Warfare
Major General John Monash - Where He Fought
Small Scale Map
Mesen, Belgium where the Battle of Messines took place 1917.
Large Scale Map
The 3rd Division’s attacking front line stretched from St Yves to La Petite Douve Farm.
Trench Diagram
Attack and Defence Strategies of 'The Battle of the Somme'
The Battle of the Somme was intended to demonstrate that there was a conclusive breakthrough for the allies. It was originally planned as a wider strategy of the Anglo-French attacking Germany simultaneously on Western and Eastern Fronts. This was intended to destroy Germany’s reserves of manpower and to divert the German forces from Verdun, France (Battle of Verdun).
Attack Strategies
General Sir Douglas Haig, commander of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), planned to travel past the enemy’s first line and onto the second enemy line by the end of the first day. The attacking plan was to create holes throughout the enemy’s line in order to break through and completely alter the direction in which the war was going. This would result as the Germans would be trying to recover from the break in stalemate. The British also planned to attack the front between Serre and Curlu (north of the Somme) which was twenty-four kilometres in distance. Five French divisions were to attack the thirteen-kilometre front south of the Somme.
The initial tactic was to bombard the German trenches for a week prior to the attack. During this week, 1.6 million artillery shells were used.
Defence Strategies
At the beginning of the bombardment by British troops, signalled by whistles at 0730 on 1st July 1916, the Germans remained in their heavily fortified trenches until the end of the bombardment. At this point, they scrambled out of their trenches and managed to shoot down eleven British divisions, proceeding the cross No Man’s Land. A few British troops did reach the German trenches; however, they were driven back at the end of the day as the British had already suffered 60,000 casualties with 20,000 deaths along sixty percent of their officers also being killed, leaving the British with an extreme lack of leadership. The British troops, however, continued to attack the Germans who were able to defend themselves with machine guns by shooting down the British advances as well as barbed wire running along the front of the enemy trench line. This was in order to cut off any soldier who were to make it across no man’s land.
Judgement
Although Britain's plans to begin a week-long bombardment of German lines did not go quite to plan, their strategies to create holes throughout the enemy's lines allowed them to achieve victory at the Battle of the Somme. However, in just one day alone - 1st July, 1916 - the British Empire saw almost 20,000 men killed and 40,000 more wounded. Although they very successful, over the duration of the battle Britain and its Empire, saw the lives of almost 420,000 casualties including 125,000 deaths. The Germans, however, saw between 437,000 and 680,000.