Copy Book Archive

The Battle of the Somme A British victory at tragic cost, in which both sides had to learn a new way of fighting.
1916
King George V 1910-1936
Music: Ralph Vaughan Williams

© Wernervc, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0. Source

About this picture …

The cross in the Devonshire Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery, near Mametz in Picardie, France. Those buried here are, with two exceptions, soldiers from 8th and 9th Battalions of the Devonshire Regiment.

The Battle of the Somme
In February 1916, Germany launched an offensive at Verdun in Lorraine, near the German border with France. To relieve the French forces, the British tried to draw the Germans north to the River Somme in Picardy.

THE first day of the Battle of the Somme, which began on the 1st of July, 1916, with the Battle of Albert, constituted a heavy defeat for the Germans, and overall the Somme was declared a victory for the Allies.

But the British lost over 60,000 men on that one day, the bloodiest in the history of the British Army.

By the time it was all over on the 18th of November, casualties on both sides had grown to more than a million.

The Somme marked the beginning of modern, industrial warfare. The British Army deployed tanks for the first time here, and sent aircraft to spy far behind enemy lines.

Artillery was more powerful, and armies were larger, than ever before. The battlefields were a maze of shell-craters and muddy, chaotic trenches; the noise was unrelenting, the sights were harrowing.

Learning how to fight like this was costly in the most heart-breaking way.

Précis

Hoping to relieve pressure on French forces in Verdun during the Great War, the British drew the Germans to the River Somme in northern France, where battle was joined on 1st July 1916. By mid-November, a million soldiers had died, the appalling toll driven by bigger, mass-produced weapons from a newly industrial age, including tanks and aeroplanes. (56 / 60 words)

Suggested Music

Symphony No. 2: A London Symphony

2. Lento

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)

Performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Roger Norrington.

Media not showing? Let me know!

Related Posts

for The Battle of the Somme

The First World War

A Great Human Effort

The Gallipoli landings in 1915 did not achieve the Admiralty’s goals, but for John Masefield they remained one of the proudest moments of the Great War.

The First World War

Edith Cavell

The experienced nurse could not stop saving lives, even at the cost of her own.

The First World War

Captain Charles Fryatt

A civilian ferry captain was court-martialled by the Germans for thumbing his nose at their U-Boats.

The First World War

The Battle of Jutland

Preventing the German fleet from breaking out into the Atlantic in 1916 should have felt like victory, but it felt like defeat.

The First World War (28)
All Stories (1522)
Worksheets (14)
Word Games (5)