At this point in the war, it had become a stalemate. Both sides had dug deep defences and fortified them with barbed wire and machine gun posts. The Germans had built many lines of trenches in this way. All villages in the lines were fortified and behind these defences were heavy artillery positions. General Sir Douglas Haig, commander of the British forces realised that heavy, accurate and lengthy bombardment of German positions would destroy them thus given advancing soldiers a chance of victory. General Henry Rawlinson was commander of the British 4th army that had been assigned the attack on the Somme. He believed in bite and hold tactics, where trenches were destroyed by artillery barrages, while infantry occupied each trench slowly ad methodically. He foresaw conflict with Haig because he did not feel the war would be won by this one offensive.
The bombardment of the German positions had been planned to last for five days. The first objective of the bombardment was to cut the barbed wire in front of the trenches to allow the infantry to advance through German lines. This bombardment would destroy German machine gun posts and would kill any German soldiers in the trenches. This was to take place for the first two days of the bombardment.
In the three days following this, the RAF’s spotting aircraft would mark the positions of any German heavy artillery thus allowing the British guns to destroy any enemy artillery that would decimate their men. Any fortified villages would also be obliterated by the bombardment. A five day bombardment was planned, although this was extended by two days, so the day of infantry attack was changed from June 29th to July 1st.
The final stage of the bombardment would take place as the troops began attacking when the artillery would use an early form of creeping barrage. They would fire on the first line of German trenches for a set period of time, then they would target the German second line and keep moving in this pattern, the idea was to fire on the trenches that the British troops were attacking in order to support them, then to lift the barrage at the time when the British troops were scheduled to arrive. The barrage would then move to attack the troops’ next objective.
As well as a heavy bombardment, the original plan was to explode mines underneath German positions. In WW1, a mine was not a landmine as we know it today. Teams of engineers would tunnel under enemy positions and dig caverns which would be packed with explosives usually ammonal. These would then be detonated causing a huge explosion that would rip through any positions on the surface. Such mines used vast amounts of explosive. The Hawthorn mine was detonated at 7;20am on July 1st to assist the 29th division’s attack on Beaumont Hamel. It used 40,000 lbs of ammonal and created a crater 55 metres across and 22 metres deep. The Lochnar mine, used 60,000 lbs ammonal and was blown to support the 34th divisions attack astride the Poizieres/Baupaume road. The idea behind using the mines was that the huge explosion would cause disarray in the German lines. They would also eliminate any strong positions such as fortified machine gun posts.
The plan for the infantry attack after the barrage had ceased seemed simple enough. Men were told to climb out of the trench and walk slowly towards enemy positions without running, and there was to be no turning back under any circumstance. The High Command had decided that because the soldiers had limited military experience, they would not be able to execute a more complicated plan, so the plan for the Battle of the Somme had no flexibility. Besides, the generals were adamant this plan was the best possible plan that could not fail, so nobody asked the question “What if it goes wrong?” Men were sent in four waves, because in the past battles with four waves of men had usually been won. The infantry had been told that the German trenches would be destroyed by the bombardment, and all they had to do was walk through enemy territory capturing territory and prisoners while the Germans retreated before them. Some were told they would not need their rifles.
This method of infantry advance was expected to work because the cornerstone of Haig’s plan was an accurate bombardment that would devastate the German sto such an extent that they would not be able to resist. His final touch to the plan was his favourite method of attack. Haig had been trained as a cavalry officer, and he firmly believed that the only way to win a war was to break enemy lines with infantry and send cavalry pouring through the gap. This was what he intended to do on the Somme. After the infantry had opened a gap in the German lines, he would send regiments of cavalry through the gap to round up the German lines and win the war.
