Over the last century, since it happened on the 1st July 1916, the Battle of the Somme has been viewed and qualified as one of the most significant battles in history. It was the first major offensive of the war against the main enemy, the Germans, in which British troops played the leading part. Many different historians in different times have almost opposite opinions/facts about what happened. However, they all agree on one thing: it’s significance. Whether it was due to failures, successes, seen as a ‘sheer bloody murder’ or a big advance in technology at the time, one thing can be fully confirmed: it was not ‘just another battle’. The impacts on the military and tactical development aspects of the battle clearly show that its significance wasn’t based just on successes and advances, but also in the failures and many lessons learnt. It could be said that almost all the failures taught more valuable lessons and were more significant on a long term scale than most of the successes at the start of the battle.
The Battle of the Somme is known as one of the most significant and disastrous battles of the history. When studied, we concentrate on the downsides and failures, as these were of massive scale. On the military side, the most shocking fact is the number of casualties -420.000 British and 20.000 French (which seems like too high a price for the small amount of land gained – a stretch of 25km long and 6km wide). General Haig (who was directing these attacks) used sometimes inflexible tactics which remain controversial to this day, according to some of his soldiers and some historians. The first day of the attack was probably the most significant and meaningful failure. After the Allies had bombarded the German trenches for 7 days, Haig sent 100.000 British men over the top. However, there was a major flaw to his plan which impacted the British greatly. They were unprepared and did not expect the Germans to have weathered the artillery fire in deep trenches and come out fighting. As the British soldiers advanced, they were mowed down by machine guns and rifles. In total, 19.240 British soldiers lost their lives. Such a large number was to be a significant lesson to learn. In spite of the heavy British losses, Haig still decided to continue with the attack. After such a bad start, the soldier’s eager hopes were wiped out and the Senior British Commanders lost control, as they were used to static warfare. The preparation for the Western Front was also really weak – the army was mainly made up by green wartime volunteers. This led to a consequential failure that taught them the significance of being prepared. Quoting Corporal Harry Shaw : ‘the battle was a sheer bloody murder and not worth the price men had to pay’. His statements are based on facts such as the loss of the Somme land and an average number of 893 British dead soldiers per day. No soldiers made it across no-man’s-land. The 141-day battle did not compensate the little land gained or the losses. On the long term, these losses would impact the future war since the army never fully recovered in time for the Second World War. It was in fact as A.J.P Taylor said: ‘brave, helpless soldiers; blundering obstinate generals and nothing achieved.’ However, the significance of the Battle of the Somme wasn’t all due to downsides. Quoting Nigel Steel in reference to the first day …show more content…
With a shockingly large number of losses and quite the amount of failures and lessons learnt, it has become a historic event of wide significance. The military successes and failures (specially on the first day of the battle) had a great impact on the battlefield and away in the home front both on the short and long term. People on the home front suffered effects such as shell shock, which was considered by many as ‘torture’ and would have preferably died. Tactical developments also had significance as with every failure or success new lessons were learnt and progress made. This led to a stronger army overall helping defeat the German Empire in the end and making the Battle of the Somme one of the most significant battles in
The Battle of the Somme is known as one of the most significant and disastrous battles of the history. When studied, we concentrate on the downsides and failures, as these were of massive scale. On the military side, the most shocking fact is the number of casualties -420.000 British and 20.000 French (which seems like too high a price for the small amount of land gained – a stretch of 25km long and 6km wide). General Haig (who was directing these attacks) used sometimes inflexible tactics which remain controversial to this day, according to some of his soldiers and some historians. The first day of the attack was probably the most significant and meaningful failure. After the Allies had bombarded the German trenches for 7 days, Haig sent 100.000 British men over the top. However, there was a major flaw to his plan which impacted the British greatly. They were unprepared and did not expect the Germans to have weathered the artillery fire in deep trenches and come out fighting. As the British soldiers advanced, they were mowed down by machine guns and rifles. In total, 19.240 British soldiers lost their lives. Such a large number was to be a significant lesson to learn. In spite of the heavy British losses, Haig still decided to continue with the attack. After such a bad start, the soldier’s eager hopes were wiped out and the Senior British Commanders lost control, as they were used to static warfare. The preparation for the Western Front was also really weak – the army was mainly made up by green wartime volunteers. This led to a consequential failure that taught them the significance of being prepared. Quoting Corporal Harry Shaw : ‘the battle was a sheer bloody murder and not worth the price men had to pay’. His statements are based on facts such as the loss of the Somme land and an average number of 893 British dead soldiers per day. No soldiers made it across no-man’s-land. The 141-day battle did not compensate the little land gained or the losses. On the long term, these losses would impact the future war since the army never fully recovered in time for the Second World War. It was in fact as A.J.P Taylor said: ‘brave, helpless soldiers; blundering obstinate generals and nothing achieved.’ However, the significance of the Battle of the Somme wasn’t all due to downsides. Quoting Nigel Steel in reference to the first day …show more content…
With a shockingly large number of losses and quite the amount of failures and lessons learnt, it has become a historic event of wide significance. The military successes and failures (specially on the first day of the battle) had a great impact on the battlefield and away in the home front both on the short and long term. People on the home front suffered effects such as shell shock, which was considered by many as ‘torture’ and would have preferably died. Tactical developments also had significance as with every failure or success new lessons were learnt and progress made. This led to a stronger army overall helping defeat the German Empire in the end and making the Battle of the Somme one of the most significant battles in