Battle of the Sommes.
The first major German offensive occurred at Verdun, in 1916 against the French, and not long after, in June of the same year the French were on the brink of defeat. Just as this became apparent the British launched an offensive of their own, along the River Somme; this resulted in he Germans calling the battle of Verdun to a halt. The British commanders plan of attack was simple. They would basically hit the German army as hard as they possibly could, by firing all their artillery at the German front for several days, until they had knocked out all the barbed wire, machine guns, and the majority of the infantry, weakening the lines sufficiently for the men to go over the top and clean up with their rifles. For almost a week the Guns fired a huge number of shells into the German trenches. Sir Douglas Haig famously said, "not even a rat would be alive". When the guns had finished, on the morning of July 1st the British and French soldiers were ordered to go over the top, they didnt however duck and run. They marched slowly, upright exposing their chests to the hail of bullets that were about to come their way. The Germans were ready for this attack, and had known about it for a good time, so had prepared themselves accordingly, digging large trenches, and lowering their machine guns on pulleys. As for the barbed wire, it mearly bounced up and down, not a bit destroyed. However even as they saw their fellow soldiers fall the British did not duck, for they feared resisting their generals almost as much as they feared their enemys. Officers Soldiers Killed 99,318,247 Wounded 133,734,156 Missing 96 2,056 Taken Prisoner 12,573 Total 243,855,032. The number of deaths on the first day of the Battle of the Somme are horrendous, almost sixty thousand, yet the generals did not stop it there, they carried on until they had accumulated a loss of 420,000 British, 200,000 French and 650,000 Germans. These are the worst losses in British history for one single day. Haigs first two objectives, to relieve pressure on Verdun and to assist our allies in other theatres of war by stopping any further transfer of German troops from the Western front, look more like excuses for the failure to gain any real territory. The British army gained, at its most successful point, about 15km, and in other places they gained nothing at all, but it seems likely that the major reason for an offensive is to gain significant ground. Objective three, to wear down the enemy. Haig famously once said "the war will be won when there is two of us and one of them", Haig cared very little for his troops. At this time Haig was not actually the Prime Minister, but the minister of munitions, given the job of dealing with the militarys arms. After a horrible failure if the plan ( not the battle ) Haig is trying to pass the blame onto Lloyd-George, basically stating that if he had more ammunition then he could do better, however because Lloyd-George is not supplying him sufficiently it is his fault. This suggests a lack of flexibility and inventiveness in his tactics, even when he can see they are going horribly wrong. The other way of looking at it is to say that Haig is trying to excuse himself from the situation, saying that it his lack of supplies that are his downfall, rather than his lack of tactics, and that if they got more weapons then they could just step up their fire power, but basically still using the same tactics. Lots of lessons were learnt from this battle. One of the mistakes haig has done is telling the troops to walk to the enemy trenches giving more time for the enemy and making it easier for them to defend. Also after 1st day when Britain, France suffered terriblly heavy losses Haig carried on the attack making more casualties. But German losses were greater which resulting the allied side winning the battle of the Somme sacrifysing a huge number of men.
The Somme was a disaster, it is very easy to agree, the immense loss of like, the pitiful ground gained made it a total waste.
Letters
1914 -
Hi there Tom, how are you. I am great here. Did you get my card I sent you?
We are now in the training camp and I really like it.
We had a shooting range yesterday and i did really well then. i can't wait until we go to front line.
Fench fold are really nice hear, best friends ever, and yes... you can beat french chefs, we have
plenty to eat here, so don't worry about it.
Most of us here believe that this war won't last for more that 3 weeks so we are not worried however
we have soldiers arriving from the front line, we were in shock, they were badly wounded. But I am not
affraid, we have been training quite hard. Oh forgot, France is beautiful mate. Too bad you didnt sign up
with me, its great here. Nice weather, sometimes we hear gun shots from front line and everyone freezes.
Hows Maggi doing? Tell her I said "Hi". I might send her a letter later. I miss her really much, I bet she
is not grown up. I remember her saying to me " Are you going to be a sildier? ", i laughed then, she was
so funny sometimes.
Anyway in a week we are going to be arriving at the front line, I am so excited, we made a deal with
some folks here at the camp whoever gets most kills will get 500 quid. But I am not in it because I am not
here to gamble at war, I really miss you guys, Maggi, Tom, and others. I wish this war ends as quick as
possible, it should do anyway.
Say "Hi" from me to everyone, I will be sending some more letters to you.
1917 -
Am taking the fist opportunity of thanking you for the parcel you were so thoughtful to send me. It arrived in a good
condition. Nice warm socks and a scarf, this should make things much easier here, as it is quite cold and wet.
It is my turn to guard this night so I thought this is the right time to write this letter to you.
It was much better in winter here, our trenches were hard and it wasnt so muddy, but now after the snow melted it
is a disaster, most of our guys here are sick, all of us are dirty, trenches are flooded to our knees and it is almost
impossible to get around. In Christmas it was something, both sides didnt shoot and we had a christmas tree, not
quite a tree but we decorated it as we could, even German soldiers helped us, it was amazing, but some fool in our
company accidently fired a shot, things changed, I am lucky I am still here to write you this letter.
We are nearly out of food, and can't wait for resupplys, rats are everywhere here. One bloody rat made a hole in my
boot now my foot is all wet inside, disgusting.
My mate died two days ago, John Miller, he had a bad cold and high temperature, after shells were bambarding us, one
of them landed near our trench injuring John, he was deaf, soon after about 4 hours after artillery fire he passed away.
It is horrible to see al the dead bodies in the shell holes, it smells of dead bodies. I can't believe this war has taken so
long. Some of our folks are going crazy when they hear shells droping, they hide and are affraid, its aweful looking at them.
I never thought that this would be the war i was thinking of, I hate war, I wish i never singed in for this bloody suicide. But
we still have some amuzement here, most of us are really bored sitting here with same faces everyday. We actually
sometimes talk with Germans on the other side, its funny how we talk to the enemys as if they are our friends.
Oh yeah, I was nearly sufficated when those Gas attacks were droping down, we have lost a big amount of ment that day,
I was lucky I put my gas mask on, some of the guys' masks didnt work so they were sufficated in that green smoke.
Nights couldnt be any better here in trenches, most of the fighting we have is at night, its really dangerous because they
have snipers everywhere. We had a sniper once, he was blinded by a gas attack, he was a very good friend to me, he is
being transformed back to the camp for medical support.
I was over to see some of the 106th boys, they were in worse condition as us, most of them too was wounded, their
trench was a mess, it was more like a shell hole but shaped differently. We helped them out with their trench and some
wounded soldiers. I might be transformed into sniper divsion, I am a pretty good shooter, ever Sergent said that. Next week
we are planning to give Germans some major offence, we will be using altillery then its going to be our jon to charge their
trenches. We have some new recruits arriving in 2 days, I dont know why because its really a struggle here, how can
people still join up to this.
Anyway I will be going now, please find some time to write me, again thanks for the parcel I really needed it.
