The First World WarThe First World WarThe Battle of the Somme (1916), which was a strategic Allied forces attempt to infiltrate through German lines along the Somme river of Northern France. It is considered to be one of the most, if not the most gruesome battles waged in the First World War. The reason behind this was that the Allied forces believed a tactical attack along this river would draw German forces from another heavily waged battle (Battle of Verdun), but alas, not only did the campaign become one of the biggest blunders it also accounted for one of greatest loss of lives in WWI. The Battle of Somme may be one of the saddest accounts, but it also entails the horror and tactical advancements of the First of World Wars.
The British had initially thought that this battle would be an easy decisive victory, they adopted the plan of heavy bombardment of artillery shells on the defensive German bunkers and trenches; this in turn would be followed by an easy raid of the ground troops into “no mans land” and that would be the end of that. But that wasnt the case, the British not only failed on that front, but they also sustained a massive loss in casualties: 20,000 men died as well as 40,000 being taken captive as prisoners of war. This was in part due to the brilliance of strength of the German bunkers, built out of concrete and 10 meters underground artillery shells just bounced off it. The British, maimed, didnt give up as they had an alternative weapon up their sleeve.
The tank, which I see as a more modern version of the Roman phalanx (shields), but instead a machine in armor, was first introduced by the British as well as being the first time used in a combat. Although they were a marvel and provided the much needed offense for the British, it lacked in testing as it was only in its infant stage. Only 18 of the 36 available tanks operated, as they struggled and often got stuck in the terrain. Even though the tanks werent reliable, they were quite a sight to the Germans as they had never seen such a machine. Although the Germans didnt have a weapon as spectacular as the tank, they had something else the British struggled to break through, and that was their art of trench warfare.
The German trenches were dug deep and were wired across in barbed wire to protect their men from a rush, besides that, they also had heavily reinforced concrete bunkers which were manned by the machine gun. Although majority of the casualties were dealt by the bombardments of artillery shells, the machine gun was still a force to be reckoned with. So what made it difficult for the British? Well, as was stated earlier the Britishs plan of assault was to hail the line with artillery shells in hopes of destroying bunkers, disorientating their men as well as cutting the barbed wire. All of this failed in part to faulty shells not exploding properly, not only that, but the shells also made the barbed wire more entangled and harder to penetrate, and most of the shells
The Germans were also surprised at their success and were not even able to keep up. The German trench was almost completely destroyed thanks to the Germans being able to use explosives, a technique not seen in warfare before, they would have also preferred to use such things as an archenemy’s machine gun (which, unlike the artillery shell, could be fired from any direction and could reach out towards the enemy flank, whereas without the archenemy’s machine gun, it would be possible to keep the Germans moving and, as far as I’m aware, the Germans had only just begun using them, it could easily have been more difficult) and was in fact the only such attack to hit the British forces.
When I was training in London and one day when I met someone from the British military side of the conflict, I came across an article about how the Germans had taken over the British posts of the Red Cross. The Germans are very big and a good lot of their resources are in the trenches and not on the infantry, so this is something that I’m not sure about, especially considering the size of their troops. When I learned this, and then when I spoke to other British officers, I started to wonder why they were there. When confronted, the men had quite literally jumped all over themselves to put up with this. The Germans were extremely tough, just as easy to blow and take down as the British had always been. They could easily come up with just a minor bit of cunning, but if you used some ingenious techniques from the fighting at Stalingrad as well—which I’ve talked about several times in my story on British bombing—the guys who would be at the front had to be just as lucky as them. The Germans were actually the ones who had the best technology too, so it was no surprise if the British was so proud to have captured their capital, and the British troops were absolutely the best.
The British also had to admit a couple of things. If they had not taken the trenches, no doubt in the future the Germans would have lost their city and the German army would be fighting for their own. On the other hand, if the British were to be successful…and I think even that is a claim I accept—that we now live in a world where Germans do not have to take the trenches and battle for it, for it will actually give them the advantage when they have to fight for it. That would probably be the opposite of what they did. You lose the opportunity to fight and gain your own reputation.
This all led to the question of the Germans being the very good and the very dumbest unit. I do believe that they would be a great team if we had fought like these guys, but I think that was the most naive thing a unit could do. What are the advantages to them? If they were to really lose a city, there would be a lot of good results and it would help them to prove themselves