01/07/2026
IT IS THE 110TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME
In 1916, the Allies planned to launch simultaneous offensives against the Central Powers on the Western, Russian, and Italian fronts, but the Germans struck first in February at Verdun, and this changed everything. To relieve pressure on the French, a British-led offensive was to be launched on both sides of the Somme River on 1 July, at the junction of the British and French armies. The Germans held two formidable defensive lines, north and south of the Ancre River with a third one under construction. The British 4th Army had to take the first one between Serre and Montauban, and then the second one between Miraumont and Ginchy before overrunning the third line between Flers and Le Sars to open the way towards Bapaume.
At 7:20 a.m. on 1 July 1916, in the North of the Somme, the VIII British Corps detonated an enormous mine beneath the Hawthorn Ridge Redoubt, a German field fortification, west of the village of Beaumont- Hamel. 10 minutes later whistles were blown along the front line, and some 55,000 British soldiers went over the top after several days of preparatory artillery bombardment. Their shrapnel and faulty artillery shells, however, were ineffective against barbed wire and concrete bunkers. As a result, unharmed German troops raced up from their dugouts along the entire front line to receive the British with a hail of machine-gun fire. An hour into the attack, it is estimated that almost 30,000 men had become casualties, which meant that eight soldiers were hit every single second. Two of the deadliest sections of the battlefield were Beaumont-Hamel, where the 780-strong 1st Battalion Newfoundland Regiment was practically wiped out, and Thiepval, an immensely strong fortification on a steep-sided plateau, where the 15th Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers sustained staggering losses. The 36th (Ulster) Divisions became the only successful unit in this area that could achieve their objective by capturing the Schwaben Redoubt.
The first day of the Battle of the Somme became a costly failure and the bloodiest day in British history. The German losses on 1 July 1916 were estimated at 12,000 men, while the French lost 7,000. The British, however, suffered a staggering 57,472 casualties, of whom 19,240 had died. The loss of life at the Somme fell disproportionately on the cream of British youth, as most of the soldiers came from the upper-working and middle classes. As a result, a huge number of educated and talented “dashing” young men born at the end of the 19th century were either killed or crippled. But with France still gripped in a merciless struggle at Verdun, there was no question of breaking off the offensive.
The photos are from the book"In the Centennial Footsteps of the Great War" that can be ordered here: www.greatwarbook.com
