query: When was the battle of the Somme fought?

title: Battle of the Somme

text: Battle of the Somme The Battle of the Somme (; ), also known as the Somme Offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place between 1 July and 18 November 1916 on both sides of the upper reaches of the River Somme in France. The battle was intended to hasten a victory for the Allies and was the largest battle of the First World War on the Western Front. More than three million men fought in the battle and one

title: Order of battle for the Battle of the Somme

text: Order of battle for the Battle of the Somme This is the order of battle for the Battle of the Somme. The Battle of the Somme was an offensive fought on the Western Front during World War I from 1 July to 18 November 1916 as one of the greatest engagements of the war. It was fought between French, British and Dominion forces and the German Empire in the Somme River valley and vicinity in northern France. In typical British county regiments, the 1st and 2nd Battalions were regular army, the 3rd was the special reserve battalion which did not

title: Battle of the Somme

text: pupils historical empathy, evaluation and argumentative writing skills. Books Journals Websites Battle of the Somme The Battle of the Somme (; ), also known as the Somme Offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place between 1 July and 18 November 1916 on both sides of the upper reaches of the River Somme in France. The battle was intended to hasten a victory for the Allies and was the largest battle of the First World War on the Western Front.

title: Battle of the Somme

text: advanced about on the Somme, on a front of at a cost of to British and about casualties, against to or perhaps even German casualties. Until the 1930s the dominant view of the battle in English-language writing was that the battle was a hard-fought victory against a brave, experienced and well-led opponent. Winston Churchill had objected to the way the battle was being fought in August 1916, Lloyd George when Prime Minister criticised attrition warfare frequently and condemned the battle in his post-war memoirs. In the 1930s a new orthodoxy of "mud, blood and futility" emerged and gained more emphasis

text: Chief of the German General Staff: General der Infanterie Erich Falkenhayn (until 28 August 1916), Generalfeldmarschall Paul von Hindenburg At this time, German divisions were in the process of being converted from square to triangular, hence some had four infantry regiments, others had three. Order of battle for the Battle of the Somme This is the order of battle for the Battle of the Somme. The Battle of the Somme was an offensive fought on the Western Front during World War I from 1 July to 18 November 1916 as one of the greatest engagements of the war. It was

title: The Battle of the Somme (film)

text: The Battle of the Somme (film) The Battle of the Somme (US title, "Kitchener's Great Army in the Battle of the Somme"), is a 1916 British documentary and propaganda war film, shot by two official cinematographers, Geoffrey Malins and John McDowell. The film depicts the British Army in the preliminaries and early days of the Battle of the Somme (1 July – 18 November 1916). The film premièred in London on 10 August 1916 and was released generally on 21 August. The film depicts trench warfare, marching infantry, artillery firing on German positions, British troops waiting to attack on 1

title: Battle of the Somme

text: Reserve Army which included three cavalry divisions, would exploit the success to advance east and then north towards Arras. The French Sixth Army, with one corps on the north bank from Maricourt to the Somme and two corps on the south bank southwards to Foucaucourt, would make a subsidiary attack to guard the right flank of the main attack being made by the British. After the Autumn Battles () of 1915, a third defence line another back from the was begun in February 1916 and was almost complete on the Somme front when the battle began. German artillery was organised

title: Battle of the Somme

text: the Battle of Verdun on the Meuse on 21 February 1916, French commanders diverted many of the divisions intended for the Somme and the "supporting" attack by the British became the principal effort. The first day on the Somme (1 July) saw a serious defeat for the German Second Army, which was forced out of its first position by the French Sixth Army, from Foucaucourt-en-Santerre south of the Somme to Maricourt on the north bank, and by the Fourth Army from Maricourt to the vicinity of the Albert–Bapaume road. The first day on the Somme was, in terms of casualties,

title: The Battle of the Somme (film)

text: accompanied by a live orchestra playing the soundtrack of Rossi's music. Somme100 FILM has a target of a hundred performances of the film by amateur and professional orchestras in the centenary year, between July 2016 and July 2017. Books Journals Newspapers Websites Books Journals websites The Battle of the Somme (film) The Battle of the Somme (US title, "Kitchener's Great Army in the Battle of the Somme"), is a 1916 British documentary and propaganda war film, shot by two official cinematographers, Geoffrey Malins and John McDowell. The film depicts the British Army in the preliminaries and early days of the

title: Battle of the Somme

text: capacity, farm productivity and financial resources and that intangible factors were more influential on the course of the war. The German army was exhausted by the end of 1916, with loss of morale and the cumulative effects of attrition and frequent defeats causing it to collapse in 1918, a process which began on the Somme, echoing Churchill that the German soldiery was never the same again. After the Battle of the Ancre (13–18 November 1916), British attacks on the Somme front were stopped by the weather and military operations by both sides were mostly restricted to survival in the rain,

title: Battle of the Somme

text: enough, Germany would attack the remnants of both armies and end the western alliance for good. The unexpected length of the Verdun offensive, and the need to replace many exhausted units at Verdun, depleted the German strategic reserve placed behind the Sixth Army, which held the Western Front from Hannescamps, south-west of Arras to St. Eloi, south of Ypres and reduced the German counter-offensive strategy north of the Somme, to one of passive and unyielding defence. The Battle of Verdun ( December 1916) began a week after Joffre and Haig agreed to mount an offensive on the Somme. The German

title: Battle of the Somme

text: programmes that the Battle of the Somme should be regarded as a German defensive victory. A rival conclusion by some historians (Terraine, Sheffield, Duffy, Chickering, Herwig and Philpott et al.) is that there was no strategic alternative for the British in 1916 and that an understandable horror at British losses is insular, given the millions of casualties borne by the French and Russian armies since 1914. This school of thought sets the battle in a context of a general Allied offensive in 1916 and notes that German and French writing on the battle puts it in a continental perspective. Little

title: Battle of the Somme

text: since 1916 for the human cost of the battle and for failing to achieve their territorial objectives. On 1 August 1916 Winston Churchill criticised the British Army's conduct of the offensive to the British Cabinet, claiming that though the battle had forced the Germans to end their offensive at Verdun, attrition was damaging the British armies more than the German armies. Though Churchill was unable to suggest an alternative, a critical view of the British on the Somme has been influential in English-language writing ever since. As recently as 2016, historian Peter Barton argued in a series of three television

