OPPapers.com

Battle Of The Somme

Battle of the Somme
The year was 1916 and the Battle of the Somme may have been the largest battle in the First World War. There were more than one million casualties and men faced each other over the decaying wastes of No Man's Land, and confronted the realities of dirt, disease, and death. The attack was expanded over 30 kilometers, from north of the Somme river between Arras and Albert. The battle lasted from July 1 until November 18, and included a one day record for troops lost.
The first day on the Somme
The planned attack would include 13 British divisions (11 from the Fourth Army and two from the Third Army) staged north of the Somme river, and on the south side of the river the French Sixth Army was also ready to attack on command. On the opposing side of things stood the German Second Army commanded by General Fritz von Below. July 1, 1916, 7:30 a.m. was known as zero hour for the Battle of the Somme. Little did the Germans know that a few days prior the British had dug 10 mines beneath the German front-line trenches and strong points; the three largest mines included 20 tons of explosives each. Ten minutes before zero hour at 7:20 a.m. the mine beneath Hawthorne Ridge Redbout was detonated. With in eight minutes the remaining mines exploded causing a tremendous surprise for the Germans. There was brief and unsettling silence after zero hour as the artillery shifted their aim onto the next line of targets, and in the words of poet John Mansfield:
"[T]he hand of time rested on the half hour mark, and all along that old front line of the English there came a whistling and a crying. The men of the first wave climbed up the parapets, into tumult, darkness, and the presence of death, and having done of all pleasant things, advanced No Man's Land to begin the Battle of the Somme." (The Old Front Line, 1917)
Even though the British had put in a lot of thought for the first day of the Somme, overall it was a failure and a big one at that. The total loss...