Oh he's meeting military historian and soldier dr. Paul Knight the winter 1915
into 1916 nothing particularly biggest happening for the battalion that your
great-grandfather's part of and then the move down to peer and they're moving
down here ready for the big push this is the first of July 1916 this is the first
day of the Battle of the Somme and your great-grandfather is right in the middle
of it Wow he was actually the Battle of the salt absolutely this is a map from
July 1916 this blue line here this is at the beautiful line the blue line crosses
the road that's where we're standing at the moment so we're actually on the
British for a lie on the persistent line of a 1st of July 1916 so zoom is
literally on this spot indeed Wow so this would have been a big trench yes
the cost of Oh DISA French army the French artillery they have a lot of
heavier guns and the British are we've got access to you want to be nice to the
French you do want to be next to the French on a day like today and all the
Reds that's all the German positions at Dublin trench and listen the Old Vic
grandfather it's an objective their target was to get from to there yes it's
about eleven hundred metres up this road so zero 7:30 in the morning
the infantry attacks your big dong father heating the third wave that
attacks all the soldiers who have been issued them to steady their nerves so
they're basically getting a bit tipsy before they Britain Dutch courage
so roughly 7:30 a.m. my great granddad is here going over the top
yes cross this field in front of you all right so you should be Rebecca knows
what's on the screen well that's this map so that red dot I'm assuming is is
that where we are now absolutely well y'all know right so if I move that will
move with me yes this is incredible so using this we can follow Billy Mac's
footsteps going into no-man's land absolutely and he definitely did it with
an iPad that's gone okay I mean it's incredible to think that my
great granddad was actually doing this yes so he's now in no-man's land here
yes I mean once he said one of the masses of men left and right all moving
forward at the same time as far as he can see though he's in the middle of all
these big movements of I'm picturing barbed wire yep I'm seeing
sort of smoke everywhere from the also artillery fire but the still the shells
gone overhead then with the machine guns firing to support him smoke has been
fired onto German positions to try and stop the Germans from seen the attack
and it's sound counterintuitive if you see a man in front of you fall to the
ground should be the last thing you think is I'm run in that direction well
a lot of the accounts are saying that they are walking forward it's to control
the man and also when you get up late you don't want to be exhausted so I even
believe gets in the German trenches at the same time blimey
so we're very close now to the trench that he was trying to get to is the idea
to get in and kill these soldiers or to capture them either both so they
surrender good if not he'll go in with the bonus and he'll though you know
shoot people if needs be that's what he's been trained to do for the last two
years but this could be the first time he's got to do that wait probably yes
and he won't know how he reacts until he's in that position were you've got to
do it take somebody else's life it's a sobering thought right so this is it the
red dot is on the trench so this this is his target yes so your great grandpa
this is his objective the war diary says weak resistance but also we do know that
300 of the Germans have captures so he would have been responsible for
capturing them and taking them out to the village maybe possibly yes so I got
one more thing to show you in the village so you're gonna have a look
let's have a look
Lee has come with Paul to the village of Montee Ball which before the battle lay
behind German lines so here's another thing for you to have a look at ah the
Liverpool pals 17th 18th 19th and 20th battalions the King's Liverpool Regiment
my great-grandma being the 17th of course yes
to the glorious memory of the Liverpool and Manchester powell's who was passed
to the 30th division liberated this village first of July 1916
so after Billy Mac and his pals got through those trenches they liberated
this village Billy max actually is out in the fields we've just been this is a
team effort so the fact that he secured the section out in the fields allows
other battalions to advance on the village this is immensely successful and
very very few casualties so that's the first day of this push but how long did
the whole thing go on for well the battle the summons on until November
1916 and Billy Mac would have been out here fighting throughout that whole
period a couple weeks apart to be another battle alright so we've got
something else to show you here ok this is the account by his commander FC
Stanley yes we turn to page 177 I got meeting from there I have hardly made
any mention up till now of our entertainers the optimists so it
mentions in the summer of 1916 so that implies that they were performing here
yes that's incredible
Lee wants to know more about Billy Mack's act when he was performing at the
front with the optimists
to find out more he's traveling north to Belgium just outside eeep following in
the footsteps of his great-grandfather who was sent to this area with his
regiment in the summer of 1917 he's meeting historian dr. Rebecca de
montagne so things to discuss about my great granddad Billy Mac we are
literally just a few miles away from where Billy Mack was fighting in the
Battle of lys and they've got an account of his time in the battle performing
with the optimists in the afternoon the optimists undefeated fellows gave an
outdoor concert in the ordinary and very much stained clothes the concert was a
great success both with our own men and also with the French troops
I found that gobsmacked in that it says gave an outdoor concert in their
ordinary and very much stained clothes ordinary been literally yeah the same
day is walking off a battlefield yeah so the very morning of the performance
there was still a battle going on and Billy Mac was part of that and it was a
very bloody battle a very difficult battle with lots of people who were
killed for us unbelievable so I see be shot at or perhaps have killed someone
and then on the stage putting on these performances became a way for them to
normalize their experience it helped people feel more sane in such a
complicated and difficult situation it's not just a bit of fun that the people at
the top thought if we can keep these soldiers entertained and distracted it
might be better for everybody I think it was a complete lifeline but I'm thinking
of my granddad Billy mater thinking is it what's he going through because he's
he's not watching this before was he's in it yes then it wasn't just that they
were putting on a performance in a ready-made theatre this was actually
happening on the front line so you could see all the trenches around them I was
incredible it is incredible Wow what kind of comedy was Billy Mac doing
when I'm guessing it wasn't observational stuff
I've debated it's a funny thing happened to me this morning and they were yeah we
know we were with you Mike wasn't funny okay really
so the kind of humor that there was could be very dark there was a story
told about a soldier walking along one day in the trenches and finding a cap
and he kept scrubbing down eventually fund found a soldier underneath that cap
buried in the mud and he said oh no you all right and the soldier said yes I'm
upset fine I'm just worried about the driver of the bus that I was standing on
top of and obviously a lot of people were buried alive in the margin and died
that way so this is a way then to use comedy as as a release as a way of
dealing with that very difficult situation take a look at this do you
include so what we got here we've got two postcards ah and that is the
optimists Wow the big question is is any of those people Billy Mack oh my gosh
that is him I think in the middle that's right it is
that is Billy Matt that is amazing and another one far left Wow to see him in
the optimist like that you don't get a sense of it and there's always writing
on the back as well there is writing one of the many concert parties traveling
about near the front line they are the best I have seen so far that's a good
review it is very and there were hundreds of concert parties at this time
so it shows the high esteem in which the optimists were held well this isn't
brilliant I'm so impressed with it and it's a video footage of it okay the
big question is is did they stay together after 1918 there is no other
reports that we can find of the optimist which suggests that they've broken up or
gone their own way maybe Billy Matt was the Robbie Williams of his day and said
sorry lads I've got my own tours to do unbelieva hang on I'm coming
you