THE TERRIBLE BATTLE OF THE SOMME
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Bazentin was one in a series of battles of the Somme offensive.
Under the leadership of General Rawlinson there had been a "heavy" bombardment by the allied artillery for at least one week prior to the battle of Bazentin Ridge.
The German forces were well "dug in " in their trenches.
When the Allied forces were ordered to attack the German lines on the night of the 14th. of July 1916 , it was to signal a great slaughter.
Haig described the offensive as "an attack organised by amateurs, for amateurs". This battle, was considered to be a success for the allies as they took Bazentin Ridge.
It has been stated elsewhere that General Rawlinson had greatly underestimated the effectiveness of the allied artillery bombardment.
The casualty figures for the "Somme Offensive" are,
"The first day of battle "
(the Somme Offensive)
The 1st. of July 1916, (The British Casualties)
.Over 57,000 British Casualties (20,000 died).
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The estimated overall casualty figures for the
"Battle of the Somme"
420,000 British casualties.
195,000 French casualties.
650,000 German casualties.
The estimated total casualties .
1million, two hundred and
sixty five thousand.
The Battle of the Somme, 1916.
On the 1st July, 1916, after a week-long artillery bombardment;
Haig launched the attack across the river Somme.
With the French Army being hard-pressed to the south at Verdun,
the British intended to breakthrough the German defences in a matter of hours.
The mistrust that the High Command had of the so-called "New Armies" led to
orders to the troops to keep "uniformed lines" and to "march" towards the enemy
across no-man's land.
This, together with the
failure of the artillery bombardment to dislodge much of theGerman wire,
or to destroy their machine-gun posts, led to one of the biggestslaughters in military history.
As the attack began, the German soldiers came out of their dugouts, manned their
posts and
destroyed the oncoming waves of British infantry.After the first day, with a gain of only 1.5 km, the British had suffered 57,470
casualties. Despite this,
Haig pressed on with the attack until November 19th ofthe same year. For the meagre achievements, total losses on the British and
Imperial side numbered 420,000 with German casualties between 450,000 and
680,000.
When the offensive was eventually called off the British were still three miles
short of Bapaume and Serre, part of their first-day objectives.
"No words could ever properly describe the bravery and accomplishments of those British soldiers."
Someone once wrote , "Young Lions, led by Donkeys"
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The Battle of Bellenglise 5. 50 a.m. September 29th. 1918
The following short passage is taken from John Milne's (1935) book entitled,
'Footprints of the 1/4th. Leicestershire Regiment'
"At zero hour , one of the heaviest barrages of the war crashed on the Hindenburg line.
The Germans always said that the British never knew what a barrage was like as they were never under one of their own".
"One single gun gave the signal and then every single gun within miles belched."
"Dante's inferno was a mere twitter to this."
"This was the real thing ; there was no two ways about it, this was quite definitely fiery bloody Hell."
"Hell let loose on earth". "Hell with a capital H." "Hell with the lid off ". "Heart-breaking, body rending, shrieking, blasting, HELL".
" Just before zero hour, Atkins caressingly fixed his bayonet, drank a libation of rum to the great god Luck, and chanted to that august deity the "Hymn before Action".
"The bells of hell go ting-a-ling-a-ling
For you and not for me.
Oh, death where is thy sting-a-ling-a-ling,
Or grave thy victory"
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