The Battle of the Somme

The Battle of the Somme

1. The Battle of the Somme was planned by the British and French.

2. The french's help in the battle of the Somme had to be cut back because the French were already involved in fighting off a vicious German attack in Verdun.

   • General Haig still went ahead with the attack even though half of the French troops were fighting in Verdun.

3. The Battle of the Somme started on July 1st 1916 and ended in November 1916.

   • By the end of the battle, the British had lost 420,000 and the french nearly 200,000.

4. Field Marshall Haig and the others who led the British campaign received a lot of criticism for the the battle of the Somme was fought, mainly Douglas Haig.

   • The criticism was based on the appalling casualty figures which were suffered by the British and the French.

5. The Battle of the Somme was fought to relieve the French from the Germans in Verdun.

   • To relieve the French, the Allied High Command decided to attack the Germans to the north of Verdun meaning the Germans had to move their men away from the Verdun battlefield thus relieving the French.

6. The battle started with a week long artillery bombardment on the German lines where 1,738,000 shells were fired.

   • The plan was that the artillery guns would destroy the German trenches and barbed wires placed in front of the trenches.
     • This was supported by Field Marshall Haig.

7. The Germans had deep dugouts which protected them from the bombardment.

   • This meant that when the bombardment stopped, The Germans would have known that it was a signal for an infantry advance.
     • So all they had to do was move out of the dugouts and go to the machine guns to face the British and French.

8. The lessons oof the Somme were that they developed new tactics, such as; creeping Barrads, Tanks, Ariel use and commanders on ground.