Unlike the other great European powers, Britain had no large standing army. The fleet was the major British defense system. in 1914 and 1915, the standing British army was almost completely destroyed. Volunteers came forward in 1914 and onward, by the millions. This large army of recruits would have to be trained. Lord Kitchener, the minister of war, was in charge of building a whole new army out of the recruits. The British regular army would hold the line in France until the new army was ready. Recruitment was done along regional lines, so that "pals" and "chums" from the same town or even the same street would fight together. (unfortunately many of them would die together, as well).
The recruited army was to be a part of a joint French-English offensive, in 1916. But Germany had struck at Verdun in the winter. The bulk of the French forces were sent to Verdun. This meant that Britain would have to bear the larger part of the load. France realized that they could not hold Verdun much longer, so the offensive in the north would have to be launched in June. Otherwise, the Germans were going to achieve their goal at Verdun, of destroying the French army, and possibly winning the war. Unfortunately, this meant there was little time for the recruited army to be battle tested, and they were going to be fed right into the war much sooner than expected.
The region took its name from The Somme River. this region had been as The Germans had advanced in 1914, before being pushed back. The regulars were holding their position, but suffering great casualties. Some recruits had been sent to the regular army, which meant getting to the front much sooner. This was the desire of some of the recruits, as well as the prestige that was involved in joining the regular army.
The Germans had a very large standing army. About 4 million soldiers were mobilized in 1914. Although not as large as The Russian army, Germany had the best army in the world. A century of recruitment and compulsory service, first in Prussia then in The Empire had produced a formidable fighting force. German units usually stayed in the same place so many had been in the area since 1914. This spared them the horrors of Verdun. The Germans held their positions in The Somme region very well. in 1916, The German soldiers had great respect for their French counterparts, and little for The British.
Germany expected a British offensive in 1916, so the Somme region was heavily fortified, in case the offensive happened here. The allies planned three major offensives for 1916. Britain and France would both launch offensives in the west, and Russia in the east. They would attack in the summer. Verdun destroyed the original plans.
Douglas Haig was the new British commander-in-chief and was in charge of the offensive. Haig could not ignore the French pleas to relieve the pressure at Verdun, so the offensive was planned for June, 1916, and it was the new army that would provide most of the troops.
In June, Kitchener was lost at sea on the way to Russia, when the ship he was on struck a mine: Kitchener would not see his army fight.
The date for the offensive was set for June 29th 1916. There was a great deal of work to be done in order to prepare for the attack. There had to be lead-up service trenches dug to get the men in position to go over the top. There would far many more in the trenches on the day of the attack than usual. Medical teams were put in place, and of course because this was World War 1, many large graves were dug.
The offensive would begin with a 5 day bombardment. The idea was that The Germans in the opposing trenches would be heavily weakened, most killed, in the bombardment, and the British would walk across no-mans-land and occupy the enemy trenches. Mines were buried under pivotal German positions to be set off and inflict even further damage. One thing that The British discovered in planting the mines was that The German trenches were far deeper than had they had thought. The bombardment was also expected to destroy the barbed wire protecting German trenches, making their capture and occupation that much easier.
Almost from the beginning, what was planned to happen and what actually happened were not the same. A lot of the shells that were to sent to destroy the barbed-wire never went off at all. The factories in England were cranking them out by the thousands and the general quality suffered. The bombardment was loud enough to be heard in England, so some people thought there was a naval battle being fought.
Coupled with the bombardment, were trench raiding parties to assess the damage being done to The Germans. Some were successful enough that German prisoners were captured. Others simply got themselves killed. News came back to the Generals, via the trench raids, that the bombardment was not achieving it's objective and The Germans were still very much alive and their trenches and barbed wire were intact. These reports were dismissed as being exceptions or exaggerations. The Germans counter-raided.
Poison gas was also used when the wind permitted but it's effect was minimized if the German shells destroyed the cylinders, or if the wind changed suddenly, the gas could be turned back into the British trenches. In order to confuse the enemy, the signs in the Somme region that an attack was coming had to be duplicated elsewhere, so bombardments and raids were conducted in other places along the line.
During the bombardment, The Germans took refuge in their dugouts, with the exception of sentries which stayed on the lookout for a British attack. They were indeed suffering under the shelling, which was going on night and day. the noise was deafening and many feared that they would all go mad or be destroyed when the attack came.
