The battle of the Somme

The Battle of the Somme July 1st 1916-18 November 1916. The battle was planned on December 5th 1915 by the French commander general Joffre and was intended as a joint French-British attack. But the battle of Verdun drastically reduced the amount of French troops available for the offensive so about 80% of the troops used would be British. General Haig the British commander would have preferred to attack in Flanders assisted by a landing on the Belgian coast. Eventually at a conference on February the 14th 1916 an agreement was reached by which Haig accepted Joffre's plane for the Somme offensive even though the Somme sector was thought to have the strongest defences on the western front. The attack was preceded by an eight-day artillery bombardment of the German lines, beginning on Saturday 24 June. The idea was that the bombardment would destroy all forward German defences, including the barbed wire unfortunately this did not happen. Instead of concentrating the artillery on several places to create a breach in the defences it was spread evenly across the front so the fire was dispersed and many strong points and machine gun posts were never touched added to this a large part of the heavy guns were of obsolete pattern with poor range plus a lot of the ammunition were duds and of the wrong type to destroy bunkers and wire. The attack began at 07:30 on 1 July with the detonation of a series of 17 mines. One of which the Hawthorn Crater which is shown in the video just before the troops go over the top. The troops attacked in waves at walking pace carrying 66pounds of equipment they were slaughtered. There were 58,000 British casualty's on the first day nearly 20,000 of them killed which to this day remains a one-day record. By the end of the battle on the 18th November there were 420,000 estimated British casualties. During the battle tanks were used for the first time on September 15th and achieved some success but they suffered from poor mechanical reliability plus the artillery churned up ground was unsuitable and they were used in groups rather than en mass.

The bulk of the British army at this time was made up of the pals battalions were whole towns and villages joined up and served together with the result that a generation of a town or village would be wiped out. I have tried to show this in the video by showing them marching to war and arriving at the front before going over the top after the artillery bombardment. I have also tried to show that the battle of the Somme was actually a series of battles not just one by jumping from one battle scene to another. For anybody that's interested in 20th century military and home front collecting have a look at my web site to see my collection.There are also more videos plus speeches and news broadcasts of the 20th century. Plus veteran recording. And don't miss the veterans section look for the poppy.

http://josephs-militaria-and-homefront-collection.co.uk/

Category:

Education

Tags:

• ww1
• history
• war
• somme
• british
• planes
• artillery
• battle
• machine
• gun
• tanks
• army
• troops

[v8109]

at 3:13 was that the grande mine were they used 25tons of explosions?

[jbmilitarycollector]

@v8109 Its the blowing of the Hawthorn mine, signaling the start of the Battle of the Somme filmed by Geoffrey  Malins.

[ussopking]

what was that tank brigade song called?

[jbmilitarycollector]

The tanks that broke the ranks by Fanning and Fortune.

[GDR352]

The First Battle of the Somme remains the most hideous and aweful episode in the history of warfare. It lasted from July 1st to mid-November 1916. Conservative estimates are that 1,200,000 British and German soldiers died there, some historians say it was closer to a million and a half. In addition to machine guns and massive artillery assaults, thousands of tons of poison gas was used---mustard, chlorine and phosgeen gas---that caused an agonizing slow death to its victims. It was hell on Earth

[gillhill92]

homes fit for soldiers soldiers fit for homes where did all the flowers go war is hell there can be no winners wnen the whole world witnessed many nations finest slaughted for what afew miles of nothing .

[HoneyMonster666]

I'd say the guy singing this song wouldn't be fucking smiling if he were to go over the top. War is tragic and profitable.

[ChaseSpeer]

this video/music just makes me want to ask them if they were having a bully day? that or box a kickboxing kangeroo

[07853355256]

Nice video mate! The joy of the somme war was great. The war was so insignifficant. Only a few people died.

[3NUNS]

@1986emj it is usually neo-liberalism that leads to wars

[1986emj]

I can't believe the stupidity and ignorance you have shown. You clearly do not know much more about the origins of world war two than my pet fish. Idiot.

[3NUNS]

In my opinion to much effort has gone into defending the French. Before the 'Great War' became such, the Germans should have been 'left' to occupy the continent. That 'novelty' would have warn off in the course of time. The Second World War came about from the harshness of the Treaty of Versailles - Fwench vengeance and the Yanks bringing negroes into the Rhineland. Both phenomena led to a nation putting its trust in bully boys ; sexual deviants ; and soul-less creeps exampled by Goebbels.

[nc69th]

I am reading Peter Harts Somme:The Darkest Hour on the Western Front. A well worth the while to read. I suggest to anyone who loves the history of the Somme to pick up the book.

[andrewkenworthy]

yes, i do realize,,havent you heard of the word,,no,,i wont murder for you,,the word rebellion,,the word peace first and foremost,,power is in numbers,,the governments of the should have been overthrown for pursuing war,,listen to what harry patch had to say about it,,incidentally radio head have just released a song called harry m

patch in memory of him and those that were slaughter like pieces of meat,,i respect first and foremost life,,human life ,,all life,,the right to live..