--- title: "Battle of the Somme: A Million Men for a Few Miles" description: "The year was 1916, and the fighting in western Europe had reached a tense stalemate as each side planned their next move. Along the borders of German-occupied territory, both sides had dug hundreds of miles of muddy trenches, between which lay the dreaded no man's land. Anyone brave enough to attempt a crossing faced certain death, as machine guns on both sides would make quick work of anyone making their way through the fields and barbed wire. Weapons like the machine gun and heavy artillery were far stronger than any tactic that could be used to counter them, and both sides were at an impasse, dug into their stubborn defenses. But the Allies were not content with sitting around forever — they were determined to liberate Belgium and the parts of France that Germany had captured.\n\n## Key Takeaways\n- On July 1, 1916, the British army suffered 57,000 casualties — a third killed — making it the worst single day in British military history.\n- Nearly a third of all British artillery shells fired during the week-long preparatory bombardment were duds, leaving German defenses largely intact.\n- The Battle of Flers-Courcelette on September 15, 1916, marked the first use of tanks in warfare, with 49 Mark 1 tanks deployed by the British.\n- The Welsh division lost approximately 4,000 men in just a few days of fighting at Mametz Wood and took a year to recover its strength.\n- The Australian 1st division suffered more than 5,000 casualties defending Pozières against two weeks of concentrated German shelling and counterattacks.\n- Over 140 days, the Battle of the Somme produced over one million total casualties across British, French, and German forces.\n\n## Breaking the Deadlock: The Joint Anglo-French Offensive Takes Shape\n\nTo liberate occupied territory would require as many men as possible, and so, to this end, in January 1916, Britain and France agreed on a joint operation. The British originally wanted to attack Belgium, but eventually agreed to France's proposal — a coordinated full frontal assault into the German lines in France, along the Somme River, where the British and French armies met. The initial plan was that France would lead the attack with Britain playing a supporting role. This was supposed to be an unprecedented attack after more than a year of stalemate, and result in a decisive victory against Germany. But problems arose immediately. In February of 1916, Germany made the first move, breaking the frontline's tension by storming the French city of Verdun. To defend their land and to launch their own counterattacks, France diverted hundreds of thousands of their soldiers and reserves to Verdun, away from the planned offensive at the Somme. This meant that Britain was now in the driver's seat of the Somme offensive, and although France had transferred away a good portion of their army, there was still a massive number of troops ready for battle. Shared between Britain and France for the offensive were nearly two and a half million soldiers. There was an important distinction between quantity and quality. The majority of British soldiers were not career soldiers — they were civilian volunteers. At the outbreak of the war, Lord Kitchener had called for volunteers, hoping for at least 100,000, but quickly more than two million signed up. Many of these young men were in what was known as 'pals battalions', groups of volunteers from the same neighborhood or profession. Despite their eagerness to fight for their country, most had zero combat experience, though they had received basic training with their rifles and bayonets. Along with all the volunteers from the United Kingdom were troops from across the British Empire, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, and South Africa. General Sir Douglas Haig, overseeing the operation from the British side, wanted to wait until his men had more training, but the French were pressuring him to attack as soon as possible. As plans evolved, the focus shifted. Instead of an all-out, decisive victory, General Haig now had two goals: use the attack to split up German resources, relieving pressure on the French at Verdun, and take out as many Germans as possible.\n\n## First Day on the Somme: The Worst Day in British Army History\n\nRecent research into the Somme shows that the Germans were aware of the upcoming attack, thanks to a couple of interrogated British troops. To what extent this affected the German defensive build-up is a matter of speculation, but what is well known is how fortified the German targets were. Behind thick rows of barbed wire, the Germans had dug several rows of deep trenches. Underneath the trenches were concrete bunkers to hide inside during an artillery strike, and above the trenches were machine gun nests, manned by experienced and battle-hardened crews. To prepare for the infantry push, British artillery preceded the attack with a non-stop bombardment of German positions for an entire week. Nearly 1,400 guns pounded the front lines with the goals of destroying barbed wire, trenches, and enemy artillery, to flatten the enemy defenses and give the infantry what they called a \"walk over.\" Over 1.7 million shells were fired during this week, including gas and smoke to confuse the Germans, but bad weather made it difficult for reconnaissance planes to report on their effectiveness. The shelling was only intended to last for five days, but thick fog and rain forced the British to delay the infantry push for another two days, which they filled with any remaining artillery shells they could scrounge up. Conflicting reports were coming in from scout parties about how effective the artillery had been. Some groups reported flattened barbed wire and clear paths to the German lines, while others reported almost no change. Despite the conflicting reports, it was unthinkable to cancel the attack or delay it again, so General Haig ordered the men to begin the assault. At 7:30 AM on July 1st, 1916, whistles rang out across the countryside, signaling the beginning of the attack. The goals for the first day were to capture and hold the first two lines of German defense, with the British Third Army creating a