It became very difficult and very dangerous to move supplies into the dugouts, even at night when the number of shells was reduced. German gunners were almost helpless. If they opened fire and revealed their position they were immediately shelled by the British guns. British areoplanes and balloons could spot them easily when they revealed themselves by firing. Consequently, most of the German guns remained silent leading The British to believe that they had all been destroyed in the bombardment.
Just as had happened to The Germans in planning the attack at Verdun, the weather grew worse. Eventually British command delayed the launch of the offensive by two days: The attack would begin at 7:30 A.M. on July 1.The bombardment would have to last for two more days which meant that the number of shells had to be reduced. British soldiers already in the trenches were sent back out.
Just as the shelling was affecting the Germans, many of The British soldiers had been in their trench for days with shells flying over head and exploding only a few hundred meters away and suffered from the deafening noise. Finally on the morning of July 1, 1916, the British plan was put to the test. At 7:30 AM on July 1, 1916, the British offensive on The Somme was launched. Preceding this, the largest mine was blown at 7:20 , and the rest were blown at 7:28. At 7:30 the British artillery was silent (as were the German guns). It had been decided that the soldiers would walk, not run, across no-mans-land to capture the trenches that were abandoned, or filled with dead Germans. The British artillery barrage was to have all but destroyed the German barbed wire. The first soldiers to attack were those that had been placed laying in no-mans-land the night before. Next, soldiers began going over-the-top from the trenches. The French attacked as well.
The Germans knew the attack was coming for these reasons:
A major offensive was expected in the late spring / early summer to relieve the pressure on France at Verdun.
The English barrage had stopped and the mines had been blown.
Reports in newspapers obtained in neutral Holland made some British behavior seem consistent with a major offensive.
A radio message between the front and British generals had been intercepted by The Germans. British soldiers captured during the raiding parties had been interrogated and revealed the plans.
In World War 1, everything was done on such a grand scale that it was impossible to hide preparations for a major offensive.
Whether German knowledge of the attack was a factor is unlikely. The French had been almost as certain that an attack was coming just before the offensive was launched at Verdun. Despite knowledge of the offensive, German Commander-in-Chief Falkanhayn did not provide The Somme region with reinforcements (Verdun was still going full strong after all). When the attack began, The Germans left their dugouts and manned the trenches. They began firing with machine guns and artillery. Since there were so many soldiers advancing through no-mans-land, there was no need to even aim their fire, as they were sure to hit someone. Some of The British were killed even before they were able to leave their trench. The Germans were not dead - most were still alive. Much of the barbed wire remained intact. The German artillery had not been destroyed. The decision not to charge the German trenches was a terrible one. Most Germans agreed, after the battle, that they would have been over-run because of the sheer volume of British numbers had they charged the German trenches. The offensive was a resounding failure. About 60,000 casualties had been incurred and about 20,000 soldiers were dead at the end of the first day. It was the bloodiest day in British military history. About 75% of those who attacked on that first day ended up as casualties Some entire wars in British military history have been less bloody.
Many historians separate the first day from the rest of the battle which went on until November 14. For the entire battle, the advance was a total of 6 miles. The objective for the first day was to progress ten. The British and French continued to attack, never with anything near the force of July 1st, and were continually repulsed by the Germans. Meant to be a quick victory that would end the war, The Somme became another Verdun-esuqe battle of attrition. Slowly through 1916 the new army was wasted away.
Prior to the battle, the feeling amongst the British troops was that of sympathy for "poor old Jerry" who was going to die in the battle if he had not already been killed in the bombardment. In reality, there were seven British casualties for every German casualty, a number that is almost inversely proportioned to the number of soldiers on each side. The casualties for The Somme were about 1.3 million, with about 400,000 that were British.
In one sense The Somme achieved it's objective: Germany now had two major battles to fight and could not focus entirely on Verdun. The cost was a second battle of attrition and hundreds of thousands of more bodies. The Battle elevated Britain into the war to the same level as Germany, France and Russia. Another industrialized nation was added. What was hoped to be a breakthrough turned out to add a new country to sacrifice it's young men to the war machine. It was beginning to seem as if the war was going to go on forever.