Somme, Battle of the, was one of the longest and costliest campaigns of World War I (1914-1918). It took place in northern France during the summer and autumn of 1916 and consisted of a series of largely unsuccessful offenses by British and French troops against part of Germany’s western battlefront. The Battle of the Somme was one of the bloodiest examples of trench warfare in history. See World War I (Trench warfare) .
The British and French forces consisted of the United Kingdom’s Fourth Army, commanded by General Henry S. Rawlinson, with the French Sixth Army at its right. Their aim was to push back or break the line of German positions north of the Somme River. The German line extended for about 21 miles (34 kilometers) between the towns of Amiens and Peronne, and the important rail junction of Bapaume was in German hands.
The British and the French, as well as the Germans, were encamped in trenches from which they could fire on each other. For one week before the battle, the British forces launched a heavy artillery bombardment meant to demoralize the German troops and destroy their defenses. On July 1, 1916, British infantry “went over the top” (that is, came out of their trenches) to mount an attack upon the German positions. They believed that they would encounter little resistance. In fact, the artillery barrage had proved ineffective, and German gunfire decimated the attacking infantry. On this first day of the battle, some 20,000 British soldiers died, and another 40,000 were wounded.
French forces to the south took many of their early objectives, and their losses were not as severe. They used tactics that had proved successful in the fighting at Verdun—brief, creeping bombardments, with infantry advancing in smaller groups. See World War I (The Battle of Verdun) .
Over the next 20 weeks, the British and French carried out a series of assaults upon the German lines. The attacks gained little ground, and both German and Allied troops suffered heavy casualties (killed, wounded, and missing). On September 15, the United Kingdom’s Fourth Army brought its new weapon, the tank, into service, but its success was severely limited by the muddy, marshy ground over which the battle was being fought. Eventually, the battle deteriorated into a war of attrition—that is, each side slowly exhausted its opponent’s energy and resources, without achieving any substantial gains. In October, torrential rain transformed the battlefield into an impassable muddy lake. By November 18, when the battle was called off, the British and French had pushed the Germans back about 7 miles (11 kilometers), and the Germans still held Bapaume.
Estimates of casualties vary, but many experts believe that more than 1 million soldiers died during the Somme campaign: about 420,000 British soldiers, nearly 200,000 French soldiers, and between 450,000 and 650,000 Germans. The Allies failed to force a major breakthrough, but the attack succeeded in draining significant German reserves. Also, the slow evolution of new tactics and technologies—particularly in the use of artillery, tanks, and warplanes—proved key in later battles.
