Three Armies on the Somme: The First Battle of the Twentieth Century by Philpott William

Author:Philpott, William [Philpott, William]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-59372-6
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 2010-10-05T04:00:00+00:00

IN RESPONSE TO their soldiers’ harrowing experience on the Somme, Germany’s press could find little positive to report. Instead of stories of victory—on the Somme merely holding ground or retaking a lost strongpoint or village were the biggest “victories” the official communiqués could muster—to sustain public engagement with the war and morale on the home front the German press had to take a different line, delivered, in Bean’s judgement, in “a notably dramatic picturesque style.”134 Reports from the front emphasised the heroism of the German soldier, his dogged resistance in the face of allied material superiority, the sacrifice being made for the fatherland and the need for the home front to acknowledge that sacrifice, to do it justice and to rally behind the army.

Patriotic journalists such as Georg Queri, the Berliner Tageblat’s official correspondent at OHL, urged and cajoled civilians to back the troops at the front, to accept their privations and sacrifices in the same way that the combat troops were accepting theirs. He reported the human-interest stories from the Somme in grave, admiring tones.135 These articles, like the most effective propaganda, repeat a simple refrain: Germany could not defeat her enemies materially, so she must break them morally. On the Bazentin Ridge the British were pushing against a wall. The great weight of war matériel deployed could not overcome this heroic defence; the survivors’ rifle-fire broke the British attacks; the enemy left hecatombs in front of the German positions. “[A] battle zeal has again suddenly burst forth the like of which could be seen and understood only during the first weeks of this war.” This was an attestation that the army remained hard and tough and able to withstand all that the allies could muster. It was a positive and uplifting message. Now both soldiers and society were staking all on the outcome of this battle: “The enemy has gathered all his strength in order to conquer. His ability has reached a high point. He is striving for the final blow and wishes the end and victory. The fighting will last without diminution and the putting in of men and artillery will increase rather than diminish.”136 Germany’s soldiers faced a test of endurance, pitting their exhausted bodies against the relentless allied bombardment: British and French guns, American shells. Small comforts could be taken: “The more prodigiously his artillery preparation is developed, the more does the enemy admit that the fighting worth of his troops is less, and it is also probably a fact,” Queri suggested. Germany’s better soldiers could yet triumph: “Again a handful of defenders took up the fight, and often the far superior enemy was thrown back by a single machine gun, a single little crowd of riflemen and hand-grenade throwers … he cannot find his way through.”137 This was heady, jingoistic journalism (under press censorship there could be no other kind), in which words were deployed to reinforce resolve. It suggests a recognition that the crisis point of the war had come, and that Germany’s position could only worsen.

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