diversion in the north, the British Fourth Army heading the main attack near the center, and the French Sixth Army attacking in the south. Heavy explosives buried under German strongholds were detonated, and the Allied forces began the final artillery strike before the assault. Some British troops began marching across no man's land before the barrage even ended, hoping to catch the Germans off guard, while some assumed a steady pace after the artillery finished, expecting decimated defenses and little to no resistance. One soldier was so confident that he kicked a football across the field as the push began. But their expectations were far from reality. It would later be discovered that nearly a third of all artillery shells fired the week before had been duds, and thousands more were shrapnel shells that were ineffective against barbed wire. The artillery had been insufficient for such a large area, and many places remained unscathed. In the places that did get bombed, the concrete bunkers kept the Germans safe, and they were ready to jump back to their positions as soon as it ended. The barrage also failed to disable German artillery and its communication lines with the front trenches.\n\n## Catastrophic Losses and the End of Pals Battalions\n\nSome British divisions made it across parts of no man's land, taking heavy casualties along the way, but temporarily securing key locations and villages. The British Third Army in the north struggled to make any progress between the trenches, as German machine guns rained hell upon the soldiers cramming through the few gaps in the barbed wire. The British and French divisions in the southern sector saw the most success, taking thousands of prisoners and completing their first day objectives, largely thanks to the French artillery being more effective than its British counterpart. But the British Fourth Army in the center of the push saw the worst outcome of them all, barely making progress — essentially sitting ducks in barbed wire for coordinated enemy artillery strikes and a wall of machine guns, they were mowed down, massacred in the thousands. In many places, temporary ceasefires were called for each side to recover their wounded from no man's land, and the cost of the war was realized when the staggering counts came back. In just one day, the Germans had between six and twelve thousand casualties, while the French had a few thousand wounded or killed. But the British suffered a staggering 57,000 casualties, a third of which had been killed, with almost no results to show for it. The first day on the Somme has been called the worst day in the history of the British army. Entire pals battalions had been wiped out, leaving whole communities back home sharing the burden of losing their sons, some of whom were killed without ever having had a chance to fire their own rifle. As a result, the British army discontinued pals battalions. The story of the Somme often ends with a failure to break through German lines and the tragic loss of life, with much of the blame placed on the generals leading inexperienced boys into war. But the reality is that the Battle of the Somme was much more than just the first day — it raged on for another five months.\n\n## The Battle of Albert: Mametz Wood, Contalmaison, and the Creeping Barrage\n\nThe first day on the Somme was also the beginning of the Battle of Albert — the Allied plans for the first two weeks of the Somme Offensive. From July 2nd to July 13th, each side threw everything they had to gain an advantage in the chaos, with mixed results. It took a couple of days to replace the soldiers lost on the first push, but once they were in place, new offensives began. On the 3rd of July, British divisions rushed forward and managed to capture the small village of La Boisselle. For the next few days, they tried pushing into German trenches 200 meters behind it, and were successful on the 7th of July. Later that day, Welsh divisions were ordered to capture positions in the Mametz Wood, where several German defensive positions were heavily fortified. After a preliminary artillery strike, the Welsh were completely repelled, suffering hundreds of casualties, as the artillery strike had once again failed to destroy much of the barbed wire. They pushed forward again the next day with the same result. General Haig was irritated by the failure, citing what he saw as a lack of effort, and removed several Welsh officers from their duty. After a quick reassessment, he ordered further assaults with more men. The Welsh once again went into the fray, this time making it all the way to the German position, and by July 12th, after intense close-quarters combat with rifles and bayonets, managed to clear the area of German soldiers and capture anyone who surrendered. In just a few days of fighting at Mametz Wood, the Welsh division lost about 4,000 men and would not recover their losses for another year. A memorial featuring the Welsh red dragon stands there today. Just north of Mametz Wood was another intense battle for the village of Contalmaison. The first day on the Somme was a disaster for the British attempt to take the small town — within ten minutes of jumping out of their trenches, 80% of the advancing men were mowed down by German machine guns. Subsequent pushes had made it just to the edges of the objective, but ultimately they had to withdraw. A German counterattack from the village was then crushed, and the British drew up more plans to try to capture it. On July 4th, a heavy thunderstorm was beating down on the whole battlefield, turning trenches into muddy rivers and flooding bunkers. The British infantry, concealed by the rain and their sound masked by the thunder, crept forward until they were just 90 meters from the German position. Once the order was given, the men rushed forward, storming the trenches in front of the village, capturing several key trenches and taking hundreds of prisoners, even managing to capture the heavily defended Horseshoe Trench — though it was recaptured by a German counterattack later that day. Finally, on the 10th of July, the infantry was able to capture the village using a creeping barrage, a strategy originally tested years earlier in Bulgaria. In a creeping