The Somme

Events Leading Up to the Battle

By 1916, England had raised and trained a massive army to replace the small professional army that was all but destroyed in the first few years of the war. This new army was recruited using propaganda and powerful images upon posters. Unfortunately, this new army lacked combat experience.

The French, on the other hand, were almost fully mobilized and prepared to launch a breakthrough offensive to end the war. Under French planning, it was agreed that both the British and French armies would undertake a huge operation in the Somme region. The French commanders wanted the entire operation to be fought by French solders. These plans were spoiled when Germany launched a large scale offensive on the town of Verdun. This forced the French to divert the bulk of their army to hold off the massed German attack.

The attack upon Verdun was so strong that the British commander, Douglas Haig, decided to continue the Battle of the Somme to help the French. The idea was to force a huge battle near the Somme River to draw away German units from Verdun.

Thus, the Battle of the Somme became an almost entirely British operation under the control of General Haig. Haig, and the British High Command, did not really trust their new soldiers. So they planned an offensive that would not require the men to think. The attack called for the men to jump out of their trenches, and then form four perfectly straight lines. Each line was to keep fifty to one hundred yards between them. Furthermore, each man was to keep two or three yards between themselves and the next man. Once in straight lines, the men were to slowly walk (each man was loaded down with over 29 Kg of equipment) towards the German trenches.

The Generals told the men that artillery would destroy all the German barbwire and trenches. All they would have to do was walk through the destroyed barbwire, jump into the German trenches, and begin fighting. As the men had little or no combat experience, the offensive began with great excitement.

Eyewitness Account
Nevill was a young officer who liked to stand on the fire-step each evening and shout insults at the Germans. His men were to be in the first wave of the assault near Mountauban and he was concerned as to how they would behave, for they had never taken part in an attack before. While he was on leave, Nevill bought four footballs, one for each of his platoons. Back in the trenches, he offered a prize to the first platoon to kick its football up to the German trenches on the day of the attack. One platoon painted the following inscription on its ball:
The Great European Cup
The Final
East Surreys V. Bavarians
Kick-off at Zero
Nevell himself kicked off. "As the gunfire died away {wrote a survivor}, I saw an infantryman climb onto the parapet into No Man's Land, beckoning others to follow. As he did so he kicked off a football; a good kick, the ball rose and traveled toward the German line. That seemed to be the signal to advance." … The winning footballers of the 8th East Surreys were unable to collect the prize money from their commander. Captain Nevill was dead.

Witness to the attack on the Somme
Martin Middlebrook

The Attack

The battle began many weeks earlier with the construction of ten underground tunnels. British engineers dug tunnels under the German trenches and placed large amounts of explosives. In addition, the British brought up massive amounts of artillery shells, guns and men in anticipation of the big attack. All of these actives were observed by the Germans, who quickly prepared their men with additional protection. They constructed huge underground bunkers for their men to be protected from British artillery. Furthermore, they constructed concrete machine gun nests (nicknamed pillboxes by the British because they looked like the cases pills came in), for their men.

The attack began with a five-day bombardment of the German trenches. Rain delays forced another few days of bombardment. On the morning of 1 July 1916, an extra barrage was laid on. In over an hour the British fired 200,000 shells an average of 3,500 shells a minute. The barrage was so loud that it could be heard in London. At 7:28 AM the ten special mines were exploded and the troops moved out of their trenches.

Along a 37 km front, 13 divisions of over 200,000 troops, went "over the top" of their trenches. The men were barely able to get out of the trenches because they were carrying so much equipment that they could barely walk. It was expected that each man carry the following items:
Rife
Three days supply of ammunition
Grenades
Rations (Three days)
Waterproof cape
Four empty sandbags
Steel helmet
Two gas masks
Tear gas goggles
Field dressing (bandage)
Pick or shovel
Full water bottle
Mess tin (to prepare and eat food in)

Outcome of the battle

The artillery barrage of the previous several days was a failure. As many as 100 German machine guns were untouched. Furthermore, most of the barbwire was still in place and contributed to horrible casualties. So many men were simply mowed down in the first wave, that the men following were stunned by the destruction.

British losses were staggering. At the end of the first day, some 56,000 men were out of action. One thousand officers and 20,000 men were killed. An additional 35,000 were wounded. Medical services were completely overwhelmed and could do only limited things for the men. Men with wounds in the stomach area were usually set aside to die.

Once battalion from Newfoundland (not a part of Canada at the time) was to be almost completely wiped out. They had started the attack with 810 men. 710 of them were to be killed in the first hours of the attack. One general wrote to the Prime Minister of Newfoundland and stated that the attack only failed because "dead men can advance no further."

Continuation of the Attack

General Haig was not to be deterred by the horrible losses of the first day of the attack. He did not want to change tactics, but continued with another massive over the top attack, but committed 50 new tanks to the battle. By the time the tanks arrived most had broken down and did not participate. In addition, the ground was near a river and very muddy. Most tanks just sank into the mud of no mans land.

Haig was to continue with his Somme offensive for over one month. He was to only gain a few square kilometers in area for the sacrifice of his men. In total, the British and French losses were to reach 620, 000. Germany was to suffer 450,000 casualties during the month long fighting. The loss of hundreds of thousands of men for little or almost no gain in territory summarizes the bulk of fighting during the Great War.

MULTIMEDIA

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