Battle of the Somme

The Battle of the Somme began on July 1, 1916, along a front of about 25 kilometers north and south of the Somme river in northern France. It was a joint offensive by British and French armies, led on the British side by General Sir Douglas Haig. The attack was preceded by a seven day bombardment of about 1.7 million shells, meant to destroy German wire and trenches. Thousands of soldiers, many of them volunteers who had enlisted in 1914 and 1915 in Kitchener's New Army and its 'Pals' battalions, walked toward the German lines.¹²

The plan came out of the stalemate on the Western Front and the need to support France, which had been fighting at Verdun since February. But the bombardment did not do enough: many shells were duds, and German troops waited in deep dugouts and manned their machine guns when it lifted. On the first day, the British suffered 57,470 casualties, including 19,240 dead, the worst day in the history of the British army. Only in the south, where the French attacked and the British had a few successes, were there real gains.¹²

The fighting went on for 141 days until November 18, in a series of costly small attacks. On September 15, tanks were used for the first time in war at Flers-Courcelette, although they were few and unreliable. By the end the Allies had advanced about 10 kilometers at the deepest point. Total casualties were more than a million: about 420,000 British Empire, around 200,000 French and, by most estimates, over 400,000 Germans. The Somme destroyed many of the British volunteer battalions and became a symbol, in Britain and the Commonwealth, of futile sacrifice, although the army also learned lessons about artillery and tactics.¹²