The War to End All Wars by Russell Freedman

Author:Russell Freedman [Freedman, Russell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

10

The Battle of the Somme

British troops with wire cutters attached to their rifles pause on their way to the front on July 1, 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme. More than half of the men who entered no man’s land that day were listed as killed, missing, or wounded.

The Allies had agreed on a plan to break the stalemate. French, British, Russian, and Italian armies were to launch a joint offensive in several areas, east and west, attacking the Central Powers from all sides and preventing them from shifting their reserves from one front to another.

The offensive on the Western Front was to be carried out by French and British forces along the Somme River, north of Verdun in the province of Picardy. Originally, the plan called for equal participation by the French and British, but with so many French troops engaged at Verdun, the British took over the major role on the Somme. France would contribute three divisions to the campaign, while Britain had nineteen divisions.

The British commander, Sir Douglas Haig, had planned every move down to the last detail. A massive infantry attack would be preceded by a weeklong artillery bombardment in which a million and a half shells would be fired, flattening the enemy’s barbed-wire defenses, destroying their trenches and fortifications, and stunning any enemy soldiers who managed to survive. The attacking Allied troops could then advance across no man’s land behind the shield of a creeping barrage. They would take possession of the enemy trenches, which should be empty by the time they arrived, and move beyond them to open country in the rear.

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