Military Loan News

posted by Jerry on Jul 12

1st July 1916 saw Allied Forces started a major attack across a twenty five mile section of the Western Front. The attack took place to the north of the River Somme in rural France. Little villages are dotted throughout the region together with the town of Albert. It was to be the battle that for a great many people, characterized the horrors of the trench warfare of The First World War.

The Battle of the Somme lasted about 4 months with very little gain for Allied forces. The casualties endured by each side were awful; the British Army sustained 420,000 killed and wounded, the French 200,000 and the German Army close to 500,000.

The Germans were well dug in and strategically held the better ground therefore it was apparent an enormous effort would be considered necessary to make inroads into their defences. The plan was to lay down an artillery barrage for 7 days in advance of the attack. Furthermore, quite a few mines were laid under the German front line. It was believed that the mines and artillery would generate such devastation, Britain and her Allies would simply need to advance over no mans land and take the trenches. Unfortunately, this was definitely not the situation.

For 7 days prior to the assault, a thunderous barrage was laid down by Allied Forces firing 1.7m shells. Of course, the German trenches were dug deep into the earth providing them with relative safety from the barrage. The mines did lead to deaths as planned but typically, the Germans had enough time to gear up their defences when the artillery ceased and Britain and her Allies went over the top.

All along the line, the story was the same. Courageous men went over the top and were mown down before getting anywhere near their objectives. At Beaumont Hamel, only 68 of the 1st Newfoundland Regiment, finished the day unharmed out of over 800 men. At La Boisselle, the Tyneside Irish was essentially destroyed as it tried to move forward more than 1 mile across open ground in full view of German machine guns.

Nonetheless, there were some positive results. The French had made progress in the north and south of the lines. The 36th Ulster moved on and took the Schwaben Redoubt and so becoming without doubt one of the few to reach their main objective. Unfortunately, running low on ammunition, German counter attacks forced the Ulstermen to pull back later that night.

The 1st day of the Somme had cost Britain over 54,000 casualties, 21,000 of those being killed. These days, the site of the Schwaben Redoubt is marked by the Ulster Tower and not far away at Thiepval, the Memorial to the Missing commemorates the names of over 70,000 soldiers who fought at the Battle of the Somme.