At 7:30 in the morning of 1 July 1916, after a week of bombardment, British and French infantry attacked the German lines astride the river Somme in northern France. The French and the British right wing took their objectives, but along most of the British front the attack broke down in front of uncut wire and machine guns. By nightfall the British army had lost more than 57,000 men killed, wounded, missing or captured, 19,240 of them dead: the bloodiest day in its history. The battle it opened went on into November.
A joint offensive under the shadow of Verdun
The Somme offensive was agreed by the Allied commanders in December 1915 as a joint French and British attack for the summer of 1916. The German assault on Verdun, which began in February, drained French strength, and as a result the British took on the main role in the attack.1
The bombardment began on 24 June and lasted seven days. The National Army Museum puts the number of shells fired at 1.5 million and estimates that about 30 per cent of them failed to explode. Britannica writes that Haig and Rawlinson assured their troops the guns would destroy all resistance, but the Germans were dug in deep and many shells failed to explode.2
Zero hour
The infantry went over the top at 7:30 a.m.. The sources count the attacking force differently: Britannica describes eleven divisions of the British Fourth Army under General Sir Henry Rawlinson on a front of about 24 km north of the river, while the National Army Museum counts 14 British divisions. The National Army Museum adds that a mine under Hawthorn Ridge was blown ten minutes before zero hour and warned the Germans that the attack was coming.3
Britannica, drawing on the British official history, describes the men advancing in closely packed waves at a steady walking pace, each carrying about 30 kg of equipment. It was a race to cross no man's land before the Germans could man their parapets, Britannica notes, and along most of the front it was lost. South of the river the French Sixth Army, attacking with five divisions against weaker defenses, made good progress, and Britannica notes that the British right wing also gained ground there.4
The bloodiest day
British casualties for the day came to more than 57,000, of whom 19,240 were killed, and the Imperial War Museums and the National Army Museum both call it the bloodiest day in British military history. Britannica gives the same picture in rounder numbers, more than 60,000 casualties and 20,000 dead.5
One of the hardest hit units was the Newfoundland Regiment, which attacked near Beaumont-Hamel. Of the 801 men who went forward, only 68 answered the roll call the next morning. Memorial University of Newfoundland notes that the province has kept 1 July as Memorial Day since 1917.6
According to Britannica, which again follows the official history, Fourth Army headquarters gave almost no orders during the day, and at 10 p.m. Rawlinson simply told his corps to continue the attack, without trying to exploit the success in the south.7
Four and a half months more
The offensive went on through the summer and autumn. The Imperial War Museums and the National Army Museum date its end to 18 November 1916, while Britannica gives 13 November. In that time the British advanced at most about seven miles (12 km), and more than a million men on all sides were killed, wounded or captured. The National Army Museum counts 420,000 British Empire, 200,000 French and at least 450,000 German casualties.8
The whole battle, from the plan to the first tanks at Flers-Courcelette in September, is told in our article on the Battle of the Somme, and the struggle that pushed the British into the leading role in our article on Verdun.
