The Battle of Somme

The Battle of Somme

There was fighting all over the world leading up to the battle of the Somme. On August 3, 1914 Germany invaded Belgium. At the end of September the German troops were about 30 miles from Paris. At the battle of the Marne the German army was stopped by the British and French armies. The Germans dug trenches to help defend them when the troops were advancing. The British and German armies tried to go sideways instead of strait into each other and built trenches on the way. They both went all the way to the sea that was called “the race to the sea”. Both of the armies tried braking through each others trenches. They defended with shells and machine guns and advanced on foot with rifles. Germany became the first country to use poison gas in warfare in 1915 at the battle Ypres. The British were the first army to ever use tanks as a weapon in war in the battle of the Somme. (Marshall, S. L. A. - World War I)

The plan for the Battle of the Somme was to get a huge new army of soldiers. The men and supplies would be collected in trenches. The British would then bomb the German trenches for 7 days. “The British fired over one and a half millions shells from 1537 guns at the German lines, which should have destroyed the German dug-outs which were dug 9 meters deep into the ground, shred their barbed wire and kill most of the Germans.” Ten mines were dug under the German strong points. They exploded two minutes before the attack. The British armies crossed “No Mans Land”. They took over the German trenches. The Germans bombed British trenches but the British were ready for the attack. The British guns fired at the German trenches. The British gunmen stood together and fired. “The sound of the gunfire could be heard in London”. (Mier, Earl – The Golden Book History of the United States)

The Germans survived the fire and begun to fire back, this made the Germans more excited, fewer men went on a “sick parade” and no-one wanted to miss the fight. They fired back and forth all night. The firing stopped in the morning and there was silence. Miners dug and were trying to put mines in the German trenches. Mines blew and the attack began.