This page will be used for Mr. Webber's P.R.S. students to complete assignments and to communicate with fellow students on issues surrounding our 10th grade World History class.
The Battle of the Somme took place from July 1st 1916 to November 1916. The battle involved Britain, France and German and it took place in France. This battle epitomized trench warfare, resulting in 200,000 plus casualties for all sides in the battle. The Allied forces mainly fired artillery at the German forces, firing around 1,780,000 shells at them. The Allies hoped to destroy the wires in front of the trenches, making it much easier for the Allied forces to cross the battlefield and quickly get to the German side. On the first day of the battle, British forces attempted to capture German trenches, and they successfully captured three at Gommecourt. Reinforcements came to the trenches with heavy weaponry, and the forces that had captured the first three trenches were not strong enough to defend against them. The German reinforcements recaptured the taken trenches. The wire from the trenches was uncut, still giving cover, and also the ground was wet and muddy which made movement near the trenches very difficult. At the villages of Ovillers and La Boisselle, Allied forces attempted to penetrate the German defense trenches and hold the position. They succeeded in capturing the first three trenches of the defense, however the forces quickly lost control of them later in the day. The British kept trying to invade the German occupied towns, and kept suffering tremendous losses. While trying to take the village of Fricourt, a battalion suffered 710 casualties, the worst of the day for any battalion. In Montauban, two invading divisions of British forces successfully completed their objectives, but it costed the two division 3,000 casualties each. On the first day of the Battle of the Somme, the British forces in total lost approximately 57,000 men on the first day. The Battle of the Somme ended when Allied forces pushed through German lines to destroy their defenses. The battle was officially declared over when German forces at the Battle of Ancre surrendered. In total, the British forces had 420,000 casualties, the French 200,000, and the Germans approximately 500,000. The significance of this battle is that of the use of trench warfare. The battle was mainly focused on the capturing of the trenches and the artillery fire disabling the use of them. This battle is one of the battles that suffered the most casualties out of any battle in WWI.
The Battle of Somme began on July 1, 1916 and lasted over 4 months. This battle was between the French Germans and British. The Battle of Somme is referred to as the symbol of the destruction of World War One, and the brutality of trench warfare. The extensive number of casualties truly distinguished this battle from the rest of the battles in World War I. Britain alone suffered over 420,000 casualties including over 60,000 lost on July 1 alone. By November, France had lost over 200,000 men, and Germany was charged with the loss of almost half a million troops. The battle began with the French needing assistance from their extensive losses in the German invasion of Verdun. The invasion against the Germans in Somme, led them away from Verdun. France soon recovered from their losses, and quickly joined in the fight against Britain and Germany. Canon fire began the battle, in hopes to destroy German trenches and barbed wire. This artillery fire quickly weekend the Germans, and after the first week of fighting, Germany had been hurt with well over 1.5 million gas shells.
The Battle of the Somme took place by the Somme river and was named after it. It was planned as a French and British attack on German troops but the purpose was changed during the Battle of Verdun to relieve the embattled French troops. The actual battle was fought mainly by British troops, who took the brunt of the Allied casualties, at about 420,000 British and 200,000 French. The British lost about 58,000 on the first day of the attack. The battle was scheduled to begin at 7:30 but was actually begun 10 minutes early. Some of the reasons there was such a loss of life was the inefficiency of many of the British shells, which meant that many did not go off. Modern farmers in the area still find unexploded shells in the land. The other reason was that the Germans knew that the attack was coming, and were in highly secured concrete bunkers which made it hard to break open. British troops expected to be able to break through and were carrying many supplies which made them easy targets for the German machine-gunners. The total result of this battle was the gaining of about 12 kilometres of land by the British. It did make a difference for the troops at Verdun, but not as significant as was hoped.
The Battle of Somme was an undisputedly a major disaster for the Allied Forces. The fight was between Britain/ France and Germany. On July 1st, 1916, the very first day of battle, there were British 60,000 casualties, of whom 20,000 were dead. That is one third of the original 600,000 men. This is not even including the French and Germans. To this day it remains a one-day record. The Battle of Somme was meant to be a decisive victory for the Allies, but instead become an all out slaughter.
To the Allied Generals it had seemed an easy victory. They had 27 divisions of men, 80% of which was made up of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), while the Germans had a mere 16 divisions of the German Second Army. The odds were against the Germans. The Allied plan was to bombard the German lines for a week before the actual attack began. Then once they did attack the German defenses would be destroyed In that week they ended up firing 1.6 million shells. The English commanders were so confident they told their troops to walk slowly across No Man’s Land, the area between the Allied and German trenches. Unfortunately for the Allies most of their shells were ‘duds’ and did not explode due to bad construction. The German’s trenches were heavily fortified in preparation and front line of barbed wire and their well-built concrete bunkers were not destroyed. They took refuge in such bunkers until the British artillery bombardment ended.
To further hamper the Allies plans, the Germans knew of the attack before hand. The Allies were careless and failed to conceal the preparations. Also, the topic was freely discussed in French coffee shops and in letters written home. The eight-day bombardment only alerted the Germans to the imminent attack, as they remained largely unharmed by the ineffective shells.
Once the Germans had crawled out of their bunkers they manned the machine guns. The British troops, unaware of what was about to happen, went over the top from Gommecourt to the French left flank just south of Montauban. The Germans mowed down the poor men. The slaughter had begun. Few units managed to actually reach the German trenches. Those that did were soon driven back. Out of all of the officers involved on the first day sixty per cent lost their lives.
After that the British focus shifted southward. Still they couldn’t break through the German lines. The horribly bloody stalemate continued for another two months. On September fifteenth Sir Douglas Haig (the British Commander in Chief who came up with the plan that would begin the attack and kill all of those men) began using tanks for the first time but, since they were lightly armed and often malfunctioned, they helped very little.
Thousands upon thousands of men were killed or wounded and thousands of people lost a family member. There were children who grew up without fathers, women who had to single-handedly support their families and all for nothing. The battle ended part way through November after five and a half months of fighting, yet the British had only advanced 5 miles. The British had 420,000 casualties, the French had 195,000 and the Germans had about 650,000; all those lives lost for only 5 miles.
The battle of the Somme was a controversial battle. The plan was concocted in order to drain the Germans of reserves and gain land. The French Commander in Chief created the idea of the Battle and The British Commander in Chief, Sir Douglas Haig agreed and the plan proceeded. Not all of the Allied leaders were supporters of this plan though. General Foch of the French army along with General Henry Rawlinson of Britain and many others believed the plan would fail. For eight days preceding the attack, the Allies bombed the German Front line. The goal of this was to destroy Germany’s defenses, so the Allies could easily take over their line. It was decided that a creeping barrage would precede the infantry during the takeover process. A creeping barrage is when a moving line of artillery fire is just before the infantry. The goal of this is to allow the infantry to take over enemy lines. The result of this attack was supposed to be an astounding victory for the Allies. Unfortunately for the Allies, there were some complications that changed the attack. A large proportion of the bombs they bombarded the German line with did not explode. In addition to this, the German defense was secure and the bombs failed to destroy the barbed wire and the concrete bunkers. Unknown to the Allies, the Germans stayed in the bunkers for the bombardment and survived. When the British soldiers began the attack they were laden down with supplies and moving extremely slowly toward the German line. Also, the surprise of the attack failed. This was because of the bombardment. The only thing that came out of it was that the Germans expected the attack; therefore, the Germans were ready with machine guns. The French had more success because they began their bombardment on the Southern tail of the line only hours before; therefore, they were able to surprise the Germans. Also, the German leader of that area believed that the French would not attack due to their heavy losses at Verdun. So, the French advanced forward in small groups and achieved some success. They did not, however, exploit these successes. At the end of the battle, the death toll was high. The British had 420,000 casualties, the French 200,000, and the Germans 500,000. For all these casualties the Allies did not even gain much ground. They only resulted with 12 kilometers of ground with days of slow movement forward and a massive death toll.
The Battle of the Somme in 1916 was the main Allied attack on the Western Front which resulted in the loss of 58,000 British troops on the first day of battle. This battle was fought between the Germans, the French, and the British in order to drive out the German Army which had been occupying large areas of French territory after their previous invasion. It all began after the French had been undergoing many severe losses at Verdun, where the Allied High Command wanted to attack the Germans to the north which would result in the Germans moving some of their troops away from the Verdun battlefield which would relieve the French for a while. The heads of the French and British armies both thought that the attack wouldn’t be the most optimal battle but they had to follow thorough with it since the army’s political powers in London and Paris forced them to make the battle take place. The Battle of Somme began with a week-long artillery bombardment of the German lines. About 1,738,000 shells were fired at the Germans since the Allies’ strategy was to destroy the German trenches and barbed wire which was in front of the trenches so they could have easier access. Field Marshall Haig even said: The enemy’s position to be attacked was of a very considerable character, situated on high, undulating tract of ground. They had deep trenches...bomb proof shelters...wire entanglements forty yards broad often as thick as a man’s finger. Defences of this nature could only be tattacked with the prospect of success after careful artillery preparation. (historylearningsite.co.uk) However, the Germans had dugouts for their men and once the bombardment started all they had to do was move their men to safety in these deep dugouts. They also decided that once these attacks stopped they would come out ready with their machine guns and fire upon the British and the French as they advanced across a 25-mile front. However the British and French armies pushed through the German lines and invaded their trenches and villages that they were occupying, which led to the Germans surrendering the battle. The end of the battle was in November 1916, after the British and French combined lost 620,000 men and the Germans lost 500,000. Both sides suffered severe loses but the British and French managed to capture more than five miles which was well short of their original goal. British historian Gary Sheffield said, “The battle of the Somme was not a victory in itself, but without it the entente would not have emerged victorious in 1918,” (spiritus-temporis.com) This battle overall has been recorded as one of the largest battles in World War 1 and became known as one of the bloodiest military operations ever recorded since it resulted in about 1.5 million casualties both sides combined.
The Battle of the Somme began July 1st 1916 and ended November 18th 1916. Today it is famous, mainly on account of the losses of 58,000 British troops on the first day of the battle, but also the first use of the tank. The battle consisted of an attack by the French and British armies against the German army.
At first Joseph Joffre, the French Commander-in-Chief, intended on only using French troops, but the German attack in February 1916 turned into an extensive British deviation attack. General Sir Douglas Haig took over the operation with the help of Sir Henry Rawlinson, they cane up with their own plan of attack. Their strategy was an eight-day preliminary bombardment (they believed it would destroy all German defenses).
The artillery bombardment was to firstly kill the German soldiers, and secondly to destroy the German barbed wire. This failed. The shells were not powerful enough to breakdown the dugouts, the shrapnel shells did not destroy the barbed wire fences, and it only made it more tangled and impassable. On July 1st at 7:30 am the whistles were blown and the men went onto No Man’s Land thinking that the Germans had been killed by the bombardment. They were massacred. So many British soldiers were falling dead; others were not able to climb over the bodies and advance. The British were only carrying pistols—in result they were unprepared, unarmed, and was chaos. The British commander decided to ignite a mine, but it failed to work. Instead it buried his own soldiers under a mound of soil and rocks.
At the end, November 18th, the battle had stopped. The British had taken only about six miles of land. The final casualties were: 195,000 French, 415,000 British, and about 600,000 Germans. The battle of the Somme was “The most gigantic, tenacious, grim, futile and bloody fight ever waged in the history of war,” said David Lloyd George, who was the first Welsh Prime Minister of the Untied Kingdom.
Commencing July 1st 1916 until November 1916, the battle, between Britain, France and Germany, symbolized the horrors of warfare in World War One. It was one of the largest battles of the war and by the time the battle ended, more than 1.5 million causalities had been recorded by the involved forces. The battle took place near the Somme River in France, in an effort to take back the territory the German troops had occupied.
The British and French troops had many more men than the German forces and easy victory was expected. The Allies’ plan was to bombard the German lines for a week, destroy their defense and then attack. They fired more than 1.6 million shells in only a week. However, the German defenses were greatly fortified with concrete bunkers and a front line of barbed wire. They took refugee in the bunkers while the Allies fired upon them. The Allies ran into another problem when most of their shells were defective and did not cause any damage. The Allies also freely talked about their battle plans and the Germans soon got wind of their plan to come “over the top” of the trench and storm the German lines.
The opening day of the battle resulted in the worst one day combat losses in British history, with almost 60,000 casualties. The Germans were expecting their every move and they brought out their machine guns when the Allies came out of the trench.
The Allies managed to infiltrate the German lines, which led to the surrender of the German army. After the battle had ended, the British had suffered 420,000 casualties, the French; 195,000 and the Germans, 650,000. They Allies had gained only 12 kilometers of land back. The battle was significant, not only because it one of the worst battles in World War One but also because it debuted the tank, which is now used in all modern warfare.
The Battle of the Somme began on July 1, 1916 and lasted over 5 months on the banks of the Somme River in France. It is what some historians call the most famous battle of World War I. The British and French were on the offensive, battling against the German army.
The Allied forces began planning for the battle in December of 1915. The Russians, Anglo-French, and the Italians were supposed to launch similar attacks on the other Central Powers at the same time as the British and French attacked the Germans. However, and unexpected attack on the French by the Germans in February of 1915 took up many French troops that were supposed to fight with the British at Somme. This made a significant effect on the outcome of the battle.
Another flaw in the strategy of the Allies was the fact that the Germans were fully aware of the impending attack. The Allies left them alone long enough for them to dig trenches and prepare for the battle, and when the Allies attacked, the Germans were more than ready.
On the opening day of the Battle of the Somme, mistakes and misinterpretations made by generals of the Allied armies proved to be fatal. There were mixed messages and information that led to troops advancing right in front of the German’s offenses, effectively wiping out most of the troops on the first day of battle. The German’s strong defenses and the Allies lack of strong weaponry was another major factor in the failure of the first day. The British ended up losing 57,470 men, with nearly 20,000 dead and 35,000 wounded, with thousand others missing or prisoner. Tragically, the Newfoundland Regiment and Tyneside Irish Brigade lost their entire contingents.
The next day, the Allied generals continued the battle, not pausing their attack for a second. After 5 months of fighting, neither side completed any of their objectives. The Allies did, however, advance 6 miles into the German occupied France, but there weren’t any new improvements to help them in their battle.
In the end, 623,907 Allied forces had perished in the battle and 465,000 German forces were killed. Neither side was victorious in the battle; the Allies did not complete any of their objectives and the Germans ended up retreated 40 miles away from the Somme. The Battle of the Somme is generally regarded as a complete failure, however British historian Gary Sheffield said, "The battle of the Somme was not a victory in itself, but without it the Entente would not have emerged victorious in 1918".
