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| British machine gun unit. |
The Battle Of Somme was an armed conflict fought by the British and French empire against the German empire in World War I that started on the first day of July and lasted until the 18th of November 1916. For 141 days, both sides of the upper reaches of the River Somme became the battleground of more than 3 million men, with more than a million wounded or killed making it one of the bloodiest battles in history.
In the meeting at Chantilly, Oise on December of 1915, the Allied agreed to a strategy of combined offensives from French, British, Russian and Italian armies against the Central Powers in 1916 with the Somme campaign tasked to the French and British Army. The battle plan was for the French army to spearhead an attack south of Somme supported by the British army up north. The idea was conceived by French commander in chief, Joffre, as a battle of attrition intended to drain German forces reserves with territorial gains coming only as secondary objective. However, the German chief of staff, von Falkenhayn, promised to “bleed France white” and started their own offensive at Verdun (Battle of Verdun) on 21 February 1916 causing a major diversion of almost all of the French forces and resources that was intended for the Somme offensive. Taking a beating, the French demanded that the planned 1 August attack be carried out by the British army a month earlier on 1 July. The intent of the Somme attack now was transformed solely to divert German forces from Verdun, a mere diversionary attack to hopefully relieve the French at Verdun.
In the meeting at Chantilly, Oise on December of 1915, the Allied agreed to a strategy of combined offensives from French, British, Russian and Italian armies against the Central Powers in 1916 with the Somme campaign tasked to the French and British Army. The battle plan was for the French army to spearhead an attack south of Somme supported by the British army up north. The idea was conceived by French commander in chief, Joffre, as a battle of attrition intended to drain German forces reserves with territorial gains coming only as secondary objective. However, the German chief of staff, von Falkenhayn, promised to “bleed France white” and started their own offensive at Verdun (Battle of Verdun) on 21 February 1916 causing a major diversion of almost all of the French forces and resources that was intended for the Somme offensive. Taking a beating, the French demanded that the planned 1 August attack be carried out by the British army a month earlier on 1 July. The intent of the Somme attack now was transformed solely to divert German forces from Verdun, a mere diversionary attack to hopefully relieve the French at Verdun.
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| British 18 pounder in action at Somme |
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| German soldier in an observation post |
The British soldiers, mainly composed of pre-war regular army, Territorial Forces and Kitchener’s army including Pal’s battalion took a huge number of casualties. Unknown to the Allied, the Germans weathered the bombardment under their bomb shelters and bunkers and waited til it end. The bombardment also failed to cut German barbed wires and most of the ammunitions are dud, badly constructed and didn't go off. The British soldiers with no element of surprise against the enemy and walking forward slowly as they were ordered, gave enough time for the German soldiers to man their positions and shoot them with their machine guns. The British suffered 57, 470 casualties, of which 19,240 were killed. The French soldiers on the other hand had more success with their attack, achieving most of their objectives with only 1,590 casualties while the German 2nd Army had 10,000–12,000 losses. Despite the huge number of casualties, British commander in chief, Sir Douglas Haig, persisted with the attack in the following days. Over the next two weeks, around 25,000 more men killed or wounded were added to British casualties.
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| British Mark I |
Fierce fighting continued for the next months but resulted only in a stalemate. The tank, a new technology by the British was first used in a renewed offensive in September. Originally, there were a total of 50 tanks, but due to mechanical failures the number was cut down to 24. British army gained little even with the new technology. Muddy battlefields caused by heavy rains in October added burden for both sides. Finally on 18 November, all operations were suspended due to poor weather and snow.
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| Dead German soldiers in a muddy trench |
The Battle of Somme was one of the bloodiest battles in history. Total number of casualties were estimated at around 420,000 men for the British, 200,000 for the French and around 500,000 for the Germans. Up to this day, decisions made by the British commander remains controversial, capturing only 7 miles and failing to break German lines in exchange for a huge number of casualties.
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