barrage, the infantry would steadily march across no man's land toward enemy trenches, walking carefully behind a scheduled wall of artillery fire that moved forward at a set pace. Shells would drop and explode in front of the men as they walked, concealing their position with explosions and smoke, and destroying barbed wire just before they got to it. The pace of the advancing barrage was generally between 50 and 100 yards every minute. This tactic required well-trained infantry and even more well-trained artillery teams, something the British were in short supply of at the time. British attempts at creeping barrages all over the Somme resulted in thousands of soldiers moving at the wrong pace, either walking too slowly and being left too far from the trenches when the barrage ended, or moving forward too quickly and becoming a friendly-fire statistic. In the case of Contalmaison, the soldiers' pace was too quick, but the divisional artillery commander saw what was happening and sped up the artillery pace to stay ahead of the marching troops, saving their lives and the operation.\n\n## Pozières, the Australian Brigades, and the Struggle for Thiepval\n\nThroughout late July, August, and early September, each side ramped up efforts to gain a tactical advantage along the frontline, throwing whatever resources they had at the enemy trenches. One major stronghold of the German defenses was a fortress constructed close to the frontlines at Thiepval, which had proven to be unbreakable. After failed attempts to attack it directly, the Allies decided on a different approach. Instead of the traditional method of throwing artillery and men straight at the target, they were going to take their time and capture the surrounding villages, which would give them more favorable positions to attack. The most important village for this plan was Pozières, which sat on a plateau overlooking Thiepval from behind. The British attacked it on July 22, after several days of bombardment — not just of explosive shells but also of the deadly gas Phosgene. After the bombing ended, the Australian 1st and 3rd brigades rushed the enemy positions, quickly taking control of several key trenches, forcing any remaining Germans to fall back. Later that day the Australians captured dozens of prisoners and a heavily fortified position known as the Gibraltar bunker. After reinforcements arrived, they tried to push even further into enemy territory but were held off. German communication lines were also suffering, so they were not aware of Pozières' capture until two days later, but the moment they heard the news, they focused all their energy into taking it back. Beginning on July 24th, there was a German shelling so concentrated that it turned much of the village into rubble. One place was bombed so heavily that it later became known as Dead Man's Road. The shelling and counterattacks lasted for two weeks, and when the survivors were finally relieved from their positions, they were described as \"men who had been in Hell... drawn and haggard and so dazed that they appeared to be walking in a dream and their eyes looked glassy and starey.\" After the shell-shocked men returned to base, it was counted that the Australian 1st division had suffered more than 5,000 casualties. All along the Somme frontline, back and forth fighting raged on for weeks. In several instances, the British would make it to enemy trenches and capture their objectives, but would have to fall back when they received no reinforcements, support, or even further orders, and a German counterattack would knock them back to the starting line. Allied communication lines were terribly unreliable — with very few reliable telephone lines, British officers often received news of a battle's outcome hours after the fact, with letters being delivered by messengers, reconnaissance pilots, or even homing pigeons.\n\n## Debut of the Tank at the Battle of Flers-Courcelette\n\nAs September arrived, there was a sense of urgency growing among the Allied generals. They needed to gain as much ground as possible during autumn, because once winter arrived they would be at the mercy of the weather. A renewed, major operation was planned, in which the British forces would push through three consecutive German defensive lines — Green line, then Brown line, then Blue line. This would later be known as the Battle of Flers–Courcelette. The idea was to have deep flanks pushed on the sides of the battlefield, through which cavalry could charge enemy infantry, leaving the center to crumble after the infantry followed a creeping barrage into enemy trenches. The Canadian Corps and the New Zealand Division were getting their first combat, and, most notably, the tank was used in battle for the first time in history. As early as 1914, both sides of the war had been experimenting with armored vehicles, but none had made it to the battlefield. That was about to change, as the British brought with them 49 Mark 1 tanks, each weighing around 30 tons. The Mark 1 came in two versions: male and female. The male versions were armed with two powerful 6-pounder guns and three Hotchkiss machine guns, while the female versions came equipped with five machine guns. The battle began on September 15th. The German defenders, seeing a tank in battle for the first time in their lives, were understandably scared. The tank ran over barbed wire like it was bubble wrap and was nearly immune to small arms fire, driving straight toward enemy positions and opening fire, drawing attention from the infantry and leaving a corridor for them through the barbed wire. At least, that was what happened when the tank worked as it was supposed to. Right off the bat, one tank failed to start. Another lost one of its caterpillar tracks and had to turn around, a few ran out of fuel, another got stuck in a ditch, and several got lost. They were almost hilariously unreliable and their crews were not very experienced, but the ones that did make it to their objectives had quite an impact on the battle. The 2nd New Zealand Brigade, for example, made it through several trenches but were stopped by barbed wire, which was promptly run over by two tanks, allowing the men to advance and capture the next point. In a few places, the Germans were able to counter the tanks by destroying them with focused artillery. Innovation took place in the sky as well that day: Germany deployed their brand new Albatros D1 fighter planes, which seriously challenged British and French air superiority, shooting down observation balloons and other reconnaissance planes.