Britain's Role In The Battle Of The Somme

First lets talk about the back story of the War of Amiens. The reason the war started was because the general of the German Forces, Ludendorff, had a plan he called “Emperor’s Battle”. The plan was to make a hole in the Allied Forces so he wanted to push the British Forces to the English Channel hoping that France when losing there allys would surrender and the target was amiens. The attack started at 04:40 on March 1st 1918. This attack that Ludendorff planned was the greatest consentration of artillery fire in World War One. It had 6,500 guns and 3,500 trench mortars firing along a 46 mile front.

The Allies rallied an offensive for the liberation of France in late September 1915. This resulted in a stalemate between the powers, inflicting heavy casualties on the Allied and Central Powers. This fierce battling with no progression continued into late 1916, when the Germans became concerned at the amount of the allied forces on the western front and the invention of the tank - technology that Germany

Was General Haig to blame for so many deaths at the battle of the Somme?

The British went into the Somme with a mixed attack plan, which led to an unsuccessful first assault resulting in a battle of attrition. The opening day of The Battle of the Somme resulted in near 60,000 casualties for the British, the largest in British military history for a single day. Originally the Somme was supposed to be a French dominated offensive, however the Germans attacked to the South in Verdun occupying the majority of French troops. The British were then thrust into control of the offensive, leaving Sir Douglas Haig and General Rawlinson to arrange an offensive strike against the Germans. Haig advocated for the use of infantry including foot soldiers as well as cavalry to lead the offensive. Rawlinson countered with a bite and hold strategy, which involved fortifying a strong defense and warding off German counter attacks. Rather than committing to one strategy, the two were combined in order to create a week-long bombardment followed by an offensive attack on foot.

The Battle of the Bulge gave the Allies a significant numerical advantage. During the offensive, the Germans lost many of their experienced soldiers. In addition to this, Germany suffered heavy casualties that it could not replace. As stated by Dean, “Germany lost anywhere from 67,200 to 100,000 casualties” (Dean). Due to these casualties, Germany was at a significant disadvantage. These losses also weakened the heavily-fortified Siegfried line because Germany had lost much of its troops from the Ardennes Counteroffensive. A different viewpoint of the Battle of the Bulge is that the Allies also suffered heavy casualties. While some historians think this, the Allies replaced their losses while Germany couldn’t. Germany had a shortage of people after the Battle of the Bulge.

Both sides rushed north in a ‘race to the sea'. If one army got there first it could take control of crucial channel ports and also move to encircle the armies of its rival. Incidentally, neither army moved south as both French and German borders were intact and heavily fortified all the way to the Swiss border. As both sides moved north at an even pace and neither wanted to lose any ground, a line of deeply dug trenches appeared all the way the way through Belgium and Northern France. These trenches were extremely well designed defensive positions and were almost impenetrable by conventional means. The beginning of the war was now over, deadlock had been established and the long bloody middle was about to begin. It would be this trench warfare that would be the key factor behind the failure for either side to advance over the coming years.

The battle of the Somme was a battle fought by the French and British against the axis, Germans, in WW1 in a region of France which the river Somme runs through hence the name of the battle. This battle had great importance even though there was no geographical advantage to winning the battle it helped relieve pressure on the French in the Battle of Verdun.

The Battle of the Bulge, or Ardennen Offensive was a major German offensive. On December 16, 1944 towards the end of World War II the battle was the only major German offensive of the war, launched by Adolf Hitler in order to attempt to reverse the decrease in his fortunes that had started on D-ay. He intended to accomplish this by trying to split Allied troops through an assault located within the Ardennes Forest of Belgium, destroying enemy troops located here. He believed would ensure the allies to form a peace treaty that would favor the Axis Powers. The attack in the Ardennes Forest did not result in Hitler’s predicted outcome.

The Battle of the Somme is perhaps one of the greatest military disasters in British military history, with losses being around 600,000 men. However, nothing major was achieved, and it certainly didn't live up to its expectations, making whether it’s significant or not a controversial topic. One reason that the Battle of the Somme could be seen as significant is because it was a catastrophe that led to 100,000s of death, which had large impact on the British army the and the people at home. The British plan was to obliterate the german defences, with an enormous artillery bombardment, and then for British troops to advance as if it were a “Sunday afternoon stroll in the park”.

When assessing the strategies formulated by the British Generals, the Somme is good example to evaluate. The fundamental issue with evaluating the Somme’s tactics is that it seemed to be lacking

The battle of Verdun was one of the major battles during World War 1 on the Western Front. It was fought between the German and French armies, from February, 21 to December, 18 1916, on very rough terrain north of the city of Verdun Sur Meuse in North East France. The Objective of the Germans was to take over Verdun so that it had a major upper hand in regards to the attack on the capital Paris. What the Germans planned to do as well as coming down through Belgium, was to take over Verdun and make railways to support the western front. So eventually they could get through to Paris front and back. During this battle they had 2 major objectives, to capture the city of Verdun and to inflict a high casualty count on the French to weaken their forces

To start The battle of verdun was in World War 1 between the tons of german vs the french holding their position in the trenches along the frontline of germany and france.

In the end, this battle, like the Second Battle of Marne, was another important turning point in the war. This is because the British had minimal damage to their naval army—the damage they did have was repaired within a month—and the Germans were so damaged that they were not able to take advantage of their High Seas Fleet. Moreover, it provided the British with vital information on how to improve their tactics as well as their

After four and a half years of war, at 11 am on November the 11th 1918 Germany signed an armistice which resulted in the end of world war. Although war may have ended the results remained. Devastation was ubiquitously spread across multiple countries, France was among those most affected with large regions of the country reduced to rubble. Cities such as Flanders and Ypres of Belgium were almost entirely wiped off the map. In the early stages of 1918 Germany had the upper hand in the war thus believing victory was imminent. In March Germany decided to launch the ‘Michael offensive’ successfully pushing Britain far back across the old Somme battlefield. In spite of Germany’s efforts for a quick victory, French and British troops counter attacked

The battle of the Somme was the battle fought in World War 1. The battle of the Somme began when the French army required help from the British army to help fight the battle, Battle of Verdun, against the Germans. Britain went to the River Somme which distracted Germany so the German army divided in order to fight the Battle of the Somme and the Battle of Verdun at the same time. The battle of the Somme was fought by the British Empire against the German Empire. The British Empire was led by General Douglas Haig. General Douglas Haig was the senior officer and he led the western front from the late 1915 until the end of the war. General Douglas Haig served as the commander of the British Army for 3 years (1918-1921). Sadly 10 years after the war Haig passed away. The phrase ‘butcher of the Somme’ was given to General Douglas Haig. The phrase is given to General Douglas Haig as many people believe that he was responsible for the deaths of many innocent soldiers. The phrase ‘butcher of the Somme’ means how many soldiers died during the battle of the Somme due to the tactics General Douglas Haig used. Is General Douglas Haig a hero or butcher?