Just by looking at the figures you can tell that it was a terrible event for all of the sides concerned. One and a quarter million men lost their lives at the Somme. Many people alive today will have known or will be related to someone who fought in the battle. My great grandfather Samuel James was a private in the Canadian army and fought in the Battle of the Somme. He was one of the many injured, wounded on the leg by shrapnel and suffering from shell shock.
I will now look at all of the factors that contributed to the Somme being viewed as a disaster. Firstly, the sheer numbers of deaths and casualties, 420,000 British men were killed and 200,000 French allies. There were 57,000 casualties on the first day alone. There was a problem with the British tactics. I believe that these included the fact that 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. Another problem was that the British artillery was not provided with shells of enough power and others just did not explode. One of the aims of the bombing was to destroy the barbed wire. But the shells were not effective; the barbed wire was over 30 metres wide and was almost impossible to penetrate. Any holes in the barbed wire were easily targeted by the German machine gunners. There was then a three or four minute pause between the end of the artillery bombardment and the men going over the top I believe that this could have been crucial because it gave the Germans time to prepare and set up their machine guns.
Another contributing factor to the battle being a disaster was the fact that it was launched at seven o’clock in the morning. Bearing in mind that the battle started on the first of July it would have been broad daylight, giving the Germans a perfect view of the assembling British troops. This was a mistake probably made by Douglas Haig. The other mistakes by this experienced general were that he was out of date battle tactics like cavalry charges. I believe that one of the worst things that he did was to keep sending more and more men over the top, when he could see that they were getting slaughtered. General Haig did have a deputy, his name was General Rawlinson and he did not always agree with Haig. His opinion was that the British army should withdraw when he saw all the devastation and loss of life after the first day.
To get the real picture of the scale of the trauma at the Somme we have to take the information of someone who was really there. I will take some extracts from the diary of George Coppard a British machine gunner from the Somme. “Hundreds of dead were strung out like wreckage washed up to a high water mark, as many died on the enemy wire as on the ground, they hung there in grotesque postures and sufficient guns to command every inch of the wire”. He goes on to question the ability of his superiors for not realising the strength of the German defences especially their failure to spot the inability of shells and mines to cut through the German wire. He describes it as a black density and he said that the Germans must have been reinforcing the wire for months.
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.
Other positive points are that many of the mission objectives were completed, for example the village of Pozieres was captured and the British did gain land from the Germans. There were many points that point to the British commander Douglas Haig being a poor commander and the murderer of the Somme. But there are certain points that point to him not being all that bad such as the fact that although he insisted on old tactics like the use of cavalry to charge the enemy he was not afraid to experiment with new tactics such as the use of tanks for the first time. The tanks were not totally effective but did have a psychological effect on the German troops. Another new tactic that Haig experimented with was the idea of having your troops go forward then the artillery firing over the top of the soldiers, then the soldiers moving on, then more artillery firing over the top providing covering fire. Haig also was very confident in his own ability to win the battle for Britain.
The Battle of the Somme gave valuable experience to the British. The commanders learned not to under estimate the Germans and what their strengths and weaknesses were and the British troops gained valuable battle experience for the war’s future battles. Many of the Germans’ best soldiers and commanders died in the battle leaving them weaker for later battles, although this does not really show in the casualty figures. Over 1.25 million soldiers died at the Somme, 420,000 British, 200,000 French and 500,000 German, so the deaths on each side were fairly even.
After the war Haig was criticised for his part in the battle by many people, his own soldiers, politicians, the press and the British public. He was given the unwelcome title of the Butcher of the Somme. He believed that this title was unfair as he said that he had warned the politicians of heavy losses if the battle was going to be won. He said that the battle was a success because all of the main objectives were met.
This was not of much comfort to the British public; they were shocked by the huge loss of life. Many of them had lost friends, relatives and colleagues and were looking for someone to blame. Haig was the obvious target. The Somme brought to the attention of the British public the reality of war. They realised that the war was not going to be short and glorious, it was going to be drawn out and bloody. The confidence of the public in their leaders was at an all time low. The Prime Minister David Lloyd George’s relationship with General Haig was particularly bad.
In conclusion, the battle was terrible with horrific amounts of people killed but there were positive points to it as the main objectives were met.
