Somme 1916 a compliment to the Germans

In my last blog, commemorating the incredible spirit shown by both Allied soldiers and their opposition on the Somme, I called the German resistance a Hydra. This was meant as the highest compliment. Yes, I know that the Hydra which faced the Greek hero Heracles in the marshes of Lerne has not had a good press. 

Our brave French boys, snatching their breath during the Somme offensive. THere is something of the Heracles about them. Photo courtesy MD Wright from Illustration

We all love Heracles. He was strong and handsome. He took the side of the poor. He was a good friend. He didn't have things all his own way. He appreciated the charms of the ladies. The Hydra, on the other hand, was not very attractive. It lived in the wilds and its diet was creratures it had poisoned with its venomous teeth. Once Heracles attacked it, it became even less attractive, sprouting new heads whenever one was cut off. It was the stuff of nightmares.

German prisoners taken in th efirst few days of fighting Photo courtesy MD Wright from Illustration

But let me say a few things in the favour of the Hydra. Heracles attacked it, not the other way around. It couldn't help being ugly. Let Nassim Nicholas Taleb, one of our most interesting politico-economico-philosophers defend it. It may seem to 'wake up, overreact and overcompensate to stressors and damage.... the sucker game is to try to repress (it)'... As 'the Irish revolutionary song' goes:
'The higher you build your barricades, the stronger we become'
For the Hydra actually become stronger with opposition, unless, like Heracles, more astute ruses are found by its assailant.
The Allied attack on the Somme was something like a dim Heracles. Against them, the Germans had relatively few troops - activity was at Verdun in the West and Russia in the East. In the Peronne sector, there was a total 15.6 kilometres of Feldbahn, even in August, well after the Somme offensive had started. (My source 'Heeresfeldbahnen' by Alfred Gottwadlt p 111) This supply system was vital for provisions, ammunition and reinforcements. Territory was taken and prisoners in the first bloody days. Reinforcements were slow to come - the High Command had to ease off pressure in the Verdun sector to free up troops and equipment. For a while, the Germans were thrown on their own resources. Their orders from above were not to cede territory. They learned new tricks of camouflage. For example, they had always concealed their observers in high towers. These were an obvious target for enemy artillery, so they took to the woods.

The remains of the sucrerie/sugar refinery at Dompierre above Froissy in early July 1916 The French have just taken it. The building has been completely destroyed, mainly to evict enemy observers and snipers. Painting Francois Flameng Courtesy MD Wright

The British volunteer army had been drilled to advance in formation, bayonets fixed, and so the woods proved excellent strong points for German resistance. Shellfire damaged trees, giving the defenders yet more cover. The Germans had not been specifically trained for this sort of war, but they were willing to learn. The British continued to follow the original strategy and so their attacks were unbelievably sanguine affairs. This was not the fault of the ordinary soldier, but the Heracles rather than Hydra attitude instilled by their training.
When their trenches and artillery were targeted by Allied guns, assisted by 'spotter' aeroplanes, the Germans learned to move out. If a shellhole was the best protection, they went there. If camouflage was needed, they improvised it. A ground sheet rubbed with mud would do.

This German mortar was originally concealed in a house. Its cover has been literally 'blown away' The Germans responded by new strategies of concealment. Courtesy MD Wright 'Illustration'

Guns were moved into farm buildings if necessary. Photographs from the period show the ferocity of the war, how advacing soldiers struggled over broken terrain, how any high building was destroyed, how every building and every path was wrecked in the end.
In due course, the Germans changed strategy again and traded terrain for lives, but that was later.