The Battle of the Somme took place from July 1, 1916 until November 18, 1916 on the banks of the Somme River in France. This battle is considered a major military tragedy. Britain, France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, and Newfoundland fought against Germany. Germany had been viciously attacking French forces at Verdun, and this battle was a result of the assault on Verdun. The Battle of Somme was meant to lessen the Germany forces at Verdun and redirect them to the north. The British planned on attacking north of the Somme for 15 miles. The French attacked along the south for 8 miles. The overconfident British generals prepared cavalry to run down Germans. This was an outdated, ineffective strategy, especially since many of the British troops were volunteers. In the first week of fighting, the allied troops shot over 1.5 million shells, yet the Germans held their ground. The Germans sought refugee underground in bomb shelters and waited for the fire to cease. The British Empire sustained approximately 420,000 causalities, whereas the French had 204,000 casualties. Germany shockingly lost 465,000 troops. This battle is significant because it is the bloodiest day in Britain’s history. On the first day of the battle, Britain suffered 60,000 casualties. This is the standing record for the most losses in a single day. This battle is criticized for its poor strategic planning. In addition, this was the first battle to utilize tanks. The German troops withdrew, but the allied forces only breached 7 miles deep at the most in to enemy territory. The battle ended in a stalemate.
The Battle of the Somme started on July 1st, 1916 and it was the British and French armies trying to destroy the entrenched German army. The Battle took place on the banks of the Somme River. This battle was one of the bloodiest because on the first day nearly 60,000 British soldiers died. One of the significances of the Battle of the Somme was that tanks were first used during this battle although they were not really effective.
General Douglas Haig and Henry Rawlinson were the two main people who commanded the attack but the Battle of the Somme did not turn out well. Haig’s strategy was to have a preliminary bombardment in hopes to deplete the German forces. The bombardment plan did not work because the Germans had barbed wire and concrete bunkers. General Douglas Haig’s reputation was ruined by the battle because so many people died and the battle was ineffective. At the end of the war, the furthest the allies penetrated into Germany was about six to eight miles and the allies had failed to capture many of their objectives. The Battle of the Somme is an important battle because many soldiers died in the battle and tanks were first seen in warfare during the battle.
The Battle of Somme took place from July 1 to November 13 of 1916. The battle was fought between the British and French on one side, and Germans on the other. The battle took place in France, and is remembered as one of the largest, most violent battles of the First World War. This was due to the major death toll the fighting countries suffered. The British faced 420,000 casualties, the French 200,000, and the German forces nearly 500,000.
Joseph Joffre, the commander-in-chief of the French army, initially saw the battle as an opportunity to drain the German forces of reserves, while gaining territory. Later, General Sir Douglas Haig and comrade Sir Henry Rawlinson took over the operation, and decided to schedule an eight-day attack, hoping to destroy all German troops. Their plan was to use artillery to destroy the German barbed wire, and then kill the troops. However, their weapons were not strong enough to achieve that level of damage on the Germans.
When the French ignorantly believed they killed the Germans, they entered no man’s land, and were then brutally attacked. The Germans then killed a successful 58,000 British soldiers on the very first day. By the end of the battle in November, the British had only captured about six miles of land. The Battle of Somme was known as one of the bloodiest battles in war history.
The battle of Somme occurred from July 1 to November 18 in the year 1916. It took place on both sides of the River of the Same Name and was an attack on the Germans by the British and French. German had occupied large areas of France previous to this battle and the French were fighting against this occupation. This battle caused sever casualties on all sides, but none more so than the British who actually set a record for the most men lost in one day of battle when 60,000 of their men were killed in a day. The battle had been planned in a conference between the allies in December of 1915 as a preliminary attack to make a rift in the German line, drain the army of resources, and possibly recover lost French cities and towns. The battle was supposed to leave the forward German defenses stunned by the ferocity and suddenness of the attack so the Allies could literally just walk right in and take control of the entire German front line. When the Germans took a slightly different position than was expected, the French and British armies went on to wage the battle anyhow. Right away the attack did not go as planned. The British artillery, used in large quantities, failed to take down the German defenses. Many of the bombs launched into the German line never detonated and the first step of the plan proved a failure. The Germans had effectively built concrete hideouts to protect themselves from the bombing and, once the bombing stopped, utilized their machine guns to the greatest extent. This was when the British suffered heavy casualties for they had no effective
defense against the machine guns since they had not been prepared for any attack after their bombardment. In addition, the British attack was meant to surprise the Germans, but instead was not kept quiet at all leaving the German army completely aware when and where the attack would take place. The French army, attacking from a different place, had more success since the German army did not expect the French to attack because of the casualties they had suffered in the Battle of Verdun. There success was not capitalized upon, however, and made little difference. This battle, in later days, was the first battle to utilize tanks though they had little effect. The battle came to an end when the leader of the British troops called off the onslaught in order to help the French in Verdun. Though the British suffered severely, it is said that this battle was a great lesson for them on military strategy and planning and would strengthen them in the long run. Some historians claim the battle was a total failure because of the inflexibility of the attack and the directness. Other historians say that the battle was necessary for the eventual triumph of the allies.
The Battle of the Somme became one of the costliest engagements of the First World War. During the summer of 1916, the line trenches of the Western Front stretched from the English Channel across the France and Swiss border
The Battle of the Somme took place during the First World War, between July 1st and November 18th 1916. The battle symbolizes the horrors of warfare during the First World War. This particular battle marked the effect on overall casualty figures and seemed to be the futility of trench warfare. British campaigns received a large amount of criticism for the way the Battle of the Somme was fought. The British Army suffered 420,000. The French lost 200,00, and the Germans almost 500,000.
The Battle at the Somme started at the German lines. It was planned as a joint of the French and British operations. The original idea came from the French Commander in Chief, Joseph Joffre. Among the French troops waiting to assault the German trenches, was an American named Alan Seeger. Seegar was an astounding poet of his time, who joined the French foreign Legion in order to defend his beloved country. The bombardment failed to destroy either on the barbed wire or the concrete bunkers, which protected the German soldiers. This gave the Germans the ability to exploit their good defensive positions on higher ground. The British and French troops attacked on July 1st at 7:30am. There as a third of the BEF killed, which marked the worse day in history of the British Army. The battle ended when allied forces pushed through German lines, destroying theirs defenses. German forces surrendered, which made the war officially declared as over. The uses of trench warfare become the battle’s significance. The battle focused on capturing the trenches and artillery fire, to disable them.
The Battle of Somme occurred in Somme, France from July 1st to November 18th in 1916. The battle consisted of the French and the British fighting offensively against the Germans. The Allies, in December 1915, planed to make a concentrated effort against the Central Powers. The Battle of the Somme was going to be the English and French contribution to the attack. The goal was to make a hole in the German line which would than be exploited and attacked by the Allied forces. There would also be other offensive attacks in the East and the Alps to attack the Central Powers on all sides. The overall goal was to give a decisive blow against the central that might end the war.
The Battle of Somme is considered to be one of the bloodiest battles every recorded in history. The whole battle led to about 1.5 million casualties. The opening day was the beginning of this horrid battle. On July 1st, 1916 the British lost the most soldiers in one day, 60,000 men, than in their whole recorded history. The British officers were criticized for accumulating such loses on the first day without reaching any of their substantial goals.
The Battle of Somme ended on November 18th, 1916. The outcome of the battle has never been truly decided as there were extreme losses on both sides. The French and British pushed the German line back about 7 miles, much shorter than their goal. The British themselves only gained 2 miles. They lost 420,000 men in the process. The French lost about 200,000 men while the Germans lost 465,000 men.
This battle was important for three major reasons. The first reason was because of the major losses that both sides had. This would weaken both the Allies and the Central Powers. Another reason this battle is significant is that it was the first battle that a tank was used. The third and probably the most important reason this battle was significant was that it showed how much help, like the Americans, the Allies would need to win this war against the equally strong Central Powers.
The Battle of the Somme This battle was primarily a battle between the British, French, and German forces in the Somme region of France that occurred from July 1st 1916 to November 18th . The allied strategy was primarily to have the British attack on a 15-mile front to the north of Somme with eight French divisions attacking on an eight-mile stretch to the south. The British were overconfident, basing their plans on the fact that they had fought in trench warfare for nearly two years. They even left a cavalry unit ready, assuming that the retreating German forces could be caught more easily on horseback. The battle if the Somme did not turn out as the British expected. It is, even today, the bloodiest day in the history of British warfare. It was the first major offensive mounted by the British forces and, although the French portion of the battle was a success for the allies, their part in the battle was chiefly overshadowed by the heavy losses of the British. Before the battle, the British sent a weeklong barrage of artillery fire, assuming this would destroy the Germans in their trenches. They failed to take into account, however, that the Germans had built bomb shelters in their trenches, so that once the barrage started they simply went underground and waited. When the barrage stopped, the British soldiers were ordered to advance slowly in order to maintain discipline. Thos gave the Germans plenty of time to reach defensive positions in their machine gun turrets. Few British units even reached the German defenses, and those that did were easily pushed back by the Germans. The battle ended in what was essentially a stalemate. The British and French forces captured, at the best, seven miles of territory. On the other hand this was easily counteracted by the British gain of only two miles and a loss of hundreds of thousands of men.
1916, the Battle of the Somme started on July 1st. The plan was for the British and French armies to drain the German forces of their reserve and to create a whole in the German line. The Allies wanted to take control over the channel ports, and the North Sea because the German U-boats were attacking Britain. The attacked was planned to be preformed north of the Somme River between Arras and Albert. General Sir Henery Rawlinson’s overall belief was that there would be a clear breakthrough of a distance of 7 miles to Bapaume. He was thinking that the first week he would use 1 million shells in order to make this possible. Then he decided that the Allies would be split up in to 22 divisions that would pass through all the German barriers. On the German side they were constructing extensive trench that could with stand any artillery barrage. The battle started and the British completely overwhelmed the German trenches and they captured over 3,000 Germans. However, just on the 1st day of battle 58,000 British troops were killed. This was the 1st battle were the tank was used. The entire battle lasted until November18, of the same year. In the end the British and the French captured 7 miles into France, with a total loss of 420,000 soldiers, the British didn’t walk away with a smile on there face. This battle showed the horrors of warfare due to the number of losses compared to how much land they got. The British had lost 420,000, the French lost nearly 200,000 men and the Germans 500,000 with the Allies only getting 7 miles of land, many people thought the battle should have never taken place. The use of the tank made it a new objective for the countries to get the newest and best weapons.
The Battle of the Somme was one of the largest battles in World War I, fought in the Somme region of Southern France, pitting English-French Coalition Forces against the Germany army. The offensive was headed by the French army with the purpose of breaking through the German lines so troops could be positioned behind German forces leading to what they had hoped would be a fast victory. Due to the recent German attack on Verdun, French troops were relocated and the British Army assumed the leading role in the assault.
Because of how Britain’s military was structured, recruits from the same areas were grouped together much like how they were in the American Civil War. The biggest flaw in this idea was if one regiment or platoon was completely wiped out, the town they were from suffered greatly from the lack of able young males.
The very first day of the conflict proved to be more horrific then anyone could have envisioned. More then 20% of the entire British fighting force was slaughtered, an estimated near 60,000 troops fell in just a mere twenty-four hours of fighting. Just this one day had unfeasible consequences on many of Britain’s towns, such as Newfoundland where it’s male population was decimated and created a very appalling social climate.
After carrying on the fight for just under three months, the harsh winter urged a withdrawal of a large number of personal and a halting of aggressive drives against the German front line. The British commanding officer, General Douglas Haig hailed the whole plan as a success, it is to be noted that at the time causality reports were inaccurately reported for Germany, leading the British to believe they had slain far more Germans (over 200,000 more) then was true.
The conclusion of the battle being a negative or position one is widely open for debate. With a gain of just over 10 klicks, the British/French coordinated assault failed to push back German lines the desired amount, and at the cost of over three quarters of a million casualties. Some historians view the Battle of the Somme as a necessary conflict, ultimately having a profound effect on the war, but there are even splinter groups among this side. A view propose that the 400,000+ German casualties weakened the army beyond repair, which though a considerable number, still isn’t a significant enough portion of Germany’s military might to have such a drastic effect. Others believe that the battle helped bolster Britain’s place in the Coalition, though this is more likely due to economic and industrial vigor.
Theorized significance aside, the Battle of the Somme was a prominent part of the war on the Western Front, despite the lack of distinguishable advancements made. The sheer number of death on both sides makes the Battle of the Somme one of the largest conflicts of World War I and certainly a contender for the bloodiest.
The Battle of Somme took place July 1st 1916 and lasted four months until the 18th of November. The fighting took place between the Germans and the British and French Empire near the Somme River. There were two German commanders, Fritz von Below and Max von Gallwitz, and for the opposing side there was both a French and British leader, Ferdinand Foch and Douglas Haig. This war, as did many others during World War I, required trench warfare. The German were continuously searching and attempting to capture the British and French trenches.
The Battle of Somme took place on French land. This battle is known for having a significant number of casualties, approximately 58,000 of the British troops, on the first day of fighting. This drastically altered their forces leaving them with only two thirds of their troops; however, they still continued strong as the battle progressed. For the 1st week of the battle, there was constant firing upon the German forces.
After months of battling, sometime in November, winter began and caused difficulty for the British troops. It brought harsh weather, making battle difficult on snowy terrain and hindered their progress; however, they still continued to endure.
In total, the British and French alliance was able to move forward 6 miles into German territory. The total casualties for the British troops combined with the French troops were approximately 620,000 soldiers. The German forces lost around 500,000 soldiers causing a decrease in the male portion of the population.
Overall, this battle had the most casualties of any battle fought during World War I. The Battle at Somme caused controversy and still does to this day. It caused many individuals to question the ethics involved in having such a large number of deaths for a battle and if it was worth the 6 miles that were gained throughout the course of this fight.
Beginning on July 1st, 1916, the Battle of the Somme was one of the most famous battles of the fist World War. It took place around the Somme River and Northern Verdun. The German Army had seized large territories of France, and the French believed it was time to fight back. France, with Britain by its side, decided to attack the German Army and force them to the north of Verdun. Achieving this would allow an ease on the French side after months of defeat. The Allied strategy was a joint effort attack from the French and Britain Armies to cause a break in the German line and force them to retreat from Verdun to save Somme. The Allied forces had envisioned that this fierce, sudden attack would be completely overpowering, that they would be able to completely demolish the German defenses and be able to take over the utterly shocked the German front line. Their goal was to win back land, while diminishing German power. They planned on using trench warfare and continuously firing over one million shells at the enemies until they were able to seize their desired territory. The first day of the battle, July 1st, began a gruesome, dreadful battle that would last for three long months. This day was considered to be the British’s bloodiest day in all of history. They suffered 19,240 deaths of soldiers and over 57,000 casualties. This now meant that war was not a game; that there was going to be a lot of suffering and sacrifice for their countries.
