Essay about Battle of the Somme

The first day of the battle of the Somme was a dreadful scene but a victory for the Germans.According to Document B: George Coppard (British soldier) ,it states that ,” Hundreds of dead,many of the British 37th Brigade..Quite as many died on the enemy wire as on the ground,like a fish caught in the net...The Germans faith in the wire had paid off.” This evidence shows that a lot of the British army had died due to the German’s barbed wire and as a result is was an horrendous scene to look at.Also written in Document C: Ottis Lais(German soldier),it states that,”As the destructive British shell rushed towards our artillery which was firing courageously..the british keep charging forward...Despite the fact that hundreds are already lying dead

In World War 1, there were many new tactics that war has never seen before. Trench warfare was one of the new tactics that they used in World War 1. They used the trenches for many things. In World War 1 and All Quiet on the Western Front. They are an accurate portrayal of each other because of the way they fought while in cover, built them, and the way they put all their resources in them.

The Battle of the Somme took place over five months (between July and November of 1916) and the aim of it was to divert the attention of the Germans from Verdun. The first day was disastrous for the British consuming the biggest amount of British soldiers ever recorded in just 24 hours and the statement is probably based upon this. However the British did have a huge turn around.

And another evidence is Memories of Captain Charles Hudson, "We persisted in employing the same hopeless method of attack. (Source 7)       The problems beyond British is the reason that Battle of the Somme had disaster. For example, from the Sir Douglas Haig explaining the importance of heavy artillery at the Battle of the Somme in his book, " Defenses of

Douglas Haig was a British general during the First World War. He first commissioned into the 7th Queen’s Own Hussars in 1885, and was made a Field Marshall in 1917. He held numerous positions of command, and was the commander of the British Empire’s forces at the Battle of the Somme. The Battle of the Somme was fought from the 1st of July 1916 to the 18th of November the same year, and the tactics used by Haig (such as walking towards the enemy, the war of attrition etc remain very controversial to this day. The Battle of the Somme was fought the relieve the French forces at Verdun by attacking the Germans north of Verdun, therefore forcing Germany to move some of their men away from Verdun and relieving the French. Allied forces won 7 miles of ground, and the British lost 481,842 fighting men.

at. It all points towards the fact that some of the film was likely to

The Battle of the Somme was fought between July 1st and November 18th, 1916, as part of the Western Front of the First World War. The battle was fought primarily between Britain, France, and their allies, against the German Empire. It was fought near the River Somme in France. The British and French launched a major offensive operation against the Germans, hoping to break their lines and bring an end to the war. The Allies managed to gain some ground, but they were not nearly as successful as they hoped, the war continuing to rage on for another two years. The Somme Offensive was the largest and bloodiest battle on the Western Front of the First World War, involving over three million men, approximately one million of them becoming casualties

Source F is a primary source and a pictured film (edited) published in 1916 in the preliminary stages of the battle of the Somme. The pictured film gained and attracted over 26 million viewers in the first week of production. The source contains a still image from the government film. ‘The battle of the Somme’ released in August 1916 showing a wounded soldier being alluringly carried through a trench. The Purpose of this source is to try and persuade young people to volunteer and join the fighting in the war. During these years many young British soldiers had been manipulated to join the army it shows that the war was not going so well and that the new technology wasn’t doing so well either. However, in the film it seems that the British government

After the high number of deaths in the Somme offensive, Arthur Currie, a senior Canadian officer, and British general, Julian Byng, wanted to ensure victory by rehearsing everything. As Currie states, “Thorough preparation must lead to success. Neglect nothing.” As a result, positions and roles were meticulously reviewed, men specialized their weapons, and new aerial photos created improved maps. Everything was timed perfectly to the

In “The Face of Battle,” John Keegan analyzed the experiences of the individuals involved in the battles of the Somme and Waterloo; he thoroughly examined the advancements of industrialization in warfare and battle strategy between 1815 and 1916. The industrialization of modern warfare during the battle of the Somme, while progressive, was very much still in its experimental stages. While the inventions during this time period were later evolved into much more useful products, it seems as though the organized warfare in Waterloo was much more effective; the soldier’s mediocre training for the Somme was obvious in the chaotic events that occurred. While each battle was disastrous in their own ways, industrialization certainly improved means of warfare and the experience that the soldiers had.

Furthermore, Not everything in The Somme was good. The soldiers at The Somme experienced more traumatic events than the soldiers in the battle waterloo. The technology at The Somme was more advanced therefore, there was bullets flying everywhere. The soldiers could not see anything they were just running to make it somewhere. When they would turn around they would see their friends and family dead or wounded. In the months that the war lasted the British lost 50,000 lives. Many of the soldiers who went the battle in The Somme only went to make there families proud and get new girlfriends, of course to show their love for their country. Also, the soldiers and the family and friends would go war together. Most of the soldiers in The Somme

used in the war effort in the 'war to end all wars'. Haig is most

One hundred years ago the world shared one thing in common, experiencing the world’s first war. Many factors that go into the war or had an influence on it had their own specific role. Trench warfare was a common type of fighting where both troops would build their own trenches in order to protect themselves from their enemy on other side separated by no man’s land. Trenches were a key part of the battleground during World War I and became the home and final location for millions of soldiers. Trenches were necessary for American troops survival in World War I because they were an effective form of protection and defense, and were built to prevent injuries and/or deaths.

Firstly in order to gain an understanding of the mind set of Douglas Haig when he took over command of the British Expeditionary force in 1915 we must look to his history of command prior to the war. Haig graduated from Sandhurst and was commissioned into the 7th Hussars as the Lieutenant. This direction into a cavalry based military career would fix Haig’s viewpoint on the role of cavalry during World War I. Haig believed that “the role of the cavalry on the battlefield will always go on increasing.” Historians such as Alan Clark heavily criticise Haig on this stagnated view surrounding the use of mounted troops. The development of static trench warfare combined with newly developed defensive weaponry had created a deadlock in which traditional

The British launched The Battle of the Somme to achieve two objectives. The first and most important goal was to relieve pressure on the French Army at Verdun, and the second was to inflict as heavy a loss as possible on the German Armies. The Battle of the Somme had to be fought to save the French Army from the crucifixion of Verdun. The head of the French Army, General Fock, and some leading British commanders did not believe this battle would help, but political masters in London and Paris supported the campaign. For many years The Battle of the Somme received much criticism for the way the battle was fought based on the number of casualties.