Although Perceval Gibbon’s article on page 9 gives something of a sense of closure to the Battle of the Ancre (new line, preparing for next move), readers still won’t get the sense that the fighting on the Somme has come to a close after four and a half months, with an official British casualty toll of 419,654. Not that, despite the lengthy rolls of honour on many days after the last few months, the reports ever really gave any sense of this horrendous loss, which across all nations came to over 1.1 million; despite some references to killed soldiers it only really seemed to be German prisoners that ever were reported about. Surely the censor was being overly squeamish – this is war and fighting we are talking about; people are surely going to accept there is death involved?