After much disaster and destruction, on November 13th 1916, the Battle of the Somme was abandoned. This 3-month fight resulted in Allied forces gained a mere 6 miles of land at most. The casualties from the battle were severe; the British endured 420,000, the French had 200,000, and the German had 500,000.
The significance of this horrific incident is the fact that it demonstrates how the war is not at all as easy nor successful as imagined. The Allies had thought that gaining the territory at Somme would be short and successful, although it ended being a complete failure and the bloodiest battle in history.
The Battle of the Somme was a battle fought between Allied forces of Britain and France and German forces. It began July 1st, 1916. The allied strategy was to bombard the German lines with heavy artillery fire. Since the German were supposed by the British to be in trenches, this was formulated to kill off much of the opposing force and destroy their barbed wire defenses. Infantry would then breach the weakened German lines. Then using the holes in the German lines, Allied cavalry would punch through and a decisive victory would be had by the Allies.
The battle in fact ran a little differently than the Allies has suspected. The Germans had deep dugouts for their troops and all they had to do was sit in relative safety and wait for the bombardment to end. Though the artillery fire lasted for a week, the Germans were ready when it finally stopped. They knew that the cease of fire meant that the infantry was moving in. They took up their guns and the battle commenced.
The Allied forces advanced on the British lines in a 25 mile long stretch. The bloody battle lasted for months, ending finally in November 1916. Britain lost 420,000 men, the French 200,000, and the Germans nearly 500,000. The Allies, at a cost of 88,000 men for every one mile, advanced in a 30 mile stretch that at maximum was 7 miles into previously held enemy territory.
Most of the effects of this battle were, surprisingly, not directly about war. The battle’s main impact was a social one. English began to call the men lost part of a “Lost Generation.” The term shows the English’s feeling that some of the best and brightest of their generation and nation were being destroyed by the war. The Battle of the Somme is also argued to have been more damaging to the Germans. One German casualty is thought of greater strategic importance that a British one because of two reasons. First, the German army was experienced while the British was virtually inexperienced, so a German fighter dead was more damaging to his army than a Brit to his. Second, there were simply more British to fill the trenches with than there were Germans.
All in all, the Battle of the Somme was bloody, shocking, and little else.
The Battle of the Somme, or the Somme Offensive, was an extended battle between the combined British and French forces and Germany that took place between July and November of 1916. The Somme Offensive was to be part of an overall Allied assault upon the Central Powers, with Russia attacking from the east and Italy from the south. The British artillery shelled the German trenches for the entire week leading up to the mass assault, but the gunners were inaccurate and the German trenches were well fortified, meaning that the Germans were almost entirely unharmed and they were alerted to the possibility of an attack. When the British rose out of their trenches to assault the Germans, they were utterly massacred, and in the few places where the British did manage to take the German trenches they were quickly driven back. The British losses were absolutely horrendous, nearing almost 60,000 casualties in just the first day of fighting. The only major gains for the Allied forces were made by the French in the southernmost area of the fighting, where they managed to take nearly 6 miles of German territory while suffering relatively few losses themselves. The fighting went back and forth for a few more months, but little territory was gained or lost, and in the end the total casualties on both sides numbered more than a million. The Battle of the Somme is important for two reasons. The first is that in the battle the Germans had employed the majority of their best trained, fittest, and highest caliber troops, meaning that with their loss the Germans could not match the more economically and industrially powerful nation of Britain in such a stalemated war of attrition. The second reason why the Battle of the Somme is important is that the very first tanks were employed by the British in the battle. They were designed to break through enemy trenches, as they were immune to barbed wire and enemy small arms fire, though they were very vulnerable to artillery. Though these first models were very unreliable and unwieldy to operate, they represent a major step forward in military technology, and after improvements in tank technology tanks made trench warfare almost entirely obsolete in World War II and other modern conflicts, making them very important to history.
As if World War I was not damaging enough, in July 1916, The Battle of the Sommes took place. The Battle of the Sommes, or Bataille de la Sommes (French) was a battle between the British and French armies against Germany. Germany already had taken control of much of France since 1914. Allied representatives which included Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, and Newfoundland, agreed on a joined attack against the Central forces. On the first day of battle, the British army suffered 60,000 casualties, making it the worst one-day loss in history. At the end of the battle, the French and British armies had not regained any land that Germany had previously taken over in France. Before this attack was in order, Germany did not see Britain as a threat. They did not see them as sustaining military power over Germany; however, Germany did see Russia and France as a possible military threat. It does not seem possible to say that either of the sides had a victory. The British and French captured no more than 7 miles of land. The British only gained about 2 miles, and ended up losing 420,000 soldiers. I do not see 7 miles in success and over 420,000 deaths a beneficial battle.
The Battle of the Somme was representative of the horrors of World War I. The battle involved a team effort by the British and the French vs. the Germans. The goal was to drain the German troops of resources and to capture the territory. The offensive would be lead mostly by the French army while the goal of the British army was to assist and relieve. However, this strategy changed as the French suffered gruesome defeats at Verdun and the German Army Chief of Staff, von Falkenhayn promised to 'bleed France white”. The French decided to redirect the intent of the battle in order to distract German troops and resources from Verdun in order to defend the Somme. This would create a temporary state of weakness on the two fronts, theoretically making for an easy win for the allies. The plan was preluded by eight days of bombarding the German front lines and trenches. The hope was that the fierce pre-attack would wear down the German defense. This would allow the British troops to sweep through “No-man’s land” and capture the German front lines. Then a “creeping barrage” would scout the German front before the attack took place. The British Army had prepared a system of telephone cables for quick and efficient communication. This enabled the Creeping Barrage to communicate with the rest of the army and share observations. However, all this planning was in vain because the first day of the battle resulted in horrible casualties. 750,000 troops (80% of whom were British) attacked on July 1st. The events were in the allies’ favor but one unseen blunder ruined the whole plan. The advanced artillery blitz failed to break through the German front lines of barbed wire and concrete bunkers. Most of the ammunition malfunctioned and did not go off. These “duds” laid uselessly on the battlefield, inflicting no damage and severely handy-capping the allied forces. The allies did not know of this and continued the attack. The Germans, now fully prepared were waiting for them with machine guns. However, the Germans were not expecting the surprise attack from the French because they did not believe that the French had the nerve to fight while being humiliated at Verdun. Unfortunately, they did expect the British and the failed plan lead to a terrific onslaught. The overall outcome of this farce battle was a total of 1,120,000 casualties, a monumental death toll for only 8 miles of territory.
The Battle of The Somme was a prolonged battle between the combined French and British armies against the German army. The battle is among the deadliest in military history, with a death toll in excess of 1.5 million. It was a large battle in WWI, taking place in the Somme region of France between July and November of 1916. The battle was part of an allied offensive, based upon a strategy to punch a hole in the German line. During the battle, the British penetrated 6 miles into German territory, but failed to complete many of their objectives. It is noteworthy in that is was the first use of the tank in battle. The opening day of the battle ended with the death of more than 60,000 British causalities. The battle began at 7:20 AM on July 1, 1916, with a British Officer detonating a mine 10 minutes before the designated start of the battle. The British sustained severe causalities throughout the battle, but succeeded in eventually penetrating the German lines. During the first ten days of the battle, the French army managed to penetrate the German line and take over 12,000 prisoners. During that time, the British sustained heavy causalities, and made very little progress. The battle ended with the conclusion of the battle of Ancre, and both sides held their positions. The battle is met with mixed reception by historians. Some view it as an abject failure on the part of the British and French, while others feel that it was useful in developing Allied tactics and strategy. Little was accomplished with the battle, but it did serve to develop tactics that would later be used.
The Battle of the Somme took place during the First World War between July 1st and November 18th 1916 in the Somme department of France. The battle consisted of the British and French armies against the German Army. The battle of the Somme was one of the largest battles of the First World War. By the time fighting had ended in late autumn 1916 more than 1.5 million casualties had suffered by the forces involved. Ten minutes prior to zero hour, an officer detonated a 40,000-pound mine beneath Hawthorn Ridge Redoubt. It is difficult to declare the Battle of the Somme a victory for either side. The British and French captured little more than 7-miles at the deepest point of infiltration far short of their original objectives. The British themselves had gained approximately only two miles and lost about 420,000 soldiers in the process. A group of British historians argue that the battle was a disaster; arguing that the Battle of the Somme delivered more benefits for the British than it did for the Germans. Prior to the battle, Germany had regarded Britain as a naval power and discounted her as a military force to be reckoned with, believing Germany's major enemies were France and Russia. According to some historians, starting with the Somme, Britain began to gain influence in the coalition.
The battle of Somme took place in France on the western front between the Allies and the Germans. This battle started in July 1916 and ended in December of the same year. This is one of the most famous battles of world war one for its trench warfare and high casualties. In this war 420,000 British troops were lost, 200,000 French soldiers were lost and 500,000 German soldiers were lost. This battle was highly criticized for its large number of casualties, especially on the Allies side. The aim of this tragic battle was to drain the Germans of their supplies leading to the death of many troops with a second ulterior motive of achieving more territory. Haig, the British commander in chief, created a plan to defeat the first line of German defense giving British troops enough time to cross no mans land. This was to be a combined effort from both the British and the French armies. The previous battle of Verdun had drained many of the French soldiers leaving most of the offensive fighting to the British. This led to the great loss that Britain suffered the first day of battle on July 1st. On this first day the plan of taking down the Germans first line of defense failed drastically, because the many bombs that the allies had thought to have gone off actually did not ever deploy. Much to the allies horror the German line and barbed wire and trenches, which they thought they had destroyed, were intact when the troops marched across towards the German line. The German army slaughtered these brave British soldiers. 58,000 men died that first day. In the end the large death toll only added up to around 12 kilometers for the allies. That was all that was achieved for over one million people who died in that battle. This battle is the epitome of trench warfare and caused much controversy over the tactics of the commanders of both the British and the French. Some argue that many less would have died if the officers had been more flexible in the offensive. The battle showed the true stalemate that came out of trench warfare and how hopeless the war seemed. The battle of Somme was extremely violent and both the allies and the Germans lost many in a battle, which gained no ground.
The mastermind behind the French invasion was Joseph Joffre. His motive was mostly leant toward weakening the German dominating infantry. The French army of 750,000 troops was not enough manpower to destroy the German defense. Eighty percent of which were part of the British Expeditionary Force
After the first ten days of battle, the French moved 6 miles forward. They also took control of the Flaucourt Plateau, while carrying 12,000 prisoners of war.
One of the leaders of the French was Commander in Chief, Haig. Haig took responsibility for planning the attack against the German trenches European territory.
The Battle of the Somme was the most massive and influential campaign during World War I. The battle took place during July 1st to November 18th, 1916. The battle involved Britain, Germany, and France. In the beginning of the battle, Britain and France broke through the German defense and pushed the German force to the France-Germany boarder. The allies fought the German at the area of the river of Somme; the total number of casualties was 300,000. The battle of the Somme was the most severe trench warfare in WWI and it was the first time tank was used in battle.
This battle was extremely controversial at the time; the plan was created by the French commander Ferdinand Foch and agreed by the British commander Douglas Haig. Even though most of the generals under their control believed the plan would fail and the allies will eventually lose a tremendous amount of soldiers. But in the end the plan still went on because of the two commanders believe the plan will be a big success and a good chance to gain land.
At June 24th, the British army prepared 1400 cannon and fired intensely at the German trenches for a week. Until July 1st, British had already fired 1,500,000 shells, hoping to destroy the German trenches and the bob wire. The bombs did not do much to the German trenches due to the fact that 1,000 out of 1,400 cannons were field artillery, which has flat shooting angle so the shells cannot go into the trenches and a lot of the bombs did not explode. After one week of bombarding, the British attacked the German trenches through the no-man zone. The British army lost 57,000 men in this action due to the fact that the British army “surprisingly” attacked the German trenches with heavy gear and big group so the group was an easy target for the German Maxim machine guns. The British force captured the first three German trenches, but latter on the German reinforcement took the trenches back with machine guns. On the other hand, the French army had a much more successful action. Their plan succeeded because their bombs actually “worked” and exploded into the German trenches. Unlike the British, the French force attacked the German just hours after the bombarding and they separated the force into small groups with light gears.
In the end of this battle, the causality rate was high. The German had 500,000 causalities, British had 420,000, and French had 200,000. This battle was not a successful battle for the allies because after losing all these soldiers, they only gained 10 kilometers of land back. Worth it? I don’t think so.
13 days long. Eight countries versus one. Both banks of the somme river 1.25 casualties. This is one of the bloodiest battles in human history summed up in four sentences. The allied forces, the UK, France, Canada, Austria, India, South Africa, Newfoundland, and New Zealand, instigated a battle against the German Empire on the first day of June 1916. 10 minutes prior to zero hour a mine was detonated by the allies beneath the Hawthorne Ridge Redoubt Bridge and so began the battle. The Battle of Somme was intended to gain land for the allied sides and deplete the german resources. The plan went wrong because the Germans planned for the attack and were able to create concrete fortifications. The highly inefficient shells that the allies fired often did not detonate and when they did detonate were blocked by the concrete barricades. The ill equipped allies were essentially asking the german machine gunners to pick them off five at a time. The battle resulted with no clear victor, yet the allies gained about 12 miles of land.
The battle of Somme was a famous battle that happened during the First World War fought by the British and French against the German Army. The battle was fought in the Somme department of France on banks of the Somme River. The Germans began invading France in August 1914; this is often considered to be the largest battle in the First World War. By the time the battle had finally finished in 1916 there were almost 1.5 million casualties suffered by each one of the opposing sides. The plan for the Somme offensive evolved out of Allied strategic discussions at Chantilly, Oise in 1915. The allied representatives agreed on an offensive against the central powers in 1916 by the French, British, Italian and Russian offensive. The Somme offensive was supposed to be the Anglo-French contribution to the offensive it was supposed to rupture the German line which can then be used to deliver a decisive blow to the army. The first day of the battle the British army suffered the worst one day combat loss in history with nearly 60,000 casualties. The British army was comprised of many local men that volunteered to serve , many of them were lost the first day. This battle is also famous because it was the first battle in which tanks were used, tanks were created to be able to withstand heavy fire from all directions and still be able to attack. At the end of the battle the British army penetrated 6 miles into German occupied territory; they failed to capture any French towns and hardly captured any objectives at all. The battle basically served as a warning to the allies that the German army was powerful and well put together.
