Battle of the Somme
The Battle of the Somme was a significant and devastating conflict during World War I, taking place from July 1 to November 18, 1916, near the river Somme in France. Planned by Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, the battle aimed to break the stalemate on the Western Front and alleviate pressure on French forces at Verdun. On the first day, a massive bombardment of 1.5 million shells preceded the attack, but the British troops, primarily composed of newly recruited volunteers with limited training, faced catastrophic losses due to effective German defenses. Despite the initial optimism and a well-coordinated artillery strategy, the British suffered unprecedented casualties, with approximately 20,000 killed and 40,000 wounded on the first day alone. The battle continued for over five months, resulting in a staggering total of British and French losses exceeding 600,000, with only a minimal territorial gain. The high casualty rate had a profound impact on British society, particularly affecting local communities through the loss of entire battalions composed of friends and family. The Battle of the Somme is often remembered for its immense human cost and its lasting influence on British military strategy and public sentiment in the years that followed.
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Battle of the Somme
Type of action: Ground battle in World War I
Date: July 1-November 18, 1916
Location: About ninety miles northeast of Paris, near the river Somme in the vicinity of Amiens
Combatants: 600,000 British and 150,000 French vs. 120,000 Germans
Principal commanders:British, Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig (1861–1928); French, General Joseph-Jacques-Césaire Joffre (1852–1931); German, General Erich von Falkenhayn (1861–1922)
Result: No British and French breakthrough, little territory captured, terrible casualties endured by all combatants, and continued stalemate in the west
Attempting to end the stalemate on the western front and to relieve pressure on the French at Verdun, Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, commander of the British Expeditionary Force, planned a massive breakthrough for July 1, 1916, near the river Somme, a previously quiet sector held by only about 120,000 German troops. Haig’s immediate aim was to capture Bapaume, seven miles distant. He preceded the infantry attack with a thundering seven-day, round-the-clock bombardment of 1.5 million shells, audible in London, that began on June 24. On July 1, at 7:26 in the morning, engineers detonated eight huge explosions in tunnels beneath the German trenches. Four minutes later, 100,000 British soldiers, each loaded with sixty pounds of kit, attacked across no-man’s-land along a fifteen-mile front. Because most were newly recruited volunteers with only rudimentary training and not yet trusted to fire and maneuver, Haig ordered them over the top at an unhurried gait in closely packed lines.
A creeping barrage preceding the advancing infantry was to cut the barbed wire fronting German trenches and kill whatever troops, presumably dazed by the long bombardment, managed to reach their firing steps. Assured by these preliminary measures, British soldiers moved out confidently, some kicking soccer balls before them. In fact, few Germans had fallen, as they had sheltered thirty feet below ground in bombproof dugouts. When British gun crews lifted their barrage prematurely for fear of hitting their own troops, German machine gunners scurried to the surface and poured devastating fire into the slow-moving British troops, who, because of severed communications, were unable to call down artillery support or to adjust their unrealistic timetable. So precise and menacing were German small-arms fire and gunnery that many soldiers were hit within their own lines; the few who reached German positions discovered to their horror that the wire was intact and were shot down as they desperately attempted to find a way through. Within an hour or less, the British army had suffered the largest single-day casualties in its history: at least 20,000 killed and 40,000 wounded. Although substantially outnumbered, the defending Germans lost 6,000 or fewer.
Despite the carnage of that first day, Haig stubbornly continued the offensive for more than five months. Predictably, additional British and French attacks were unavailing. In September, even the first British tanks were unable to lead a breakout. Too few, too slow, and too mechanically unreliable, they delivered only a modest local advance. Haig ended the campaign on November 18, by which point the British had lost 419,654 men (73,412 of whom were either never identified or never found), the French 194,451, and the Germans more than 600,000, an immense human toll for a British advance of about seven miles.
Significance
British losses, even by the standards of World War I, were notably grievous. Most of the slain came from Pals or Chums battalions, units of friends and family from the same area, occupational group, or school. The Newfoundland Battalion, for instance, suffered 91 percent casualties. Their extinction on the battlefield meant a disproportionate, concentrated sacrifice in their hometowns, workplaces, and alma maters. Moreover, the battle had an enduring and demoralizing effect on the British, contributing to the pacifism of the 1920’s, the appeasement of the 1930’s, the overcautiousness of their generals in World War II, and a general cultural pessimism that pervaded the remainder of the century.
Bibliography
Gliddon, Gerald. Legacy of the Somme: The Battle in Fact, Film, and Fiction. Stroud: Sutton, 1996.
Keegan, John. The Face of Battle: A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme. New York: Viking, 1976.
Liddle, Peter. The 1916 Battle of the Somme: A Reappraisal. London: Cooper, 1992.
Middlebrook, Martin. The First Day of the Somme. New York: Norton, 1972.
Winter, Denis. Haig’s Command: A Reassessment. New York: Penguin, 1992.