title: Battle of the Somme

text: at their top speed of 4 miles per hour. The French and British had committed themselves to an offensive on the Somme during Allied discussions at Chantilly, Oise, in December 1915. The Allied Powers agreed upon a strategy of combined offensives against the Central Powers in 1916, by the French, Russian, British and Italian armies, with the Somme offensive as the Franco-British contribution. Initial plans called for the French army to undertake the main part of the Somme offensive, supported on the northern flank by the Fourth Army of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). When the Imperial German Army began

title: Somme (department)

text: a five-day engagement between 25 and 29 September, with the French Tenth Army attacking at Albert and pushing toward Bapaume, and the German Sixth Army counter-attacking back towards Albert. The line settled around the town of Thiepval and remained there until July 1916, when the Battle of the Somme was fought on and around the same ground. That Battle of the Somme was one of the most costly battles of World War I, by the number of troop casualties, as Allied forces attempted to break through the German lines along a front north and south of the River Somme. The

title: The Battle of the Somme (film)

text: accompaniment from guns firing nearby. Feilding suggested that the film could reassure new recruits, by giving them some idea of what to expect in battle; the intertitles were forthright, describing images of injury and death. The film was shown in New Zealand in October 1916. On 12 October, the Wellington "Evening Post" ran an advertisement for the film, describing it as "the extraordinary films of 'the big push' and "an awe-inspiring, glorious presentation of what our heroes are accomplishing today". In a review published on 16 October, it was written that "these pictures of the Battle of the Somme are

title: Somme (department)

text: Somme (department) Somme () is a department of France, located in the north of the country and named after the Somme river. It is part of the Hauts-de-France region. The north central area of the Somme was the site of a series of battles during World War I. Particularly significant was the 1916 Battle of the Somme. As a result of this and other battles fought in the area the department is home to many military cemeteries and several major monuments commemorating the many soldiers from various countries who died on its battlefields. The 1346 Battle of Crécy, a major

title: The Battle of the Somme (film)

text: film proclaimed that it depicted "the German will in war" and implied that the enemies of Germany were using colonial troops to undermine "German honour". Malins' final feature film "The German Retreat and the Battle of Arras" was released in June 1917, showing the destruction of Péronne and the first British troops across the Somme, following-up the German withdrawal; the film failed to attract the audiences of 1916. In 1920 the original nitrate negative was passed to the Imperial War Museum for preservation. A nitrate protection archive master was made in 1921 and an acetate safety master in 1931. The

title: Battle of the Somme

text: that the British lost "over Harris wrote that total British losses were casualties were over and German losses were to the "best" German sources. Sheffield wrote that the losses were "appalling", with casualties, and "perhaps" casualties. In a commentary on the debate about Somme casualties, Philpott used Miles's figures of casualties and the French official figures of Army losses and Army casualties. German losses were described as "disputed", ranging from Churchill's claims were a "snapshot" of July 1916 and not representative of the rest of the battle. Philpott called the "blood test" a crude measure compared to manpower reserves, industrial

title: Battle of the Somme

text: eventually reducing the French contribution to in the Sixth Army, against divisions. By 31 May, the ambitious Franco-British plan for a decisive victory, had been reduced to a limited offensive to relieve pressure on the French at Verdun with a battle of attrition on the Somme. The Chief of the German General Staff, Erich von Falkenhayn, intended to end the war by splitting the Anglo-French Entente in 1916, before its material superiority became unbeatable. Falkenhayn planned to defeat the large amount of reserves which the Entente could move into the path of a breakthrough, by threatening a sensitive point close

title: Battle of the Somme

text: Noyon salient to the Hindenburg Line (Operation ) commenced on schedule on 16 March. Defensive positions held by the German army on the Somme after November 1916 were in poor condition; the garrisons were exhausted and censors of correspondence reported tiredness and low morale in front-line soldiers. The situation left the German command doubtful that the army could withstand a resumption of the battle. The German defence of the Ancre began to collapse under British attacks, which on 28 January 1917 caused Rupprecht to urge that the retirement to the (Hindenburg Line) begin. Ludendorff rejected the proposal the next day,

title: Somme (department)

text: of the Somme of 1918. Somme (department) Somme () is a department of France, located in the north of the country and named after the Somme river. It is part of the Hauts-de-France region. The north central area of the Somme was the site of a series of battles during World War I. Particularly significant was the 1916 Battle of the Somme. As a result of this and other battles fought in the area the department is home to many military cemeteries and several major monuments commemorating the many soldiers from various countries who died on its battlefields. The 1346

title: The Battle of the Somme (film)

text: to shoot footage for short newsreels. By early June Tong had fallen ill and been sent home but he and Malins had made five series of newsreels, which although well-received, had failed to impress the British cinema trade. John McDowell, of the British & Colonial film company, volunteered to replace Tong and left for France on 23 June 1916. On 24 June, the British Army began the preparatory artillery bombardment of German positions for the Battle of the Somme. Malins and McDowell shot the film between 26 June and . Malins filmed in the vicinity of Beaumont Hamel, on attachment

title: Battle of the Somme

text: was not formally subordinate to Marshal Joseph Joffre but the British played a lesser role on the Western Front and complied with French strategy. In January 1916, Joffre had agreed to the BEF making its main effort in Flanders, but in February 1916 it was decided to mount a combined offensive where the French and British armies met, astride the Somme River in Picardy before the British offensive in Flanders. A week later the Germans began an offensive against the French at Verdun. The costly defence of Verdun forced the French army to commit divisions intended for the Somme offensive,

title: Battle of the Somme

text: Allied estimate of casualties on the Somme, made at the Chantilly Conference on 15 November 1916, was 485,000 British and French casualties and 630,000 German. As one German officer wrote, In 1931, Wendt published a comparison of German and British-French casualties which showed an average of 30 percent more Allied casualties than German losses on the Somme. In the first 1916 volume of the British Official History (1932), J. E. Edmonds wrote that comparisons of casualties were inexact, because of different methods of calculation by the belligerents but that British casualties were total British casualties in France in the period

