Why Did So Many Men die in the Battle of the Somme?

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Why Did So Many Men die in the Battle of the Somme?

Introduction

The World War I started in 1914 and ended in 1918. The main European countries that were involved in the war were France, Russia and Britain. These countries were on one side. On the other side the countries involved were Germany, Italy and Austria-Hungary. The Battle I’m going to talk about is the Battle of the Somme, this was between Germany and Britain. The main question is ‘why did so many British man die in the Battle of the Somme’. 

The Contexts are:

  1. Disaster on the first day
  2. The failure of plan of the attack
  3. Deaths in the Battle of the Somme
  4. The Nature of Trench Warfare

5) Failure of Tanks

  1. Conclusion of the essay

Disaster on the first day

Introduction of the point:

Commander in Chief Douglas Haig planned to win the war in one major battle. But he made a very big mistake and I’m going to tell you what happened with some evidence.

What happened

The battle began with a five-day bombardment of the enemy trenches. On 1 July Commander Douglas Haig ordered the advance to begin. He told his troops that they should walk across ‘No mans land’ because there would not be ‘even a rat’ alive in the German trenches. While the bombardment was taking place, the Germans had withdrawn into especially prepared deep dugouts. Once it had stopped, they prepared for the advancing British soldiers.

(Evidence here a primary source from a German soldier describing what he saw after when he saw the bombardment stopped)

(Another source but secondary from a film showing the British troops coming out of their trenches)

The Germans only had one order to give, ‘Fire!’

The British suffered 60,000 casualties, including 20,000 deaths, on the first day of the attack alone. But not even this scale of loss convinced the generals to change their minds about the methods of warfare they employed.

Conclusion of the point:

This was a very big disaster, because 60,000 British soldiers were casualties on the very first day. Which meant they lost a lot.

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The Failure of the plan of attack 

Introduction of the point:

In 1916 the British Army planned to win the war in one major battle. Which was the Battle of the Somme. The plan, which was a top secret, was:

Plan of attack (British Plan):

  1. A huge new army of volunteers will be recruited.
  2. Supplies and men will assemble to attack the Somme sector of the front
  3. German defenses will be bombarded with over one and a half million shells for seven days before the attack.
  4. The bombardment will destroy the German ...

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