Planning the Battle of the Somme On 1st July 1916, Haig and Joffre planned a joint attack on the German lines near Bapaume (although Haig would have preferred to fight further north). The action was designed to relieve some of the strain on Verdun. Haig was quite hopeful that it would break through the German lines and bring the Allies victory. Artillery Bombardment The attack was preceded by an eight-day artillery bombardment, in which 1537 British guns fired 1,723,873 rounds. The sound of the bombardment could be heard in England. The aim of the bombardment was two-fold: firstly to kill the German soldiers and reduce them to shell-shocked chaos, secondly to destroy the German barbed wire. But the artillery failed. The shells were not powerful enough to break down into the German dug-outs (which were up to 9 metres deep), and the shrapnel shells, which consisted merely of cases filled with ball-bearings, did not destroy any of the wire, but simply made it more tangled and impassable. 1st July Mines (tunnels) had been dug under the German trenches and packed with explosives. At 7.28 am these were detonated just before the British attack, giving the Germans 2 minutes warning. Then, at 7.30 am, whistles were blown and the men went 'over the top'. Each man carried a gas mask, groundsheet, field dressings, trench spade, 150 rounds of ammunition and such extras as sandbags or a roll of barbed wire - up to 80 pounds of equipment. Thinking that the Germans had been destroyed by the bombardment, and fearing that their inexperienced soldiers would become disorganised in a rush attack, the generals had ordered that the men should walk, in straight lines, across No Man's Land. They were slaughtered. 'They went down in their hundreds. You didn't have to aim, we just fired into them,' wrote one German machine-gunner. One British battalion was unable to advance because it could not climb over the bodies of the dead and wounded blocking the way. The British officers, ordered to carry only a pistol, and leading
The purpose of this speech for the class is to gain better knowledge of one of the most tragic and devastating battles of World War II, the Battle of the Bulge.
were poor and men loathed them. The soldiers slept on a bed of mud and
As they tried to get through the enemy line a lot of the Light Brigade
Source A tells us that Haig did not care about his men and is willing
middle of paper ... ... After I was disposed of, the corporal then made the majority of the 27 sufferers march with the rest of the troops. Most of the men, including an Australian chaplain, died during succeeding weeks, largely as a result of this calculated brutality.’ (Iggulden, 2009, p.22)
Operational leaders see how the individual components of an organization fit together and use those individuals work to make a larger outcome. When they focus on a problem, they think of what works best within the process and systems to make an impact on the situation. These types of leaders play a big part in making sure that things get done in an effective and functioning manner. According to the Army Doctrine ADP 6-0, the Army over time has strayed away from operational leaders and adapted Mission Command, which gives leaders the ability at the lowest level the capability to exercise disciplined initiative in an act of carrying out the larger mission . Mission Command is made up of the following six steps: Understanding, Visualize, Describe, Direct, Lead and Assess, in which a commander is responsible for. General Patton understood the intent of the Battle of the Bulge on different levels, he was able to form a mental image for the course of actions for the allies, enemies and lead his Army into combat while guiding his officers and soldiers to succeed in meeting his intent. The Battle of the Bulge is where General Patton gained one of his greatest military achievements by using his tactical leadership and logistical genius, which in return helped him turn around the main forces and forced the Germans to drive back in their final counter-offensive. General Patton strongly exercised Mission Command by understanding, visualizing, leading, and commanding what was known as the largest and bloodiest battle during World War II.
"Feature Articles - Life in the Trenches." Firstworldwar.com. First World War, n.d. Web. 05 Apr.
On the western front the soldiers had to build trenches to provide defence for the army and hold their position to show their opponents they weren?t going anywhere. The trenches were built in a crocked line next to each other because if the line was straight and a shell landed on it the explosion would kill and injure much more people then if it was straight. They had barbed wire and Sandbags at the top of trench to protect them from enemies coming in and attacking them. The trench had many layers and at the bottom there were dug outs were the sold...
The First World War witnessed an appalling number of casualties. Due partly to this fact, some historians, developed the perception that commanders on both sides depended on only one disastrous approach to breaking the stalemate. These historians attributed the loss of life to the reliance on soldiers charging across no-man’s land only to be mowed down by enemy machineguns. The accuracy of this, however, is fallacious because both the German’s and Allies developed and used a variety of tactics during the war. The main reason for battlefield success and eventual victory by the Allies came from the transformation of battlefield tactics; nevertheless, moral played a major role by greatly affecting the development of new tactics and the final outcome of the war.