title: First day on the Somme

text: First day on the Somme The first day on the Somme, 1 July 1916, was the opening day of the Battle of Albert the name given by the British to the first two weeks of the Battle of the Somme. Nine corps of the French Sixth Army, the British Fourth and the Third army, attacked the German 2nd Army (General Fritz von Below) from Foucaucourt south of the Somme northwards to Serre, north of the Ancre and at Gommecourt, beyond, in the Third Army area. The objective of the attack was to capture the German first and second positions from

title: The Somme (film)

text: in motion pictures." The Somme (film) The Somme is a 1927 British documentary film directed by M.A. Wetherell. It re-examined the 1916 Battle of the Somme during the First World War. The film was made at Isleworth Studios using a docudrama format. It involved a number of the personnel who had previously worked on a successful series of documentary reconstructions of First World War battles by British Instructional Films released between 1921 and 1927. British Instructional Films had finished their series with "The Battles of Coronel and Falkland Islands", and Geoffrey Barkas moved to the newly established New Era films

title: The Somme (film)

text: The Somme (film) The Somme is a 1927 British documentary film directed by M.A. Wetherell. It re-examined the 1916 Battle of the Somme during the First World War. The film was made at Isleworth Studios using a docudrama format. It involved a number of the personnel who had previously worked on a successful series of documentary reconstructions of First World War battles by British Instructional Films released between 1921 and 1927. British Instructional Films had finished their series with "The Battles of Coronel and Falkland Islands", and Geoffrey Barkas moved to the newly established New Era films to carry on

title: The First Day on the Somme

text: The First Day on the Somme The First Day on the Somme () is a First World War military history book by Martin Middlebrook, first published in 1971 and still in print, which is regarded as a seminal work in the field of World War I scholarship reflecting England's perspective in the conflict. Its text covers in detail the events leading up to and during 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, concentrating almost exclusively on the British Army's experiences and focussing only in relief on French Army's contribution, especially south of the Somme River.

title: Mines on the first day of the Somme

text: Mines on the first day of the Somme The 19 mines on the first day of the Somme comprised a series of underground explosive charges, secretly planted by British tunnelling units beneath the German front lines on the Western Front during the First World War, ready to be detonated in the morning of Saturday 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme (1 July – 18 November 1916). The joint explosion of these mines ranks among the largest artificial non-nuclear explosions. The tunnelling companies of the Royal Engineers were to make two major contributions to the

title: Battle of the Boar's Head

text: their lines having lost The operation was conducted when the British armies on the Western Front north of the Somme, supported the Fourth Army during the Battle of the Somme (1 July to 18 November). The British Third, First and Second armies conducted against the Germans up to November 1916, harassing the Germans opposite to give novice divisions experience of fighting on the Western Front, to inflict casualties and to prevent German troops from being transferred to the Somme. From 19 to 20 July, XI Corps conducted the much bigger Battle of Fromelles, where British and Australian troops suffered an

title: First day on the Somme

text: and the Battle of Verdun. In July 1915, the French Commander in Chief Joseph Joffre held the first inter-Allied conference at Chantilly. In December, a second conference resolved to conduct simultaneous attacks by the French, Russian, British and Italian armies. The British theatre of operations was in France and Flanders but in February 1916, Haig accepted Joffre's plan for a combined attack astride the Somme river, around 1 July; in April, the British Cabinet agreed to an offensive in France. The nature of a joint offensive on the Somme began to change almost immediately, when the German army attacked Verdun

title: Delville Wood order of battle

text: Delville Wood order of battle This article is about the Delville Wood order of battle. The Battle of Delville Wood was fought from 1916, one of the engagements of the Battle of the Somme. It was fought between Allied forces and the German Empire in the Somme River valley in northern France. The battle was the début of the 1st South African Brigade (part of the 9th (Scottish) Division) on the Western Front, which captured Delville Wood and held it from The casualties of the brigade were similar to those of many British brigades on 1 July 1916. Delville Wood

title: Battle of Le Transloy

text: some of the Essex objective and established a trench block The memorial also marks the furthest point that the British advanced from the front line of 1 July, during the Somme offensive. The Rifle Brigade counted Le Transloy as one of their battle honours for the Somme. Battle of Le Transloy The Battle of Le Transloy was the last big attack by the Fourth Army of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in the 1916 Battle of the Somme in France, during the First World War. The battle was fought in conjunction with attacks by the French Tenth and Sixth armies

title: Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme

text: Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme is a 1985 play by Frank McGuinness. The play centres on the experiences of eight unionist Ulstermen who volunteer to serve in the 36th (Ulster) Division at the beginning of the First World War. The story is told in a nostalgic flashback from the viewpoint of the only surviving soldier of the eight (now an unmarried old man). The play reaches a climax at the start of the terrible Battle of the Somme on July 1st, 1916 – the anniversary of the

title: Battle of the Somme

text: was captured, the outskirts of Grandcourt reached and the Canadian 4th Division captured Regina Trench north of Courcelette, then took Desire Support Trench on 18 November. Until January 1917 a lull occurred, as both sides concentrated on enduring the weather. At the start of 1916, most of the British Army was an inexperienced and patchily trained mass of volunteers. The Somme was the major test for Kitchener's Army, created by Lord Kitchener's call for recruits at the start of the war. The British volunteers were often the fittest, most enthusiastic, and best educated citizens, but were also inexperienced soldiers, and

title: Battle of the Somme

text: the Somme front. The was to be built from Arras to St. Quentin, La Fère and Condé, with another new line between Verdun and Pont-à-Mousson. These lines were intended to limit any Allied breakthrough and to allow the German army to withdraw if attacked; work began on the (Hindenburg Line) at the end of September. Withdrawing to the new line was not an easy decision and the German high command struggled over it during the winter of 1916–1917. Some members wanted to take a shorter step back, to a line between Arras and Sailly, while the First and Second army

title: Mines on the first day of the Somme

text: that "Lack of manpower prevented more being undertaken" and in 2007 Sir Martin Gilbert wrote that although fewer mines than planned had been completed, "... it was a formidable enterprise". When they were fired on 1 July 1916, the "Lochnagar" and "Hawthorn Ridge" mines were the largest ever detonated and the sound of the blast was considered the loudest man-made noise in history. Reports suggested that the sound was heard in London and beyond. The mine detonations on the first day of the Somme were surpassed on 7 June 1917 by the mines fired at the start of the Battle

