Page 24 - History of War - Issue 30-16

SOMME
1916 2016
General Ferdinand Foch was
instrumental in the planning and
execution of the French victories
during the Somme offensive but
was harshly criticised afterwards

FRENCH SUCCESS

ON 1 JULY WORDS PROF. WILLIAM PHILPOTT
While the British experienced colossal casualties, the French army
achieved its most successful offensive since the start of the trench war

stride the Somme River ‘Bois Y’ defensive redoubt, bombing dugouts Sixth Army’s attack demonstrated what was
on 1 July 1916, General and bayoneting any dazed defenders who did possible in 1916 with the right tactics and
AMarie Émile Fayolle’s not immediately surrender; then stormed the sufi cient i repower, a method that General
Sixth Army struck the most plateau. Hundreds of prisoners were captured. Ferdinand Foch, who directed the offensive,
effective blow yet delivered by Apart from Curlu village – tucked in the called ‘scientii c battle’. The attack’s objectives
French forces on the Western Somme valley, which held out until late were calculated according to the weight of
Front. At 7.30am, the i rst waves afternoon – all XX Corps’ objectives were taken supporting i re the guns could provide, and the
of infantry leaped from their trenches with cries by mid-morning. Attacking south of the river two advance was limited to the artillery’s range. The
of ‘vive la France!’: they were full of coni dence hours later at 9.30am, I Colonial Corps seized infantry went forward in dispersed formations
after watching the barrage pulverise the the German i rst position and advanced rapidly using ini ltration tactics that are more familiar
enemy’s trenches for seven days. two kilometres, to within striking distance of from the battles of 1918. These were lessons
Supported by concentrated artillery i re the enemy’s second position. the French army had learned in its costly
from heavy guns, which smashed the enemy’s By lunchtime, the French army’s attack was battles in Artois and Champagne in 1915.
defensive positions, and ‘soixante-quinze’ i eld over and the troops were digging in on their Although General Rawlinson’s tactical
guns and trench mortars, which forced the objectives in anticipation of the inevitable notes acknowledged that the French army’s
defenders to stay in their dugouts, Fayolle’s German counterattacks. These did not techniques had been studied by the British,
ive front-line divisions seized the enemy’s materialise, so rapid and shocking had been experience counted for much. As French
irst position quickly. North of the river, the XX the blow; for the cost of only 1,600 casualties, commander-in-chief Joseph Joffre noted of
‘Iron’ Corps overwhelmed the defenders of the mostly lightly wounded. the British attack in his journal on 2 July, “The

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