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VICTORIA JONES/PA VIA AP
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, front right, and Prince Philip, front left, attend the annual Royal Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall in London, Saturday, Nov. 12, 2016
London » Queen Elizabeth II has led Britain in honoring the country’s war dead during the annual Remembrance Sunday service.
The monarch joined past and present political leaders, the royal family and hundreds of veterans at a solemn ceremony in central London.
Elizabeth laid the first wreath of red poppies at the foot of the Cenotaph war memorial, after those gathered observed a moment’s silence to remember all those killed in past and present conflicts.
Remembrance events this year are especially poignant because 2016 marks the centenary of the Battle of the Somme and the Battle of Jutland. The British Army suffered almost 60,000 casualties on the first day of the Somme battle alone.
The machine gun, massed artillery, and poison gas – all resulted in slaughter on a never before seen industrial scale. Sadly, “The War to End All Wars” proved to be anything but.