Chewing barbed wire'
The prospect: 'To break through and win victory'
June 1916: 'There is much in the wind'
The first day of the battle: 'dead men can advance no further'
The first full week of battle: 'It looked like victory'
The last three weeks of July: 'boys of the bull dog breed'
Fromelles: 'a bloody holocaust'
Pozie`res: 'death grinning at you from all around"
The battle continues: 'a little uneasy in regard to the situation'
Criticism and commitment: 'under no circumstances must we relax our effort'
Both sides fight on: 'This fantasy of woe'
The continuing struggle: 'I am in God's keeping'
The arrival of the tanks: 'We are feeling top dogs'
The struggle intensifies: 'death and decomposition strew the ground'
October 1916: The grand design begins
The soldiers' sacrifice: 'what else had they been born for?
The first two weeks of November: 'The mud of the moment'
The final battle: 'A light from our household is gone'
Aftermath on the Somme: November 1916 to November 1918
Epilogue: 'We feel proud to be able to cry.'
