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Battle Of The Somme Essay

613 Words3 Pages

After four months and twenty days since it started, the Battle of the Somme has taken over the entire Somme region while leaving thousands dead. The Battle of the Somme started earlier this year on 1st July, and finished two days ago, on 18th November. The battle was predominantly fought between Germany, and France and Britain - lead by General Douglas Haig. Many people say that the large amount of losses for the British wass fully the fault of Haig. We are going to find out what really happened.

The plan was to have an Anglo-French attack on Germany along the front to weaken their forces to help the French with the battle of Verdun. Sir William Robertson, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, has explained to us what the strategy was: …show more content…

However, the Armies’ leaders at Paris and London gave it the full on go ahead.

It was the second objective that had largely failed the plan. They were going to bombard the German Forces for 7 days straight to wipe out the Germans, before sending the troops over the top to take out anyone remaining. On paper it sounds like a fantastic battle plan, however in reality the bombardment did not work. The German trenches directly facing the Allied Forces were largely concrete dugouts that were protecting from any shells hitting them. British Soldiers were shocked to find most Germans alive and shooting at them with machine guns.

Those plans for the western front were put forward by General Douglas Haig, Commander in Chief of the British Army. Douglas Haig (1861- ) was born in Edinburgh to a wealthy family, however not an aristocratic one. We were fortunate enough to be be able to interview the general about his thoughts on the first day. Haig has said that he thinks “...despite the perceived trouble within the first day of battle, there was a strong force from the troops, and and a willingness to overcome the Germans”. When then asked what he thought the problem on 1st July was, he responded: “I believe that the problem with the first day of the battle of the Somme was the fact that we had no intelligence of the Germans’ concrete dugouts before

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