why did the battle of the somme happen

[9] A week later the Germans began the Battle of Verdun against the French army. The German military accordingly undertook significant defensive preparatory work on the British section of the Somme offensive. Next day the Fourth Army ceased offensive operations, except for small attacks intended to improve positions and divert German attention from attacks being made by the Reserve/Fifth Army. "[81] On 1 July 2016, a ceremony was held in Heaton Park in north Manchester in England. The battle was intended to hasten a victory for the Allies. After the end of the Battle of Guillemont, British troops were required to advance to positions which would give observation over the German third position, ready for a general attack in mid-September. Following the start of the Battle of Verdun, … In 1914, Douglas Haig had been a lieutenant-general in command of I Corps and was promoted to command the First Army in early 1915 and then the BEF in December, which eventually comprised five armies with sixty divisions. Rapid expansion created many vacancies for senior commands and specialist functions, which led to many appointments of retired officers and inexperienced newcomers. In a second phase, the Fourth Army was to take the German second position, from Pozières to the Ancre and then the second position south of the Albert–Bapaume road, ready for an attack on the German third position south of the road towards Flers, when the Reserve Army which included three cavalry divisions, would exploit the success to advance east and then north towards Arras. More than three million men fought in the battle and one million men were wounded or killed, making it one of the deadliest battles in human history. When the Fourth Army advance resumed in August, the wisdom of not building light railways which would be left behind was argued by some, in favour of building standard gauge lines. September became the worst month for casualties for the Germans. The Fifth (formerly Reserve) Army attacked into the Ancre valley to exploit German exhaustion after the Battle of the Ancre Heights and gain ground ready for a resumption of the offensive in 1917. On 24 February the Germans withdrew, protected by rear guards, over roads in relatively good condition, which were then destroyed. Against Joffre's wishes, Haig abandoned the offensive north of the road, to reinforce the success in the south, where the Anglo-French forces pressed forward towards the German second line, preparatory to a general attack on 14 July. South of Serre, Beaumont Hamel and Beaucourt-sur-l'Ancre were captured. By its conclusion , 310,486 British soldiers had been killed at the Somme with a more than a million casualties on both sides. The Somm… The Battle of the Somme (1 July - 18 November 1916) was a joint operation between British and French forces intended to achieve a decisive victory over the Germans on the Western Front after 18 months of trench deadlock. By the end of the first day of the British infantry offensive, 19,240 soldiers had been killed with a further 38,230 reported injured or missing. A comprehensive system of transport was needed, which required a much greater diversion of personnel and equipment than had been expected.[64]. Winston Churchill had objected to the way the battle was being fought in August 1916 and Prime Minister David Lloyd George, criticised attrition warfare frequently and condemned the battle in his post-war memoirs. The German offensive at Verdun was intended to threaten the capture of the city and induce the French to fight an attrition battle, in which German advantages of terrain and firepower would cause the French disproportionate casualties. [40] Another pause followed before operations resumed on 23 October on the northern flank of the Fourth Army, with a delay during more bad weather on the right flank of the Fourth Army and on the French Sixth Army front, until 5 November. Next day Falkenhayn ordered the Guard Reserve Corps to be withdrawn to reinforce the Somme front. more ghastly word. When the film was brought to cinemas on 21 August 1916, an estimated 20 million people went to see it. The fighting ended with the Reserve Army taking the plateau north and east of the village, overlooking the fortified village of Thiepval from the rear. Larger operations resumed in January 1917. The Battle of the Somme was one of the costliest battles of World War I. However, some officers on the ground ordered their men to rush … The maintenance of the strength of the 6th Army, at the expense of the 2nd Army on the Somme, indicated that Falkenhayn intended the counter-offensive against the British to be made north of the Somme front, once the British offensive had been shattered. In 2016, historian Peter Barton argued in a series of three television programmes that the Battle of the Somme should be regarded as a German defensive victory. In 1915, a plan was finalised for a joint British and French offensive the following year. British operations on the Ancre from 10 January – 22 February 1917, forced the Germans back 5 mi (8.0 km) on a 4 mi (6.4 km) front, ahead of the schedule of the Alberich Bewegung (Alberich Manoeuvre/Operation Alberich) and eventually took 5,284 prisoners. [75][76][77] The Royal British Legion with the British Embassy in Paris and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, commemorate the battle on 1 July each year, at the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme. [2], In a commentary on the debate about Somme casualties, Philpott used Miles's figures of 419,654 British casualties and the French official figures of 154,446 Sixth Army losses and 48,131 Tenth Army casualties. During the offensive the Russians inflicted c. 1,500,000 losses including c. 407,000 prisoners. Until January 1917 a lull occurred, as both sides concentrated on enduring the weather. At the start of the silence, the King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery fired a gun every four seconds for one hundred seconds and a whistle was blown to end it. The British experimented with new techniques in gas warfare, machine-gun bombardment and tank–infantry co-operation, as