1/19/2023 0 Comments To end all wars summary![]() Initial attacks failed due to over-ambitious plans and unseasonal rain. ![]() British commanders learned difficult but important lessons on the Somme that would contribute to eventual Allied victory in 1918.Ī preliminary operation to seize the Messines Ridge was a dramatic success, but the Germans had reinforced their position by the time the main battle was launched on 31 July. But the Allied offensive on the Somme was a strategic necessity fought to meet the needs of an international alliance. ![]() ![]() The Somme, like Verdun for the French, has a prominent place in British history and popular memory and has come to represent the loss and apparent futility of the war. British casualties on the first day – numbering over 57,000, of which 19,240 were killed – make it the bloodiest day in British military history. More than one million men from all sides were killed, wounded or captured. Over the next 141 days, the British advanced a maximum of seven miles. Despite a seven-day bombardment prior to the attack on 1 July, the British did not achieve the quick breakthrough their military leadership had planned for and the Somme became a deadlocked battle of attrition. They were faced with German defences that had been carefully laid out over many months.
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