\n\n## The Somme's Toll: A Million Casualties and the War of Attrition\n\nAfter about a week, the Allies dug into their new frontline, signaling the end of the Flers–Courcelette attack. The overarching goals of taking all three German lines were not achieved, but a significant amount of territory had been taken — three major villages were recaptured and the British had pushed about two kilometers into enemy territory. While it was not technically a strategic victory according to the original plan, it had been a tactical success, and it showed how much the British army had improved since the disastrous first day on the Somme. This battle had also wiped out a huge portion of Germany's forces; September became their worst month for casualties. Operations continued throughout October and November, but as the weather worsened, both sides saw fewer and fewer chances to attack. November 18th is regarded as the last day of the Battle of the Somme, which lasted 140 days. Throughout the months of fighting, the British Empire suffered around 420,000 casualties, the French 200,000, and Germany over 450,000. Some estimates go as high as 650,000. In total, over a million casualties, and all so that the frontline shifted between just 6 and 10 miles, or between 9 and 16 kilometers. The Battle of the Somme, and World War 1 in general, is often described by the phrase 'lions led by donkeys' — brave young men dying on the battlefield under the orders of incompetent generals. This is certainly a valid interpretation, but on the other hand, Haig was indeed pressured to attack where he previously did not want to, and had to do so with an inexperienced army. The British army gained valuable experience on how to command a large army against the Germans. They began to master artillery strikes and creeping barrages, and how to fight an entrenched war. It was a painful learning curve. The fighting shaped the thinking and morals of authors C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, and in the other trenches, a young Adolf Hitler was hit with shrapnel, which wounded him either in the leg or, according to some sources, resulted in the loss of a testicle. The Battle of the Somme, as costly as it was for the Allies, did have a serious impact on the outcome of the First World War. Germany's casualties were extreme, and the men they lost were experienced and hard to replace. Having to divert their forces to the Somme meant they had less firepower at Verdun, where the French emerged victorious. It was a grueling beginning of the wearing down of German resources, which was the overall goal of Britain, France, and Russia at the time. This destructive war of attrition continued and drained Germany's power, crippling its war economy and contributing to the country's downfall until the end of the war.\n\n## Frequently Asked Questions\n\n### Why did the week-long British artillery bombardment fail to destroy the German defenses?\n\nNearly a third of the 1.7 million shells fired during the preparatory bombardment were duds, and thousands more were shrapnel rounds ineffective against barbed wire. The artillery was also spread too thin across the wide front, and the concrete bunkers beneath the German trenches kept troops safe. When the assault began, defenders simply emerged and manned their machine guns.\n\n### What made July 1, 1916, the worst day in British military history?\n\nThe British suffered 57,000 casualties on the first day alone, a third of whom were killed, while achieving almost no strategic gains. Pals battalions of inexperienced civilian volunteers were mowed down by German machine guns as they advanced across no man's land into largely intact defenses, devastating entire communities back home.\n\n### What was the creeping barrage and why was it difficult to execute?\n\nThe creeping barrage was a tactic in which infantry marched close behind a wall of artillery fire that advanced at a set pace, destroying barbed wire and concealing the troops as they moved toward enemy trenches. It required perfectly coordinated timing between infantry and artillery; British forces repeatedly suffered from troops moving too slowly and being left exposed, or moving too fast and being hit by their own shells.\n\n### When were tanks first used in battle and what was the result?\n\nThe Mark 1 tank made its combat debut on September 15, 1916, during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, when 49 British tanks were deployed. While many broke down, got stuck, or ran out of fuel, those that reached their objectives proved effective at crushing barbed wire and drawing fire from infantry, demonstrating the tank's potential even in its earliest and most unreliable form.\n\n### What was the overall cost of the Battle of the Somme and what did it achieve?\n\nOver 140 days of fighting, the battle produced over one million total casualties: roughly 420,000 British Empire, 200,000 French, and over 450,000 German. The frontline shifted only 6 to 10 miles. While not the decisive breakthrough intended, the battle relieved pressure on the French at Verdun, inflicted irreplaceable losses on Germany's experienced troops, and gave the British army hard-won knowledge of large-scale modern warfare.\n\n## Related Coverage\n- [Russia’s Death Toll Tops 100,000 as Ukraine War’s Human Cost Deepens](https://warfronts-prod.fulcrum-labs.workers.dev/conflicts/russias-death-toll-tops-100k-ukraine-war-human-cost)\n- [War is Coming. 