The Somme area wasn’t a good area to launch an attack on the Germans, because the Somme area had been occupied by the German’s for two years before the battle. In this period, German forces had created excellent trench systems and were familiar with the area. This was no advantage to the British, as German soldiers had tunnels to hide in and reserve trenches.
Most of the soldiers in the attack were new recruits, who were inexperienced and lacked knowledge. The shells were not fired accurately enough to destroy the German machine gun posts. The shrapnel did not destroy the barbed wire which meant that when allied soldiers reached the German trench, they would be shot down by the machine gun posts, or German soldiers.
The Germans were well prepared for the allies as they intercepted a good luck message sent out. Large mines exploded at Hawthorne Ridge which signaled the start of the attack and these mines caused massive German casualties and the noises could be heard in London. The artillery fire which had been going on day and night for weeks stopped which also indicated to the German’s that an attack was close.
One of the main reasons the allied attack failed, is because the inflexibility of the allied soldiers. They had to walk across the land because the grass was muddy and wet. The soldiers had to carry packs on the backs, which made it even more difficult for them to run. This meant that the German machine guns could strike down allied soldiers easily because there was a lot of time to do so. Britain had no contingency plan, so if the attack failed, Britain would have few options and probably call of the attack.
Sir General Haig did not see his men as human beings, but as statistics. Every man that went over the top into no mans land knew that it wasn’t likely they would return. He failed to call off the offensive after massive casualties and little ground gained.
It is not just 400,000 lives lost, it is 400,000 families destroyed, which is what makes it such a tragic event. Was it worth destroying 400,000 families, for just gaining a couple of kilometers? Haig thought the way to win the war was to kill more German’s than German’s killed the allies. This was a bad strategy because more lives were lost and not much was gained. It was a war of attrition, and fought very differently to how a war is fought today. With the changes in technology over time, battlefields are rarely used to fight a war. Fighter jets dropping bombs and ships firing missiles mean that less people are killed on the ground. The Battle of the Somme is seen as a greater tragedy today as there are many ways to fight wars now, back then, a ground battle was the only way to fight a war.
