Page 62 - Phonebox Magazine July 2016

The Battle of The Somme
1st July – 18th November 1916
JBy Mike Totton
uly 1st 1916 was the first day of the battle of the Somme and on this day 19,200 British soldiers lost their lives! The worst day in the history
of the British Army.
At the beginning of the war Britain had a small army (250,000 men), mainly for empire duties or defence of the realm. The army at home consisted of regular soldiers, those that enlisted for a period of time and Territorials, units set up after the Boar War consisting of men who had civilian jobs but were trained as soldiers during weekends and evening and could be called up in time of emergency. Field Marshall Kitchener, the Secretary of War, believed this was to be a long war and prepared by enlarging the army by at least 100,000. His famous poster with him pointing and saying “Your country needs you” instilled a patriotism among the young men of the country and within four months 1.1 million men had volunteered! Men from villages joined together, “Pals” battalions were formed from sport clubs and work units. The War office was unprepared for such numbers and it took some time for officers and senior NCOs to be allocated, for the men who should have been the junior
officers and NCOs had been killed at Ypres during the autumn of 1914.
Slowly these units took shape and proper training began to take place. During 1915 these volunteers were formed into Divisions and sent to France for further training and experience in the front line.
In 1915 battles that the British took part were much smaller than those that were to follow but experience was gained at a high price. General Haig took over from Field Marshal French at the end of this year and together with the French were to attack the Germans in late Spring of the following year. Unfortunately the Germans struck first, attacking the French at Verdun and the French contribution fell as the year progressed.
The British 4th Army under General Rawlinson was to lead the attack. Rawlinson was an intelligent officer with the same rank as Haig and they had differences over the way the attack was to be planned. Rawlinson lacked confidence in the New Army divisions as these volunteer units were called not believing them to be properly trained or enfused with the ethos of military life and his orders displayed his lack of confidence.
At the Chantilly conference held in December
1915 between the main allied participants, Britain, France, Russia and Italy, they agreed to conduct simultaneous attacks. In February 1916 Haig and Joffre (head of the French Army) agreed to attack at the joining point of their two armies – in the Somme district. This plan soon altered as the Germans attacked the French at Verdun and the French contribution soon lessened as this battle progressed.
It was now left to the British.
After the evacuation of Gallipoli nine Divisions were transferred from Egypt including some being ANZAC, plus another from South Africa to the Western Front.
The British Army was expanding to a size unknown before and this was to be its first mass attack. The French contribution dwindled from three armies to one and this was split into two Corps with one at each end of the attacking line.
The British attack consisted of the third (8th – Regular and 34th Divisions – New Army Divisions) eighth (4th and 29th Regular and 31st – New Army Divisions) tenth (49th – Territorial and 32nd and 36th – New Army Divisions) thirteenth (18th and 30th New Army Divisions) and fifteenth (7th – Regular and 17th and 21st New Army Divisions) Corps.
The artillery were to attack over a five day period, the original plan for a “hurricane barrage” over a shorter period, was discarded due to lack of guns. The plan was to destroy much of the German wire, trenches and artillery positions.
Nineteen mines were to be blown initially to kill and secondly for defensive positions for the attackers.
Falkenhyn (the head of the German Army)
62 Phonebox Magazine | July 2016