An Cosantóir

www.military.ie the defence forces magazine | 35 continued on and off until the morning of Saturday July 1st. Two minutes before Zero Hour, the Lochnagar mine, the largest mine exploded during the war, was detonated under the German lines south- east of La Boisselle, where its crater is still evident today. At Zero Hour, the first wave moved out at a steady pace, as the second group moved up the lines and mounted the fire step, ready to climb the ladders and move out of the trenches. However, within minutes those already in No Man's Land were caught in a hail of machine-gun fire. Soldiers stumbled and fell as they were hit, including Lt Frank Potter who was shot through the head and killed. The second wave began to move out but many fell backwards into the trenches, killed or wounded, as the Germans strafed the frontline with their machine guns. The bombardment had failed to destroy the deep dugouts and within minutes the Germans had resurfaced from their underground bunkers, mounted their guns and opened fire into the ranks of the advancing Brit- ish troops. The barrage had also failed to cut through the wire entangle- ments, which now trapped many soldiers in the open, devoid of cover. Some became trapped on the wire, unable to move forward, easy targets for the gunners. The lines thinned as bullets sliced through their ranks, but they never faltered as the troops continued to surge forward. The German fire became so intense in some areas that the waves of advancing infantry were forced to lie down and take whatever cover they could find. Soldiers hugged the earth as bullets passed overhead while others found shelter in shell holes. Few objectives set out for the first day of the battle were achieved and it was only later that the cost of those few hours on July 1st 1916 became known. The British Army suffered no less than 57,470 casualties. Of these 585 had been taken prisoner; 2,152 were listed missing-in-action; 35,493 had been wounded; and a staggering 19,240 had been killed. The Somme Offensive, comprising a number of battles, would last 141 days. As a result of the failure to break through on July 1st, it turned into a war of attrition, with numerous limited offensives up and down the lines targeting specific villages, ridges or woods. While some German positions were destroyed, others fought back inflicting heavy casualties on the Allies. As more and more units were deployed into the fray, British officer Giles Eyre was to write later: "We are now scrambling over what must have been the British front-line trenches, a maze of humps and hillocks, half-filled-in ditches, mounds of faded and burst sandbags, barbed wire clumps sticking out here and there, shell holes, smashed trench-boards and a litter of rusty tins, pieces of equipment, broken rifles and goodness knows what else. We strike out into what was once No Man's Land, a welter of confused destruction and shell-holes. Here all the casualties have not been gathered in yet, and horrible looking bundles in Khaki, once men, lie still in shell-holes." 2 As the offensive continued, the French Army did achieve some successes, but the British advance stalled, resulting in further losses. The Germans had learned not to rely on single defensive lines, but instead turned to defence in depth, which allowed them to fall back to prepared positions. The Somme Offensive also saw the first deployment of tanks, when the British used them at Flers Courcelette, with mixed results, giv- ing the Allies some territorial gains but falling short of a breakthrough. General Haig continued to pour troops into the offensive, believing the Germans were on the point of collapse. However, British plan- ning was at fault as they had failed to take into account a number of lessons of previous engagements. No bombardment, no matter how massive, could create a breakthrough in the German lines. Also the infantry should have moved as fast as possible using fire and movement tactics, with each group going to ground periodically, taking whatever shelter they could find, and opening fire, giving cover to those coming behind. The tactic of a creeping barrage, though not yet perfected, would have given cover to the advancing infantry rather than letting them walk straight into the German guns. The final 'Big Push' took place in November and saw the Allies securing Beaumont Hamel and Beaucourt. The offensive had lasted four-and-a-half months and though it was costly to the Allies, it was also costly to the Germans, whose losses amounted to 465,000 men that they could ill afford to lose. Fighting battles on a number of fronts, they could not sustain such losses and were never able to fully recover from the 1916 summer offensive. It was to be the beginning of a very slow end, however, as there would be another two years of bloodshed. 1 Anderson, J., World War 1 Witness Accounts (London, Abbeydale Press, 2010) 2 Anderson, J., World War 1 Witness Accounts (London, Abbeydale Press, 2010) 'Battle Of The Somme, Attack of the Ulster Division', by artist J.P. Beadle. © creativecentenaries.org

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