The Battle of Somme took place from July 1st 1916 to November 1916 in the Somme province of France. The battle was between the Allies and the central powers. The Allies consisted of the English and the French and the central powers were the German Army. There were a total of 620,000 casualties. The Allies planned to go against the German powers and defeat them and then kick them out of Germany. The battle mostly consisted of trench warfare. The British planned a bombardment of the German lines. The plan was to infiltrate the German trenches after their defenses had been reduced to nothing after the attack. They were going to travel through no mans land, out of the British trenches, to get to the German trenches. However, the Germans had built bunkers deep beneath the surface to seek refuge from the attack. When the British believed they had destroyed the Germans, the advanced forward toward the trenches. However, the French and English forces were driven back by German machine guns. The first day of battle there were over 60,000 British casualties. At the end of the battle, the Allied forces had gone approximately six miles into German Territory. The battle ended in late November when the British and French forces finally pushed into German lines. The British suffered 420,000 losses and the French lost about 195,000 troops. The Germans lost 650,000 troops. The significance of the Battle of Somme is that an unexpectedly large number of troops were lost. This battle is considered to be one of the worst battles fought during World War I.
The Battle of the Somme lasted from the first of July 1916 until the 18th of November the same year. The battlefield spanned 30 kilometers between Ares and Albert on the northern end of the Somme River. The battle was fought on French territory by the French and English alliance versus the Germans. Britain and France were on the offensive.
The first shot of the battle was fired at 7:20 am on July 1st, 1916, 10 minutes prior to the intended start time which has been referred to as zero hour. The first movement by the British against the Germans was an offensive that targeted 17 mines. The Hawthorn Ridge Rodoubt was the first to be blown to smitherines by artillery laid under the building. The French ordered this previous bombardment to lay ground for their attack of the German front line. French Commander in Chief, Joffre and British Commander in Chief Sir Douglas Haig planned the mine attacks to precede the main offensive move and distract the Germans. Preparations for this attack began in June of 1916 and the bombardment itself began on June 24th.
A fighting force of 750,000 men was involved in the attack; A total of 27 divisions, 8o%of which were from the British force took part in it. The British appeared to have numbers on their side and an obvious advantage. However, the Battle of the Somme would not become known as a victory. The Battle of the Somme would become known as a battle that in fact took the lives of 58,000 British troops.
The plan started downhill when the artillery bombardment failed to harm the German front line. The bombardment did not destroy the German bunkers or the barbed wire fences that protected their front line. Also, a majority of the British ammunition were badly constructed and ineffective so did not go off and furthermore brought no harm or crippling to the enemy. In addition to the unsuccessful execution, word of the planned attack had already spread around French towns and did not evade the ears of the Germans. When the British forces attacked, they did not know that their artillery bombardment had failed. The troops ran directly to the enemy's front line where the Germans were waiting, prepared for the British advance. The British troops failed to make any progress at that location as the Germans remained safe behind their barbed wire and in bunkers so the allies focused their forces farther south. The British faired better here than before due to their own solid bunkers however as soon as the British soldiers began an approach towards the Germans they became easy targets and were soon detonated my the enemy's machine guns.
In September the French and British attempted another attack south near the Somme for which they rolled out tanks. The battle began at 6:20 the morning of the first. The British gained ground at that location but were not successful. The offensive came to an end on the 18th of November. Overall, the British and French had gained only 12 kilometers on the Germans during their advance yet had lost the lives of 420,00 British casualties joined by 200,000 French casualties. The Germans lost roughly 500,00 men.
The Battle of the Somme took place in the First World War on July 1st and ended on November 18th 1916. It took place on both sides of the river. One side contained the British and French armies who were against the German army. In this battle, there were 620,000 casualties, 100 tank losses, and 782 aircrafts lost.
The plan for the British and French (offence) in the battle of Somme was to create a breach or break in the German line. Then they could wipe out the German line in a single but effective blow. This plan had to change when the Germans attacked Verdun. So, the British army led the attack while the French army added to the force.
On July 1st 1916 (the first day of the battle) the British army suffered the worst one-day combat losses in its history. On this first day, the British army lost 60,000 solders. A large percentage of the men that were willing to go to war were lost on that first day.
By the end of the battle, the British and the French army penetrated 6 miles into the German territory. Even though they made a dent in the German forces, they were still far away from winning any battle. The British and French army succeeded in driving the German forces back, but they didn’t recapture any territory that was under the German’s control. They got close to taking back the French towns named Bapaume and Le Transloy, but the Germans managed to keep hold the towns. In the end, the battle didn’t turn out the way that the British high command thought it would.
The overall significance of this battle for the British and French army was that the failure that they experienced led to possible success in the future. This possible success that could be achieved in the future was because the British and French army could have learned more about the German tactics and operations that were used to fight them off; so they could incorporate those tactics with their own for future battles. Overall, this battle of Somme was and still is one of the bloodiest military operations ever to take place.
The Battle of Somme began on July 1st of 1916, and lasted over four months. The battle originated from a joint offensive by both Britain and France. The idea was not only to gain territory, but also destroy as much German manpower as possible. Previously, Germany had invaded and taken much French land that France wanted back. Though it was mainly France, therefore, that had the motivation to attack and rupture the German front lines, Britain chose to take a major part in the battle as well.
On the first day of the battle of Somme, the Germans set off a huge 40,000 pound mine and killed a mass of British soldiers. On the first day, the british lost over 57,000 men.
Technically, France’s plan worked. They pushed Germany back 10 kilometers into their own territory and killed about 500,000 men. Therefore, many consider the battle a victory for the Allies. However, they also lost 620,000 people, 100 tanks, and 782 aircraft. The battle’s significance was that it was one of the four bloodiest battles of all time (following the Battle of Stalingrad and the Brusilov Offensive, and Operation Barbarossa). It was immensely devastating to both sides. Nearly all German soldiers died, and about half of the allies (which consisted of the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, and Newfoundland) perished.
This battle was also significant because it was the first use of tanks in battle. The British used the tanks were used frequently to destroy German machine guns. Although the early tanks were fairly unreliable, they proved helpful in supporting the ally soldiers and destroying the German trenches.
Between November 13 and 18, the allies made a final attack on the Germans. The attack was for political purposes so that they could report a success. On the 18th, they attacked the Munich and Frankfurt Trenches and the 45 surviving Germans surrendered.
The Battle of Somme began on July 1, 1916 and ended on November 18, 1916. It was named as it took place by a river sharing the same name. The battle was fought by the British and French (who were on the same side) and the Germans on the western front. On the first day of the battle, there were around 20,000 deaths and 40,000 injuries on Britain’s side alone which still remains a one-day record recored even to this day. On top of the startling number of casualties, it is also significant because it was the first trench battle to use tanks.
Britain’s military had a similar structure to those in America’s Civil War as recruits from areas close together were grouped together. However, it one of these groups was wiped out, that city now had a much smaller number of young men.
The strategy was to bombard the Germans with several heavy rounds of artillery fire. As the British assumed that the German forces were in trenches, this was believed to be able to kill off a large portion of the opposing forces and they would then proceed to break through the remaining defenses. However, the trenches that the Germans were waiting in for the week of fire were very deep. After the fire ended, they knew that the wave of troops would soon follow and they were ready for them.
In the end, the British lost 420,000 men, the French lost 200,000, and the Germans almost 500,000. Despite these heavy losses, only seven miles of land were gained. That’s nearly 160,000 men lost per mile gained.
The Battle of Somme took place between July of 1916 to December of the same year and was on the banks of the Somme River. Considered one of the largest battles of WWI, over 1.5 million deaths had occurred by autumn of that year. The battle was mainly fought by the British and French armies against the German army. The cause of the battle had been an ambush on the French at the Battle of Verdun which resulted in the losses of many French soldiers. In the previous year, the generals of the Allied forces began planning an attack. The strategy they had decided on was mainly an offensive one. During that conference the generals decided that the Russians would take the East side, the Italians would hide in the Alps, and the French would cover the Western front, thereby attacking the enemy from all sides. The British, however, attacked from the sea to keep the German U-boats away from Britain. This strategy, in theory, would be the ideal attack plan to defeat the Germans, but the Germans attacked the French troops in February of that year, crippling the power of the Allies and forcing them to rethink their strategy. This setback allowed to Germans to regroup and prepare for the upcoming battle. In order to deal with the overwhelming numbers, the Germans built trenches in order to strengthen their defense. Whenever the enemy would attacked, the Germans could just duck into the holes they had dug for themselves to avoid the brunt of the attack, and when they barrage was over they would come out with machine guns ready to retaliate. The British and French armies’ goal was to advance over a twenty-five mile front, but the Germans did not make this an easy task. After dealing with the Germans, the British and French had a combined loss of 620,000 men, while the Germans only lost 500,000. Even though both sides lost a great number of soldiers, the Germans ended up surrendering, but the British and French were only able to advance five miles into German territory. In fact, British historian Gary Sheffield said, "The battle of the Somme was not a victory in itself, but without it the Entente would not have emerged victorious in 1918". This battle has been considered by many historians to be one of the bloodiest military operations ever recorded, and one of the largest battles of WWI.
The Battle of the Somme took place in France on either side of the Somme River, where British and French troops attacked German trenches from July 1 and November 18, 1916. Originally, the British and French command planned for this battle to be a decisive blow to German troops, intended to kill, wound, and demoralize the soldiers in the area. This battle was actually just a part of a massive Allied offensive planned in Chantilly intended to attack the Central Powers from all sides, with other components being a Russian attack on the Eastern front and an Italian attack through the Alps. The British-French forces planned to attack by launching a massive artillery attack on the German trenches, firing over a million shells and paving the way for “the infantry…to walk over to take possession.” (Rawlinson)
Plans began to fall awry a few months before “Zero Hour” (set at 7:30 am on July 1) when the Germans attacked the French unrelentingly at Verdun. The battle’s intent became more to relieve the pressure on France than to utterly defeat the Germans, but British leaders remained optimistic.
The optimistism was unfortunately unwarranted. On the first day of battle, fighting began about 10 minutes ahead of schedule when British bombs were detonated early. Soon after, British and Allied forces learned painfully that the relentless artillery attack had been largely ineffective; the German defenses had held up to the showering and the troops who were expected to be incapacitated were easily able to fight the Allied military. On the opening day, the British forces suffered 60,000 casualties, the worst one-day losses in the military’s history. The Allies gained very little ground. Although by the end of the Battle of the Somme, the Allies emerged victorious, this “victory” in itself was not an impressive feat. The overall Allied losses were heavier than the German casualties, and troops only gained about 7 miles. However, without winning this battle, historians argue that the Allies could not have won the war in 1918.
This battle is most remembered for the British introduction of the tank. The tank did not start off as the powerful weapon we know today. The machine was slower than were infantry troops, and this glorified battle truck was incredibly unreliable. Of the 49 British tanks, only 32 were working well enough to be considered in this battle and only 21 were actually used in action. Despite these downfalls, the tank was obviously a vital piece of technology which revolutionized modern warfare.
Battle of the Somme The Battle of the Somme was an offensive by the French and British against the Germans. The strategy of the Allies at this time was to have allied forces push from all fronts on the German, who by then had already invaded France. The Russians would push from the east, the Italians from the Alps, and the British and French from the West. The British and French’s plan in the Somme Offensive, was to hit the Germans hard enough to create a gap in their ranks, which could then be exploited. On the first day of battle however, the British suffered a whopping 60,000 casualties. The battle ended up lasting 10 days. The results were not as expected by the Allies. Though the French were somewhat successful, suffering minimal casualties and gaining a good deal of ground, the British suffered heavy casualties and gained virtually no ground. The semi-failure of the Somme offensive is often attributed to the differences between the French and British generals who disagreed on strategies. The battle was significant, if not for the loss of life, but for the fact it was the first battle that saw the use of a tank.
The Battle of the Somme was a keystone battle of World War One. It took place in 1916 near the Somme river, hence its name. It was a prime example of trench warfare in which both sides bunkered down and held their positions. On the first day of battle 58,000 British laid down their lives. This was a staggering one third of their forces. Even today The Battle of the Somme retains the one-day record for causalities.
The French and British planned the attack together in an attempt to drain the Germans of forces, but land gain was also an incentive. The idea was that many German soldiers would have to be pulled away from Verdun in order to defend the Somme.
The planned strategy was to have an 8-day preliminary attack which would kill all of the forward men. The English and British soldiers would then be able to walk across the battlefield and take possession of the German front. An underground network of telephone cables was prepared in order for the officials monitoring the attach to send corrective information to the back.
750,000 German men went into the trenches. 80% of them were compromised by British Expeditionary Force. Many of the shots fired by the british turned out to be duds and were ineffective. So many shots were fired at the battle that modern day farmers who plant their crops in the area surrounding the Somme still find iron in their harvest.
On July 11th, British forces captured the first line of German trenches. After this, more German troops were pulled from Verdun to help with the defense. On September 15 another attach was made, this time with tanks. There were a total of 50 tanks taking place in the battle. The British had to keep up the attack so as to prevent the Germans from sending men back to Verdun.
The Battle of the Somme also known as the Somme Offensive, took place during the First World War between July 1 and November 18, 1916. The battle between Britain, France, and Germany captured the horrors of warfare during World War I, resulting in more than 1.5 million casualties. The Allies strategic discussions at Chantilly, Oise in December 1915, lead to a plan for the Battle of the Somme. On the first day of battle the British Army suffered the worst one-day combat loss in its history, with nearly 60,000 casualties.
The allies creeping barrage had depended on surprise and poor German bunkers for success; however, the allies’ attempts to weaken the German line, destroying the barbed wire and concrete trenches failed. The bombs failed to go off and the Germans, unknown to the allies stayed in their trenches and were made aware of a likely attack. After the barrage, the French made little progress attacking the Germans in the southern sector, only advancing five miles. Unfortunately, for the British, they were not better off, as the Germans expected their attack and were able to organize and ready their machine guns, easily pushing back the British.
The Battle of the Somme was one of the largest battles of World War I and one of the bloodiest battles in history; in total, the British forces suffered 420,000 casualties, the French 200,000, and the Germans 500,000. The Battle of Somme is also significant in that it was the first time that tanks had been used in battle, and would prove to be useful in the future for destruction of machine gun positions.