title: Gloucestershire Regiment on the Somme

text: and the first day of the offensive was the bloodiest single day in British military history. Only in the southern sector, at Montauban and Mametz, did the British achieve their first-day objectives, advancing about on a front of some , but Rawlinson did not seize the opportunity to exploit these, and the Somme offensive became a succession of battles and a lengthy war of attrition. Battalions involved: 8th The Battle of Albert (1–13 July 1916) was the opening battle of the Somme offensive, and in the Albert–Bapaume road sector 34th Division attacked towards the village of La Boiselle. Although some

title: Somme (book)

text: Somme (book) Somme () is a First World War military history book by Lyn MacDonald, published in 1983 by Michael Joseph. The Battle of the Somme started on Sunday, 1 July 1916 leading to the biggest losses by Britain in one single day (19,240 dead, 35,493 wounded, 2,152 missing and 85 prisoners for a total loss of 57,470). The battle ended on Tuesday, 21 November 1916. The main objective of this battle was to relieve the horrific battle at Verdun. MacDonald has collected testimonies of soldiers involved in the battle of the Somme. In the beginning, their stories show chauvinism,

title: First day on the Somme

text: the German 2nd Army lost Orders were issued to the Anglo-French armies to continue the offensive on 2 July and a German counter-attack on the north bank of the Somme by the 12th Division, intended for the night of took until dawn on 2 July to begin and was destroyed. Since 1 July 1916, the cost of the battle and the "meagre gains" have been a source of grief and controversy in Britain; in German and French writing, the first day of the Battle of the Somme has been little more than a footnote to the mass losses of 1914–1915

title: Battle of the Somme

text: million men were wounded or killed, making it one of the bloodiest battles in human history. The Battle of the Somme was fought in the traditional style of World War I battles: trench warfare. The trench warfare gave the Germans an advantage because they dug their trenches deeper than the allied forces which gave them a better line of sight for warfare. The Battle of the Somme also has the distinction of being the first battle fought with tanks. However, the tanks were still in the early stages of development, and as a result, many broke down after maxing out

title: Second Battle of the Somme (1918)

text: Second Battle of the Somme (1918) The Second Battle of the Somme of 1918 was fought during the First World War on the Western Front from late August to early September, in the basin of the River Somme. It was part of a series of successful counter-offensives in response to the German Spring Offensive, after a pause for redeployment and supply. The most significant feature of the 1918 Somme battles was that with the first Battle of the Somme of 1918 having halted what had begun as an overwhelming German offensive, the second formed the central part of the Allies'

title: Second Battle of the Somme (1918)

text: salients before using the fluidity of the broken line to press on to the strategic railway. It was hoped that this fluidity would be present as, owing to the German advance in the spring, the German forces were well in advance of their hitherto impregnable, very well prepared defences on the Hindenburg Line. This policy worked but it took some very determined work at the St. Quentin Canal, among the prepared defences, to achieve success. Second Battle of the Somme (1918) The Second Battle of the Somme of 1918 was fought during the First World War on the Western Front

title: Shrouds of the Somme

text: Shrouds of the Somme Shrouds of the Somme is an artwork by British artist Rob Heard which commemorates the 72,396 servicemen from the British Commonwealth with no known grave, whose names are recorded at Thiepval Memorial as missing presumed dead at the Battle of the Somme. It is estimated that more than three million men fought in the battle, and more than one million men were wounded or killed, making it one of the bloodiest battles in human history. The work comprises 72,396 small human figurines, each separately wrapped in a calico shroud which was cut and sewn by hand.

title: Battle of the Somme

text: the front-trench system and the reserve battalion divided between the and the second line, all within and most troops within of the front line, accommodated in the new deep dugouts. The concentration of troops at the front line on a forward slope guaranteed that it would face the bulk of an artillery bombardment, directed by ground observers on clearly marked lines. The first day on the Somme began of the Battle of the Somme and the opening day of the Battle of Albert. The attack was made by five divisions of the French Sixth Army either side of the Somme,

title: Shrouds of the Somme

text: Donations were collected for SSAFA - the Armed Forces charity, and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. The models will be sold for £35 each, with proceeds also donated to those two charities. Shrouds of the Somme Shrouds of the Somme is an artwork by British artist Rob Heard which commemorates the 72,396 servicemen from the British Commonwealth with no known grave, whose names are recorded at Thiepval Memorial as missing presumed dead at the Battle of the Somme. It is estimated that more than three million men fought in the battle, and more than one million men were wounded or

title: Battle of the Somme

text: withdrew from the between Bapaume and Achiet le Petit and the British reached the (R. II Position) on 13 March. The Royal British Legion with the British Embassy in Paris and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, commemorate the battle on 1 July each year, at the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme. For their efforts on the first day of the battle, The 1st Newfoundland Regiment was given the name "The Royal Newfoundland Regiment" by George V on 28 November 1917. The first day of the Battle of the Somme is commemorated in Newfoundland, remembering the "Best of

title: The Battle of the Somme (film)

text: in the film archive of the Imperial War Museum. In 2005 it was inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register and digitally restored, and in 2008, was released on DVD. "The Battle of the Somme" is significant as an early example of film propaganda, an historical record of the battle and as a popular source of footage illustrating the First World War. "The Battle of the Somme" is a black-and-white silent film in five parts, with sequences divided by intertitles summarising the contents. The first part shows preparations for battle behind the British front line; there are sequences of

title: Battle of the Somme

text: the battle of the Somme, enabled both armies to make much bigger attacks, sequenced with the Tenth and Reserve armies, which captured much more ground and inflicted casualties on the German defenders during the month. The Battle of Flers–Courcelette was the third and final general offensive mounted by the British Army, which attacked an intermediate line and the German third line to take Morval, Lesboeufs and Gueudecourt, which was combined with a French attack on Frégicourt and Rancourt to encircle Combles and a supporting attack on the south bank of the Somme. The strategic objective of a breakthrough was not

title: Battle of the Somme

text: judged the British attack to be the anticipated offensive against the 6th Army. Next day Falkenhayn ordered the Guard Reserve Corps to be withdrawn to reinforce the Somme front. The Battle of Fromelles had inflicted some losses on the German defenders but gained no ground and deflected few German troops bound for the Somme. The attack was the debut of the Australian Imperial Force on the Western Front and, according to McMullin, "the worst 24 hours in Australia's entire history". Of , were incurred by the 5th Australian Division; German losses were prisoner. The Battle of Delville Wood was an

