THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME
The Battle of Somme was one of the largest battles of WWI. The battle was fought between July 1, 1918 and November 1, 1918 near the Somme river in France. This is said to be one of the bloodiest battles in military history, with the allied forces losing around 1.5 million men.
The French came up with a plan to attack the Germans at the Somme river and try and destroy their trenches with large artillery strikes. So on July 1,1916 artillery strikes began but, they underestimated the depth of the German trenches and didn't hold their striking for long enough which left their soldiers exposed and failed to destroy the German trenches. The Germans were able to dig in faster than the allies and eventually create a stalemate that left the battle stagnate for some time. On the first day alone the British suffered 57,470 casualties.
By the time the Somme offensive was over the British casualties were 420,000, the French 200,000, and the Germans around 460,000 casualties.
The French came up with a plan to attack the Germans at the Somme river and try and destroy their trenches with large artillery strikes. So on July 1,1916 artillery strikes began but, they underestimated the depth of the German trenches and didn't hold their striking for long enough which left their soldiers exposed and failed to destroy the German trenches. The Germans were able to dig in faster than the allies and eventually create a stalemate that left the battle stagnate for some time. On the first day alone the British suffered 57,470 casualties.
By the time the Somme offensive was over the British casualties were 420,000, the French 200,000, and the Germans around 460,000 casualties.