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And More.](https://warfronts.pub/conflicts/is-the-21st-centurys-deadliest-war-about-to-restart-and-more)\n- [UAE's Regional Proxy Network Collapses: Middle East Realignment Against Abu Dhabi](https://warfronts.pub/geopolitics/uae-proxy-network-collapse-middle-east-realignment)\n\n" url: https://warfronts.pub/article/battle-of-the-somme-million-men-few-miles-ww1.md canonical: https://warfronts.pub/article/battle-of-the-somme-million-men-few-miles-ww1 datePublished: 2026-03-04 dateModified: 2026-03-04 author: - name: Simon Whistler url: https://warfronts.pub/author/simon-whistler publisher: Warfronts image: "https://media.warfronts.pub/cdn-cgi/image/width=1600,height=900,fit=cover,quality=80,format=auto/articles/5RrPdvJeG9s/hero.jpg" type: NewsArticle contentHash: 18412e854e5f5fa417dfbef7d6aaa0edd223be86983b275a2d2c2b125ec8de58 tokens: 6261 summaryUrl: https://warfronts.pub/article/battle-of-the-somme-million-men-few-miles-ww1.md.summary.md --- The year was 1916, and the fighting in western Europe had reached a tense stalemate as each side planned their next move. Along the borders of German-occupied territory, both sides had dug hundreds of miles of muddy trenches, between which lay the dreaded no man's land. Anyone brave enough to attempt a crossing faced certain death, as machine guns on both sides would make quick work of anyone making their way through the fields and barbed wire. Weapons like the machine gun and heavy artillery were far stronger than any tactic that could be used to counter them, and both sides were at an impasse, dug into their stubborn defenses. But the Allies were not content with sitting around forever — they were determined to liberate Belgium and the parts of France that Germany had captured. ## Key Takeaways - On July 1, 1916, the British army suffered 57,000 casualties — a third killed — making it the worst single day in British military history. - Nearly a third of all British artillery shells fired during the week-long preparatory bombardment were duds, leaving German defenses largely intact. - The Battle of Flers-Courcelette on September 15, 1916, marked the first use of tanks in warfare, with 49 Mark 1 tanks deployed by the British. - The Welsh division lost approximately 4,000 men in just a few days of fighting at Mametz Wood and took a year to recover its strength. - The Australian 1st division suffered more than 5,000 casualties defending Pozières against two weeks of concentrated German shelling and counterattacks. - Over 140 days, the Battle of the Somme produced over one million total casualties across British, French, and German forces. ## Breaking the Deadlock: The Joint Anglo-French Offensive Takes Shape To liberate occupied territory would require as many men as possible, and so, to this end, in January 1916, Britain and France agreed on a joint operation. The British originally wanted to attack Belgium, but eventually agreed to France's proposal — a coordinated full frontal assault into the German lines in France, along the Somme River, where the British and French armies met. The initial plan was that France would lead the attack with Britain playing a supporting role. This was supposed to be an unprecedented attack after more than a year of stalemate, and result in a decisive victory against Germany. But problems arose immediately. In February of 1916, Germany made the first move, breaking the frontline's tension by storming the French city of Verdun. To defend their land and to launch their own counterattacks, France diverted hundreds of thousands of their soldiers and reserves to Verdun, away from the planned offensive at the Somme. This meant that Britain was now in the driver's seat of the Somme offensive, and although France had transferred away a good portion of their army, there was still a massive number of troops ready for battle. Shared between Britain and France for the offensive were nearly two and a half million soldiers. There was an important distinction between quantity and quality. The majority of British soldiers were not career soldiers — they were civilian volunteers. At the outbreak of the war, Lord Kitchener had called for volunteers, hoping for at least 100,000, but quickly more than two million signed up. Many of these young men were in what was known as 'pals battalions', groups of volunteers from the same neighborhood or profession. Despite their eagerness to fight for their country, most had zero combat experience, though they had received basic training with their rifles and bayonets. Along with all the volunteers from the United Kingdom were troops from across the British Empire, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, and South Africa. General Sir Douglas Haig, overseeing the operation from the British side, wanted to wait until his men had more training, but the French were pressuring him to attack as soon as possible. As plans evolved, the focus shifted. Instead of an all-out, decisive victory, General Haig now had two goals: use the attack to split up German resources, relieving pressure on the French at Verdun, and take out as many Germans as possible. ## First Day on the Somme: The Worst Day in British Army History Recent research into the Somme shows that the Germans were aware of the upcoming attack, thanks to a couple of interrogated British troops. To what extent this affected the German defensive build-up is a matter of speculation, but what is well known is how fortified the German targets were. Behind thick rows of barbed wire, the Germans had dug several rows of deep trenches. Underneath the trenches were concrete bunkers to hide inside during an artillery strike, and above the trenches were machine gun nests, manned by experienced and battle-hardened crews. To prepare for the infantry push, British artillery preceded the attack with a non-stop bombardment of German positions for an entire week. Nearly 1,400 guns pounded the front lines with the goals of destroying barbed wire, trenches, and enemy artillery, to flatten the enemy defenses and give the infantry what they called a "walk over." Over 1.7 million shells were fired during this week, including gas and smoke to confuse the Germans, but bad weather made it difficult for reconnaissance planes to report on their effectiveness. The shelling was only intended to last for five days, but thick fog and rain forced the British to delay the infantry push for another two days, which they filled with any remaining artillery shells they could scrounge up. Conflicting reports were coming in from scout parties about how effective the artillery had been. Some groups reported flattened barbed wire and clear paths