The Battle of the Somme took place from July 1st 1916 to November 1916. The battle involved Britain, France and German and it took place in France. This battle epitomized trench warfare, resulting in 200,000 plus casualties for all sides in the battle. The Allied forces mainly fired artillery at the German forces, firing around 1,780,000 shells at them. The Allies hoped to destroy the wires in front of the trenches, making it much easier for the Allied forces to cross the battlefield and quickly get to the German side. On the first day of the battle, British forces attempted to capture German trenches, and they successfully captured three at Gommecourt. Reinforcements came to the trenches with heavy weaponry, and the forces that had captured the first three trenches were not strong enough to defend against them. The German reinforcements recaptured the taken trenches. The wire from the trenches was uncut, still giving cover, and also the ground was wet and muddy which made movement near the trenches very difficult. At the villages of Ovillers and La Boisselle, Allied forces attempted to penetrate the German defense trenches and hold the position. They succeeded in capturing the first three trenches of the defense, however the forces quickly lost control of them later in the day. The British kept trying to invade the German occupied towns, and kept suffering tremendous losses. While trying to take the village of Fricourt, a battalion suffered 710 casualties, the worst of the day for any battalion. In Montauban, two invading divisions of British forces successfully completed their objectives, but it costed the two division 3,000 casualties each. On the first day of the Battle of the Somme, the British forces in total lost approximately 57,000 men on the first day. The Battle of the Somme ended when Allied forces pushed through German lines to destroy their defenses. The battle was officially declared over when German forces at the Battle of Ancre surrendered. In total, the British forces had 420,000 casualties, the French 200,000, and the Germans approximately 500,000. The significance of this battle is that of the use of trench warfare. The battle was mainly focused on the capturing of the trenches and the artillery fire disabling the use of them. This battle is one of the battles that suffered the most casualties out of any battle in WWI.
ReplyDeleteThe Battle of Somme began on July 1, 1916 and lasted over 4 months. This battle was between the French Germans and British. The Battle of Somme is referred to as the symbol of the destruction of World War One, and the brutality of trench warfare. The extensive number of casualties truly distinguished this battle from the rest of the battles in World War I. Britain alone suffered over 420,000 casualties including over 60,000 lost on July 1 alone. By November, France had lost over 200,000 men, and Germany was charged with the loss of almost half a million troops.
ReplyDeleteThe battle began with the French needing assistance from their extensive losses in the German invasion of Verdun. The invasion against the Germans in Somme, led them away from Verdun. France soon recovered from their losses, and quickly joined in the fight against Britain and Germany.
Canon fire began the battle, in hopes to destroy German trenches and barbed wire. This artillery fire quickly weekend the Germans, and after the first week of fighting, Germany had been hurt with well over 1.5 million gas shells.
The Battle of the Somme took place by the Somme river and was named after it. It was planned as a French and British attack on German troops but the purpose was changed during the Battle of Verdun to relieve the embattled French troops. The actual battle was fought mainly by British troops, who took the brunt of the Allied casualties, at about 420,000 British and 200,000 French. The British lost about 58,000 on the first day of the attack. The battle was scheduled to begin at 7:30 but was actually begun 10 minutes early.
ReplyDeleteSome of the reasons there was such a loss of life was the inefficiency of many of the British shells, which meant that many did not go off. Modern farmers in the area still find unexploded shells in the land. The other reason was that the Germans knew that the attack was coming, and were in highly secured concrete bunkers which made it hard to break open. British troops expected to be able to break through and were carrying many supplies which made them easy targets for the German machine-gunners.
The total result of this battle was the gaining of about 12 kilometres of land by the British. It did make a difference for the troops at Verdun, but not as significant as was hoped.
The Battle of Somme was an undisputedly a major disaster for the Allied Forces. The fight was between Britain/ France and Germany. On July 1st, 1916, the very first day of battle, there were British 60,000 casualties, of whom 20,000 were dead. That is one third of the original 600,000 men. This is not even including the French and Germans. To this day it remains a one-day record. The Battle of Somme was meant to be a decisive victory for the Allies, but instead become an all out slaughter.
ReplyDeleteTo the Allied Generals it had seemed an easy victory. They had 27 divisions of men, 80% of which was made up of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), while the Germans had a mere 16 divisions of the German Second Army. The odds were against the Germans. The Allied plan was to bombard the German lines for a week before the actual attack began. Then once they did attack the German defenses would be destroyed In that week they ended up firing 1.6 million shells. The English commanders were so confident they told their troops to walk slowly across No Man’s Land, the area between the Allied and German trenches. Unfortunately for the Allies most of their shells were ‘duds’ and did not explode due to bad construction. The German’s trenches were heavily fortified in preparation and front line of barbed wire and their well-built concrete bunkers were not destroyed. They took refuge in such bunkers until the British artillery bombardment ended.
To further hamper the Allies plans, the Germans knew of the attack before hand. The Allies were careless and failed to conceal the preparations. Also, the topic was freely discussed in French coffee shops and in letters written home. The eight-day bombardment only alerted the Germans to the imminent attack, as they remained largely unharmed by the ineffective shells.
Once the Germans had crawled out of their bunkers they manned the machine guns. The British troops, unaware of what was about to happen, went over the top from Gommecourt to the French left flank just south of Montauban. The Germans mowed down the poor men. The slaughter had begun. Few units managed to actually reach the German trenches. Those that did were soon driven back. Out of all of the officers involved on the first day sixty per cent lost their lives.
After that the British focus shifted southward. Still they couldn’t break through the German lines. The horribly bloody stalemate continued for another two months. On September fifteenth Sir Douglas Haig (the British Commander in Chief who came up with the plan that would begin the attack and kill all of those men) began using tanks for the first time but, since they were lightly armed and often malfunctioned, they helped very little.
Thousands upon thousands of men were killed or wounded and thousands of people lost a family member. There were children who grew up without fathers, women who had to single-handedly support their families and all for nothing. The battle ended part way through November after five and a half months of fighting, yet the British had only advanced 5 miles. The British had 420,000 casualties, the French had 195,000 and the Germans had about 650,000; all those lives lost for only 5 miles.
The battle of the Somme was a controversial battle. The plan was concocted in order to drain the Germans of reserves and gain land. The French Commander in Chief created the idea of the Battle and The British Commander in Chief, Sir Douglas Haig agreed and the plan proceeded. Not all of the Allied leaders were supporters of this plan though. General Foch of the French army along with General Henry Rawlinson of Britain and many others believed the plan would fail.
ReplyDeleteFor eight days preceding the attack, the Allies bombed the German Front line. The goal of this was to destroy Germany’s defenses, so the Allies could easily take over their line. It was decided that a creeping barrage would precede the infantry during the takeover process. A creeping barrage is when a moving line of artillery fire is just before the infantry. The goal of this is to allow the infantry to take over enemy lines. The result of this attack was supposed to be an astounding victory for the Allies.
Unfortunately for the Allies, there were some complications that changed the attack. A large proportion of the bombs they bombarded the German line with did not explode. In addition to this, the German defense was secure and the bombs failed to destroy the barbed wire and the concrete bunkers. Unknown to the Allies, the Germans stayed in the bunkers for the bombardment and survived.
When the British soldiers began the attack they were laden down with supplies and moving extremely slowly toward the German line. Also, the surprise of the attack failed. This was because of the bombardment. The only thing that came out of it was that the Germans expected the attack; therefore, the Germans were ready with machine guns.
The French had more success because they began their bombardment on the Southern tail of the line only hours before; therefore, they were able to surprise the Germans. Also, the German leader of that area believed that the French would not attack due to their heavy losses at Verdun. So, the French advanced forward in small groups and achieved some success. They did not, however, exploit these successes.
At the end of the battle, the death toll was high. The British had 420,000 casualties, the French 200,000, and the Germans 500,000. For all these casualties the Allies did not even gain much ground. They only resulted with 12 kilometers of ground with days of slow movement forward and a massive death toll.
The Battle of the Somme in 1916 was the main Allied attack on the Western Front which resulted in the loss of 58,000 British troops on the first day of battle. This battle was fought between the Germans, the French, and the British in order to drive out the German Army which had been occupying large areas of French territory after their previous invasion. It all began after the French had been undergoing many severe losses at Verdun, where the Allied High Command wanted to attack the Germans to the north which would result in the Germans moving some of their troops away from the Verdun battlefield which would relieve the French for a while. The heads of the French and British armies both thought that the attack wouldn’t be the most optimal battle but they had to follow thorough with it since the army’s political powers in London and Paris forced them to make the battle take place. The Battle of Somme began with a week-long artillery bombardment of the German lines. About 1,738,000 shells were fired at the Germans since the Allies’ strategy was to destroy the German trenches and barbed wire which was in front of the trenches so they could have easier access. Field Marshall Haig even said:
ReplyDeleteThe enemy’s position to be attacked was of a very considerable character, situated on high, undulating tract of ground. They had deep trenches...bomb proof shelters...wire entanglements forty yards broad often as thick as a man’s finger. Defences of this nature could only be tattacked with the prospect of success after careful artillery preparation. (historylearningsite.co.uk)
However, the Germans had dugouts for their men and once the bombardment started all they had to do was move their men to safety in these deep dugouts. They also decided that once these attacks stopped they would come out ready with their machine guns and fire upon the British and the French as they advanced across a 25-mile front. However the British and French armies pushed through the German lines and invaded their trenches and villages that they were occupying, which led to the Germans surrendering the battle. The end of the battle was in November 1916, after the British and French combined lost 620,000 men and the Germans lost 500,000. Both sides suffered severe loses but the British and French managed to capture more than five miles which was well short of their original goal. British historian Gary Sheffield said, “The battle of the Somme was not a victory in itself, but without it the entente would not have emerged victorious in 1918,” (spiritus-temporis.com) This battle overall has been recorded as one of the largest battles in World War 1 and became known as one of the bloodiest military operations ever recorded since it resulted in about 1.5 million casualties both sides combined.
The Battle of the Somme
ReplyDeleteThe Battle of the Somme began July 1st 1916 and ended November 18th 1916. Today it is famous, mainly on account of the losses of 58,000 British troops on the first day of the battle, but also the first use of the tank. The battle consisted of an attack by the French and British armies against the German army.
At first Joseph Joffre, the French Commander-in-Chief, intended on only using French troops, but the German attack in February 1916 turned into an extensive British deviation attack. General Sir Douglas Haig took over the operation with the help of Sir Henry Rawlinson, they cane up with their own plan of attack. Their strategy was an eight-day preliminary bombardment (they believed it would destroy all German defenses).
The artillery bombardment was to firstly kill the German soldiers, and secondly to destroy the German barbed wire. This failed. The shells were not powerful enough to breakdown the dugouts, the shrapnel shells did not destroy the barbed wire fences, and it only made it more tangled and impassable. On July 1st at 7:30 am the whistles were blown and the men went onto No Man’s Land thinking that the Germans had been killed by the bombardment. They were massacred. So many British soldiers were falling dead; others were not able to climb over the bodies and advance. The British were only carrying pistols—in result they were unprepared, unarmed, and was chaos. The British commander decided to ignite a mine, but it failed to work. Instead it buried his own soldiers under a mound of soil and rocks.
At the end, November 18th, the battle had stopped. The British had taken only about six miles of land. The final casualties were: 195,000 French, 415,000 British, and about 600,000 Germans. The battle of the Somme was “The most gigantic, tenacious, grim, futile and bloody fight ever waged in the history of war,” said David Lloyd George, who was the first Welsh Prime Minister of the Untied Kingdom.
Commencing July 1st 1916 until November 1916, the battle, between Britain, France and Germany, symbolized the horrors of warfare in World War One. It was one of the largest battles of the war and by the time the battle ended, more than 1.5 million causalities had been recorded by the involved forces. The battle took place near the Somme River in France, in an effort to take back the territory the German troops had occupied.
ReplyDeleteThe British and French troops had many more men than the German forces and easy victory was expected. The Allies’ plan was to bombard the German lines for a week, destroy their defense and then attack. They fired more than 1.6 million shells in only a week. However, the German defenses were greatly fortified with concrete bunkers and a front line of barbed wire. They took refugee in the bunkers while the Allies fired upon them. The Allies ran into another problem when most of their shells were defective and did not cause any damage. The Allies also freely talked about their battle plans and the Germans soon got wind of their plan to come “over the top” of the trench and storm the German lines.
The opening day of the battle resulted in the worst one day combat losses in British history, with almost 60,000 casualties. The Germans were expecting their every move and they brought out their machine guns when the Allies came out of the trench.
The Allies managed to infiltrate the German lines, which led to the surrender of the German army. After the battle had ended, the British had suffered 420,000 casualties, the French; 195,000 and the Germans, 650,000. They Allies had gained only 12 kilometers of land back. The battle was significant, not only because it one of the worst battles in World War One but also because it debuted the tank, which is now used in all modern warfare.
The Battle of the Somme began on July 1, 1916 and lasted over 5 months on the banks of the Somme River in France. It is what some historians call the most famous battle of World War I. The British and French were on the offensive, battling against the German army.
ReplyDeleteThe Allied forces began planning for the battle in December of 1915. The Russians, Anglo-French, and the Italians were supposed to launch similar attacks on the other Central Powers at the same time as the British and French attacked the Germans. However, and unexpected attack on the French by the Germans in February of 1915 took up many French troops that were supposed to fight with the British at Somme. This made a significant effect on the outcome of the battle.
Another flaw in the strategy of the Allies was the fact that the Germans were fully aware of the impending attack. The Allies left them alone long enough for them to dig trenches and prepare for the battle, and when the Allies attacked, the Germans were more than ready.
On the opening day of the Battle of the Somme, mistakes and misinterpretations made by generals of the Allied armies proved to be fatal. There were mixed messages and information that led to troops advancing right in front of the German’s offenses, effectively wiping out most of the troops on the first day of battle. The German’s strong defenses and the Allies lack of strong weaponry was another major factor in the failure of the first day. The British ended up losing 57,470 men, with nearly 20,000 dead and 35,000 wounded, with thousand others missing or prisoner. Tragically, the Newfoundland Regiment and Tyneside Irish Brigade lost their entire contingents.
The next day, the Allied generals continued the battle, not pausing their attack for a second. After 5 months of fighting, neither side completed any of their objectives. The Allies did, however, advance 6 miles into the German occupied France, but there weren’t any new improvements to help them in their battle.
In the end, 623,907 Allied forces had perished in the battle and 465,000 German forces were killed. Neither side was victorious in the battle; the Allies did not complete any of their objectives and the Germans ended up retreated 40 miles away from the Somme. The Battle of the Somme is generally regarded as a complete failure, however British historian Gary Sheffield said, "The battle of the Somme was not a victory in itself, but without it the Entente would not have emerged victorious in 1918".
