[The following describes the opening phase of the Somme offensive.]
Led into battle largely by inexperienced officers of the ‘Kitchener Army’, trained by generals who believed that what had been good enough for Wellington was good enough for them, commanded by a man who – in his insular contempt for the French Army – felt there was nothing to be gained from its experiences, and weighed down by sixty-six pound packs, Haig’s men advanced in a line that would have earned credit at Dettingen.
At a steady walk (laden as they were it would have been impossible to run), spaced regularly – as ordered – with not more than ‘two or three paces interval’, they advanced across No-Man’s-Land, into what Winston Churchill described as being ‘undoubtedly the strongest and most perfectly defended position in the world’.
The enemy machine guns (a weapon described by Haig as ‘much overrated’) had not been knocked out by the bombardment. Back and forth they swept across the precisely arrayed British line. As its men fell in rows, so other lines came on at regular 100-yard intervals, displaying courage that the Germans found almost unbelievable.
The majority of the attackers never even reached the forward German positions.
By the night of July 1st, Haig’s army alone had lost nearly 60,000 men; among them 20,000 dead.
[…]
Certainly never before, nor since, had such wanton, pointless carnage been seen; not even at Verdun, where in the worst month of all (June) the total French casualty list barely exceeded what Britain lost on that one day.
Source:
Horne, Alistair. “The Crisis.” The Price of Glory: Verdun 1916. New York: St. Martin's, 1963. 294. Print.
Further Reading:
Field Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener, KG, KP, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE, PC
Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS
Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, KT, GCB, OM, GCVO, KCIE
Schlacht bei Dettingen (Battle of Dettingen)
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, PC, PCc, DL, FRS, RA
Bataille de Verdun / Schlacht um Verdun (Battle of Verdun)
Bataille de la Somme / Schlacht an der Somme (Battle of the Somme) / Somme Offensive
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