Battle Of The Somme.

Nicole Saunders.

Battle Of The

Somme

The Battle of the Somme lasted just over four and a half months, from the 1st of July to the 19th of November 1916.

If the battle of the Somme had worked tactically and strategically more effectively, then it would have been worthwhile, instead the gains were not commensurate with the sacrifice. On the other hand in Sir Douglas Haigs’ opinion any of the three results of the battle of the Somme were sufficient to justify the Somme Battle:

I don’t agree-From the information that I have gathered I think that if it had worked to the success that was originally planned, then it would have been worthwhile, but because of poor leadership, the first day of the Somme was a human tragedy. This extract captures all that angers me about the first day of the Battle of the Somme:

This is a preview of the whole essay

The initial plan of the Somme was by the time that it was over it would end the war with a victory for the British, I believe that if the battle of the Somme had been less sacrificial for us then we would have put an end to the war and it would be over. Instead-too many men were killed too quickly so our defensive were instantly weakened along with our attack. Having said that over the four and a half months we did push the Germans back quite considerably, and captured just over 38,000, including over 800 officers. During the same four and a half months we captured 29 heavy guns, 96 field guns and field howitzers, 136 trench mortars and 514 machine-guns.

All in all there are many good and bad points to the Battle of the Somme but none out do each other with justification, the battle of the Somme was a great tragedy for many men, it caused the loss of many lives and men, armies were weakened and more men called up to have their fate decided for them by war. I think that if I had been there the battle of the Somme would be the definition of Hell, the constant fear flooding your senses until in the end you hear nothing, not even the thundering artillery you just hear you thoughts and orders knowing that sooner or later you’re gonna be dead or injured, and you hope against hope that your fate is sooner rather than later. Many men had to watch as all the men that they had ever known in their town, village or city were killed. One particular soldier was running across no mans land with his platoon line attacking the opposing trench, his best friend was running next to him, then another shell went off and a piece of shrapnel blew his friends head off and yet the headless corpse carried on running for about eight feet.

The Somme was a battle that had many outcomes: we managed to push the Germans back, we lost many men, we capture many Germans and their weapons, it did not end the war, as far as I can see it had no real effect on the rest of the war, it just lost many numbers from each side. Although we had the more men in that battle I still believe that the Germans were the more dominant side purely because of the first day of the Somme where we lost so much.