The Battle of the Somme took place from July 1, 1916 until November 18, 1916 on the banks of the Somme River in France. This battle is considered a major military tragedy. Britain, France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, and Newfoundland fought against Germany. Germany had been viciously attacking French forces at Verdun, and this battle was a result of the assault on Verdun. The Battle of Somme was meant to lessen the Germany forces at Verdun and redirect them to the north. The British planned on attacking north of the Somme for 15 miles. The French attacked along the south for 8 miles. The overconfident British generals prepared cavalry to run down Germans. This was an outdated, ineffective strategy, especially since many of the British troops were volunteers. In the first week of fighting, the allied troops shot over 1.5 million shells, yet the Germans held their ground. The Germans sought refugee underground in bomb shelters and waited for the fire to cease. The British Empire sustained approximately 420,000 causalities, whereas the French had 204,000 casualties. Germany shockingly lost 465,000 troops. This battle is significant because it is the bloodiest day in Britain’s history. On the first day of the battle, Britain suffered 60,000 casualties. This is the standing record for the most losses in a single day. This battle is criticized for its poor strategic planning. In addition, this was the first battle to utilize tanks. The German troops withdrew, but the allied forces only breached 7 miles deep at the most in to enemy territory. The battle ended in a stalemate.
ReplyDeleteThe Battle of the Somme
ReplyDeleteThe Battle of the Somme started on July 1st, 1916 and it was the British and French armies trying to destroy the entrenched German army. The Battle took place on the banks of the Somme River. This battle was one of the bloodiest because on the first day nearly 60,000 British soldiers died. One of the significances of the Battle of the Somme was that tanks were first used during this battle although they were not really effective.
General Douglas Haig and Henry Rawlinson were the two main people who commanded the attack but the Battle of the Somme did not turn out well. Haig’s strategy was to have a preliminary bombardment in hopes to deplete the German forces. The bombardment plan did not work because the Germans had barbed wire and concrete bunkers. General Douglas Haig’s reputation was ruined by the battle because so many people died and the battle was ineffective. At the end of the war, the furthest the allies penetrated into Germany was about six to eight miles and the allies had failed to capture many of their objectives. The Battle of the Somme is an important battle because many soldiers died in the battle and tanks were first seen in warfare during the battle.
The Battle of Somme took place from July 1 to November 13 of 1916. The battle was fought between the British and French on one side, and Germans on the other. The battle took place in France, and is remembered as one of the largest, most violent battles of the First World War. This was due to the major death toll the fighting countries suffered. The British faced 420,000 casualties, the French 200,000, and the German forces nearly 500,000.
ReplyDeleteJoseph Joffre, the commander-in-chief of the French army, initially saw the battle as an opportunity to drain the German forces of reserves, while gaining territory. Later, General Sir Douglas Haig and comrade Sir Henry Rawlinson took over the operation, and decided to schedule an eight-day attack, hoping to destroy all German troops. Their plan was to use artillery to destroy the German barbed wire, and then kill the troops. However, their weapons were not strong enough to achieve that level of damage on the Germans.
When the French ignorantly believed they killed the Germans, they entered no man’s land, and were then brutally attacked. The Germans then killed a successful 58,000 British soldiers on the very first day. By the end of the battle in November, the British had only captured about six miles of land. The Battle of Somme was known as one of the bloodiest battles in war history.
The battle of Somme occurred from July 1 to November 18 in the year 1916. It took place on both sides of the River of the Same Name and was an attack on the Germans by the British and French. German had occupied large areas of France previous to this battle and the French were fighting against this occupation. This battle caused sever casualties on all sides, but none more so than the British who actually set a record for the most men lost in one day of battle when 60,000 of their men were killed in a day. The battle had been planned in a conference between the allies in December of 1915 as a preliminary attack to make a rift in the German line, drain the army of resources, and possibly recover lost French cities and towns. The battle was supposed to leave the forward German defenses stunned by the ferocity and suddenness of the attack so the Allies could literally just walk right in and take control of the entire German front line. When the Germans took a slightly different position than was expected, the French and British armies went on to wage the battle anyhow. Right away the attack did not go as planned. The British artillery, used in large quantities, failed to take down the German defenses. Many of the bombs launched into the German line never detonated and the first step of the plan proved a failure. The Germans had effectively built concrete hideouts to protect themselves from the bombing and, once the bombing stopped, utilized their machine guns to the greatest extent. This was when the British suffered heavy casualties for they had no effective
ReplyDeletedefense against the machine guns since they had not been prepared for any attack after their bombardment. In addition, the British attack was meant to surprise the Germans, but instead was not kept quiet at all leaving the German army completely aware when and where the attack would take place. The French army, attacking from a different place, had more success since the German army did not expect the French to attack because of the casualties they had suffered in the Battle of Verdun. There success was not capitalized upon, however, and made little difference. This battle, in later days, was the first battle to utilize tanks though they had little effect. The battle came to an end when the leader of the British troops called off the onslaught in order to help the French in Verdun. Though the British suffered severely, it is said that this battle was a great lesson for them on military strategy and planning and would strengthen them in the long run. Some historians claim the battle was a total failure because of the inflexibility of the attack and the directness. Other historians say that the battle was necessary for the eventual triumph of the allies.
ReplyDeleteThe Battle of the Somme became one of the costliest engagements of the First World War. During the summer of 1916, the line trenches of the Western Front stretched from the English Channel across the France and Swiss border
ReplyDeleteThe Battle of the Somme took place during the First World War, between July 1st and November 18th 1916. The battle symbolizes the horrors of warfare during the First World War. This particular battle marked the effect on overall casualty figures and seemed to be the futility of trench warfare.
British campaigns received a large amount of criticism for the way the Battle of the Somme was fought. The British Army suffered 420,000. The French lost 200,00, and the Germans almost 500,000.
The Battle at the Somme started at the German lines. It was planned as a joint of the French and British operations. The original idea came from the French Commander in Chief, Joseph Joffre.
Among the French troops waiting to assault the German trenches, was an American named Alan Seeger. Seegar was an astounding poet of his time, who joined the French foreign Legion in order to defend his beloved country.
The bombardment failed to destroy either on the barbed wire or the concrete bunkers, which protected the German soldiers. This gave the Germans the ability to exploit their good defensive positions on higher ground. The British and French troops attacked on July 1st at 7:30am. There as a third of the BEF killed, which marked the worse day in history of the British Army. The battle ended when allied forces pushed through German lines, destroying theirs defenses. German forces surrendered, which made the war officially declared as over.
The uses of trench warfare become the battle’s significance. The battle focused on capturing the trenches and artillery fire, to disable them.
The Battle of Somme occurred in Somme, France from July 1st to November 18th in 1916. The battle consisted of the French and the British fighting offensively against the Germans. The Allies, in December 1915, planed to make a concentrated effort against the Central Powers. The Battle of the Somme was going to be the English and French contribution to the attack. The goal was to make a hole in the German line which would than be exploited and attacked by the Allied forces. There would also be other offensive attacks in the East and the Alps to attack the Central Powers on all sides. The overall goal was to give a decisive blow against the central that might end the war.
ReplyDeleteThe Battle of Somme is considered to be one of the bloodiest battles every recorded in history. The whole battle led to about 1.5 million casualties. The opening day was the beginning of this horrid battle. On July 1st, 1916 the British lost the most soldiers in one day, 60,000 men, than in their whole recorded history. The British officers were criticized for accumulating such loses on the first day without reaching any of their substantial goals.
The Battle of Somme ended on November 18th, 1916. The outcome of the battle has never been truly decided as there were extreme losses on both sides. The French and British pushed the German line back about 7 miles, much shorter than their goal. The British themselves only gained 2 miles. They lost 420,000 men in the process. The French lost about 200,000 men while the Germans lost 465,000 men.
This battle was important for three major reasons. The first reason was because of the major losses that both sides had. This would weaken both the Allies and the Central Powers. Another reason this battle is significant is that it was the first battle that a tank was used. The third and probably the most important reason this battle was significant was that it showed how much help, like the Americans, the Allies would need to win this war against the equally strong Central Powers.
The Battle of the Somme
ReplyDeleteThis battle was primarily a battle between the British, French, and German forces in the Somme region of France that occurred from July 1st 1916 to November 18th . The allied strategy was primarily to have the British attack on a 15-mile front to the north of Somme with eight French divisions attacking on an eight-mile stretch to the south. The British were overconfident, basing their plans on the fact that they had fought in trench warfare for nearly two years. They even left a cavalry unit ready, assuming that the retreating German forces could be caught more easily on horseback.
The battle if the Somme did not turn out as the British expected. It is, even today, the bloodiest day in the history of British warfare. It was the first major offensive mounted by the British forces and, although the French portion of the battle was a success for the allies, their part in the battle was chiefly overshadowed by the heavy losses of the British. Before the battle, the British sent a weeklong barrage of artillery fire, assuming this would destroy the Germans in their trenches. They failed to take into account, however, that the Germans had built bomb shelters in their trenches, so that once the barrage started they simply went underground and waited. When the barrage stopped, the British soldiers were ordered to advance slowly in order to maintain discipline. Thos gave the Germans plenty of time to reach defensive positions in their machine gun turrets. Few British units even reached the German defenses, and those that did were easily pushed back by the Germans.
The battle ended in what was essentially a stalemate. The British and French forces captured, at the best, seven miles of territory. On the other hand this was easily counteracted by the British gain of only two miles and a loss of hundreds of thousands of men.
1916, the Battle of the Somme started on July 1st. The plan was for the British and French armies to drain the German forces of their reserve and to create a whole in the German line. The Allies wanted to take control over the channel ports, and the North Sea because the German U-boats were attacking Britain. The attacked was planned to be preformed north of the Somme River between Arras and Albert. General Sir Henery Rawlinson’s overall belief was that there would be a clear breakthrough of a distance of 7 miles to Bapaume. He was thinking that the first week he would use 1 million shells in order to make this possible. Then he decided that the Allies would be split up in to 22 divisions that would pass through all the German barriers. On the German side they were constructing extensive trench that could with stand any artillery barrage. The battle started and the British completely overwhelmed the German trenches and they captured over 3,000 Germans. However, just on the 1st day of battle 58,000 British troops were killed. This was the 1st battle were the tank was used. The entire battle lasted until November18, of the same year. In the end the British and the French captured 7 miles into France, with a total loss of 420,000 soldiers, the British didn’t walk away with a smile on there face.
ReplyDeleteThis battle showed the horrors of warfare due to the number of losses compared to how much land they got. The British had lost 420,000, the French lost nearly 200,000 men and the Germans 500,000 with the Allies only getting 7 miles of land, many people thought the battle should have never taken place. The use of the tank made it a new objective for the countries to get the newest and best weapons.
The Battle of the Somme was one of the largest battles in World War I, fought in the Somme region of Southern France, pitting English-French Coalition Forces against the Germany army. The offensive was headed by the French army with the purpose of breaking through the German lines so troops could be positioned behind German forces leading to what they had hoped would be a fast victory. Due to the recent German attack on Verdun, French troops were relocated and the British Army assumed the leading role in the assault.
ReplyDeleteBecause of how Britain’s military was structured, recruits from the same areas were grouped together much like how they were in the American Civil War. The biggest flaw in this idea was if one regiment or platoon was completely wiped out, the town they were from suffered greatly from the lack of able young males.
The very first day of the conflict proved to be more horrific then anyone could have envisioned. More then 20% of the entire British fighting force was slaughtered, an estimated near 60,000 troops fell in just a mere twenty-four hours of fighting. Just this one day had unfeasible consequences on many of Britain’s towns, such as Newfoundland where it’s male population was decimated and created a very appalling social climate.
After carrying on the fight for just under three months, the harsh winter urged a withdrawal of a large number of personal and a halting of aggressive drives against the German front line. The British commanding officer, General Douglas Haig hailed the whole plan as a success, it is to be noted that at the time causality reports were inaccurately reported for Germany, leading the British to believe they had slain far more Germans (over 200,000 more) then was true.
The conclusion of the battle being a negative or position one is widely open for debate. With a gain of just over 10 klicks, the British/French coordinated assault failed to push back German lines the desired amount, and at the cost of over three quarters of a million casualties. Some historians view the Battle of the Somme as a necessary conflict, ultimately having a profound effect on the war, but there are even splinter groups among this side. A view propose that the 400,000+ German casualties weakened the army beyond repair, which though a considerable number, still isn’t a significant enough portion of Germany’s military might to have such a drastic effect. Others believe that the battle helped bolster Britain’s place in the Coalition, though this is more likely due to economic and industrial vigor.
Theorized significance aside, the Battle of the Somme was a prominent part of the war on the Western Front, despite the lack of distinguishable advancements made. The sheer number of death on both sides makes the Battle of the Somme one of the largest conflicts of World War I and certainly a contender for the bloodiest.
The Battle of Somme took place July 1st 1916 and lasted four months until the 18th of November. The fighting took place between the Germans and the British and French Empire near the Somme River. There were two German commanders, Fritz von Below and Max von Gallwitz, and for the opposing side there was both a French and British leader, Ferdinand Foch and Douglas Haig. This war, as did many others during World War I, required trench warfare. The German were continuously searching and attempting to capture the British and French trenches.
ReplyDeleteThe Battle of Somme took place on French land. This battle is known for having a significant number of casualties, approximately 58,000 of the British troops, on the first day of fighting. This drastically altered their forces leaving them with only two thirds of their troops; however, they still continued strong as the battle progressed. For the 1st week of the battle, there was constant firing upon the German forces.
After months of battling, sometime in November, winter began and caused difficulty for the British troops. It brought harsh weather, making battle difficult on snowy terrain and hindered their progress; however, they still continued to endure.
In total, the British and French alliance was able to move forward 6 miles into German territory. The total casualties for the British troops combined with the French troops were approximately 620,000 soldiers. The German forces lost around 500,000 soldiers causing a decrease in the male portion of the population.
Overall, this battle had the most casualties of any battle fought during World War I. The Battle at Somme caused controversy and still does to this day. It caused many individuals to question the ethics involved in having such a large number of deaths for a battle and if it was worth the 6 miles that were gained throughout the course of this fight.
Beginning on July 1st, 1916, the Battle of the Somme was one of the most famous battles of the fist World War. It took place around the Somme River and Northern Verdun. The German Army had seized large territories of France, and the French believed it was time to fight back. France, with Britain by its side, decided to attack the German Army and force them to the north of Verdun. Achieving this would allow an ease on the French side after months of defeat. The Allied strategy was a joint effort attack from the French and Britain Armies to cause a break in the German line and force them to retreat from Verdun to save Somme. The Allied forces had envisioned that this fierce, sudden attack would be completely overpowering, that they would be able to completely demolish the German defenses and be able to take over the utterly shocked the German front line. Their goal was to win back land, while diminishing German power. They planned on using trench warfare and continuously firing over one million shells at the enemies until they were able to seize their desired territory.
