On 1 July-18 November 1916, the Battle of the Somme was fought in northern France between the Allies under Douglas Haig and the Germans under Erich von Falkenhayn during the First World War.
Why did it happen & Who was involved?
In December 1915, French commander-in-chief Joseph Joffre planned a major Anglo-French offensive at the Somme for the following year. However, when the Germans attacked the French at Verdun in February 1916, Joffre urged the British under Douglas Haig to go ahead with the Somme offensive to take pressure off Verdun. Haig planned to destroy the German defences near the Somme with a preparatory artillery bombardment before sending his infantry forward to occupy the German lines. A total of 750,000 British and French troops would take part in the offensive, which was originally scheduled for 29 June, only to be changed to 1 July.
What happened?
On 1 July, after an eight-day artillery bombardment of German positions, 100,000 British soldiers were ordered to advance towards the German line, only to be met by machine-gun fire in which they suffered approximately 57,470 casualties. However, on the southern sector of the battlefield, French soldiers managed to gain the element of surprise and capture the villages of Hardecourt and Herbecourt using infiltration tactics. Over the following five months, the Allies achieved some minor territorial acquisitions. On 13 July, the British launched an offensive along the Longueval ridge and captured the village of Bazentin-le-Petit. Two days later, on 15 July, while South African troops managed to capture Deville Wood, British soldiers proved unable to capture High Wood from the Germans. On 15 September, the British launched an offensive against Flers and High Wood with the aid of the ANZAC Corps and 36 Mark I tanks, achieving some minor breakthroughs. Ten days later, on 25 September, the French captured Rancourt and Bouchavesness while the British captured Thiepval with the aid of 13 tanks. The last major gain occurred on 13 November when the British captured Beaumont Hamel and Beaucourt in a surprise attack before shutting down the offensive on 18 November due to bad weather.
What changed as a result?
The Battle of the Somme ultimately ended inconclusively for the Allies. What was originally intended as a breakthrough turned into a five-month battle of attrition where the Allied line advanced only 10 kilometres for the cost of 620,000 casualties. However, the battle did achieve the objective of luring German troops away from Verdun, which had disastrous results for the German army, who suffered over 500,000 casualties at the Somme. In addition, the battle led to the improvement of cooperation between infantry and artillery, as well as marking the debut of the tank into warfare. Ultimately, Haig realised that the burden of the responsibility for the Western Front would fall upon Britain in 1917 and subsequently planned for the major battles that would take place the following year.
Bibliography
David, Saul. War: The Definitive Visual History. New York, Dorling Kindersley, 2009.
Grant, R.G. Battle: A Visual Journey Through 5,000 Years of Combat. London, Dorling Kindersley, 2005.
Westwell, Ian. The Complete Illustrated History of World War I. Wigston, Hermes House, 2012.
Willmott, H.P. World War I. New York, Dorling Kindersley, 2007.