title: Battle of the Somme

text: offensive at Verdun was intended to threaten the capture of the city and induce the French to fight an attrition battle, in which German advantages of terrain and firepower would cause the French disproportionate casualties. The battle changed the nature of the offensive on the Somme, as French divisions were diverted to Verdun, and the main effort by the French diminished to a supporting attack for the British. German overestimation of the cost of Verdun to the French contributed to the concentration of German infantry and guns on the north bank of the Somme. By May, Joffre and Haig had

title: Battle of the Somme

text: changed their expectations of an offensive on the Somme, from a decisive battle to a hope that it would relieve Verdun and keep German divisions in France, which would assist the Russian armies conducting the Brusilov Offensive. The German offensive at Verdun was suspended in July, and troops, guns, and ammunition were transferred to Picardy, leading to a similar transfer of the French Tenth Army to the Somme front. Later in the year, the Franco-British were able to attack on the Somme and at Verdun sequentially and the French recovered much of the ground lost on the east bank of

title: Battle of the Somme

text: crossing the beaten zone showed that such lines or metalled roads could not be built quickly enough to sustain an advance, and that pausing while communications caught up allowed the defenders to recover. On the Somme the daily carry during attacks on a front was and a few wood roads and rail lines were inadequate for the number of lorries and roads. A comprehensive system of transport was needed, which required a much greater diversion of personnel and equipment than had been expected. The Battle of the Somme was one of the costliest battles of World War I. The original

title: Second Battle of the Somme (1918)

text: (under the command of Australian General John Monash). Soon after, the Canadians breached the Hindenburg Line at the Battle of Cambrai. A key part of the German supply line ran parallel with the front. This second 1918 battle around the Somme was part of a strategy designed to push parts of the German line back behind this main supply line so cutting it and making impossible the efficient maintenance of the German forces on the front. The campaign began with battle of Bapaume and, starting shortly after, the Battle of Saint-Mihiel, outside the Somme area, with the aim of reducing

title: Battle of the Somme

text: that the psychology of German soldiers, shortage of manpower, and lack of reserves made the policy inescapable, as the troops necessary to seal off breakthroughs did not exist. High losses incurred in holding ground by a policy of no retreat were preferable to higher losses, voluntary withdrawals, and the effect of a belief that soldiers had discretion to avoid battle. When a more flexible policy was substituted later, decisions about withdrawal were still reserved to army commanders. On the Somme front, Falkenhayn's construction plan of January 1915 had been completed. Barbed wire obstacles had been enlarged from one belt wide

title: Battle of the Somme

text: achieved but the tactical gains were considerable, the front line being advanced by and many casualties were inflicted on the German defenders. The battle was the debut of the Canadian Corps, the New Zealand Division and tanks of the Heavy Branch of the Machine Gun Corps on the Somme. The Battle of Morval was an attack by the Fourth Army on Morval, Gueudecourt and Lesboeufs held by the German 1st Army, which had been the final objectives of the Battle of Flers–Courcelette (15–22 September). The attack was postponed to combine with attacks by the French Sixth Army on Combles, south

title: Battle of the Somme

text: Delville Wood and High Wood, which were mutually supporting. The battle for Guillemont was considered by some observers to be the supreme effort of the German army during the battle. Numerous meetings were held by Joffre, Haig, Foch, General Sir Henry Rawlinson (commander of the British Fourth Army) and Fayolle to co-ordinate joint attacks by the four armies, all of which broke down. A pause in Anglo-French attacks at the end of August, coincided with the largest counter-attack by the German army in the Battle of the Somme. In the Battle of Ginchy the 16th Division captured the German-held village.

title: Battle of the Somme

text: German and French writing on this topic has been translated, leaving much of the continental perspective and detail of German and French military operations inaccessible to the English-speaking world. In current secondary education, the Battle of the Somme is barely mentioned in German school curricula, while it features prominently in the United Kingdom. In many British schools, variations of the question "Does Haig deserve to be called 'The Butcher of the Somme'?" (Year 9) or "To what extent can Sir Douglas Haig be considered either a butcher or a hero of the First World War?" (GCSE) are used to teach

title: Battle of the Somme

text: of Churchill's "World Crisis") with at Verdun. According to Churchill, at the time of the Battle of the Somme, German forces across the Western Front suffered , of which were inflicted by the French and by the British. In turn German forces inflicted on the Entente. Doughty wrote that French losses on the Somme were "surprisingly high" at the at Verdun. Prior and Wilson used Churchill's research and wrote that the British lost from 1 July – mid-November ( day) in inflicting casualties and offer no figures for French casualties or the losses they inflicted on the Germans. Sheldon wrote

title: Battle of the Somme

text: "What remained of the old first-class peace-trained German infantry had been expended on the battlefield". A war of attrition was a logical strategy for Britain against Germany, which was also at war with France and Russia. A school of thought holds that the Battle of the Somme placed unprecedented strain on the German army and that after the battle it was unable to replace casualties like-for-like, which reduced it to a militia. The destruction of German units in battle was made worse by lack of rest. British and French aircraft and long-range guns reached well behind the front-line, where trench-digging

title: Battle of the Somme

text: the commanding ground north of the road inflicted a huge defeat on the British infantry, who had an unprecedented number of casualties. Several truces were negotiated, to recover wounded from no man's land north of the road. The Fourth Army took , of which were killed, the French Sixth Army had and the German 2nd Army had . The Battle of Albert was the first two weeks of Anglo-French offensive operations in the Battle of the Somme. The Allied preparatory artillery bombardment began on 24 June and the Anglo-French infantry attacked on 1 July, on the south bank from Foucaucourt

title: Battle of the Somme

text: because we're here"" to the tune of "Auld Lang Syne". This event was called "Ghost Soldiers". The Battle of the Somme has been called the beginning of modern all-arms warfare, during which Kitchener's Army learned to fight the mass-industrial war in which the continental armies had been engaged for two years. This view sees the British contribution to the battle as part of a coalition war and part of a process, which took the strategic initiative from the German Army and caused it irreparable damage, leading to its collapse in late 1918. Haig and General Rawlinson have been criticised ever

