The Battle of the Somme was a major loss of life that was basically for .
At the end of the war there was no real land gain by either .
sides. 58,000 Brittish troops were either killed or injured durring the first .
day of battle, July 1, 1916. That number to this day still remains a one-.
day record for people hurt or lost. The attack was 30 kilometers north of .
the Somme river between Arras and Albert.
The Battle was first discussed at an Allied meeting at Chantilly in .
December, 1915. Because they had heard that Germany was running .
out of reseves the generals were convinced that this attack would give .
them thier long awaited breakthrough on the West, but befor they were .
able to carry out the attake the Germans block it by attacking the French .
fortress of Verdun so the Battle of the Somme quickly became a Brittish .
operation. The two men that lead Brittan would be Douglas Haig and .
Henry Rawlison. Despit Haig's expirence on the Western Front he .
showed little statigie when planning the attack of the Somme. The two .
men wanted to go with an attack that would consist of limited attacks .
and fast-moving, well protected infantry. That approach was quickly .
abandond in favor of a 20 mile area where the infantry moved in slow .
rigid lines, but that made them easy targets for the German's machine .
guns. The first day prooved to be a bloody failure. 20,000 of the 120,000 .
men who attacked were killed. .
The first day offensive didn't make Haig think twice about his tactics, in .
fact there were a series of similar attacks, but between July and August, .
the Brittish gained little more land than they had on the first day at the .
cost of 82,000 casualties. Things did look up for a brief period of time in .
September. This was when new artillery techniques and the first .
deployment of tanks in the battle helped push the German line twards .
Haig's original goal which was Bapaume, but durring the last few .
months of the war the Germans held thier grownd agins a series of .