Somme

The Battle of the Somme was a five month battle of attrition from July 1st 1916 until November 1916. The Battle of the Somme would come to symbolise what the soldiers in World War 1 went through and the horrors that they faced with criticism placed on the staggering amount of casualties with well over 420,000 men dead on just the British side with 60,000 British dead on just the first day of the conflict. This essays focuses on witnesses observations of the battle, their responses to the battle and how they felt towards the enemy and will be based on the Chapman, Vain Glory British Account of the Somme and the Matthaus Gerster German account of the Somme.

On both sides of The conflict there where heavy bombardments which lead up to an assault of the other side's trenches. The British soldiers felt as if the bombardments were a symphony that hung over them something that did not just intensify and end but it was a condition of the atmosphere that was created around them. While it filled the men with awe there was also trepidation about it and the struggles soon to be faced and this allowed them time to think of the details of what they were ordered to do in the coming battle. On the German side the bombardment also called the men forth to face down the enemy trenches who knew it as a prelude to an infantry assault on the opposing trenches.

The British observations of the crossing of no man's land was one of perceived terror with a heavy load placed on the men seeing their comrades fall before them "to have gone so far and being rejected at last!" . There were worries about the loss of appendages and getting their comrades killed leading to a sense of not quite courage but a bestial desire to live and to triumph over the e...

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...ng of and even a soldier asking "D'you think there's any chance for us, sergeant?". On the German side they could hear the moans and groans of their wounded as well as cries for help and screams for their death. The British and Germans had both paid a heavy price in the crossing of no man's land.

Over all the use of mechanised warfare in the Somme such as artillery barrages led to a large amount of death throughout the Somme and led to a lot of suffering on the soldiers part who were brought forward to face the enemy under constant barrages which took a heavy toll on both the will power of soldiers and their bodies physically and mentally (shellshock). The attitudes both sides had of their enemies were one of respect for their determination in the face of the enemy and unrelenting courage but both sides suffered monumental losses of men to mechanised warfare.