ReplyDeleteThe first day of the battle, July 1st, began a gruesome, dreadful battle that would last for three long months. This day was considered to be the British’s bloodiest day in all of history. They suffered 19,240 deaths of soldiers and over 57,000 casualties. This now meant that war was not a game; that there was going to be a lot of suffering and sacrifice for their countries.
After much disaster and destruction, on November 13th 1916, the Battle of the Somme was abandoned. This 3-month fight resulted in Allied forces gained a mere 6 miles of land at most. The casualties from the battle were severe; the British endured 420,000, the French had 200,000, and the German had 500,000.
The significance of this horrific incident is the fact that it demonstrates how the war is not at all as easy nor successful as imagined. The Allies had thought that gaining the territory at Somme would be short and successful, although it ended being a complete failure and the bloodiest battle in history.
The Battle of the Somme was a battle fought between Allied forces of Britain and France and German forces. It began July 1st, 1916. The allied strategy was to bombard the German lines with heavy artillery fire. Since the German were supposed by the British to be in trenches, this was formulated to kill off much of the opposing force and destroy their barbed wire defenses. Infantry would then breach the weakened German lines. Then using the holes in the German lines, Allied cavalry would punch through and a decisive victory would be had by the Allies.
ReplyDeleteThe battle in fact ran a little differently than the Allies has suspected. The Germans had deep dugouts for their troops and all they had to do was sit in relative safety and wait for the bombardment to end. Though the artillery fire lasted for a week, the Germans were ready when it finally stopped. They knew that the cease of fire meant that the infantry was moving in. They took up their guns and the battle commenced.
The Allied forces advanced on the British lines in a 25 mile long stretch. The bloody battle lasted for months, ending finally in November 1916. Britain lost 420,000 men, the French 200,000, and the Germans nearly 500,000. The Allies, at a cost of 88,000 men for every one mile, advanced in a 30 mile stretch that at maximum was 7 miles into previously held enemy territory.
Most of the effects of this battle were, surprisingly, not directly about war. The battle’s main impact was a social one. English began to call the men lost part of a “Lost Generation.” The term shows the English’s feeling that some of the best and brightest of their generation and nation were being destroyed by the war. The Battle of the Somme is also argued to have been more damaging to the Germans. One German casualty is thought of greater strategic importance that a British one because of two reasons. First, the German army was experienced while the British was virtually inexperienced, so a German fighter dead was more damaging to his army than a Brit to his. Second, there were simply more British to fill the trenches with than there were Germans.
All in all, the Battle of the Somme was bloody, shocking, and little else.
The Battle of the Somme, or the Somme Offensive, was an extended battle between the combined British and French forces and Germany that took place between July and November of 1916. The Somme Offensive was to be part of an overall Allied assault upon the Central Powers, with Russia attacking from the east and Italy from the south. The British artillery shelled the German trenches for the entire week leading up to the mass assault, but the gunners were inaccurate and the German trenches were well fortified, meaning that the Germans were almost entirely unharmed and they were alerted to the possibility of an attack. When the British rose out of their trenches to assault the Germans, they were utterly massacred, and in the few places where the British did manage to take the German trenches they were quickly driven back. The British losses were absolutely horrendous, nearing almost 60,000 casualties in just the first day of fighting. The only major gains for the Allied forces were made by the French in the southernmost area of the fighting, where they managed to take nearly 6 miles of German territory while suffering relatively few losses themselves. The fighting went back and forth for a few more months, but little territory was gained or lost, and in the end the total casualties on both sides numbered more than a million.
ReplyDeleteThe Battle of the Somme is important for two reasons. The first is that in the battle the Germans had employed the majority of their best trained, fittest, and highest caliber troops, meaning that with their loss the Germans could not match the more economically and industrially powerful nation of Britain in such a stalemated war of attrition. The second reason why the Battle of the Somme is important is that the very first tanks were employed by the British in the battle. They were designed to break through enemy trenches, as they were immune to barbed wire and enemy small arms fire, though they were very vulnerable to artillery. Though these first models were very unreliable and unwieldy to operate, they represent a major step forward in military technology, and after improvements in tank technology tanks made trench warfare almost entirely obsolete in World War II and other modern conflicts, making them very important to history.
As if World War I was not damaging enough, in July 1916, The Battle of the Sommes took place. The Battle of the Sommes, or Bataille de la Sommes (French) was a battle between the British and French armies against Germany. Germany already had taken control of much of France since 1914. Allied representatives which included Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, and Newfoundland, agreed on a joined attack against the Central forces. On the first day of battle, the British army suffered 60,000 casualties, making it the worst one-day loss in history. At the end of the battle, the French and British armies had not regained any land that Germany had previously taken over in France.
ReplyDeleteBefore this attack was in order, Germany did not see Britain as a threat. They did not see them as sustaining military power over Germany; however, Germany did see Russia and France as a possible military threat.
It does not seem possible to say that either of the sides had a victory. The British and French captured no more than 7 miles of land. The British only gained about 2 miles, and ended up losing 420,000 soldiers. I do not see 7 miles in success and over 420,000 deaths a beneficial battle.
The Battle of the Somme was representative of the horrors of World War I. The battle involved a team effort by the British and the French vs. the Germans. The goal was to drain the German troops of resources and to capture the territory. The offensive would be lead mostly by the French army while the goal of the British army was to assist and relieve. However, this strategy changed as the French suffered gruesome defeats at Verdun and the German Army Chief of Staff, von Falkenhayn promised to 'bleed France white”. The French decided to redirect the intent of the battle in order to distract German troops and resources from Verdun in order to defend the Somme. This would create a temporary state of weakness on the two fronts, theoretically making for an easy win for the allies. The plan was preluded by eight days of bombarding the German front lines and trenches. The hope was that the fierce pre-attack would wear down the German defense. This would allow the British troops to sweep through “No-man’s land” and capture the German front lines. Then a “creeping barrage” would scout the German front before the attack took place. The British Army had prepared a system of telephone cables for quick and efficient communication. This enabled the Creeping Barrage to communicate with the rest of the army and share observations. However, all this planning was in vain because the first day of the battle resulted in horrible casualties. 750,000 troops (80% of whom were British) attacked on July 1st. The events were in the allies’ favor but one unseen blunder ruined the whole plan. The advanced artillery blitz failed to break through the German front lines of barbed wire and concrete bunkers. Most of the ammunition malfunctioned and did not go off. These “duds” laid uselessly on the battlefield, inflicting no damage and severely handy-capping the allied forces. The allies did not know of this and continued the attack. The Germans, now fully prepared were waiting for them with machine guns. However, the Germans were not expecting the surprise attack from the French because they did not believe that the French had the nerve to fight while being humiliated at Verdun. Unfortunately, they did expect the British and the failed plan lead to a terrific onslaught. The overall outcome of this farce battle was a total of 1,120,000 casualties, a monumental death toll for only 8 miles of territory.
ReplyDeleteBattle of The Somme
ReplyDeleteJohn Heenan
The Battle of The Somme was a prolonged battle between the combined French and British armies against the German army. The battle is among the deadliest in military history, with a death toll in excess of 1.5 million. It was a large battle in WWI, taking place in the Somme region of France between July and November of 1916. The battle was part of an allied offensive, based upon a strategy to punch a hole in the German line. During the battle, the British penetrated 6 miles into German territory, but failed to complete many of their objectives. It is noteworthy in that is was the first use of the tank in battle.
The opening day of the battle ended with the death of more than 60,000 British causalities. The battle began at 7:20 AM on July 1, 1916, with a British Officer detonating a mine 10 minutes before the designated start of the battle. The British sustained severe causalities throughout the battle, but succeeded in eventually penetrating the German lines.
During the first ten days of the battle, the French army managed to penetrate the German line and take over 12,000 prisoners. During that time, the British sustained heavy causalities, and made very little progress.
The battle ended with the conclusion of the battle of Ancre, and both sides held their positions.
The battle is met with mixed reception by historians. Some view it as an abject failure on the part of the British and French, while others feel that it was useful in developing Allied tactics and strategy. Little was accomplished with the battle, but it did serve to develop tactics that would later be used.
The Battle of the Somme took place during the First World War between July 1st and November 18th 1916 in the Somme department of France. The battle consisted of the British and French armies against the German Army. The battle of the Somme was one of the largest battles of the First World War. By the time fighting had ended in late autumn 1916 more than 1.5 million casualties had suffered by the forces involved. Ten minutes prior to zero hour, an officer detonated a 40,000-pound mine beneath Hawthorn Ridge Redoubt. It is difficult to declare the Battle of the Somme a victory for either side. The British and French captured little more than 7-miles at the deepest point of infiltration far short of their original objectives. The British themselves had gained approximately only two miles and lost about 420,000 soldiers in the process. A group of British historians argue that the battle was a disaster; arguing that the Battle of the Somme delivered more benefits for the British than it did for the Germans. Prior to the battle, Germany had regarded Britain as a naval power and discounted her as a military force to be reckoned with, believing Germany's major enemies were France and Russia. According to some historians, starting with the Somme, Britain began to gain influence in the coalition.
ReplyDeleteThe battle of Somme took place in France on the western front between the Allies and the Germans. This battle started in July 1916 and ended in December of the same year. This is one of the most famous battles of world war one for its trench warfare and high casualties. In this war 420,000 British troops were lost, 200,000 French soldiers were lost and 500,000 German soldiers were lost. This battle was highly criticized for its large number of casualties, especially on the Allies side.
ReplyDeleteThe aim of this tragic battle was to drain the Germans of their supplies leading to the death of many troops with a second ulterior motive of achieving more territory. Haig, the British commander in chief, created a plan to defeat the first line of German defense giving British troops enough time to cross no mans land. This was to be a combined effort from both the British and the French armies. The previous battle of Verdun had drained many of the French soldiers leaving most of the offensive fighting to the British. This led to the great loss that Britain suffered the first day of battle on July 1st. On this first day the plan of taking down the Germans first line of defense failed drastically, because the many bombs that the allies had thought to have gone off actually did not ever deploy. Much to the allies horror the German line and barbed wire and trenches, which they thought they had destroyed, were intact when the troops marched across towards the German line. The German army slaughtered these brave British soldiers. 58,000 men died that first day.
In the end the large death toll only added up to around 12 kilometers for the allies. That was all that was achieved for over one million people who died in that battle. This battle is the epitome of trench warfare and caused much controversy over the tactics of the commanders of both the British and the French. Some argue that many less would have died if the officers had been more flexible in the offensive. The battle showed the true stalemate that came out of trench warfare and how hopeless the war seemed. The battle of Somme was extremely violent and both the allies and the Germans lost many in a battle, which gained no ground.
Part 2
ReplyDeleteThe mastermind behind the French invasion was Joseph Joffre. His motive was mostly leant toward weakening the German dominating infantry. The French army of 750,000 troops was not enough manpower to destroy the German defense. Eighty percent of which were part of the British Expeditionary Force
After the first ten days of battle, the French moved 6 miles forward. They also took control of the Flaucourt Plateau, while carrying 12,000 prisoners of war.
One of the leaders of the French was Commander in Chief, Haig. Haig took responsibility for planning the attack against the German trenches European territory.
The Battle of the Somme was the most massive and influential campaign during World War I. The battle took place during July 1st to November 18th, 1916. The battle involved Britain, Germany, and France. In the beginning of the battle, Britain and France broke through the German defense and pushed the German force to the France-Germany boarder. The allies fought the German at the area of the river of Somme; the total number of casualties was 300,000. The battle of the Somme was the most severe trench warfare in WWI and it was the first time tank was used in battle.
ReplyDeleteThis battle was extremely controversial at the time; the plan was created by the French commander Ferdinand Foch and agreed by the British commander Douglas Haig. Even though most of the generals under their control believed the plan would fail and the allies will eventually lose a tremendous amount of soldiers. But in the end the plan still went on because of the two commanders believe the plan will be a big success and a good chance to gain land.
At June 24th, the British army prepared 1400 cannon and fired intensely at the German trenches for a week. Until July 1st, British had already fired 1,500,000 shells, hoping to destroy the German trenches and the bob wire. The bombs did not do much to the German trenches due to the fact that 1,000 out of 1,400 cannons were field artillery, which has flat shooting angle so the shells cannot go into the trenches and a lot of the bombs did not explode. After one week of bombarding, the British attacked the German trenches through the no-man zone. The British army lost 57,000 men in this action due to the fact that the British army “surprisingly” attacked the German trenches with heavy gear and big group so the group was an easy target for the German Maxim machine guns. The British force captured the first three German trenches, but latter on the German reinforcement took the trenches back with machine guns. On the other hand, the French army had a much more successful action. Their plan succeeded because their bombs actually “worked” and exploded into the German trenches. Unlike the British, the French force attacked the German just hours after the bombarding and they separated the force into small groups with light gears.
In the end of this battle, the causality rate was high. The German had 500,000 causalities, British had 420,000, and French had 200,000. This battle was not a successful battle for the allies because after losing all these soldiers, they only gained 10 kilometers of land back. Worth it? I don’t think so.
13 days long. Eight countries versus one. Both banks of the somme river 1.25 casualties. This is one of the bloodiest battles in human history summed up in four sentences. The allied forces, the UK, France, Canada, Austria, India, South Africa, Newfoundland, and New Zealand, instigated a battle against the German Empire on the first day of June 1916. 10 minutes prior to zero hour a mine was detonated by the allies beneath the Hawthorne Ridge Redoubt Bridge and so began the battle. The Battle of Somme was intended to gain land for the allied sides and deplete the german resources. The plan went wrong because the Germans planned for the attack and were able to create concrete fortifications. The highly inefficient shells that the allies fired often did not detonate and when they did detonate were blocked by the concrete barricades. The ill equipped allies were essentially asking the german machine gunners to pick them off five at a time. The battle resulted with no clear victor, yet the allies gained about 12 miles of land.
ReplyDeleteThe battle of Somme was a famous battle that happened during the First World War fought by the British and French against the German Army. The battle was fought in the Somme department of France on banks of the Somme River. The Germans began invading France in August 1914; this is often considered to be the largest battle in the First World War. By the time the battle had finally finished in 1916 there were almost 1.5 million casualties suffered by each one of the opposing sides. The plan for the Somme offensive evolved out of Allied strategic discussions at Chantilly, Oise in 1915. The allied representatives agreed on an offensive against the central powers in 1916 by the French, British, Italian and Russian offensive. The Somme offensive was supposed to be the Anglo-French contribution to the offensive it was supposed to rupture the German line which can then be used to deliver a decisive blow to the army. The first day of the battle the British army suffered the worst one day combat loss in history with nearly 60,000 casualties. The British army was comprised of many local men that volunteered to serve , many of them were lost the first day. This battle is also famous because it was the first battle in which tanks were used, tanks were created to be able to withstand heavy fire from all directions and still be able to attack. At the end of the battle the British army penetrated 6 miles into German occupied territory; they failed to capture any French towns and hardly captured any objectives at all. The battle basically served as a warning to the allies that the German army was powerful and well put together.
