Battle of the Somme
The Battle of the Somme, launched on 1 July 1916, produced the bloodiest single day in British military history. A seven-day artillery bombardment of unprecedented scale was intended to destroy German wire and dugouts before the infantry attacked; instead, the German soldiers survived in deep bunkers and emerged to man their machine guns as the barrage lifted. On the first day, approximately 57,470 British casualties were sustained, of whom nearly 20,000 were killed — many of them in the 'Pals battalions' of volunteers from the same towns and streets, whose annihilation devastated specific communities across northern England. Field Marshal Haig launched the offensive to relieve pressure on French forces at Verdun, and the attack was supported by French divisions to the south who achieved more success against less prepared German positions. On 15 September, tanks were used in battle for the first time at Flers-Courcelette, though in too small numbers and too spread out to be decisive. The battle lasted until 18 November 1916, by which time British and French forces had advanced at most seven miles along a front of roughly twenty miles, at a total cost of over one million casualties on all sides. The Hawthorn Ridge mine, a massive underground explosion detonated at 7:28 am on the first day, became one of the war's most iconic images. The Somme ended the pre-war volunteer army and forced Britain's transition to conscription-based mass mobilisation.
- Year: 1916 CE
- Category: Military
