Battle of the Somme

The Battle of the Somme was the bloodiest battle of World War I, it began on July 1, 1916, eight days before the battle the allied forces started an artilllery bombardment, the purpose of the bombardment was to kill the Germans that were there and to destroy the barbed wire the Germans had set up. Unfortunately the bombardment failed, it did not destroy the barbed wire, instead it made it even more tangled and as for the German soldiers they were untouched as a result of hiding in dug-outs that were 9 metres deep in the ground. The allied forces were not prepared for what followed after the bombardment, they thought the bombardment was a sucess so they ordered their men to walk in straight lines across to the enemies side, the Germans simply poped up and slaughtered them.

The battle of the Somme was a horrific battle it was a 6 month battle that had more than 1,000,000 men dead so a 5 mile territory could be gained. The first day of the battle was one of the bloddiest days for the British, they had 57,4970 casualties, out of these 19,240 were killed or died of wounds. In the battle of the Somme the Tanks were introduced to the field of battle by the allied forces, they were used to get through the barbed wire and to move over the trenches that were set up by the Germans. The allied forces started with 50 tanks, but do to mechanical failures the number of tanks used dropped to 24, the tanks surprised the Germans on the battle field, but because the tanks were new they were unreliable. The British unit that suffered most of the British casualties was the Newfoundland Regiment, the entire regiment was virtually annihilataed. The battle of the Somme finnaly ended on November 1916, this battle was the bloodiest battle of the Somme and is a horrific event especially since so many died.