to the German lines, while others reported almost no change. Despite the conflicting reports, it was unthinkable to cancel the attack or delay it again, so General Haig ordered the men to begin the assault. At 7:30 AM on July 1st, 1916, whistles rang out across the countryside, signaling the beginning of the attack. The goals for the first day were to capture and hold the first two lines of German defense, with the British Third Army creating a diversion in the north, the British Fourth Army heading the main attack near the center, and the French Sixth Army attacking in the south. Heavy explosives buried under German strongholds were detonated, and the Allied forces began the final artillery strike before the assault. Some British troops began marching across no man's land before the barrage even ended, hoping to catch the Germans off guard, while some assumed a steady pace after the artillery finished, expecting decimated defenses and little to no resistance. One soldier was so confident that he kicked a football across the field as the push began. But their expectations were far from reality. It would later be discovered that nearly a third of all artillery shells fired the week before had been duds, and thousands more were shrapnel shells that were ineffective against barbed wire. The artillery had been insufficient for such a large area, and many places remained unscathed. In the places that did get bombed, the concrete bunkers kept the Germans safe, and they were ready to jump back to their positions as soon as it ended. The barrage also failed to disable German artillery and its communication lines with the front trenches. ## Catastrophic Losses and the End of Pals Battalions Some British divisions made it across parts of no man's land, taking heavy casualties along the way, but temporarily securing key locations and villages. The British Third Army in the north struggled to make any progress between the trenches, as German machine guns rained hell upon the soldiers cramming through the few gaps in the barbed wire. The British and French divisions in the southern sector saw the most success, taking thousands of prisoners and completing their first day objectives, largely thanks to the French artillery being more effective than its British counterpart. But the British Fourth Army in the center of the push saw the worst outcome of them all, barely making progress — essentially sitting ducks in barbed wire for coordinated enemy artillery strikes and a wall of machine guns, they were mowed down, massacred in the thousands. In many places, temporary ceasefires were called for each side to recover their wounded from no man's land, and the cost of the war was realized when the staggering counts came back. In just one day, the Germans had between six and twelve thousand casualties, while the French had a few thousand wounded or killed. But the British suffered a staggering 57,000 casualties, a third of which had been killed, with almost no results to show for it. The first day on the Somme has been called the worst day in the history of the British army. Entire pals battalions had been wiped out, leaving whole communities back home sharing the burden of losing their sons, some of whom were killed without ever having had a chance to fire their own rifle. As a result, the British army discontinued pals battalions. The story of the Somme often ends with a failure to break through German lines and the tragic loss of life, with much of the blame placed on the generals leading inexperienced boys into war. But the reality is that the Battle of the Somme was much more than just the first day — it raged on for another five months. ## The Battle of Albert: Mametz Wood, Contalmaison, and the Creeping Barrage The first day on the Somme was also the beginning of the Battle of Albert — the Allied plans for the first two weeks of the Somme Offensive. From July 2nd to July 13th, each side threw everything they had to gain an advantage in the chaos, with mixed results. It took a couple of days to replace the soldiers lost on the first push, but once they were in place, new offensives began. On the 3rd of July, British divisions rushed forward and managed to capture the small village of La Boisselle. For the next few days, they tried pushing into German trenches 200 meters behind it, and were successful on the 7th of July. Later that day, Welsh divisions were ordered to capture positions in the Mametz Wood, where several German defensive positions were heavily fortified. After a preliminary artillery strike, the Welsh were completely repelled, suffering hundreds of casualties, as the artillery strike had once again failed to destroy much of the barbed wire. They pushed forward again the next day with the same result. General Haig was irritated by the failure, citing what he saw as a lack of effort, and removed several Welsh officers from their duty. After a quick reassessment, he ordered further assaults with more men. The Welsh once again went into the fray, this time making it all the way to the German position, and by July 12th, after intense close-quarters combat with rifles and bayonets, managed to clear the area of German soldiers and capture anyone who surrendered. In just a few days of fighting at Mametz Wood, the Welsh division lost about 4,000 men and would not recover their losses for another year. A memorial featuring the Welsh red dragon stands there today. Just north of Mametz Wood was another intense battle for the village of Contalmaison. The first day on the Somme was a disaster for the British attempt to take the small town — within ten minutes of jumping out of their trenches, 80% of the advancing men were mowed down by German machine guns. Subsequent pushes had made it just to the edges of the objective, but ultimately they had to withdraw. A German counterattack from the village was then crushed, and the British drew up more plans to try to capture it. On July 4th, a heavy thunderstorm was beating down on the whole battlefield, turning trenches into muddy rivers and flooding bunkers. The British infantry, concealed by the rain and their sound masked by the thunder, crept forward until they were just 90 meters from the German position. Once the order was