Battle of the Somme Begins on Western Front

Context

By the start of 1916 the Western Front had settled into a grinding stalemate of opposing trench systems that stretched from the North Sea to the Swiss border. Neither side had achieved a decisive breakthrough despite repeated offensives, and both Britain and France faced mounting pressure to relieve the French fortress city of Verdun, which Germany had assaulted in February. British leaders, having replaced voluntary enlistment with conscription earlier that year, prepared a large-scale operation north of the Somme River in Picardy to draw German reserves away from Verdun while the French contributed forces south of the river.

What Happened

British Field Marshal Douglas Haig, commanding the British Expeditionary Force, and General Henry Rawlinson of the Fourth Army coordinated with French commanders for an attack along a roughly twenty-mile front. After a week-long artillery bombardment that began on 24 June and involved more than a million shells, the infantry assault was launched at 7:30 a.m. on 1 July. Eleven British divisions advanced in successive waves across no-man’s-land, expecting the shelling to have neutralized German defenses; instead, many German machine-gun positions survived in deep dugouts and opened fire on the exposed troops. South of the river, five French divisions made more limited but steadier progress against weaker German positions.

Aftermath

The offensive continued for more than four months with incremental Allied gains of only five to seven miles by mid-November. On 15 September the British introduced tanks for the first time in combat, though mechanical unreliability and small numbers limited their effect. Heavy autumn rains turned the battlefield into mud, and Haig halted major operations on 18 November. The campaign succeeded in diverting German divisions from Verdun but at enormous cost, with total casualties exceeding one million across both sides.

Legacy

The Battle of the Somme became emblematic of the industrialized attrition that defined much of the First World War on the Western Front. It accelerated tactical experimentation, including creeping barrages and the eventual integration of tanks and aircraft, while the heavy losses among Britain’s volunteer “New Army” units shaped national remembrance of the conflict for generations. Historians continue to debate Haig’s conduct, yet the offensive contributed to the cumulative exhaustion that helped bring about Germany’s eventual collapse in 1918.