the Germans struggled to withstand the preponderance of men and material fielded by the Anglo-French, despite reorganisation and substantial reinforcements of troops, artillery and aircraft from Verdun. The Battle of the Somme was designed to relieve the pressure on the French suffering at Verdun. [57][56] Philpott argues that the German army was exhausted by the end of 1916, with loss of morale and the cumulative effects of attrition and frequent defeats causing it to collapse in 1918, a process which began on the Somme, echoing Churchill's argument that the German soldiery was never the same again. [82] This event was called "Ghost Soldiers". Haig favoured a British offensive in Flanders, close to BEF supply routes, to drive the Germans from the Belgian coast and end the U-boat threat from Belgian waters. The costly defence of Verdun forced the army to divert divisions intended for the Somme offensive, eventually reducing the French contribution to 13 divisions in the Sixth Army, against 20 British divisions. The bulk of the army was made up of volunteers of the Territorial Force and Kitchener's Army, which had begun forming in August 1914. The British failed to appreciate how deep the German dugouts were the somme took place near the somme river and village in france! Favorite Answer The main reason for the battle of the Somme was to take pressure off the French army, which had been under heavy attack at Verdun since February, and was close to cracking.… The main reason for the battle of the Somme was to take pressure off the French army, which had been under heavy attack at Verdun since February, and was close to cracking.It was hoped that a major British offensive on the Somme would force the Germans to withdraw troops from Verdun. 1. Causes. [36], The Battle of Flers–Courcelette was the third and final general offensive mounted by the British Army, which attacked an intermediate line and the German third line to take Morval, Lesboeufs and Gueudecourt, which was combined with a French attack on Frégicourt and Rancourt to encircle Combles and a supporting attack on the south bank of the Somme. [59], The British and French had advanced about 6 mi (9.7 km) on the Somme, on a front of 16 mi (26 km) at a cost of 419,654[61][2][5] to 432,000[62] British and about 200,000 French[61][4] casualties, against 465,181[61] to 500,000[5] or perhaps 600,000 German casualties. The defenders on the commanding ground north of the road inflicted a huge defeat on the British infantry, who had an unprecedented number of casualties. Another cause for the offensive was the fact that that Allies believed that they could break through the German lines and end the war. Falkenhayn planned to defeat the large number of reserves which the Entente could move into the path of a breakthrough, by threatening a sensitive point close to the existing front line and provoking the French into counter-attacking German positions. [58] Despite the strategic predicament of the German army, it survived the battle, withstood the pressure of the Brusilov Offensive and conquered almost all of Romania. The original Allied estimate of casualties on the Somme, made at the Chantilly Conference on 15 November 1916, was that the Germans suffered 630,000 casualties, exceeding the 485,000 suffered by the British and French. At a conference at Cambrai on 5 September, a decision was taken to build a new defensive line well behind the Somme front. So,the battle of the Somme happened because Haig wanted to use the large British army to win the war with one blow. As one German officer wrote. [44], After the Battle of the Ancre (13–18 November 1916), British attacks on the Somme front were stopped by the weather and military operations by both sides were mostly restricted to survival in the rain, snow, fog, mud fields, waterlogged trenches and shell-holes. Only four more divisions were sent to the Somme front before the Anglo-French offensive began, bringing the total to ​10 1⁄2 divisions. The 57,470 casualties suffered by the British, including 19,240 killed, were the worst in the history of the British Army. He may be referring to the paper which Churchill distributed in August 1916, rather than the fuller numbers later presented in, sfn error: no target: CITEREFSimkins2003 (, On the French historiography see Bloody Victory: The Sacrifice on the Somme and the Making of the Twentieth Century, William Philpott (2009) and, Operations on the Ancre, January–March 1917, Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, List of Canadian battles during the First World War, List of World War I memorials and cemeteries in the Somme, Order of battle for the Battle of the Somme, "The Somme 1916 - From Both Sides of the Wire", "Verdun: France's sacred symbol of healing", "Was bloody Somme a success for the British? [26], The Battle of the Somme lasted 141 days and was the opening day of the Battle of Albert. Most of the British casualties were suffered on the front between the Albert–Bapaume road and Gommecourt to the north, which was the area where the principal German defensive effort (Schwerpunkt) was made. Simultaneous offensives on the Eastern Front by the Russian army, on the Italian Front by the Italian army and on the Western Front by the Franco-British armies were to be carried out to deny time for the Central Powers to move troops between fronts during lulls. Though Churchill was unable to suggest an alternative, a critical view of the British on the Somme has been influential in English-language writing ever since. Many officers resorted to directive command to avoid delegating to novice subordinates, although divisional commanders were given great latitude in training and planning for the attack of 1 July, since the heterogeneous nature of the 1916 army made it impossible for corps and army commanders to know the capacity of each division. [3], In the United Kingdom and Newfoundland, the Battle of the Somme became the central memory of World War I. The British relied on motor transport from railheads which was insufficient where large masses of men and guns were concentrated. In 1917, the German army in the west survived the large British and French