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| Catalan volunteers (Public Domain) |
In July 1st of 1916 the Battle of Somme began with the Anglo-French attack with the goal of easing German pressure over the sieged city of Verdun.
Battle of Somme was one of the most important battles of the Great War and the one with the most registered casualties of all history, more than one million between deaths, wounded and missing (in fact the British Army suffered nearly 20,000 deaths and more than 40,000 injured only in that first day).
Within the French Army offensive the 10th company of the 3rd battalion of the Marching Regiment of the Foreign Legion (RMLE abbreviated from French) attacked the town of Belloy-en-Santerre at midday 12 o'clock of July 4th (yes, today 100 years ago) and achieved to occupy it after heavy fighting in the streets, defending the town of enemy attacks trying to reconquer it afterwards.
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| Ruins of Belloy-en-Santerre (Public Domain) |
Casualties suffered by the Legion in this action also were very high: more than one hundred deaths, one hundred and fifty missing and nearly five hundred injured. Among the dead was American poet Alan Seeger (Pete Seeger's uncle) as well as fifty Catalans, among them the journalist and convinced Catalan nationalist Camil Campanyà, recipient of a starried Catalan flag sent to volunteers by Joan Solé i Pla, founder of the Comitè de Germanor amb els Voluntaris Catalans (Brotherhood Comitee with Catalan Volunteers).
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