1914 German Advance Blocked at the Marne.1914 First Encounters and Battles of the Frontiers.In the fighting of 1917, improved Allied assault tactics would face deeper, more sophisticated German defences.This article gives an overview of the battles on the Western Front. The Somme was a costly stalemate that led to harsh criticism of Allied commanders, especially Haig, and German determination to avoid similar casualties by altering their defensive systems. Without enough heavy artillery or shells to suppress enemy fire, the British suffered staggering casualties. French demands for help, they argue, forced the British to attack before they were ready. Other historians further suggest that little more could have been done at this stage in the war to achieve victory, and that the attrition of German troops along the Somme eased enough pressure from the French at Verdun to ensure the Allied front did not collapse in 1916. Critics suggest that ineffective and callous British generals ordered their soldiers forward in fruitless and costly attacks, giving them neither proper weapons nor effective tactics to break through the enemy trenches. The Somme was one of the war’s longest attritional campaigns, and remains a source of great historical controversy. By the time the battle ended, each side had suffered more than 600,000 casualties. The British pressed the attack for months, well into the fall. Despite the limited Allied gains, German forces had also suffered horribly. The first day of the Somme was a catastrophe for the British Army and a shock for all the Allies. Within 30 minutes, the regiment suffered a crippling 324 killed and 386 wounded out of a total of 801 soldiers. No Canadian infantry units participated in this attack but, at Beaumont Hamel, the 1st Newfoundland Regiment, attached to a British division, was cut down on 1 July by German machine-gun fire as it attacked over open ground. The first day of the Somme battle was a disaster, with nearly 60,000 casualties. They were met instead by terrible fire from rifles, artillery, and machine-guns seemingly unhurt by the bombardment. A Disastrous First Day, A Catastrophic Battleīritish troops went “over the top” on 1 July 1916 expecting, after the fury of their own barrage, an easy walk onto the German lines. Because of this, many German machine-gun positions and dugouts remained largely unscathed, and deep rows of barbed wire uncleared. Others lacked fuses sensitive enough to explode on contact with barbed wire, which further reduced the bombardment’s effectiveness. Many of the hundreds of thousands of British shells fired before the attack were inoperative “duds” due to quality control problems in their manufacture. The German defenders along the Somme had constructed deep dugouts that were difficult to find, much less to destroy with artillery fire. As a result, British and other imperial forces, under the command of Sir Douglas Haig, assumed responsibility for most of the front. The joint Allied offensive planned for French forces to play a prominent role, but heavy casualties at Verdun reduced their ability to participate. German Defences Unscathed by Artillery Barrages Allied commanders sought to relieve pressure on the French defenders of Verdun to the south by inflicting heavy losses on German forces farther north and drawing German reserves into the battle. The four-month Battle of the Somme was fought from 1 July to 18 November 1916.

Significance of the battle of verdun