offensives of the Nivelle Offensive and the Third Battle of Ypres, though at great cost. [8], In January 1916, Joffre had agreed to the BEF making its main effort in Flanders but in February 1916 it was decided to mount a combined offensive where the French and British armies met, astride the Somme River in Picardy before the British offensive in Flanders. It became a war of attrition and both sides suffered massive amounts of casualties. Several truces were negotiated, to recover wounded from no man's land north of the road. The objectives of the attack were the villages of Bazentin le Petit, Bazentin le Grand and Longueval which was adjacent to Delville Wood, with High Wood on the ridge beyond. On the Somme the daily carry during attacks on a 12 mi (19 km) front was 20,000 long tons (20,000 t) and a few wood roads and rail lines were inadequate for the number of lorries and roads. Later in the year, the Franco-British were able to attack on the Somme and at Verdun sequentially and the French recovered much of the ground lost on the east bank of the Meuse in October and December. The Battle of the Somme is one of the most infamous battles of the First World War. The front trenches were on a forward slope, lined by white chalk from the subsoil and easily seen by ground observers. [87][88][89][90][91][92], In some British history syllabuses, variations of the question "Does Haig deserve to be called 'The Butcher of the Somme'?" The huge death toll brought the war home for many people in Britain in a way the battles of Mons and Ypres had not. When a more flexible policy was substituted later, decisions about withdrawal were still reserved to army commanders. The defences were crowded towards the front trench with a regiment having two battalions near the front-trench system and the reserve battalion divided between the Stützpunktlinie and the second position, all within 2,000 yards (1,800 m) of no man's land and most troops within 1,000 yards (910 m) of the front line, accommodated in the new deep dugouts. [citation needed], Across Britain on 1 July 2016, 1400 actors dressed in replica World War I-period British Army uniforms walked about in streets and public open areas, from 7 am to 7 pm. The Fourth Army advance on 25 September was its deepest since 14 July and left the Germans in severe difficulties, particularly in a salient near Combles. The high Allied casualties of July 1916 are not representative of the way attrition turned in the Allies' favour in September, although this was not sustained as the weather deteriorated. [5] Sheffield wrote that the losses were "appalling", with 419,000 British casualties, c. 204,000 French and perhaps 600,000 German casualties. [citation needed], The Battle of the Somme has been called the beginning of modern all-arms warfare, during which Kitchener's Army learned to fight the mass-industrial war in which the continental armies had been engaged for two years. [42], The Battle of the Ancre was the last big British operation of the year. In the build-up to the battle at least 100,000 horses were brought into the Somme area, with more brought in during the battle. [12]) If such Franco-British defeats were not enough, Germany would attack the remnants of both armies and end the western alliance for good. The horrific bloodshed on the first day of the battle became a metaphor for futile and indiscriminate slaughter. The second position was beyond the range of Allied field artillery, to force an attacker to stop and move field artillery forward before assaulting the position. The Somme defences had two inherent weaknesses that the rebuilding had not remedied. A pause in Anglo-French attacks at the end of August, coincided with the largest counter-attack by the German army in the Battle of the Somme. This included the Pals battalions which allowed friends, relatives and work mates from the same communities fight together. The previously unprecedented bombardment did not have the hoped for impact leaving many well-built German defences intact including barbed wire. [16], The Brusilov Offensive (4 June – 20 September) on the Eastern Front absorbed the extra forces that had been requested on 2 June by Fritz von Below, commanding the German Second Army, for a spoiling attack on the Somme. The Allies agreed upon a strategy of combined offensives against the Central Powers in 1916 by the French, Russian, British and Italian armies, with the Somme offensive as the Franco-British contribution. However, Churchill wrote that Allied casualties had exceeded German losses. The German defence south of the Albert–Bapaume road mostly collapsed and the French had "complete success" on both banks of the Somme, as did the British from the army boundary at Maricourt to the Albert–Bapaume road. (GCSE) are used to teach pupils historical empathy, evaluation and argumentative writing. The most insightful comments on all subjects will be published daily in dedicated articles. These lines were intended to limit any Allied breakthrough and to allow the German army to withdraw if attacked; work began on the Siegfriedstellung (Hindenburg Line) at the end of September. German defences ringed the British salient at Delville Wood to the north and had observation over the French Sixth Army area to the south towards the Somme river. The Battle of … Experience of crossing the beaten zone showed that such lines or metalled roads could not be built quickly enough to sustain an advance, and that pausing while communications caught up allowed the defenders to recover. The Fourth Army took 57,470 casualties, of which 19,240 men were killed, the French Sixth Army had 1,590 casualties and the German 2nd Army had 10,000–12,000 losses. We just do not have the troops.... We cannot prevail in a second battle of the Somme with our men; they cannot achieve that any more. The Great War share their own experiences, discuss real-world solutions, and during, the battle of the World... Large-Scale offensive along the Somme during the winter of 1916–1917 18 November.! Volunteered to fight in 1914 and 1915 to debate the big issues, share their own experiences, real-world. 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