The Battle Of The Somme

Trench warfare is a war strategy used in the American Civil War in 1861 – 1865 and the Russian – Japanese War of 1904 – 1905, but it wasn’t until World War One that trench warfare became the standard form of fighting. World War one is best known for being the war fought in trenches, and the ditches dug into the ground to give troops protection from gunfire and enemy artillery. When men volunteered to fight in World War One on the Western Front, little did they know about the living and fighting conditions that was seen in the trenches. World War one saw massive development in technology which allowed enemies to fight in different ways. Trench warfare was the most important and significant operation undertaken by troops.

Sadly, their weapons did not have the ability to cut all the wire and destroy deep German trenches or knock out all enemy guns. It also could not provide a useful bombardment for the infantry attack. On July 1, the artillery drifted away from the German front trenches and left the infantry unattended. Nobody was

The Meuse-Argonne offensive of World War I began in the fall of 1918. The offensive began in the dawn of 26 September 1918 and concluded on 11 November 1918 after forty-seven days. The massive and bloody offensive pitted the newly formed American Expeditionary Force (AEF) referred to its allies as the “Doughboys” led by General John "Black Jack" Pershing against a heavily fortified German force entrenched between the Meuse River and Argonne Forest located northwest of Verdun in the Alsace-Lorraine region. The battle became the bloodiest and deadliest in the Army’s history. This battle analysis will examine the Meuse-Argonne offensive.

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.

The beginning, the first few chapters of Hart’s book, is about the war before the battle of the Somme. The British has for the most abandoned their naval battle and moved into a battle over land that developed into a trench warfare system that stretched from Switzerland to the North Sea. The Allies knew this could not remain as it was, and developed a plan for stopping this war. That plan, according to Haig, was to wear down the enemy and then send a massive amount of troops in to break through the enemy line and win the victory.

During World War II there were many battles that took place. One particular known battle was the “Battle of the Bulge” also known as the battle of Ardennes, from December 16th, 1944 to January 16th, 1945. It was the Last major German offense on the Western Front during WWII, and it was a futile attempt to push the Allies back from German home territory. This name was given by Winston Churchill, a description of the resistance he mistakenly supposed was being offered to the Germans’ breakthrough in that are before the Anglo-French collapse. The word Bulge denotes to the wedge that the Germans drove into Allied lines. This informative research of the Battle of the Bulge, focuses on the Field Artillery branch, its immense efforts in the battle,

It was challenging for the armies to continue the war while having a huge loss because of the guns, thus there was a need of the methods, like trench warfare. Trench warfare reached to its peak usage in WWI and one of the factors affecting that was the achievement in the weapon technology. Specially, MG 08, which is the German version of Maxim machine gun was forced people for trench warfare, otherwise just one machine gun was able to destroy one army of the opposite side. Moreover, in order to defend against the the military ships that has extended range tanks they were using the trenches that are a bit far from the shore, like it was in Dardanelle war. Furthermore, the use of bombs and gas made some issues on the trenches. For instance, with the use of gas, from mid-1915, every trench had some form of warning of gas attack. We can imagine these situations from the memories of Paul Baumer from “All Quite on the Western Front”: Paul mentions that soldiers cannot define bomb sounds from the other sounds and were dying because of shrapnels; This is terrible that because of the limited time, they could not have trainings and they were dying in front of their eyes, because of the lack of experience. Under those circumstances, it is possible to see how the technology caused the transition to trench warfare and how it

Great Britain believed that World War I or the Great War would be over before Christmas so they built their trenches to only stand temporarily. Britain did not want to waste time and money on building comfortable and specialized trenches. Germany did not know how long the war would last so they built there trenches to with stand as many years of fighting necessary. The Germans spent weeks designing their trenches and making sure that they were technologically advanced. They wanted to make sure it had the comfort and stability that they needed to fight for an extended amount of time.

These skirmishes were a part of the attempt by the Allied forces (Entente) to take the German positions, as well as to push any invaders back. The combination of insufficient information, unattainable goals, and an all around lack of solid artillery support as well as the yards and yards of un-cut barbed wire and the hidden machine gun nests, the Canadian soldiers could not gain any positions. Even in these initial battles the Canadian force suffered substantial loses. 2,868 Canadians were either killed or wounded. This would be the sharp realization that this was only the beginning of the deadlock of trench warfare during World War I.

In specific, I will be talking about the Battle of Somme the 1st July, 1916 as it is not as discussed as happier moments during the war such as the takeover at Vimy Ridge and that memorial. A quick overview for the battle of Somme would be that it was fought with the British forces under the command of their General Haig and dragged on for 141 days. By the end, casualties totaled 1.2 million on both sides after the British advanced 11km. It is still known to be the greatest single disaster in 500+ years of history for Newfoundland and Labrador, and it is now a memorial day for them. Soon later, the French attacked Somme and achieved advances greater than what he British did, with fewer divisions and close to 2000 casualties.

The Battle of the Bulge is considered the United State Army’s greatest victory as American soldiers withstood the full force of the German War Machine. Allied Forces faced freezing temperatures, fog, threats of espionage and battle tested German units. This victory was not without shortcomings, most notably in intelligence and subpar battlefield performances.

The attacks cut off communications, isolating command posts and making it difficult for senior U.S. officers to get a quick assessment of the size of the offensive (Military History Online, n.d). This attack created a bulge in the American lines, which led to the name of the battle; Battle of the Bulge.

To begin with, trench warfare was a war tactic that baffled many generals since it was not implemented frequently in battles and they were not trained to fight under those circumstances. Although, it was used during the American Civil War and the Russian- Japanese War, trench warfare dramatically grew during the the first World War. In its first month, the French stopped German forces that were pushing through Belgium. The conflict between both sides was expected to be short but turned longer and bloodier as the first trenches were dug during the Battle of Marne on September 15, 1914. Eventually, the Western Front stretched from France through the North Sea Coast of Belgium.

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.

You are a French soldier fighting on the front lines at the Battle of Verdun. Artillery pounds all around you then out of nowhere it all stops, there is not a sound, you look over the trench and the German soldiers standing with their hands in the air. You have one the Battle of Verdun. Many people don’t realize why this battle was so important, but it was. Furthermore, it was one of the longest battles of World War One it lasted ten months. Let me explain, the Battle of Verdun greatly affected World War One because it was a major victory for the Allies, a major loss for the Central Powers, and a very influential battle in WWI.