title: Battle of the Somme

text: the Best" at 11am on the Sunday nearest to 1 July. The Somme is remembered in Northern Ireland due to the participation of the 36th (Ulster) Division and commemorated by veterans' groups and by unionist/Protestant groups such as the Orange Order. The British Legion and others commemorate the battle on 1 July. On 1 July 2016, at 7:28 am British Summer Time, the UK observed a two minute silence to mark the start of the battle which began 100 years earlier. A special ceremony was broadcast on BBC1 and all BBC radio stations participated in the silence. At the start

title: The Battle of the Somme (film)

text: a real and valuable contribution to the nation's knowledge and a powerful spur to national effort". The film premièred in Australia on 13 October at Hoyt's Picture Theatre in Melbourne. The Melbourne "Argus" considered that after the attack sequence, "... you are not in a Melbourne picture theatre, but in the very forefront of the Somme battle" and called the film "this moving reality of battle". The film and its reception was of great interest to Germans, who were able to read a report from a neutral reporter in London, filed in the . British cinema was said to be

title: Battle of the Somme

text: the German front trench. Most of the objective was captured and the German defence south of the Albert–Bapaume road put under great strain but the attack was not followed up due to British communication failures, casualties and disorganisation. The Battle of Fromelles was a subsidiary attack to support the Fourth Army on the Somme to the south, to exploit any weakening of the German defences opposite. Preparations for the attack were rushed, the troops involved lacked experience in trench warfare and the power of the German defence was "gravely" underestimated, the attackers being . On 19 July, von Falkenhayn had

title: Battle of the Somme

text: fortified village of Thiepval from the rear. The Battle of Guillemont was an attack on the village which was captured by the Fourth Army on the first day. Guillemont was on the right flank of the British sector, near the boundary with the French Sixth Army. German defences ringed the British salient at Delville Wood to the north and had observation over the French Sixth Army area to the south towards the Somme river. The German defence in the area was based on the second line and numerous fortified villages and farms north from Maurepas at Combles, Guillemont, Falfemont Farm,

title: Battle of the Somme

text: also the worst day in the history of the British army, which suffered 57,470 casualties. These occurred mainly on the front between the Albert–Bapaume road and Gommecourt, where the attack was defeated and few British troops reached the German front line. The British troops on the Somme comprised a mixture of the remains of the pre-war regular army; the Territorial Force; and Kitchener's Army, a force of volunteer recruits including many Pals' Battalions, recruited from the same places and occupations. The battle is notable for the importance of air power and the first use of the tank. At the end

title: Battle of the Somme

text: but British attacks on the First Army — particularly the Action of Miraumont (also known as the Battle of Boom Ravine, 17–18 February) — caused Rupprecht on the night of 22 February to order a preliminary withdrawal of c. to the (R. I Position). On 24 February the Germans withdrew, protected by rear guards, over roads in relatively good condition, which were then destroyed. The German withdrawal was helped by a thaw, which turned roads behind the British front into bogs and by disruption to the railways which supplied the Somme front. On the night of 12 March, the Germans

title: Second Battle of the Somme (1918)

text: Second Battle of Bapaume to the north of the river itself. That developed into an advance which pushed the German Second Army back over a 55 kilometre front, from south of Douai to La Fère, south of Saint-Quentin, Aisne. Albert was captured on 22 August. On 26 August, the British First Army widened the attack by another twelve kilometres, sometimes called the Second Battle of Arras. Bapaume fell on 29 August. The Australian Corps crossed the Somme River on the night of 31 August, and broke the German lines at the Battle of Mont St. Quentin and the Battle of

title: The Battle of the Somme (film)

text: nitrate masters were destroyed in the 1970s after the onset of irreversible nitrate decomposition. Excerpts have been taken for television documentaries, including "The Great War" (1964. BBC), "The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century" (1996, PBS) and "The First World War" (2003, Channel 4). The film was offered on VHS in 1987, as the first title from the Imperial War Museum film archive to be released on video. In 2005, "The Battle of the Somme" was inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register for the preservation of global documentary heritage. The film was described by UNESCO

title: The Battle of the Somme (film)

text: taking a serious view of the war, helped by the government, which had arranged for the production of "real war films", "The Battle of the Somme" was "absorbing" and had attracted huge audiences. German troops recovered a letter from a British civilian, who had seen the film on 26 August and written to a soldier in France, describing the issue of a leaflet to each filmgoer that stated that the film was not entertainment but an official film. Having viewed the film, the writer was sure that it would enlighten the audience in a way never before achieved. During the

title: The Battle of the Somme (film)

text: second week of August, the King, Prime Minister and Lloyd George toured the Western Front and were filmed by Malins. The War Office released the film in October as "The King Visits His Armies in the Great Advance". Malins made a third film "The Battle of the Ancre and the Advance of the Tanks" which opened in January 1917. In the same month a German film "With our Heroes on the Somme" was shown but "lacked the immediacy" of the British film, being re-enactments at training establishments behind the lines, which received a lukewarm reception. A booklet to accompany the

title: Battle of the Somme

text: mid-June of an Anglo-French attack on the Somme against the Second Army, Falkenhayn sent only four divisions, keeping eight in the western strategic reserve. No divisions were moved from the Sixth Army, despite it holding a shorter line with divisions and three of the reserve divisions in the Sixth Army area. The maintenance of the strength of the Sixth Army, at the expense of the Second Army on the Somme, indicated that Falkenhayn intended the counter-offensive against the British to be made north of the Somme front, once the British offensive had been shattered.) If such Franco-British defeats were not

title: Battle of the Somme

text: 26 September in the Battle of Thiepval Ridge. The Battle of Thiepval Ridge was the first large offensive mounted by the Reserve Army of Lieutenant General Hubert Gough and was intended to benefit from the Fourth Army attack at Morval by starting afterwards. Thiepval Ridge was well fortified and the German defenders fought with great determination, while the British co-ordination of infantry and artillery declined after the first day, due to confused fighting in the maze of trenches, dug-outs and shell-craters. The final British objectives were not reached until the Battle of the Ancre Heights (1 October – 11 November).

