To break through the German lines, the British and the French had to move to at least 15km in order to do this. But at the furthest point, they were still only 8km from where they started.
The next offensive, was achieved to a certain degree-by May 1916, German attack at Verdun was subsided (before the Somme, the attack was thinning out), the Germans were forced to move troops to the Somme, and the Germans had many losses 650, 000 at the Somme. (Reserve divisions were required at the Somme to replace the lost men).
The main aim of wearing the German soldiers down, was to kill as many Germans as possible as part of the war of attrition. This objective was achieved, but at a very unnecessarily high cost. One German soldier called the field where it took place a muddy grave. The German casualty rate was very high, and one and a quarter of a million men lost their lives at the Somme. With 420,000 British soldiers injured or killed. Achieving this goal showed the Germans that the British and French were a national front.
But improving the defensive positions was much harder to achieve. Haig was anticipating that 15 kilometres of German trenches would be stormed and seized by the British troops on the first day of the infantry attack, initially to gain a strategic stronghold in Baupaume. However, it took five months to capture just eight kilometres of German trenches.
One of the most important reasons why the battle failed was that the German positions were impregnable. The German forces were on higher ground than the British giving a good view of the troops preparing the attacks. Also the Germans' trenches had been there since 1914 and the German troops had not been standing idly. They had been improving their trenches for two years now and their dugouts had been dug deep and reinforced with concrete. This ensured that the British shells did not have the effect that the generals had hoped. This played a part in the British and French unable to improve defensive positions. They also had a sophisticate system of concrete tunnels and trenches.
During the Allies seven-day bombardment on the German trenches an estimated 1,500,000 shells, and 2,000 pieces of artillery was hurled over along a 30km German front line. Sir Douglas Haig was so confident that the bombardment had succeeded he said, "not even a rat would be alive." But the shells were poor - a third of shells fired, didn’t explode.
The soldiers were also told to walk across no man's land. The results of the attack were however surprising and reversed. 58,000 British casualties were inflicted on the first day of the infantry attack, of which over 18,000 had been killed, making it the worst day in terms of casualties in British military history. The objective was to dent the German morale; instead the British had their own morale severely dented.
Haig has been described as ‘the butcher of the Somme’. Many believed that his use of inflexible tactics lead to an unnecessary number deaths. Despite the huge number of casualties, Haig insisted that they carried on using the same tactics. This only increased the death rate. In Haigs defence, he was under immense pressure to make the attack and he also believed that there was no alternative to the big push. Having no alternative tactics, meant that there was no element of surprise for the Germans.
On the other hand the Battle of the Somme was not a total disaster. There were positive points that came out of the battle. For example it definitely assisted the French at Verdun because some of the German forces fighting in Verdun had to withdraw to help out their comrades fighting in the Somme. It was so important to draw the Germans away from Verdun because the French army was on the brink of defeat. So if the Somme had not been launched the French would most likely have surrendered leaving the British to face the German army alone. So if you think of it like that the Battle of the Somme was the battle, which prevented the Germans from winning the war.
