Why the Battle of the Somme was regarded as such a great military tragedy?
What was the battle of the Somme?
The battle of the Somme has been described as a big military disaster, this started of in the year of 1916, this war included France, Britain they were facing German opposition, this battle took place in northern France and the English were being led by general sir Douglas Haig and the French were being led by Joseph Joffre. The area around the Somme had been divided into two; this included the Germans on one side and the British and the French on another side. The British and French wanted to push the Germans out of the Somme and wanted to take over the land. In the end they only managed 12ks. This battle was part of WW1. The Battle of the Somme was the most infamous battle of its time because of all the deaths and injuries caused to people.
The battle of the Somme was a great tragedy because of all the casualties. In the first day alone 58.000 men were either killed or injured because of the plan that Haig chose. Sir Douglas Haig and the French military used a plan that would make them defenceless because of all the casualties caused. The British government was apauled when they found out what had happened and what the outcome was. A large amount of deaths were on the British side even though Joffre intended to use the French soldiers at first, but the German attack on Verdun in 1916 turned the Somme into a large scale British diversionary attack. After all the deaths Haig took the responsibility of the operation and designed a new plan. They then intended to have an 8-day bombardment he believed that would completely destroy the Germans, but he was wrong. General Haig used 750.00 men against a German side who only had 16 divisions in progress. Haig failed big time and didn’t even break the German barbed wire and concrete bunkers, which were protecting the Germans. Eventually on the 1st July at 7:30 the British and French struck and stood back in disgust and horror as their men went down one by one in the hail of German machine gun fire. They eventually realised that their plan wasn’t the right one but still were eager to keep on attacking. On the 13th July they eventually made a small breakthrough and that lifted every ones spirits and they all attacked on believing that the Germans wouldn’t be able to resist the attack.
