Page 40 - History of War - Issue 30-16

SOMME
1916 2016
INSIDE THE ‘CRUCIBLE

OFTHEBRITISHARMY’

INTERVIEW WITH MAJOR-GENERAL JULIAN THOMPSON
WORDS TOM GARNER

Soldiers leaning on
a pile of 18-pounder
shells near Becourt
Wood, September 1916
he battles in the Somme In a sense Verdun impacts upon the Somme What you didn’t want was people iring into
region raged for four because the French were very keen that the each other’s areas and attacking each other by
T and a half months and battle took place. The Somme battle took place mistake in a classic ‘blue on blue’ situation.
became a killing ground for both in order to relieve pressure on Verdun.
sides. However, this was also HOW IMPORTANT WAS THE CONTRIBUTION
a time when the British learned HOW EFFECTIVE WERE THE BRITISH AND OF BRITISH IMPERIAL TROOPS?
new methods for i ghting trench FRENCH COMMANDERS AT CO-OPERATING They were very important. The Australians and
warfare, which would come in useful later on WITH EACH OTHER? New Zealanders came into the battle having
in the conl ict. Here, Julian Thompson, author One problem that they had was that they didn’t come across from the Middle East where they’d
of The Somme & Verdun. 1916 Remembered have an overall [leader] who was commanding been engaged at Gallipoli.
explains how the battle was a baptism of i re them both and there was no structure, as we The Indians were also important. The Indian
for both the common soldiers and the high would now understand it, for having a joint infantry were no longer there, as they’d been
commands alike and why the Somme broke the command. I think they did as well as they could sent off to Mesopotamia, but the Indian cavalry
back of the German Army and contributed to its in the circumstances bearing in mind that played a very important role at the Somme
ultimate defeat. communications were rudimentary. There were in the only cavalry charge of the battle at
no battlei eld radios; there were just telephone Bazentin le Petit. The Indian 9th Cavalry brigade
HOW DID THE FIGHTING AT VERDUN lines and people being sent in motorcars or consisted of two Indian cavalry regiments and
IMPACT UPON THE ALLIED OFFENSIVE ON on horseback. I think they did quite well in the one British cavalry regiment; they did as well
THE SOMME? circumstances and they got better at it as the as they could in the circumstances. The trouble
Hugely, in the sense that the French were war progressed. was that they were launched too late and in,
originally going to provide 40 divisions for the You also wouldn’t want an overlap of Allied probably, too few numbers.
Somme offensive. In fact, [in the end] they units otherwise you would have had even The South Africans were also very signii cant
provided i ve divisions in their initial attacks more chaos than there was before. What were in Delville Wood because in the line that
so they had far fewer soldiers than they would needed were boundaries between divisions and they were i ghting, there was a kink and that
otherwise have had. corps so that everyone had their own ‘patch’. exposed the British l ank to an attack by

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