given, the men rushed forward, storming the trenches in front of the village, capturing several key trenches and taking hundreds of prisoners, even managing to capture the heavily defended Horseshoe Trench — though it was recaptured by a German counterattack later that day. Finally, on the 10th of July, the infantry was able to capture the village using a creeping barrage, a strategy originally tested years earlier in Bulgaria. In a creeping barrage, the infantry would steadily march across no man's land toward enemy trenches, walking carefully behind a scheduled wall of artillery fire that moved forward at a set pace. Shells would drop and explode in front of the men as they walked, concealing their position with explosions and smoke, and destroying barbed wire just before they got to it. The pace of the advancing barrage was generally between 50 and 100 yards every minute. This tactic required well-trained infantry and even more well-trained artillery teams, something the British were in short supply of at the time. British attempts at creeping barrages all over the Somme resulted in thousands of soldiers moving at the wrong pace, either walking too slowly and being left too far from the trenches when the barrage ended, or moving forward too quickly and becoming a friendly-fire statistic. In the case of Contalmaison, the soldiers' pace was too quick, but the divisional artillery commander saw what was happening and sped up the artillery pace to stay ahead of the marching troops, saving their lives and the operation. ## Pozières, the Australian Brigades, and the Struggle for Thiepval Throughout late July, August, and early September, each side ramped up efforts to gain a tactical advantage along the frontline, throwing whatever resources they had at the enemy trenches. One major stronghold of the German defenses was a fortress constructed close to the frontlines at Thiepval, which had proven to be unbreakable. After failed attempts to attack it directly, the Allies decided on a different approach. Instead of the traditional method of throwing artillery and men straight at the target, they were going to take their time and capture the surrounding villages, which would give them more favorable positions to attack. The most important village for this plan was Pozières, which sat on a plateau overlooking Thiepval from behind. The British attacked it on July 22, after several days of bombardment — not just of explosive shells but also of the deadly gas Phosgene. After the bombing ended, the Australian 1st and 3rd brigades rushed the enemy positions, quickly taking control of several key trenches, forcing any remaining Germans to fall back. Later that day the Australians captured dozens of prisoners and a heavily fortified position known as the Gibraltar bunker. After reinforcements arrived, they tried to push even further into enemy territory but were held off. German communication lines were also suffering, so they were not aware of Pozières' capture until two days later, but the moment they heard the news, they focused all their energy into taking it back. Beginning on July 24th, there was a German shelling so concentrated that it turned much of the village into rubble. One place was bombed so heavily that it later became known as Dead Man's Road. The shelling and counterattacks lasted for two weeks, and when the survivors were finally relieved from their positions, they were described as "men who had been in Hell... drawn and haggard and so dazed that they appeared to be walking in a dream and their eyes looked glassy and starey." After the shell-shocked men returned to base, it was counted that the Australian 1st division had suffered more than 5,000 casualties. All along the Somme frontline, back and forth fighting raged on for weeks. In several instances, the British would make it to enemy trenches and capture their objectives, but would have to fall back when they received no reinforcements, support, or even further orders, and a German counterattack would knock them back to the starting line. Allied communication lines were terribly unreliable — with very few reliable telephone lines, British officers often received news of a battle's outcome hours after the fact, with letters being delivered by messengers, reconnaissance pilots, or even homing pigeons. ## Debut of the Tank at the Battle of Flers-Courcelette As September arrived, there was a sense of urgency growing among the Allied generals. They needed to gain as much ground as possible during autumn, because once winter arrived they would be at the mercy of the weather. A renewed, major operation was planned, in which the British forces would push through three consecutive German defensive lines — Green line, then Brown line, then Blue line. This would later be known as the Battle of Flers–Courcelette. The idea was to have deep flanks pushed on the sides of the battlefield, through which cavalry could charge enemy infantry, leaving the center to crumble after the infantry followed a creeping barrage into enemy trenches. The Canadian Corps and the New Zealand Division were getting their first combat, and, most notably, the tank was used in battle for the first time in history. As early as 1914, both sides of the war had been experimenting with armored vehicles, but none had made it to the battlefield. That was about to change, as the British brought with them 49 Mark 1 tanks, each weighing around 30 tons. The Mark 1 came in two versions: male and female. The male versions were armed with two powerful 6-pounder guns and three Hotchkiss machine guns, while the female versions came equipped with five machine guns. The battle began on September 15th. The German defenders, seeing a tank in battle for the first time in their lives, were understandably scared. The tank ran over barbed wire like it was bubble wrap and was nearly immune to small arms fire, driving straight toward enemy positions and opening fire, drawing attention from the infantry and leaving a corridor for them through the barbed wire. At least, that was what happened when the tank worked as it was supposed to. Right off the bat, one tank failed to start. Another lost one of its caterpillar tracks and had to turn around, a few ran out of fuel, another