| Battle Of The Somme |
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The 1916 Battle of the Somme was one of the largest battles of the First World War , with more than one million Casualties . The British and French forces attempted to break through the German lines along a 25-mile (40 km) front north and south of the River Somme in northern France. One purpose of the battle was to draw German forces away from the Battle Of Verdun ; however, by its end the losses on the Somme had exceeded those at Verdun. The battle is best remembered for its first day, 1 July 1916 , on which the British suffered 57,470 casualties, including 19,240 dead — the bloodiest day in the history of the British Army . As horrific as the battle of the Somme is in British & Commonwealth memory, it also had a staggering impact on the German army; one officer famously described it as "the muddy grave of the German field army". By the end of the battle, the British had learnt many lessons in modern warfare while the Germans had suffered irreplaceable losses. British official historian Sir James Edmonds stated, "It is not too much to claim that the foundations of the final victory on the Western Front were laid by the Somme offensive of 1916." For the first time the home front in Britain was exposed to the horrors of modern war with the release of the Propaganda Film '' The Battle Of The Somme '', which used actual footage from the first days of the battle. PRELUDE The Allied war strategy for 1916 was largely formulated during a conference at Chantilly held between 6 December and 8 December , 1915 , when it was decided that for the next year, simultaneous offensives were to be mounted by the Russia ns in the East, the Italians (who by now joined the entente) in the Alps and the Anglo-French on the Western Front , thereby assailing the Central Powers from all sides. In late December 1915, General Sir Douglas Haig had replaced General Sir John French as Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). Haig favoured a British offensive in Flanders — it was close to BEF supply routes via the Channel ports and had a strategic goal of driving the Germans from the North Sea coast of Belgium , from which their U-boat s were menacing Britain. However, though there was no formal arrangement, the British were as yet the junior partner on the Western Front and had to comply with French policy. In January 1916, the French commander, General Joseph Joffre , had agreed to the BEF making their main effort in Flanders, but after further discussions in February, the decision was reached to mount a combined offensive where the French and British armies met astride the Somme River in Picardy . Plans for the joint offensive on the Somme had barely begun to take shape before the Germans launched the Battle Of Verdun on 21 February , 1916 . As the French committed themselves to defending Verdun, their capacity to carry out their role on the Somme disappeared, and the burden shifted to the British. As the bloodbath at Verdun dragged on, the aim of the Somme offensive changed from delivering a decisive blow against Germany to relieving the pressure on the French army. The original British regular army, six Division s strong at the start of the war, had been effectively wiped out by the battles of 1914 and 1915. The bulk of the army was now made up of volunteers of the Territorial Force and Lord Kitchener's New Army , which had begun forming in August 1914. The expansion of the army demanded General s for the senior commands, so promotion came at a dizzying pace and did not always reflect competence or ability. Haig himself had started the war as commander of British I Corps before commanding the British First Army and now the BEF, in effect an Army Group , made up of four armies (soon to be five) of 60 divisions. By mid-1916, the Fokker Scourge was over, and the Royal Flying Corps had achieved Air Supremacy over the Somme battlefield. On the Somme front, the RFC fielded 10 squadrons and 185 aircraft against a German strength of 129 aircraft. The British pursued a vigorous offensive policy that enabled them to perform artillery observation, via aircraft or tethered Balloon s, while preventing the Germans from doing the same. It was not until September that the introduction of new aircraft would swing the balance in favour of the German Air Service once again. THE FIRST DAY ON THE SOMME , 7.20am, 1 July , 1916 ]] Main article: First Day On The Somme The first day of the battle was preceded by seven days of preliminary Artillery bombardment in which the British fired over 1.5 million shells. Ten Mine s had also been dug beneath the German front-line trenches and strongpoints; the three largest mines contained about 20 Tons (18 tonnes) of explosives each. The attack would be made by 13 British Division s (11 from the Fourth Army and two from the Third Army ) north of the Somme river and six divisions of the French Sixth Army astride and south of the river. They were opposed by the German Second Army of General Fritz Von Below . The axis of the advance was centred on the Roman Road that ran from Albert in the west to Bapaume 12 miles (19 km) to the northeast. Zero hour for the Battle of the Somme was 07:30 on , which was late). At zero hour there was a brief and unsettling silence as the artillery shifted their aim onto the next line of targets. Then, in the words of Poet John Masefield : {Link without Title} he hand of time rested on the half-hour mark, and all along that old front line of the English there came a whistling and a crying. The men of the first wave climbed up the parapets, in tumult, darkness, and the presence of death, and having done with all pleasant things, advanced across No Man's Land to begin the Battle of the Somme. |
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