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    The Battle of the Somme
    The Battle of the Somme
    The Battle of the Somme
    Ebook76 pages1 hour

    The Battle of the Somme

    By Rupert Colley

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    About this ebook

    The Battle of the Somme lives in our collective imagination as the epitome of pointless slaughter on the battlefield. A century on, the Somme has come to symbolise the futile horror of trench warfare. 

    The first day of the Somme, 1 July 1916, was the blackest day in British military history – 57,470 casualties, including 19,240 dead. This concise account of the Battle of the Somme includes a summary of the First World War leading up to July 1916, plans and preparations for the Somme Offensive, the role of Douglas Haig, the First Day of the Somme and the continuing battle, followed by a summary of the war to 11 November 1918.

    There are tales of men who won the Victoria Cross at the Somme and those shot for desertion; and accounts of famous people who fought at the Somme, including future British prime minister Harold Macmillan; Siegfried Sassoon; mountaineer, George Mallory; Adolf Hitler; one of Britain’s first black professional footballers, Walter Tull; and authors J.R.R. Tolkien and Robert Graves; among others.

    The failure to breach the German lines on the first day led to a battle of attrition that was to last four and a half long months. After 141 days of carnage, more than a million men had been killed or wounded on all sides, making the Battle of the Somme one of the bloodiest battles of World War One and indeed in human history. 

    Author, Rupert Colley, founder of the bestselling History In An Hour series, provides a short but compelling overview of this epic and devastating World War One battle.

    The Battle of the Somme: World War One's Bloodiest Battle provides a perfect introduction to this momentous occasion in Great Britain's history.

    Approximately 100 pages and illustrated with 30 photographs.
     

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRupert Colley
    Release dateNov 11, 2016
    ISBN9781540143815
    The Battle of the Somme
    Author

    Rupert Colley

    Rupert Colley was a librarian in Enfield for 22 years until September 2011. A history graduate, he launched the original History In An Hour in 2009 with a website, blog and ‘World War Two In An Hour’ as an iPhone app. He then expanded it to Kindle, iBooks and into the USA with a series of titles, and enlisted new writers by encouraging guest bloggers on the website. History In An Hour was acquired by HarperCollins in 2011.

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    • 5/5
      This is a compelling read. Puts you in the trenches. A slaughter. Honours the courage and fear and suffering of the dead. Concise and well written piece of history.

    Book preview

    The Battle of the Somme - Rupert Colley

    Introduction

    The Battle of the Somme lives in our collective imagination as the epitome of pointless slaughter on the battlefield. It was one of the costliest engagements of the First World War and, a century on, the Somme has come to symbolise the futile horrors of trench warfare. The first day, 1 July 1916, was the worst, blackest day in British military history – 57,470 casualties, including 19,240 dead. The failure to breach the German lines on the first day led to a battle of attrition that was to last four and a half long months. By the time it had finished on 18 November, after 141 days of carnage, more than a million men had been killed or wounded on all sides, making it one of the bloodiest battles in human history.

    Re-enactment of Canadian troops ‘going over the top’, Battle of the Somme, 1916.

    Imperial War Museum.

    The proposal for a major Anglo-French offensive near the River Somme was first suggested by the French commander-in-chief, Joseph Joffre, at the Chantilly Conference in December 1915. Representatives from France, Great Britain, Italy and Russia attended. Representing the British was commander-in-chief, Sir John French. (A week later, French was replaced as c-in-c by Sir Douglas Haig, whose name would soon become synonymous with the Battle of the Somme). The Germans, Joffre felt, were running out of reserves and a concentrated combined attack would provide the long-awaited breakthrough on the Western Front. The proposal was agreed. Originally, the French would have taken the lead, but on 21 February 1916, the Germans launched an all-out assault on the French town of Verdun. As a result, with the French embroiled at Verdun, they were reduced to a supporting role on the Somme. The brunt of the attack would fall on the forces of the British and its Commonwealth.

    The British and Commonwealth had two main objectives for the coming Somme offensive: firstly to relieve the pressure on the French at Verdun; and secondly, to breakthrough German lines and to ‘inflict as heavy losses as possible upon the German armies,’ to use Douglas Haig’s phrase, and, using the cavalry, reinstate a war of movement.

    The British however knew they lacked experienced men. Its professional army, the British Expeditionary Force, had almost been wiped out.

    1914 – 1915

    In 1914, the BEF as a fighting force was highly trained, highly proficient but very small. Britain’s European counterparts all had massive armies of conscripted soldiers. Britain, however, was against forcing unwilling men to take up arms – thus it relied on its professional army. With the outbreak of war, it soon became apparent that Britain needed a much larger army – an army of paid volunteers. So the government went on a recruitment campaign.

    The newly-appointed Minister of War, Horatio Kitchener, a military hero and veteran of the Boer War, lent his face to the most popular of the many recruiting posters. With his military hat and stern face, his pointing finger jabbed at the conscience of the viewer – ‘Your country needs you!’ bellowed the poster. The campaign was hugely successful. Men (and boys) the length and breadth of the country queued at the various recruitment agencies, eager to sign on the dotted line and join up. For many, working class life was dull, monotonous and poorly paid. Here was a unique opportunity – the chance of seeing foreign lands, the possibility of adventure, some decent pay and the chance to impress people back home by their sense of patriotic duty. By the end of 1914, over a million young men, the ‘Kitchener recruits’, had volunteered.

    Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1914.

    Library of Congress.

    (Horatio Kitchener drowned in the North Sea on 5 June 1916 when the ship he was on, the HMS Hampshire, hit a German mine. His body was never found).

    British general, Henry Rawlinson, persuaded 1,500 London City workers to form a ‘Stockbrokers’ Battalion’. This

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