By Joe Corrigan
In February of 1916, the German army launched a major
offensive on the Western Front targeting the French City of Verdun. The City
was a strategically important objective which was heavily defended by a number
of fortifications built in the late 1800s and early 1900s. After their
humiliating defeat by the Prussians in the 1870s, France vowed that they would
never suffer the same fate again. The French poured massive financial and human
resources into the defense of the area.
By the third year of World War I, all thoughts of a quick
and decisive victory had long since faded away. Following the initial invasion
of France and Belgium in August 1914, the Allies (France, Belgium and Britain) and
Germany had fought each other to a standstill. What resulted by the end of that
year was a line of trenches extending from the English Channel in the north to
Switzerland in the south. All but a tiny portion of Belgium was in the control
of the Germans as was most of northeastern France. Only a small portion of the
line was actually in German territory. The combatants had realized that this
would be a war of attrition and, at Verdun, the aim of the Germans was to draw
more and more French soldiers into the caldron with the aim of “bleeding France
white”.
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| Canadian Howitzer World War I |
As the battle around Verdun grew in scope and the casualty
lists lengthened, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was urged to launch an
offensive in their sector to draw off German reserves and relieve pressure on
the French army. General Sir Douglas Haig, the commander of the BEF, chose to
launch his offensive at a location near the River Somme, a place where the
British and French sectors met. Two years of trench warfare had forced a change
in the strategies employed by the British high command. In the attack on the
Somme, they planned to eliminate German resistance with a massive artillery
barrage and the detonation of a series of massive explosions in several underground
mines they dug below the enemy’s front line trenches. The expectation was that,
with this massive demonstration of firepower, the British troops would face
little resistance in making major gains into German territory. Unfortunately,
in World War I, the advantage always rested with the defender and, the planned
British strategy, though it may have been successful in 1915, failed to address
the new realities of trench warfare in 1916.
During the week beginning on June 24th, British
artillery fired over 1,700,000 shells into the German positions. Unfortunately,
as manufacturing techniques were still suspect, a large percentage of the
shells failed to explode. The barrage was composed of both high explosive and
shrapnel shells, the latter being largely ineffective in cutting the massive
networks of barbed wire that the Germans had constructed to support their
trenches. The mines which the British exploded on the morning of July 1st,
immediately before the attack, did extensive damage to the German’s forward
trenches in a number of places. The problem was that the Germans had established
a system of “defense in depth” which meant that there were several lines of
trenches behind the front lines, which were lightly manned. These subsequent
lines of trenches had deep dugouts in which the vast majority of the German
defenders were able to ride out the week-long barrage to emerge dazed but fully
prepared to deal with the British assault.
What transpired was the bloodiest day in British army
history. The British and empire troops sustained 57,000 casualties on the first
day alone, most occurring in the first few hours. These casualties included the
men of the Newfoundland Regiment who attacked that morning at Beaumont Hamel.
Of the 780 Newfoundlanders who went over the top on the morning of July 1,
1916, 684 were either killed or wounded. It was a terrible price to pay for the
island colony with a population of 250,000 people and impacted Newfoundland for
generations. July 1st is known as Memorial Day in Newfoundland and
has been commemorated in conjunction with Canada Day since Newfoundland became
part of Canada in 1949.
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| Beaumont Hamel Memorial |
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| Newfoundland caribou badge |
The Battle of the Somme continued until November of 1916.
The Canadian Corps moved into the line in September of that year. On September 15, the
Canadian Corps attacked near the village of Courcelette. The village was
captured by the end of the day with the 22nd Battalion’s Quebecers and the 25th
Battalion’s Nova Scotians holding out against determined German counter attacks.
Courcelette was the first battle in which the Canadians attacked in conjunction
with tanks. During their participation in the Battle of the Somme, the
Canadians sustained a total of 24,029 casualties.
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| Shrapnel burst over Canadian trench |
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| Canadians after Courcelette |
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| Wounded in Trench Courcelette |
In the end the British had achieved limited gains at a
price of over 420,000 killed, wounded and missing. The French suffered an additional 200,000 casualties and German losses were estimated at 500,000. The
futility of the Somme and Verdun offensives lead to a mutiny by the French army
and a revision of tactics on behalf of the British. General Sir Arthur Currie,
at the time a division commander with the Canadian Corps, studied the results
of these battles in detail and his analysis contributed greatly to the
successful attack of Vimy Ridge which would take place on April 9 to 12,1917.
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| Canadian stretcher bearers |
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| Sommes late 1916 |
The Battle of the Somme has come to symbolize the futility
of brave soldiers being betrayed by their generals’ tactics in hopeless efforts
against overwhelming odds, the lasting legacy of World War I.
Joe Corrigan has been Museum Manager at Lang Pioneer Village since February of 2003. He has been a lifelong student of history. His specific areas of interest are Canadian and world political, military and sports history with a particular focus on biographical works. Joe has been interpreting Sir John A. Macdonald at the Museum's Historic Dominion Day event since 2007. 