Why is the battle of the Somme regarded as such a great military tragedy?

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Why is the battle of the Somme regarded as such a great military tragedy?

The battle of the Somme was a major military tragedy as well as a great human heartbreak for the British. The battle of the Somme was fought in France on the river Somme hence the name battle of the Somme. The Somme was fought for two main reasons firstly the British commander sir Douglas Haig made a plan to alleviate strain from the French troops, who were under intense pressure from the Germans in Verdun, where in all 315,000 French soldiers died which meant the planned battle which was originally organised for October was forced forward by three months, without the help of the French as they were still occupied by the Germans in Verdun. The second reason the British attacked on the Somme was to regain the lost land from the Germans. This all meant that the battle of the Somme began at 7 30 am on the 1st July 1916.

The word tragedy to me means a sad, unhappy event inevitably causing death. The new penguin dictionary's definition of the word tragedy was - i a disastrous event; a calamity ii a