title: The Battle of the Somme (film)

text: with the 29th Division (VIII Corps); McDowell worked further south near Fricourt and Mametz with the 7th Division (XV Corps). Before the battle, Malins worked at the north end of the British Somme sector, photographing troops on the march and heavy artillery west of Gommecourt. De Lisle suggested to Malins that he view the bombardment of Beaumont Hamel from Jacob's Ladder near White City, an abrupt drop down the side of a valley, with about cut into the ground, showing up white because of the chalk. Sappers had dug the large mine under Hawthorn Ridge in front of White City

title: The Battle of the Somme (film)

text: around 9 July. Malins returned to France, and from filmed sequences of shellfire and of troops advancing from trenches, which were staged for the camera at a Third Army mortar school near St Pol. McDowell reached the Somme front after Malins and began filming British preparations on 28 or 29 June, to the east of Albert. He covered the opening day of the battle from the vicinity of Carnoy and from the dressing-station at Minden Post. The success of the 7th Division enabled McDowell to film captured German trenches near Fricourt and Mametz. On 10 July, Brigadier-General John Charteris reported

title: First day on the Somme

text: February, following the (Autumn Battle, or Second Battle of Champagne) in 1915, a third defensive position a further back from the was begun and was nearly complete on the Somme front when the battle began. The German artillery was organised in a series of (barrage sectors); each officer was expected to know the batteries covering his section of the front line and the batteries had to be ready to engage fleeting targets. A telephone system was built with lines buried deep for behind the front line, to link with the artillery. The Somme defences had two inherent weaknesses that the

title: Battle of the Somme

text: eleven British divisions of the Fourth Army north of the Somme to Serre and two divisions of the Third Army opposite Gommecourt, against the German Second Army of General Fritz von Below. The German defence south of the Albert–Bapaume road mostly collapsed and the French had "complete success" on both banks of the Somme, as did the British from the army boundary at Maricourt to the Albert–Bapaume road. On the south bank the German defence was made incapable of resisting another attack and a substantial retreat began; on the north bank the abandonment of Fricourt was ordered. The defenders on

title: Battle of the Somme

text: the reserve line, renamed the second line, which was as well-built and wired as the first line. The second line was beyond the range of Allied field artillery, so as to force an attacker to stop and move field artillery forward before assaulting the line. British intentions evolved as the military situation changed after the Chantilly Conference. French losses at Verdun reduced the contribution available for the offensive on the Somme and increased the urgency for the commencement of operations on the Somme. The principal role in the offensive devolved to the British and on 16 June, Haig defined the

title: Battle of the Somme

text: to the Somme and from the Somme north to Gommecourt, beyond Serre. The French Sixth Army and the right wing of the British Fourth Army inflicted a considerable defeat on the German Second Army but from the Albert–Bapaume road to Gommecourt, the British attack was a disaster where most of the casualties were incurred. Against Joffre's wishes, Haig abandoned the offensive north of the road, to reinforce the success in the south, where the Anglo-French forces pressed forward towards the German second line, preparatory to a general attack on 14 July. The Fourth Army attacked the German second defensive position

title: Battle of the Somme

text: of French Somme casualties were German casualties were to which should be added woundings, which would have been counted as casualties using British criteria; Anglo-French casualties on the Somme were over German casualties were The addition by Edmonds of to German figures, to make them comparable to British criteria, was criticised as "spurious" by M. J. Williams in 1964. McRandle and Quirk in 2006 cast doubt on the Edmonds calculations but counted casualties on the Western Front from July to December against Churchill, concluding that German losses were fewer than Anglo-French casualties but the ability of the German army to

title: Battle of the Somme

text: the Meuse in October and December. The Brusilov Offensive (), absorbed the extra forces that had been requested on 2 June by Fritz von Below, commanding the German Second Army, for a spoiling attack on the Somme. On 4 June, Russian armies attacked on a front, from the Romanian frontier to Pinsk and eventually advanced , reaching the foothills of the Carpathian mountains, against German and Austro-Hungarian troops of and . During the offensive the Russians inflicted including . Three divisions were ordered from France to the Eastern Front on 9 June and the spoiling attack on the Somme was

title: Battle of the Somme

text: commanders wanted to stay on the Somme. "Generalleutnant" von Fuchs on 20 January 1917 said that, and that half measures were futile, retreating to the was unavoidable. After the loss of a considerable amount of ground around the Ancre valley to the British Fifth Army in February 1917, the German armies on the Somme were ordered on 14 February, to withdraw to reserve lines closer to Bapaume. A further retirement to the Hindenburg Line () in Operation Alberich began on 16 March 1917, despite the new line being unfinished and poorly sited in some places. The British and French had

title: Battle of the Somme

text: from the Somme past Guillemont and Ginchy, north-west along the crest of the ridge to Pozières on the Albert–Bapaume road. The objectives of the attack were the villages of Bazentin le Petit, Bazentin le Grand and Longueval which was adjacent to Delville Wood, with High Wood on the ridge beyond. The attack was made by four divisions on a front of at after a five-minute hurricane artillery bombardment. Field artillery fired a creeping barrage and the attacking waves pushed up close behind it in no man's land, leaving them only a short distance to cross when the barrage lifted from

title: Battle of the Ancre

text: universal, leading to numerous reports warning that the German troops in the area, were unlikely to be able to resist further attacks. British attacks resumed in the Operations on the Ancre in January 1917. Battle of the Ancre The Battle of the Ancre was fought by the Fifth Army (Lieutenant-General Hubert Gough), against the German 1st Army (General Fritz von Below). The battle was the final large British attack of the Battle of the Somme; the Reserve Army had been renamed on 30 October. After the Battle of Flers–Courcelette on 22 September, the Anglo-French armies tried to press their advantage

title: Battle of the Ancre

text: Battle of the Ancre The Battle of the Ancre was fought by the Fifth Army (Lieutenant-General Hubert Gough), against the German 1st Army (General Fritz von Below). The battle was the final large British attack of the Battle of the Somme; the Reserve Army had been renamed on 30 October. After the Battle of Flers–Courcelette on 22 September, the Anglo-French armies tried to press their advantage with several smaller attacks in quick succession, rather than pause to regroup and give the Germans time to recover. Subsequent writers gave discrete dates for the Anglo-French battles but there were considerable overlaps and