got stuck in a ditch, and several got lost. They were almost hilariously unreliable and their crews were not very experienced, but the ones that did make it to their objectives had quite an impact on the battle. The 2nd New Zealand Brigade, for example, made it through several trenches but were stopped by barbed wire, which was promptly run over by two tanks, allowing the men to advance and capture the next point. In a few places, the Germans were able to counter the tanks by destroying them with focused artillery. Innovation took place in the sky as well that day: Germany deployed their brand new Albatros D1 fighter planes, which seriously challenged British and French air superiority, shooting down observation balloons and other reconnaissance planes. ## The Somme's Toll: A Million Casualties and the War of Attrition After about a week, the Allies dug into their new frontline, signaling the end of the Flers–Courcelette attack. The overarching goals of taking all three German lines were not achieved, but a significant amount of territory had been taken — three major villages were recaptured and the British had pushed about two kilometers into enemy territory. While it was not technically a strategic victory according to the original plan, it had been a tactical success, and it showed how much the British army had improved since the disastrous first day on the Somme. This battle had also wiped out a huge portion of Germany's forces; September became their worst month for casualties. Operations continued throughout October and November, but as the weather worsened, both sides saw fewer and fewer chances to attack. November 18th is regarded as the last day of the Battle of the Somme, which lasted 140 days. Throughout the months of fighting, the British Empire suffered around 420,000 casualties, the French 200,000, and Germany over 450,000. Some estimates go as high as 650,000. In total, over a million casualties, and all so that the frontline shifted between just 6 and 10 miles, or between 9 and 16 kilometers. The Battle of the Somme, and World War 1 in general, is often described by the phrase 'lions led by donkeys' — brave young men dying on the battlefield under the orders of incompetent generals. This is certainly a valid interpretation, but on the other hand, Haig was indeed pressured to attack where he previously did not want to, and had to do so with an inexperienced army. The British army gained valuable experience on how to command a large army against the Germans. They began to master artillery strikes and creeping barrages, and how to fight an entrenched war. It was a painful learning curve. The fighting shaped the thinking and morals of authors C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, and in the other trenches, a young Adolf Hitler was hit with shrapnel, which wounded him either in the leg or, according to some sources, resulted in the loss of a testicle. The Battle of the Somme, as costly as it was for the Allies, did have a serious impact on the outcome of the First World War. Germany's casualties were extreme, and the men they lost were experienced and hard to replace. Having to divert their forces to the Somme meant they had less firepower at Verdun, where the French emerged victorious. It was a grueling beginning of the wearing down of German resources, which was the overall goal of Britain, France, and Russia at the time. This destructive war of attrition continued and drained Germany's power, crippling its war economy and contributing to the country's downfall until the end of the war. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Why did the week-long British artillery bombardment fail to destroy the German defenses? Nearly a third of the 1.7 million shells fired during the preparatory bombardment were duds, and thousands more were shrapnel rounds ineffective against barbed wire. The artillery was also spread too thin across the wide front, and the concrete bunkers beneath the German trenches kept troops safe. When the assault began, defenders simply emerged and manned their machine guns. ### What made July 1, 1916, the worst day in British military history? The British suffered 57,000 casualties on the first day alone, a third of whom were killed, while achieving almost no strategic gains. Pals battalions of inexperienced civilian volunteers were mowed down by German machine guns as they advanced across no man's land into largely intact defenses, devastating entire communities back home. ### What was the creeping barrage and why was it difficult to execute? The creeping barrage was a tactic in which infantry marched close behind a wall of artillery fire that advanced at a set pace, destroying barbed wire and concealing the troops as they moved toward enemy trenches. It required perfectly coordinated timing between infantry and artillery; British forces repeatedly suffered from troops moving too slowly and being left exposed, or moving too fast and being hit by their own shells. ### When were tanks first used in battle and what was the result? The Mark 1 tank made its combat debut on September 15, 1916, during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, when 49 British tanks were deployed. While many broke down, got stuck, or ran out of fuel, those that reached their objectives proved effective at crushing barbed wire and drawing fire from infantry, demonstrating the tank's potential even in its earliest and most unreliable form. ### What was the overall cost of the Battle of the Somme and what did it achieve? Over 140 days of fighting, the battle produced over one million total casualties: roughly 420,000 British Empire, 200,000 French, and over 450,000 German. The frontline shifted only 6 to 10 miles. While not the decisive breakthrough intended, the battle relieved pressure on the French at Verdun, inflicted irreplaceable losses on Germany's experienced troops, and gave the British army hard-won knowledge of large-scale modern warfare. ## Related Coverage - [Russia’s Death Toll Tops 100,000 as Ukraine War’s Human Cost Deepens](https://warfronts-prod.fulcrum-labs.workers.dev/conflicts/russias-death-toll-tops-100k-ukraine-war-human-cost) - [War is Coming. 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