Battle of the Somme

The battle, stage by stage

Six stages, in order. Open a stage for the detail behind it.

1. 1A war that would not moveBy 1916, after more than a year of trench fighting, neither side had broken through on the Western Front, and the Allies agreed to attack together that year rather than one army at a time.+
2. 2Verdun forces the timingFrom February 1916 the French were under heavy German attack at Verdun. Fewer French divisions could be spared for the Somme, so the attack became mainly British — and it could not be put off.+
3. 3Seven days of shellingFrom 24 June the guns fired about 1.5 million shells at the German positions. The bombardment was to cut the barbed wire and destroy the front-line trenches, so that the infantry could cross and occupy them.+
4. 41 July 1916The guns lifted off the front trench and the infantry began to cross No Man's Land in daylight. They met machine-gun and rifle fire from a defence that was still in place, with German shells falling on the open ground behind them.+
5. 5Attrition, July to NovemberThe battle was not called off. It continued as a long series of smaller attacks whose purpose was to keep wearing the German army down.+
6. 618 November 1916The attacks were finally halted as winter closed in. The front line had moved, but nowhere near far enough to count as the breakthrough the plan had been built around.+

Predict, then check

Commit to an answer before you read on — the reasoning is worth more than the fact.

Seven days of shelling, about 1.5 million shells — and the German front line still fought back on 1 July. Which explanation is right?

What you need to know

• The Battle of the Somme was fought on the Western Front from 1 July to 18 November 1916.
• It was launched as the agreed joint Allied offensive for 1916, to draw German forces away from the French at Verdun, and to wear the German army down.
• The attack opened with a seven-day artillery bombardment meant to cut the German barbed wire and destroy the front-line trenches and their defenders.
• On the first day the British suffered around 57,000 casualties, about 19,000 of them killed — the worst single day in the history of the British Army.
• The fighting continued as a battle of attrition until 18 November, and included the first use of tanks in war on 15 September 1916.
• More than a million men on all sides were killed or wounded, and the front line moved only a few miles.

The big picture

Why the Allies attacked on the Somme in 1916, what happened from the first day to the last, and how to weigh what the battle achieved against what it cost.

⚠ Watch out

The commonest mistake is treating 1 July as the whole battle: an answer that stops there cannot explain the next four and a half months, and leaves out what the battle did to the German army. The opposite error is listing achievements without ever weighing them against the cost.

Memory hook

PLAN, GUNS, DAY, GRIND. The Allies PLANned a joint attack and Verdun forced their hand; the GUNS fired for seven days and left the dugouts intact; the DAY was 1 July, the worst in British Army history; the GRIND of attrition carried the battle to November.

Check yourself

Without looking back, give one reason the attack was launched in 1916, one reason the first day went so badly, and one piece of evidence that the German army had been worn down.