Battle of the Somme

Battle of the Somme

Field Marshall Haig's Plan
1. The British Soldiers would bombard with a week long shelling
  1. Few Germans would be left alive and those alive would be captured
    1. Explosive would easily destroy barbed wire so running across no mans land would be easy
      1. German village would be destroyed and so would the artillery
Why it Failed
1. Many shells failed to explode
2. Germans were protected by their incredibly deep dugouts, deeper than british ones
3. The shells designed to destroy barbed wire were not affective
4. Germans were expecting the British to go over the top as they usually did this after bombardments
  1. Machine guns were set up in preparation for Britsh Soldiers
Field Marshall Haig
1. Leader of British forces at Battle of the Somme
2. He had served for many other military campaigns
3. Misjudged effectiveness of bombardments
4. Continued to send wave after wave of men to their deaths after the bombardment
Many British soldiers that went over the top were those who had volunteered in 1914 and 1915 they had never faced real battle before
1. They were faced by fierce resistance by German troops and machine guns
  1. On the first day 60 000 men were captured, wounded or killed
The Battle of the Somme was proceeded by a week long bombardment of explosives
1. The day of the attack was 1 July 1916
2. The British assumed no Germans could possibly have survived the bombardment
The attack went on for 5 months
1. Ending in November 1916
2. By the end of the battle there were one million casualties
New attacks were launched by the British trying to capture the land they had planned to capture
1. The Germans were determined to capture all lost land
  1. The result was limited success for both sides
    1. The Allies advanced the front line by only five miles

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