title: Crossing of the Somme

text: Crossing of the Somme The Crossing of the Somme took place on 5 August 1636 during the Thirty Years' War and the Franco-Spanish War when units of the Spanish Army of Flanders, the Imperial Army and the Duchy of Lorraine under Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignano, lieutenant of the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria, crossed the Somme river near Bray-sur-Somme during its offensive in French territory. Despite the fierce resistance of the French army led by Louis de Bourbon, Count of Soissons, the allied troops successfully crossed the river and drove off the French troops along the Oise river, proceeding over

title: Crossing of the Somme

title: Battle of the Somme

text: the right flank of the Fourth Army and on the French Sixth Army front, until 5 November. Next day the Fourth Army ceased offensive operations, except for small attacks intended to improve positions and divert German attention from attacks being made by the Reserve/Fifth Army. Larger operations resumed in January 1917. The Battle of the Ancre Heights was fought after Haig made plans for the Third Army to take the area east of Gommecourt, the Reserve Army to attack north from Thiepval Ridge and east from Beaumont Hamel–Hébuterne and for the Fourth Army to reach the Péronne–Bapaume road around Le

title: First day on the Somme

text: on 21 February. In March, Foch proposed a Somme offensive on a front, between Lassigny and the Somme with divisions and a British attack on a front from the Somme to Thiepval with French divisions intended for the joint offensive were soon diverted to Verdun and the offensive was eventually reduced to a main effort by the British and a supporting attack by one French army. The Somme was to be the first mass offensive mounted by the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and the first battle to involve a large number of New Army divisions, many composed of Pals battalions

title: Gloucestershire Regiment on the Somme

text: Chantilly Conferences of 1915 the allies agreed to a coordinated effort designed to overwhelm the Austro-German defences. Part of this effort involved an Anglo-French offensive on the Somme, though the Battle of Verdun denuded French forces to such an extent that the Battle of the Somme became a predominantly British operation. The Somme had been a comparatively quiet sector, allowing the German 2nd Army ample time to prepare a defence in depth consisting of wide belts of wire, trenches, fortified villages and deep dug-outs. The BEF commander, Sir Douglas Haig, favoured a breakthrough and return to mobile warfare. He planned

title: Battle of the Somme

text: lives in that conflict." On 1 July 2016, a ceremony was held in Heaton Park in north Manchester in England. Heaton Park was the site of a large army training camp during the war. Across Britain on 1 July 2016, 1400 actors dressed in replica World War I-period British Army uniforms walked about in streets and public open areas, from 7am to 7pm. Each took on temporarily the identity of a British soldier who died on the first day of the Somme, and handed out information cards about that soldier. They did not talk, except for occasionally singing ""We're here

title: Battle of the Somme

text: in a series of (barrage sectors); each officer was expected to know the batteries covering his section of the front line and the batteries ready to engage fleeting targets. A telephone system was built, with lines buried deep for behind the front line, to connect the front line to the artillery. The Somme defences had two inherent weaknesses that the rebuilding had not remedied. The front trenches were on a forward slope, lined by white chalk from the subsoil and easily seen by ground observers. The defences were crowded towards the front trench, with a regiment having two battalions near

title: Battle of the Somme

text: snow, fog, mud fields, waterlogged trenches and shell-holes. As preparations for the offensive at Arras continued, the British attempted to keep German attention on the Somme front. British operations on the Ancre from , forced the Germans back on a front, ahead of the schedule of the Alberich Bewegung ( Manoeuvre/Operation ) and eventually took . On the Germans fell back another on a front. The Germans then withdrew from much of the to the on 11 March, forestalling a British attack, which was not noticed by the British until dark on 12 March; the main German withdrawal from the

title: Second Battle of the Somme (1918)

text: Péronne. The British Fourth Army's commander, General Henry Rawlinson, described the Australian advances of 31 August – 4 September as the greatest military achievement of the war. On the morning of 2 September, after a heavy battle, the Canadian Corps seized control of the Drocourt-Quéant line (representing the west edge of the Hindenburg Line). The battle was fought by the Canadian 1st Division, 4th Division, and by the British 52nd Division. Heavy German casualties were inflicted, and the Canadians also captured more than 6,000 unwounded prisoners. Canada's losses amounted to 5,600. By noon that day the German commander, Erich Ludendorff,

title: First day on the Somme

text: French crossing of the Somme further south. Diversion of French divisions to Verdun and the assumption by the British of the main role in the Somme offensive, led to revisions of the plan towards an ambitious attempt at strategic attrition, through a breakthrough and a battle of manoeuvre with distant objectives. The French Sixth Army, in "GAN", was the last of the three French armies originally intended for the Somme, the others having been sent to Verdun. Joffre placed XX Corps north of the river, next to the British XIII Corps, the southernmost Fourth Army formation. British plans were made

title: History of the Irish Guards

text: lines under machine-gun fire. They had held out for ninety-six hours. The Irish Guards took part in the Battle of Cambrai, the first large use of the tank in battle took place during the engagement. In 1918 the regiment fought at the same area that had caused so much pain to the British Army two years before, the Somme. The regiment fought in a number of engagements during this Second Battle of the Somme, including at Arras and Albert. The regiment took part in a number of battles during the British offensives against the Hindenburg Line. On 4 November 1918

title: Battle of the Somme

text: abandoned. Only four more divisions were sent to the Somme front before the Anglo-French offensive began, bringing the total to divisions. Falkenhayn, and then Hindenburg and Ludendorff, were forced to send divisions to Russia throughout the summer to prevent a collapse of the Austro-Hungarian army and then to conduct a counter-offensive against Romania, which declared war against the Central Powers on 27 August. In July there were divisions on the Western Front and in Russia and in November there were in the west and in the east. The original British Expeditionary Force (BEF) of six divisions and the Cavalry Division,

title: Shrouds of the Somme

text: shrouded figures was laid out by soldiers from the 6th battalion of The Rifles and exhibited in Exeter for the centenary of the Battle of the Somme in July 2016, attracting over 60,000 visitors. The assemblage was then exhibited in Bristol for Remembrance Sunday, in November 2016. The extended work was laid out as "The Trench" in Exeter in June 2018, with approaching 72,000 models stacked in high wooden frames to create a replica trench about long that the public could walk through. The names of the missing were listed on the outside of the frames. After displays in Salisbury,