The+Successes+and+failures

 [[image:Battle_of_the_Somme_2.gif width="392" height="285" align="right" caption="The 'going over the top scene' from The Battle of the Somme [Imperial War Museum"]]

At the end of November 1916, the battle of the Somme came to an end, as a result of the battle the British and Imperial forces had suffered a total of 400000 casualties. This, altough having weakened Germany as well had a negative effect on the British, as this not only lowered morale, but also had to deal with the high casualties.

However the British had been able to successfully use a new tactic (infantry would run under the cover of artillery fire and capture enemy trenches), with this tactic the British and imperial forces were able to capture the villages of Beaumont Hamel and Beaucourt as well as pushing the Germans back by 6 kilometers. This Tactic was very useful as it meant that the British would be able to move their troops through No-mans land, instead of simply hiding in the trenches, this we believe was very important, as it was the first tactic to be implimented that actually help in a way to break the stalemate. For more information on the tactics employed during the Somme Click here

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According to General Haig, the mission had been a success- three main objectives had been achieved. Pressure had been taken off the French at [|Verdun]. This was true and can be called a success as the French were able to recover, and therefore we believe that the most important objective had been achieved as France would be able to continue the war. Also German forces had been held on the Western Front and the Enemy’s strength had been worn down. =====

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However we believe that the objective to hold the enemy on the western front was far from a success, this is because the concept of holding the enemy on the western front is simply the same as stalemate, it is not a proper objective as this had already happened for many years and is not a proper objective when you are attempting an offensive. =====

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Nonetheless we believe that the objective of wearing down the enemy strength was a success as it had infact, later on in the war helped to win it as the Germans were suffering from exhaustion and had lost many troops. ===== = Passchendaele =

At the end of 1917, despite the Passchendaele offensive,there remained no breakthrough, aside from that, the British had lost a total of 250000 soldiers, against the 200000 that the Germans had lost.

Although it may have seemed that the strategy of attrition was not working very well, we believe that in actuallity, this offensive was considerably useful when it came to a strategy of attrition, this is because the allied forces, (The main powers: Britain, France, Russia and later America) had mobilised an army of 37888000 troops, against the 22850000 that Germany and Austria-Hungary had mobilised and therefore, we believe that if losses had been inflicted to both sides at this rate, then as at the time no other strategy could have been concieved, the strategy of attrition (though not very effective) would have won the Allies the war.

As a result of the Passchendaele offensive, the Germans had been dealt a heavy blow. Because the Germans had lost a great amount of troops as well, the Germans were in far worse shape than the Allies, as they were both running low on troops, as well as food due to the British Naval blockade. For more information on the war at sea click here.

Also the Allies were slowly winning back some of the land and so the offensive was not completely a waste as the British were able to take back a bit of land and also helped to wear the Germans down, therefore we believe that the battle of Passchendaele was also a bit of a success as without this battle the Germans would not have been worn down even more, so without such an offensive the Germans would not have been worn down.