The Battle of the Somme was an offensive fought on the Western Front during World War I from 1 July to 18 November 1916 as one of the greatest engagements of the war. This part of the site has historical information about regiments of the British Army who fought in the Battle of the Somme in 1916. Only four more divisions were sent to the Somme front before the Anglo-French offensive began, bringing the total to 10+12 divisions. [59], The British and French had advanced about 6mi (9.7km) on the Somme, on a front of 16mi (26km) at a cost of 419,654[61][62][63] to 432,000[64] British and about 200,000 French[61][65] casualties, against 465,181[61] to 500,000[63] or perhaps 600,000 German casualties. The Battle of Fromelles had inflicted some losses on the German defenders but gained no ground and deflected few German troops bound for the Somme. "[86] On 1 July 2016, a ceremony was held in Heaton Park in north Manchester in England. After 18 months of deadlock in the trenches on the Western Front, the Allies wanted to achieve a decisive victory. Corps Commander: Generals Georges Prosper Anne Claret de la Touche and mile Alexis Mazillier, XXI Corps. Regiments - Somme Battlefields [20] On the Somme front, Falkenhayn's construction plan of January 1915 had been completed. The Siegfriedstellung was to be built from Arras to St. Quentin, La Fre and Cond, with another new line between Verdun and Pont--Mousson. For many at home, their first glimpse of trench warfare came from Geoffrey Malins's film 'The Battle of the Somme' (1916). On 24 February the Germans withdrew, protected by rear guards, over roads in relatively good condition, which were then destroyed. It was the day that the battle of the Somme was launched by the Somme river in France from the combined forces of Britain and France. A pause in Anglo-French attacks at the end of August, coincided with the largest counter-attack by the German army in the Battle of the Somme. Falkenhayn, and then Hindenburg and Ludendorff, were forced to send divisions to Russia throughout the summer to prevent a collapse of the Austro-Hungarian army and then to conduct a counter-offensive against Romania, which declared war against the Central Powers on 27 August. At the same time, five French divisions advanced on an eight-mile front to the south, where the German defenses were weaker. Many of the British soldiers who fought at the Somme had volunteered for army service in 1914 and 1915 and saw combat for the first time in the battle. Many casualties were inflicted on the Germans but the French made slower progress. Little German and French writing on this topic has been translated, leaving much of their historical perspective and detail of German and French military operations inaccessible to the English-speaking world.[95][96][97][98][99][100]. On 14 July, four British divisions made a dawn attack on Longueval Ridge. Some 20,000 British soldiers were killed in total on the first day. There were only a handful of Regular battalions that had crossed the Channel with the British Expeditionary Force in 1914, and a few more Territorials that had already seen action in 1915. The French Sixth Army and the right wing of the British Fourth Army inflicted a considerable defeat on the German Second Army, but from the AlbertBapaume road to Gommecourt the British attack was a disaster where most of the c.60,000 British casualties were incurred. The Somme also succeeded in relievingthe pressureon the French at Verdun. To find out more about how we collect, store and use your personal information, read our Privacy Policy.

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