In the late May in 1918, the German forces put together four divisions and launched the Aisne offensive. The bombardment began at one in the morning on May 27th. The British and French front lines were torn apart by the current waves of German infantry and artillery. Both armies began to disintegrate before the might of the Germans, and were unable to halt the advancement of their awesome force. The Germans didn’t press further after the Marnes River, giving the French time to call in reinforcements and American assistance. When the American forces arrived, a French office asked Marine Colonel Wendell C. Neville if a tactical retreat would be in order, he replied with th...
“The Battle of the Bulge, fought over the winter months of 1944 – 1945, was the last major Nazi offensive against the Allies in World War Two. The battle was a last ditch attempt by Hitler to split the Allies in two in their drive towards Germany and destroy their ability to supply themselves” (Trueman).
The stalemate on the Western front had developed by December 1914 because of the new advances in defensive weaponry where both sides had developed lethal weaponry like the machine guns and artillery, which subsequently led to trench warfare. The Machine Gun was a very dominant weapon in the First World War. It could kill hundreds of men a minute due to its rapid firing rate of 600 bullets a minute. However the machine guns that were used in the First World War weighed between 30kg – 60kg, would require a four to six operators and could heat up extremely quickly; clearly not very effective as a offensive weapon (Duffy, Michael. "Machine Guns.") Machine Guns were only effective for defense as they were extremely heavy, required a lot of ammunition a needed to be fixed into the ground. This made it severely difficult to attack and move with machine guns. Artillery was even deadlier as a defensive weapon and was one of the most important weapons of the First World War as it was the cause of the majority of human losses. The artillery ranged from field artillery to heavy and long range artillery that could fire long distances and would trap the enemies in their trenches. The Trench Mortar was also a very effective weapon in the war, which was a “tube” that would fire at a vertical angle (higher than 45 degrees) and could therefore be fired within the safety of the trench, unlike artillery. All these new advances in technology made trenches almost impossible to attack yet also kept each side trapped in their trenches.
The main weapon used by the British during World War I was the bolt-action rifle. These were the guns of the trenches. A soldier could fire 15 rounds and kill a person 1,400 meters away. The machine gun back in World War I was a very large, bulky contraption to run around a battlefield with. It would take 4-6 men just to operate one of these machine guns. It had to be stationed on flat ground, but had the firepower of a 100 guns. Field guns/artillery guns were the largest of the weapons on the field. 12 men would have to man the massive cannon just to have it operate correctly. The weapon could shoot shells that would explode when hitting the ground and spraying shrapnel in every direction. The Germans in the battle of Ypres first introduced chemical warfare in 1915. The gas they used was Chlorine gas. It was not a good way to die. It was very painful. Soldiers would feel a burning sensation in the throat and chest, and then eventually suffocate. Mustard gas was also another gas used to kill troops in the trenches. Zeppelins where used early on in the war, but later dismissed because they were too easy to shoot down. Also tanks where used in the war, but were very new in development and could only go 3mph.
Benito Mussolini, was the Head of Government of Italy and Duce of Fascism also he was the prime minister of Italy; he said “Blood alone moves the wheels of history.” (World War II Tributes) Mussolini was saying that blood has many affects on American History because there were too many battles going on in the past and for those more to go. The battle of the Bulge started off with Hitler’s men who attacked the American positions on Elsensborn Ridge and Losheim Gap attempting to break through to Liège. Americans said that this battle was probably the bloodiest battle in America. The battle of the Bulge began on December 16th 1944; Hitler thought that he could take over the alliance from Britain, France, and America so he decided launching a massive attack on American forces. Many risked their lives and this was also a very bloody battle. In many cases there were a lot of people that did not know that the battle was a very bloody. The conflict of the Battle of the Bulge was very sentimental also at the same time it was very aggressive, many people lost their lives fighting over a mistake one man caused. If Hitler wouldn’t have came up with the idea of trying to take control of many countries then there wouldn’t have been men dying in this battle.
World War 2 was a large scale war around the war that lasted 6 years. The war was devastating on all the countries involved on both sides. There was a considerable amount of death in WW2 estimated at 15,000,000 battle related deaths. There were many different battles in WW2 but today I will be report on one of the greater battles close to the end of the war. This battle is known as the Battle of the Bulge.The Battle of the Bulge began on December 16th, 1944. It started with Hitler ordering a large surprise attack on the Western Allies using his 3 armies. The Germans came out of the dense woods of the Ardennes forest in Belgium. Towards the beginning of the battle the Germans were winning due to the nature of the surprise attack and their experience level. The damage they caused was so great they created a “bulge” of sorts in the Allied front, hence the name of the battle. But we later will see the Germans progress in the beginning of the battle will be short lived.