The+First+Day+of+the+Somme



The first day of the great Battle of the Somme was one of the most devastating in the history of warfare. That day is a day that shall never be forgotten by the people of this world; eternally remembered as the day that begun the Battle of Albert and the day that started the endless nightmare of the Battle of the Somme.

In the week prior to the allied assault upon the German forces entrenched at the Somme the British had gathered a never before seen battery of artillery. 1,500 guns continuously shelled the German lines in the hope that the artillery shells might be able to clear away the long lines of barbed wire that lined no man’s land. However, the British commanders had miscalculated and instead of destroying the barbed wire stretched across no man’s land, the artillery shelling only served as incentive for the Germans to deepen their trenches and dealt no damage whatsoever, to the German fortifications.

When finally the week long shelling ended on the 1st of July the Germans had moved out of their trenches with a speed born from desperation, quickly setting up their machine guns and preparing for the eventual arrival of the Allied forces. Meanwhile, [|General Haig] - confident that his extensive shelling would have shattered the German defenses - sent his soldiers “over the top” at the waiting German army, believing that no army in the world could survive such an attack. How wrong he was.

It was 7:20 in the morning of the 1st of July and the Allied forces were beginning their assault. Weeks prior to the battle 5 enormous mines had been buried beneath the German trenches it was at this moment that they were finally being employed. The first to explode was the 40,000 pound mine lying beneath the German entrenchments at Hawthorne Ridge, with the other mines following in quick succession. Originally, the mines were intended to explode at zero hour precisely just as the infantry had begun their advance, however Allied commanders were concerned that the debris scattered by the mines might just injure some of the advancing soldiers. This was why the mines had been triggered 10 minutes earlier.

Then, just after the last mine placed at Kasino point exploded at 7:27am, the Allied artillery was ordered to cease the bombardment. At last the long awaited zero hour had come. Silence enveloped the battle field as, at 7:30am on the morning of the 1st of July, the Allied infantry moved in and the nightmare that was the Battle of the Somme began.

 Unknown to the advancing Allies the majority of the German defenders had survived the bombardment, on account of the well fortified German trenches and the fact that the British artillery was desperately ill prepared - having only a handful of high caliber cannons capable of penetrating the German bunkers, and quickly scrambled out of their deep trenches in preparation to battle for their lives. It was because of this dreadful miscalculation by the Allies that had caused them to suffer such horrific losses.

The Allied soldiers advanced across what was soon to become a bloody battlefield, having been told that no one could have survived the bombardment the Allied soldiers were completely off guard, even daring to march in rank and file across no man's land. But soon they realized that something was not quite right. The barbed wire, having been repeatedly lifted and dropped by the artillery explosions, had become more tangled than ever before. It was then that the German machine gunners opened fire.

“We were caught in the open, with no shelter. Men were falling like ninepins.” Sergeant Cook commenting on the Battle of the Somme

As you may or may not know, the infantry advance on the 1st of July was actually split into two separate parts all centered upon the 12 mile road running from Albert to Bapaume. Both parts were intended to advance simultaneously in the direction of Bapaume whilst clearing out the German defenders stationed in their path; the first part of the assault force advanced north of the road and consisted of what was left of the British forces whereas the second part of the advance was formed by the French army and was intended to target the German entrenchments south of the road.

First let us explore the exploits of the British forces. At 7:30am or zero hour the British forces had advanced shoulder-to-shoulder, brimming with confidence that this battle was going to be a short one. Little did they know how wrong they would be. The start of the battle went well enough with British soldiers attacking the westernmost outpost of the Germans, the village of Gommecourt. General Haig had envisioned this attack as a diversion to draw artillery fire away from the main assault taking place against the villages of Serre and Beaumont Hamel. To an extent that was exactly what happened, however General Haig had made one crucial mistake, he believed that the German defenses were all but destroyed and because of this his well laid plan fell to ruin.

During the Battle what little communications the British had between the field commanders and the reserve forces, was shattered leading to several very costly mistakes. Among these was the misinformed report made by [|General Beauvoir De Lisle] who was part of the 29th division in charge of the assault on Beaumont Hamel. The General based his report upon a flare that was sent up by the German forces stationed at Beaumont Hamel believing that it was a signal from his own soldiers that the attack was a success. It was because of this single misinterpreted signal that led to the British commanders ordering their reserves into action at Beaumont Hamel.On that day the 801 men that formed the Newfoundland 1st regiment entered the battle zone at Beaumont Hamel, of them only 68 men returned unharmed. Such a massacre was unprecedented in British military history.

On the road itself was the Tyneside Irish Brigade advancing from a start line about 1 mile from the German trenches. All the while during their advance the Irish were unaware that they were in full sight of the enemy, a mistake that they paid dearly for. That day the entire brigade was completed destroyed by the German machine guns without the Germans suffering many casualties despite the two mines that had been detonated close to their position.

Fortunately though, the French forces attacking from south of the road met with much greater success than the British on account of their superior artillery and of the relatively weaker German fortifications when compared to those north of the road. All of the objectives set by the French for the first day of the fighting had been achieved, allowing the conquest of Fay, Becquincourt and Dompierre. The German trenches were completed overwhelmed and overrun which had given the French the opportunity to capture more than 3,000 German prisoners and 80 German guns.

On that day, 19,240 Allied soldiers were killed by the relentless German defenders, not mentioning the 35,493 wounded, 2,152 MIA and the 585 prisoners; with total losses of around 57,470 Allied soldiers. That day would always go down as a black day in British military history, never again have such losses been suffered by any country in the world.

[] [] The War to End Wars 1914 -- 1919 GCSE Modern World History for Edexcel by Steve Waugh and John Wright (Textbook)
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