"How far was the Battleof the Somme a "Victory" for the British?"

C)EVALUATION OF SOURCES:

“A day that made History, the First Day of The Somme” was written by Richard Tames and was published in 1990. He obtained the information through The Imperial war Museum based in London which was established in 1917 just one year after the battle of the Somme had started (1st July 1916). Its main function was to commemorate those people who had died during the 1st world war. The Book written by Richard Tames offers a lot of statistics and maps about the British Offensive strategies during the Battle of the Somme. Richard Tames can be considered as a historian who gives detailed statistical values: “…July 1916 500 Germans had surrendered to the British army, however on October the British took another 60000 casualties. … 141 days since the Battle of the Somme had begun British General Headquarters estimated their casualties 415000 and the French lost 195000 casualties in the south.” The book also refers to quotes that are given by Generals/soldiers from the British and the French army. However one of the flaws of this source is that Richard Tames only offers statistics about the failures of the British offensive strategies but does not offer statistics about the failures and successes of the German army. By offering statistics and explanation of the quotes we get a clear idea of how far was it that the British had victory during the Battle of the Somme. The value of this book would be the year the book was published (1990). This makes it important because this means that that Richard Tames had a lot of time to collect all the sources required to give a full view over the Battle of the Somme with important statistics. “The Times” newspaper is biased in favour of the British. They give an optimistic view over the British offensive during the Battle of the Somme although the British are having a lot of difficulties. The extract is from a newspaper written on July 3rd 1916, 2 days after the Battle of the Somme had started. This source unlike the Richard Tames book does not give a lot of statistics on the casualties on the British/French side. The Times is sympathetic towards the British side and tries to make a better picture of the Battle:” It was a lovely morning, the sun, still low, shining directly in our faces from behind the German lines, so that where we stood it was necessary to be careful in the use of field-glasses”. Since this article was written 3 days after the battle had started it gives us a direct account of the events. But since it is from a person’s point of view it may be biased. In relation to the Richard Tames Book which was published in 1990 the event described in The Times would be more accurate since it is a direct account.

D) ANALYSIS:

One of the major difficulties in making any objective analysis or assessment from “The Times” is that the source is biased. The newspaper article gives us an impression that the description about the battle of the Somme is trying to give a better picture about the British offensive by not talking much about the flaws of it and by not using any figures or statistics. It seems that it is more for a propaganda purpose to make the British people believe that the battle is going on well which would prevent any strikes or revolts from erupting in Britain if they were shown that the British were facing enormous casualties. The First day Of the Battle of the Somme was a catastrophe for the British because they lost 57,470 casualties, including 19,240 killed. This was an enormous loss on the British side. The Time report claims that the British took 1500 prisoners into their custody and the French had taken 3000 prisons. This seems to be a moderate achievement for the British in comparison the huge losses they have faced. On 2nd July the British Headquarters estimated that the casualties of the previous day’s fighting were still 40% below the actual figures. The first days wounded were still in the battle zone and half did not receive any trained medical attention. So far the British have not achieved a successful victory against the strong German defensive system. The British believed that a major achievement would be the development of the tanks. It was believed that the tanks would be able to break the German trenches and was a war-winning weapon. However 60 tanks were only available in France and out of that 32 were prepared for action. 5 got stranded in craters on the battlefield. 9 broke down with engine failures or mechanical failures. 9 failed to catch up with the infantry because it was too slow. 9 tanks were able to keep up and scared the German soldiers in the Trenches. At first they were very successful and were able to advance and break German defences. However the weather had ruined the British tanks’ advancement. As it rained the mud got wet and soggy and reduced the speed of the tanks. This slowed down the operations of the offensive attack on the German defences. Breaking the German lines by a rapid advance soon became quite unrealistic. The pressure was maintained during November when the weather improved. In the end the Germans were crushed but the side that was very much damaged after the battle was the British and the French. There were quick and huge losses of lives that were inflicted on the British and the French army.

E) Conclusion:

What kind of difficulties did the British face during the Battle of the Somme? Why is it that they did not achieve complete victory, although they defeated the Germans? These questions can be easily answered; however the answers you obtain depends upon the sources you get it from. “The Times” is very much a biased source. If we were to extract all our information from it we would not obtain a full view over the battle of the Somme. However the Richard Tames book offers a balanced view over the whole Battle. Although the British did achieve victory in the end the British lost a tremendous amount of life in a matter of few days just after the battle of the Somme had started. General Douglas Haig had been criticised widely by the British people and Woodrow Wilson for flaws in his plans. I think that the British government is at fault since they appointed a general like Haig in command of the Battle of the Somme. The reason is because Haig had very little experience in fighting battles against a strong side. He was placed as general of the British army when fighting against colonies. However the colonial armies were not as strong as the German army. As a result Haig’s plans were not very effective as they would work only against the Weak armies but not strong armies like the Germans.

F) LIST OF SOURCES

Richard Tames: “A day that made History, the First Day of the Somme”, First published 1990, London

Simkin,J.-“Contemporary accounts of the 1st world war, Tressell, Brighton,1981

The Times, July 3rd 1916, THE GREAT BATTLE, UK LONDON