Why was the Battle of the Somme 1916 such a disaster for the British Army?.
`Until 1916, Great Britain had played relatively little part in the serious fighting of the war. As Russia's Brusilov Offensive had ground to a halt, Italy had suffered in the Alps, Serbia had been overrun and more importantly France was close to breaking point at Verdun, the allies turned to Britain to make a more decisive contribution to their combined effort. There needed to be a great offensive to relieve the pressure elsewhere in Europe and perhaps to end the war altogether. With this in mind, the British high command devised a plan for a joint attack with the French at the River Somme. However, far from delivering a telling blow to the German army, the resulting battle became the most notorious British military disaster there has ever been.
`The overall plan had been to use the new British national army for the first time in this battle, and the preparation of these men for war had been ongoing since 1914. 'Kitchener's Army' went to the Somme having had little (if any) previous experience of battle. They were not highly regarded by their commanders and the bulk of the officers and equipment had been directed to the regular army which was at the front from the start of the war at the expense of the new volunteers. The result of this was that the bulk of the British army at the Somme were often inadequately trained and led. While there was a fair number of experienced units of regular soldiers and territorials involved in the battle, and especially in the French divisions, the lack of quality of the new army cannot have helped the British cause.
`The formation and execution of the battle plan contained a number of flaws which went unrecognised by the leading generals until it was too late. The ground chosen for the attack had a number of factors in its favour. There were few large built-up or wooded areas which would hamper any advance, the countryside was open with few hedges, and best of all it was relatively flat and was not given to waterlogging.
