The battlefront had been prepared, the soldiers were in position in their trenches. The objectives were plain on the map. From July 1st, the British Fourth and Fifth Armies, north of the Somme and the French Sixth and Tenth Armies just to the south attacked the German Second Army defending the sector. As I have said in a previous blog, the hamlet of Froissy just east of Albert, straddling the Somme canal was the hinge of the action - Germans a kilometre to the east, British to the north. The immediate objective for the Froissy sector was Dompierre on the plateau east and south of the Somme canal.
The Allies had superior numbers and the benefit of an artillery barrage. They brought up their newly formed aeroplanes. What could go wrong?
 |
| French soldiers posed to go over the top. Their equipment is not as bulky as the packs worn by British soldiers. From Illustration magazine Collection M.D. Wright |
Plenty it soon turned out. In the original plan, the Allies were going to deploy 45 divisions. There were 30. The British had only half the fire-power of the French. There weren't enough heavy howitzers which could bring shells crashing down on the heads of the enemy. The British 18 pounder was particularly bad in this respect. It sent too small a charge over too small a trajectory. The British laboured under a further disadvantage. Though they had been in the War for nearly two years, they failed to see the point of battlefield railways, preferring to haul everything by night in GS wagons or by muleback. Their French Allies were building an extensive network of 60cm gauge, based on the original ideas of Colonel Péchot, to supply their advance, which could quickly supply their guns with ammunition, using far less manpower to better effect.
 |
| This railway was pictured at Apedale, Staffs, in 2014. The wagon, to an original 1884 design by Péchot, looks remarkably good for its age, though it has lost some parts. Picture M.D. Wright |
Though high explosive packed with shrapnell is lethal to humans in the open, it is not so effective cutting the barbed wire defending a trench. Thus the attackers had a nasty surprise. On the morning of July 1st, German defenses were left surprisingly intact.
 |
| The boys who made it! THe lack of shelter is obvious, as is the ominous line of barbed wire. Photo from Illustration magazine courtesy M.D. Wright |
With hindsight, we have to admire the courage of attackers and defenders. The attackers walked out of shelter uphill across no-man's-land all the while being strafed by automatic gunfire. Although the French had learned not to over-burden their infantry, the British sent theirs over the top with each carrying twenty kilos of equipment. British drill had been bayonet practice, not in advancing under fire. The defenders, sheltering from air attack and infantry, put up, in their turn, a fine resistance. Although the territory taken in the first few days was not extensive, the Allies captured the hard bits, the well-defended Front. The territory beyond German defenses seemed agonisingly close. First reports to the newspapers were optimistic. There were pictures of cavalry advancing ready for the break-through. Once across the Front, they could encircle the German defenders to the rear and the war would be won!
This did not happen. The first day was slow, and every day, progress was slower still. The French, for example, advanced as far as Dompierre in the first few days of fighting. Contemporary photographs show how vicious it was. The bombardment blew up houses, factories and landmarks such as wayside crosses. Roads were reduced to powder. Soldiers are pictured slogging over the scarred earth, sheltering for a rest and a smoke in ruined buildings or trudging forward with materials to build their own defences.
Why was there no break-though? There were many reasons for the Allied failure. The main reason was, of course, the German success. They brought in reinforcements. At the end of a typical hard day's fughting, the Allies expected a respectable advance the next day. Yet by then, the Hydra had grown a new head and faced them with renewed ferocity. Reinforcements were brought in. The Germans learned new tricks. If their trenches were bombed out, they used shell holes for shelter. If there was a threat from the air, they learned to improvise camouflage. German High Command was also learning. They brought in Hindenburg and Ludendorf with a new strategy for the conflict. Rather than clinging on to blood-soaked deserts, the new game was to trade territory for lives.
 |
| In the first days, there were quite a number of German prisoners, and many casualties. The Allies assumed that these would mount as the attack continued. This was not to be. From Illustration magazine Collection MD Wright |
A very important part of the struggle was the backing they received from their field railways, the Heeresfeldbahn. This dated from a year after Prosper Péchot had persuaded French High Command to adopt the 'artillerie 88' system and at first closely resembled it. Unlike Péchot's superiors, they realised its potential in attack and spent the years between 1889 and 1914 in improvements. Once the War started, improvement and development continued. Thus in contrast with the French who still relied on a few ageing 0-4-4-0 Péchot-Bourdon steam locomotives, the Germans started the War with hundreds of 0-8-0 Brigadelokomotive/Dloks. By summer 1916, they had Benzolloks (internal combustion locomotives) at work whereas most of the French internal combustion locotracteurs were still on order. In the summer of 1916, the British had yet to create a substantial trench railway system.
 |
| This 0-8-0 Dlok offered the German Army sweet innovative technologies with ease in working. Roughly 2000 were built. This fine preserved example was photographed in 2014 at Apedale, Staffs. MD Wright |
The point is, the Germans had the technology and they used it. As importantly, they had been trained to learn from each day's reverses. The Allies might bring in a new weapon, for example the aeroplane and later the tank. These might wreak damage, but only briefly. In the second time of use, the Germans would be ready.
The Somme was, however, in certain ways successful. It relieved some pressure on Verdun; the Germans never broke through down there. In early 1917, they shortened their Front, giving Allies the territory they craved. Did this make the Somme a victory? I doubt it.
