Doncaster Times Issue 2 - November 2016

‘Battles are
never the
end of war’
The Battle of the Somme
July – November 1916
‘We had to make war as
we must, and not as
we should like to.’
Field Marshal Lord Kitchener
- 20 August 1915 -
The Battle of the Somme is possibly the
most misunderstood battle of the First
World War. The reputations of those who
planned the battle have been tarnished by some
historians, politicians and writers of fiction. The
generals are vilified as ‘butchers and bunglers’
who had no interest in the fate of the men they
sent into action. It must be admitted that some
of the tragedies of the battle were made by, at
best, a lack of experience, and at worst sheer
incompetence, others through faulty guns and
ammunition and a lack of intelligence regarding
the enemy’s construction of their trench systems
etc. In an attempt to cast some light on these
problems, this article will examine four questions.
Why was the battle fought?
In December 1915 the allies, - Britain, France, Russia
and Italy, - agreed to mount simultaneous attacks
on Germany and Austria, thereby preventing them
moving their reserves from one front to another
to gain numerical superiority. The French would
attack on the Somme, the British in the Ypres
Salient, the Russians on the Eastern Front and
the Italians against the Austrians in northern Italy,
all to begin around July 1916. Seven days after
the British and French had agreed this strategy
the Germans attacked the French at Verdun. This
brought about a significant change to the newly
agreed plans. The French not only concentrated
their efforts on the defence of Verdun, but they
K.O.Y.L.I. soldier William Royle was killed in action on the
5th July 1916 and is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial.
argued forcibly for Sir Douglas Haig, Commanderin-Chief
of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF),
to launch his Somme attack as soon as possible
to relieve pressure on their troops at Verdun:
Haig knew he wanted as much time as possible
to allow his troops to train and for the necessary
guns and ammunition to be delivered. In his diary
he wrote, ‘I have not got an army in France really,
but a collection of divisions untrained for the field.
The actual fighting Army will evolve from them’.
Why was the first phase of the battle
such a spectacular failure?
The German front line in this part of the Somme
had been in German hands since October 1914,
and from that time onwards they had gradually
strengthened their positions. Haig and his
Fourth Army Commander, General Sir Henry
Rawlinson, devised the overall plan, but the
details of the attack were left to Division, Brigade
and Battalion commanders. From the Battle
of Mons in August 1914 to the end of 1915 a
huge proportion of Regular and Territorial Army
Staff officers had been killed and wounded.
As a consequence, on 1 July 1916, many of the
commanders at battalion, brigade, division, corps
and even army levels had little or no experience
of commanding such units in battle conditions.
•
15 •