ReplyDeleteThe Battle of Somme took place from July 1st 1916 to November 1916 in the Somme province of France. The battle was between the Allies and the central powers. The Allies consisted of the English and the French and the central powers were the German Army. There were a total of 620,000 casualties. The Allies planned to go against the German powers and defeat them and then kick them out of Germany. The battle mostly consisted of trench warfare. The British planned a bombardment of the German lines. The plan was to infiltrate the German trenches after their defenses had been reduced to nothing after the attack. They were going to travel through no mans land, out of the British trenches, to get to the German trenches. However, the Germans had built bunkers deep beneath the surface to seek refuge from the attack. When the British believed they had destroyed the Germans, the advanced forward toward the trenches. However, the French and English forces were driven back by German machine guns. The first day of battle there were over 60,000 British casualties. At the end of the battle, the Allied forces had gone approximately six miles into German Territory. The battle ended in late November when the British and French forces finally pushed into German lines. The British suffered 420,000 losses and the French lost about 195,000 troops. The Germans lost 650,000 troops. The significance of the Battle of Somme is that an unexpectedly large number of troops were lost. This battle is considered to be one of the worst battles fought during World War I.
ReplyDeleteThe Battle of the Somme lasted from the first of July 1916 until the 18th of November the same year. The battlefield spanned 30 kilometers between Ares and Albert on the northern end of the Somme River. The battle was fought on French territory by the French and English alliance versus the Germans. Britain and France were on the offensive.
ReplyDeleteThe first shot of the battle was fired at 7:20 am on July 1st, 1916, 10 minutes prior to the intended start time which has been referred to as zero hour. The first movement by the British against the Germans was an offensive that targeted 17 mines. The Hawthorn Ridge Rodoubt was the first to be blown to smitherines by artillery laid under the building. The French ordered this previous bombardment to lay ground for their attack of the German front line. French Commander in Chief, Joffre and British Commander in Chief Sir Douglas Haig planned the mine attacks to precede the main offensive move and distract the Germans. Preparations for this attack began in June of 1916 and the bombardment itself began on June 24th.
A fighting force of 750,000 men was involved in the attack; A total of 27 divisions, 8o%of which were from the British force took part in it. The British appeared to have numbers on their side and an obvious advantage. However, the Battle of the Somme would not become known as a victory. The Battle of the Somme would become known as a battle that in fact took the lives of 58,000 British troops.
The plan started downhill when the artillery bombardment failed to harm the German front line. The bombardment did not destroy the German bunkers or the barbed wire fences that protected their front line. Also, a majority of the British ammunition were badly constructed and ineffective so did not go off and furthermore brought no harm or crippling to the enemy. In addition to the unsuccessful execution, word of the planned attack had already spread around French towns and did not evade the ears of the Germans. When the British forces attacked, they did not know that their artillery bombardment had failed. The troops ran directly to the enemy's front line where the Germans were waiting, prepared for the British advance. The British troops failed to make any progress at that location as the Germans remained safe behind their barbed wire and in bunkers so the allies focused their forces farther south. The British faired better here than before due to their own solid bunkers however as soon as the British soldiers began an approach towards the Germans they became easy targets and were soon detonated my the enemy's machine guns.
In September the French and British attempted another attack south near the Somme for which they rolled out tanks. The battle began at 6:20 the morning of the first. The British gained ground at that location but were not successful. The offensive came to an end on the 18th of November. Overall, the British and French had gained only 12 kilometers on the Germans during their advance yet had lost the lives of 420,00 British casualties joined by 200,000 French casualties. The Germans lost roughly 500,00 men.
The Battle of the Somme took place in the First World War on July 1st and ended on November 18th 1916. It took place on both sides of the river. One side contained the British and French armies who were against the German army. In this battle, there were 620,000 casualties, 100 tank losses, and 782 aircrafts lost.
ReplyDeleteThe plan for the British and French (offence) in the battle of Somme was to create a breach or break in the German line. Then they could wipe out the German line in a single but effective blow. This plan had to change when the Germans attacked Verdun. So, the British army led the attack while the French army added to the force.
On July 1st 1916 (the first day of the battle) the British army suffered the worst one-day combat losses in its history. On this first day, the British army lost 60,000 solders. A large percentage of the men that were willing to go to war were lost on that first day.
By the end of the battle, the British and the French army penetrated 6 miles into the German territory. Even though they made a dent in the German forces, they were still far away from winning any battle. The British and French army succeeded in driving the German forces back, but they didn’t recapture any territory that was under the German’s control. They got close to taking back the French towns named Bapaume and Le Transloy, but the Germans managed to keep hold the towns. In the end, the battle didn’t turn out the way that the British high command thought it would.
The overall significance of this battle for the British and French army was that the failure that they experienced led to possible success in the future. This possible success that could be achieved in the future was because the British and French army could have learned more about the German tactics and operations that were used to fight them off; so they could incorporate those tactics with their own for future battles. Overall, this battle of Somme was and still is one of the bloodiest military operations ever to take place.
The Battle of Somme began on July 1st of 1916, and lasted over four months. The battle originated from a joint offensive by both Britain and France. The idea was not only to gain territory, but also destroy as much German manpower as possible. Previously, Germany had invaded and taken much French land that France wanted back. Though it was mainly France, therefore, that had the motivation to attack and rupture the German front lines, Britain chose to take a major part in the battle as well.
ReplyDeleteOn the first day of the battle of Somme, the Germans set off a huge 40,000 pound mine and killed a mass of British soldiers. On the first day, the british lost over 57,000 men.
Technically, France’s plan worked. They pushed Germany back 10 kilometers into their own territory and killed about 500,000 men. Therefore, many consider the battle a victory for the Allies. However, they also lost 620,000 people, 100 tanks, and 782 aircraft. The battle’s significance was that it was one of the four bloodiest battles of all time (following the Battle of Stalingrad and the Brusilov Offensive, and Operation Barbarossa). It was immensely devastating to both sides. Nearly all German soldiers died, and about half of the allies (which consisted of the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, and Newfoundland) perished.
This battle was also significant because it was the first use of tanks in battle. The British used the tanks were used frequently to destroy German machine guns. Although the early tanks were fairly unreliable, they proved helpful in supporting the ally soldiers and destroying the German trenches.
Between November 13 and 18, the allies made a final attack on the Germans. The attack was for political purposes so that they could report a success. On the 18th, they attacked the Munich and Frankfurt Trenches and the 45 surviving Germans surrendered.
The Battle of Somme began on July 1, 1916 and ended on November 18, 1916. It was named as it took place by a river sharing the same name. The battle was fought by the British and French (who were on the same side) and the Germans on the western front. On the first day of the battle, there were around 20,000 deaths and 40,000 injuries on Britain’s side alone which still remains a one-day record recored even to this day. On top of the startling number of casualties, it is also significant because it was the first trench battle to use tanks.
ReplyDeleteBritain’s military had a similar structure to those in America’s Civil War as recruits from areas close together were grouped together. However, it one of these groups was wiped out, that city now had a much smaller number of young men.
The strategy was to bombard the Germans with several heavy rounds of artillery fire. As the British assumed that the German forces were in trenches, this was believed to be able to kill off a large portion of the opposing forces and they would then proceed to break through the remaining defenses. However, the trenches that the Germans were waiting in for the week of fire were very deep. After the fire ended, they knew that the wave of troops would soon follow and they were ready for them.
In the end, the British lost 420,000 men, the French lost 200,000, and the Germans almost 500,000. Despite these heavy losses, only seven miles of land were gained. That’s nearly 160,000 men lost per mile gained.
The Battle of Somme took place between July of 1916 to December of the same year and was on the banks of the Somme River. Considered one of the largest battles of WWI, over 1.5 million deaths had occurred by autumn of that year. The battle was mainly fought by the British and French armies against the German army. The cause of the battle had been an ambush on the French at the Battle of Verdun which resulted in the losses of many French soldiers. In the previous year, the generals of the Allied forces began planning an attack. The strategy they had decided on was mainly an offensive one. During that conference the generals decided that the Russians would take the East side, the Italians would hide in the Alps, and the French would cover the Western front, thereby attacking the enemy from all sides. The British, however, attacked from the sea to keep the German U-boats away from Britain. This strategy, in theory, would be the ideal attack plan to defeat the Germans, but the Germans attacked the French troops in February of that year, crippling the power of the Allies and forcing them to rethink their strategy. This setback allowed to Germans to regroup and prepare for the upcoming battle. In order to deal with the overwhelming numbers, the Germans built trenches in order to strengthen their defense. Whenever the enemy would attacked, the Germans could just duck into the holes they had dug for themselves to avoid the brunt of the attack, and when they barrage was over they would come out with machine guns ready to retaliate. The British and French armies’ goal was to advance over a twenty-five mile front, but the Germans did not make this an easy task. After dealing with the Germans, the British and French had a combined loss of 620,000 men, while the Germans only lost 500,000. Even though both sides lost a great number of soldiers, the Germans ended up surrendering, but the British and French were only able to advance five miles into German territory. In fact, British historian Gary Sheffield said, "The battle of the Somme was not a victory in itself, but without it the Entente would not have emerged victorious in 1918". This battle has been considered by many historians to be one of the bloodiest military operations ever recorded, and one of the largest battles of WWI.
ReplyDeleteThe Battle of the Somme took place in France on either side of the Somme River, where British and French troops attacked German trenches from July 1 and November 18, 1916. Originally, the British and French command planned for this battle to be a decisive blow to German troops, intended to kill, wound, and demoralize the soldiers in the area. This battle was actually just a part of a massive Allied offensive planned in Chantilly intended to attack the Central Powers from all sides, with other components being a Russian attack on the Eastern front and an Italian attack through the Alps. The British-French forces planned to attack by launching a massive artillery attack on the German trenches, firing over a million shells and paving the way for “the infantry…to walk over to take possession.” (Rawlinson)
ReplyDeletePlans began to fall awry a few months before “Zero Hour” (set at 7:30 am on July 1) when the Germans attacked the French unrelentingly at Verdun. The battle’s intent became more to relieve the pressure on France than to utterly defeat the Germans, but British leaders remained optimistic.
The optimistism was unfortunately unwarranted. On the first day of battle, fighting began about 10 minutes ahead of schedule when British bombs were detonated early. Soon after, British and Allied forces learned painfully that the relentless artillery attack had been largely ineffective; the German defenses had held up to the showering and the troops who were expected to be incapacitated were easily able to fight the Allied military. On the opening day, the British forces suffered 60,000 casualties, the worst one-day losses in the military’s history. The Allies gained very little ground. Although by the end of the Battle of the Somme, the Allies emerged victorious, this “victory” in itself was not an impressive feat. The overall Allied losses were heavier than the German casualties, and troops only gained about 7 miles. However, without winning this battle, historians argue that the Allies could not have won the war in 1918.
This battle is most remembered for the British introduction of the tank. The tank did not start off as the powerful weapon we know today. The machine was slower than were infantry troops, and this glorified battle truck was incredibly unreliable. Of the 49 British tanks, only 32 were working well enough to be considered in this battle and only 21 were actually used in action. Despite these downfalls, the tank was obviously a vital piece of technology which revolutionized modern warfare.
Battle of the Somme
ReplyDeleteThe Battle of the Somme was an offensive by the French and British against the Germans. The strategy of the Allies at this time was to have allied forces push from all fronts on the German, who by then had already invaded France. The Russians would push from the east, the Italians from the Alps, and the British and French from the West. The British and French’s plan in the Somme Offensive, was to hit the Germans hard enough to create a gap in their ranks, which could then be exploited. On the first day of battle however, the British suffered a whopping 60,000 casualties. The battle ended up lasting 10 days. The results were not as expected by the Allies. Though the French were somewhat successful, suffering minimal casualties and gaining a good deal of ground, the British suffered heavy casualties and gained virtually no ground. The semi-failure of the Somme offensive is often attributed to the differences between the French and British generals who disagreed on strategies. The battle was significant, if not for the loss of life, but for the fact it was the first battle that saw the use of a tank.
The Battle of the Somme was a keystone battle of World War One. It took place in 1916 near the Somme river, hence its name. It was a prime example of trench warfare in which both sides bunkered down and held their positions. On the first day of battle 58,000 British laid down their lives. This was a staggering one third of their forces. Even today The Battle of the Somme retains the one-day record for causalities.
ReplyDeleteThe French and British planned the attack together in an attempt to drain the Germans of forces, but land gain was also an incentive. The idea was that many German soldiers would have to be pulled away from Verdun in order to defend the Somme.
The planned strategy was to have an 8-day preliminary attack which would kill all of the forward men. The English and British soldiers would then be able to walk across the battlefield and take possession of the German front. An underground network of telephone cables was prepared in order for the officials monitoring the attach to send corrective information to the back.
750,000 German men went into the trenches. 80% of them were compromised by British Expeditionary Force. Many of the shots fired by the british turned out to be duds and were ineffective. So many shots were fired at the battle that modern day farmers who plant their crops in the area surrounding the Somme still find iron in their harvest.
On July 11th, British forces captured the first line of German trenches. After this, more German troops were pulled from Verdun to help with the defense. On September 15 another attach was made, this time with tanks. There were a total of 50 tanks taking place in the battle. The British had to keep up the attack so as to prevent the Germans from sending men back to Verdun.
The Battle of the Somme also known as the Somme Offensive, took place during the First World War between July 1 and November 18, 1916. The battle between Britain, France, and Germany captured the horrors of warfare during World War I, resulting in more than 1.5 million casualties. The Allies strategic discussions at Chantilly, Oise in December 1915, lead to a plan for the Battle of the Somme. On the first day of battle the British Army suffered the worst one-day combat loss in its history, with nearly 60,000 casualties.
ReplyDeleteThe allies creeping barrage had depended on surprise and poor German bunkers for success; however, the allies’ attempts to weaken the German line, destroying the barbed wire and concrete trenches failed. The bombs failed to go off and the Germans, unknown to the allies stayed in their trenches and were made aware of a likely attack. After the barrage, the French made little progress attacking the Germans in the southern sector, only advancing five miles. Unfortunately, for the British, they were not better off, as the Germans expected their attack and were able to organize and ready their machine guns, easily pushing back the British.
The Battle of the Somme was one of the largest battles of World War I and one of the bloodiest battles in history; in total, the British forces suffered 420,000 casualties, the French 200,000, and the Germans 500,000. The Battle of Somme is also significant in that it was the first time that tanks had been used in battle, and would prove to be useful in the future for destruction of machine gun positions.