Operation on the Somme River
The Battle of the Somme is a battle in the French theater of World War I, by the British and French armies against Germany. Held from July 1 to November 18, 1916 on both banks of the Somme River. One of the bloodiest battles in human history, in which more than 1,000,000 people were killed and wounded.
Offensive planning
As part of the strategic plan of the Entente countries for 1916, it was planned to begin, in particular, the offensive of the Anglo-French troops in the region of the Somme River in Northern France. If the Germans at Verdun used the tactics of a breakthrough with large forces in a narrow sector of the front with a preliminary powerful artillery preparation, then the Allies intended to advance on a wide front. But there was also provided for dense artillery fire, after which the infantry would go on the offensive.
The offensive was to be waged by three French and two British armies on a front 70 km wide. To support the operation, almost half of all aviation and artillery available to the Allies on the Western Front was to be used. The main task was assigned to the French. The allied forces were to advance in diverging directions: the French to the east, and the British to the north.
But the Germans were able to prevent the Entente offensive with their attack on Verdun. There they fettered a significant number of the French. Therefore, the original plan of the operation was revised. Now the main task was assigned to the British soldiers. The main blow was to be delivered by General Rawlinson's 4th Expeditionary British Army. She was ordered to break through the enemy's front in a sector of 25 km and conduct an offensive in the direction of Bapom-Valenciennes. General Fayol's 6th French Army broke through enemy defenses on both sides of the Somme and contributed to the success of the British 4th Army from the east.
The allies believed that with the help of methodical successive attacks of the enemy's lines according to the scheme - first artillery shelling, then the taking of a position by infantry - after a while the troops would come out into the operational space. A strict offensive schedule was developed for all units, with stops at the "alignment lines" so that none of the divisions could get ahead.
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The balance of forces. Preparation of the operation
By the beginning of the operation, the 4th British and 6th French armies had 32 infantry and 6 cavalry divisions, 2,189 guns, 1,160 mortars and 350 aircraft. The breakthrough section was set at 40 km.
On the front, which the British and French were about to break through, was located von Bülow's 2nd German army. The defense consisted of three main and one intermediate positions, equipped with reinforced concrete shelters and dugouts. The first position was covered with two strips of barbed wire. The total defense depth reached 7-8 km. In total, by the beginning of the operation, there were 8 German divisions, 672 guns, 300 mortars and 114 aircraft in the Allied offensive zone.
The allies carried out the preparations, practically without hiding, for 5 months. In the offensive zone from the rear to the front, hundreds of kilometers of railways were laid, 6 airfields were equipped, 150 concrete sites for artillery were built, and a water supply network was built. We practiced the interaction of units, carried out psychological training.
The beginning of the battle
Artillery preparation began on June 24, 1916 and lasted 7 days. The artillery of the French alone consumed 2.5 million shells during this period. The neutral streak turned into a smoking mass. On July 1, thousands of Allied soldiers poured through it. The German positions were silent. They seemed to be crushed by the 7-day artillery barrage. But the Germans got out of the dugouts and rolled out their guns and machine guns. Soon they met the attackers with return fire.
Positional battle
The British army took the first position with only two corps on the right flank. The attack of the rest of her corps was repulsed with huge losses for the attackers. On July 2, the British commander-in-chief, General Haig, limited the attack front to three corps. The French had more success south and north of the Somme.
On 4–5 July, von Bülow's army received 5 more fresh divisions. The offensive slowed down. After 3 days, the composition of the 2nd German army increased by 11 more divisions. The superiority of the allies in forces has been reduced by 2 times. The "starvation" war began again. On July 19, the 2nd German Army was divided into two - the 1st, north of the Somme, under the command of von Bülow, and the 2nd, on the southern bank of the river, under the command of Galwitz. Greater success was achieved by the allies, largely thanks to the Somme, near Verdun, where the Germans were forced to surrender the initiative to the enemy and transfer troops to the Somme. The post of the German commander-in-chief was taken over by Hindenburg instead of Falkenhain.
In September and October, the operation on the Somme took on an even greater scale. On September 3, the Allied forces launched a combined attack with 4 armies to capture the heights between the Somma and Ankr rivers. By that time, the Germans had built up their defenses in depth and brought their grouping to 40 divisions. The Army Group was led by Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria.
By September 12, the allies were able to reach the third position of the Germans, and in the zone of the 6th French army broke through it. But the strength of the French dried up, and on September 13 the Germans closed the gap.
First tanks
The British carried out a tank attack on September 15th. At that time, British factories were just beginning to build tanks. The British command had only 49 tanks at its disposal. They had rather low data: a cruising range of about 24 km, a maximum speed of 6 km per hour, armament - machine guns. It was raining. 32 tanks gathered at their initial positions, the rest were stuck in the mud or stood due to a breakdown of mechanisms.
The attack began on September 15 at 5.30 am. New tasks were set for the tanks. They were supposed to support the infantry and clear the way for it from enemy firing points. The morning mist hid them from the eyes of the enemy. Before the Germans could recover, unprecedented monsters pounced on their trenches. Roaring engines, shrouded in fire and smoke, ripping through barbed wire and bringing down dugouts, tanks crept forward. The Germans fled in panic.
The battle lasted until 10 am. Despite the small number of tanks, their imperfection, the terrain pitted with craters and poor interaction with the infantry, the British advance in 5 hours of battle was 5 km along the front and 5 km in depth. The losses were 20 times less than usual. The commander asked London to urgently order another 1,000 tanks. Of the 32 vehicles that launched the attack, only 18 were able to take a direct part in the battle. They were not all-terrain vehicles. In case of separation from the infantry, slow-moving tanks easily fell prey to German artillery. However, the period of "tank horror" continued for some time.
As a result of the battles on October 25-27, 1916, the Entente soldiers were able to seize the heights that dominated the area between the Somme and Ankra, but they could not finally break through the German defenses. On November 18, due to depletion of resources and bad weather (the area turned into a continuous swamp), hostilities stopped.
Outcome
Thus, the operation on the Somme lasted 4.5 months. The defending side increased the strength of resistance and the depth of defense faster than the advancing troops overcame it. The Allies only pushed back the German defenses at a front 35 km and up to 10 km deep. The French lost 341,000, the British 453,000, and the Germans 538,000 killed, wounded and captured.
But the results of the 1916 campaign were generally more favorable for the Entente countries. The German army lost the strategic initiative that it possessed since the beginning of the war, and went on the defensive. The superiority of the military-economic potential of the Entente was more and more clearly manifested.
V. Karnatsevich