The Battle of the Somme as a Great Military Tragedy
The Battle of the Somme is regarded as such a great military tragedy
for several reasons.
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On the date of July 1st 1916 at 7:30am British and French soldiers
left their trenches and advanced towards the German front line.
These soldiers were extremely confident in their attack and were told
to walk to the German line. They were clearly instructed not to charge
because everybody was so confident that they would knock over the
Germans and seize their lines. Sir Henry Rawlinson, the British
commander was so convinced that there would be no German resistance
that he told his men to march forward in parade formation. The richest
and highest gentlemen of English society were involved in this attack.
The plan was to walk into the German lines and the Germans would be a
pushover due to earlier bombardment of fire.
However the confidence of the soldiers was to be a negative object in
their attack as the Germans 40ft trenches caught the English and
French unexpectedly and neither did they know that the Germans
trenches could see the English trenches, which meant that the Germans
knew what the English were doing.
The Germans stood their ground and as allied soldiers walked to the
German trenches the Germans set up their machine guns and started to
shoot. The Germans could not believe the ease of shooting the
soldiers. This is one of the reasons why the Battle of the Somme was
seen as a military tragedy because of the plan not working. Many men
were shot down with few gaining only a few yards. The German soldiers
used a steady sweeping motion when shooting their guns giving them
great success in shooting the allied soldiers down. The British
soldiers had to carry the equivalent of 4 stones in their bags not
giving them any time to move out of the way of German fire.
Even when faced with the German onslaught Haig demanded that the
assault continued causing more unnecessary deaths.
Source A tells us that Haig did not care about his men and is willing
The First Battle of Ypres, 1914. Strategically located along the roads leading to the Channel ports in. Belgian Flanders, the Belgian city of Ypres is the scene of. numerous battles since the sixteenth century.
film and so captions had to be use to explain what the next section of
the minds of the public, is that there was more to the Battle of the
The Battle of Normandy was a turning point in World War II. Canada, America, and Great Britain arrived at the beaches of Normandy and their main objective was to push the Nazi’s out of France. The Invasion at Normandy by the Allied Powers winning this battle lead to the liberation of France and Western Europe. Most importantly Hitler’s was being attacked from both the eastern and western front, and caused him to lose power. If the Allied Powers did not succeed in D-Day Hitler would’ve taken over all of Europe.In a document written by General Dwight Eisenhower he persuades the allied powers to invade Normandy. Dwight Eisenhower was born on October 14, 1890. Eisenhower became the 34th president of the United States. He served as the president from January 20, 1953 through January 20, 1961. Before his presidency Dwight participated in World War I and was moved up to captain. Dwight would then take part in World War II and work his way up to becoming a General.
The bombardment would effectively cut through the enemy’s barbed wire, while smashing fortified positions and dug-outs. Haig placed so much faith in the power of British guns, that he expected men to be capable of walking across no-man’s land, carrying heavy packs with provisions and trench repair equipment to rebuild the captured territory upon arrival. The final piece of the plan saw cavalry forces, kept in readiness, to charge through gaps in the German front line and cause a mass-retreat of enemy forces. In hindsight, we can see that the offensive very much failed to live up to expectations. Such terrible failure is possibly attributable to poor tactics and leadership on the part of Douglas Haig and his advisors.
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 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 Battle of the Somme, July-November 1916, was the largest military encounter in history to date, involving over 1.5 million men”, says Furtado, author for History Today (10). Out of this 1.5 million, around 75 to 83 percent died or were injured by the end of the Battle of the Somme. Furtado later remarks that “...troops from Canada, Newfoundland..., South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, West Indies, India, China, Senegal, North Africa, Madagascar, Somalia, Indochina, and others” were all at the Somme (11). The troops at the battle were diverse. Even though this was an international battle with many different ethnicities, it was not about each individual or county. The Battle of the Somme was between the British and French armies against the German armies. The Battle of the Somme foreshadowed the futility of fighting World War I and concluded with few strategic military achievements, many losses, and an inconclusive victory.
The battle of the Somme was one of the most tragic battles fought during World War I. The amount of life lost on both sides was tremendous and historians everywhere agree that this battle was one of the bloodiest battles fought. With casualties upwards of a million, it is not surprising that the Somme is often referred to as the ‘bloodbath’. Historian Martin Gilbert explores the severity of the battle in his book; The Somme: Heroism and Horror in the First World War. In his book he attempts to pay tribute to the soldiers who fought and fell in the battle. To do this he uses excerpts from diary entries, letters and poetry written by the soldiers on the front lines to give the reader a first-hand account of what the soldiers were thinking and feeling while fighting. Gilbert is able to effectively portray the horror of the Somme and reduce the anonymity of the fallen by sharing stories from the soldier’s personal writings, however his book would have been more effective if he had a clear well-structured argument.
As the cold hand of death swept over the remnants of France, British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, orated on the imminent battle that would rage over his homeland and the foreboding struggle for survival that was now facing Britain:
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.
It was military plan for outlined to tackle with a threats of Russia and France if Russia declared war on Germany. Germany had fear because France was militarily stronger at that time. First, Germany would set up a defensive line of military on the Russia and German border to secure their eastern side. This plan involved German troops entering France through its more lightly defended northern borders—but most would instead invade via the small nations of Belgium, Luxemburg, and Netherlands. The plan was strategically important to play a defensive role in the
of these islands. Can we afford to go on paying the same sort of price
Throughout their lives, people must deal with the horrific and violent side of humanity. The side of humanity is shown through the act of war. This is shown in Erich Remarque’s novel, “All Quiet on the Western Front”. War is by far the most horrible thing that the human race has to go through. The participants in the war suffer irreversible damage by the atrocities they witness and the things they go through.