Page 42 - History of War - Issue 30-16

SOMME
1916 2016
Additionally, just before the war started a THE ALLIES WERE NOT ABLE TO BREAK Dead German bodies in a ruined dugout. One
bright young gunner was talking to a group of THROUGH THE DEFENCES AND DID NOT ofi cer described the Somme as, “The muddy
artillerymen at a lecture and said, “One day ACHIEVE THE DECISIVE VICTORY? grave of the German Field Army”
we’re going to have to predict the weather.” It was a tactical stalemate but it was actually
They all laughed but actually he was quite right. a strategic success for the Allies because it
Weather prediction was important to work out persuaded the Germans that the only way they
what the air pressure was going to be because were going to win the war was unrestricted
that has an effect on a shell. This far higher submarine warfare and that a way of knocking
degree of technology and techniques all grew the British out of the war was to starve them
out of the experience on the Somme. It was all to death. However, the unrestricted submarine
borne out of practice and experience. warfare brought the Americans into the war in
1917 so they were forced to make a strategic
WHAT IMPACT DID THE BATTLE HAVE ON error as a result of the Somme.
GERMANY’S FIGHTING CAPABILITIES? The British did not ‘win’ at the Somme in
WAS IT REALLY ‘THE MUDDY GRAVE OF THE that sense but the Germans suddenly realised
GERMAN FIELD ARMY’? that, if they went on having battles like this,
The losses for the Germans were so high even the British might win and so they had to knock
though they were defending. These losses them out of the war. For the Germans it was
added to the huge casualties that they had a psychological blow and it forced them to do
endured at Verdun and it had a severe impact something that was strategically wrong from
on the German Army… I would say yes the their point of view, which brings a very powerful
Somme was the muddy grave of the German bunch of people, [namely] the Americans, into
Field Army but also so was Verdun – the two the war against them.
combined were a shocking blow.
What is remarkable about the German Army WHAT DID THE GERMANS LEARN FROM
is that they went on ighting right until the end; THE SOMME FOR THEIR LATER CAMPAIGNS
they were a formidable enemy. If you didn’t IN 1917-18?
pay attention to them you got a nasty surprise, What they learnt was that the best way of
they were never people that you treated lightly. doing an attack was using stormtroopers. They
They were a serious enemy because they were trained them very successfully and they were
so well trained and their morale remained high highly [effective] in the German offensive of
right until the very last few weeks of the war. March 1918, taking the British and the French
They still went on ighting but one of the effects totally by surprise by their tactics. The problem
that the Somme had was that they withdrew they had was, without battleield radios, once
to the Hindenburg Line as a result of their the stormtroopers had taken their objectives
experiences and this was done deliberately to and were ‘storming away’, they couldn’t tell the
make life more dificult for the Allies because men behind them of their results and so their
they had a shorter line to defend and therefore successes couldn’t be capitalised on to the
they could have more troops defending it. fullest extent. Nonetheless, it certainly made
The Allies were forced to go over ground that them change their tactics, which of course the
had been churned up and cut to pieces with Allies were not slow to copy.
serious booby traps between them and the new
line. The Hindenburg Line was a very strong COULD THE BRITISH HAVE REALISTICALLY
[defence] and endured until the last months of CAPITALISED ON THEIR SUBSTANTIAL
the war. GAINS AT MORVAL AND THIEPVAL RIDGE?
What completely brings the battle to a halt is
TO WHAT EXTENT DID THE RESIGNATION the weather, with heavy mud and problems with Above: 15 million British shells were i red
OF GENERAL ERICH VON FALKENHAYN getting guns forward. Although there were some during the battle, of which 10 million were
INFLUENCE THE COURSE OF THE BATTLE? gains, the problems which always bedevilled 18-pounders. These empty 18-pounder
What it did was brought forward the partnership both sides in this war was when you’d made a cases were i red by one division at Fricourt
of Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff. gain of say half a mile or a mile you then had to
Hindenburg was moved from the Eastern Front bring up your guns in order to go further. Guns
to take over from Falkenhayn with Ludendorff were towed through the mud by horses and the
as his ‘brains’ as the chief of staff. These two whole process was very slow. The whole effort
were a very bright pair who had a tremendous ‘bogs down’ into this business of trying to get
impact on the battle because they were good forward and capitalise on success.
leaders and they’d think straight. Ultimately, the weather has a huge impact
Ludendorff, in particular, was extremely on what you’re trying to do bearing in mind
clever so the effect was to produce that there aren’t many track vehicles. Most of
commanders who were even better than the wheeled vehicles have got solid tyres and
Falkenhayn. Both of them were quite shocked are no good across country and therefore you
at the conditions on the Western Front, having can’t even drive off the road. Even the roads
fought on the Eastern Front where there was themselves are reduced to muddy morasses.
mobility and large use of cavalry and very Everything just grinds to a halt. The British
mobile battles over vast areas in Russia, like in got around that, not at the Somme, but later
World War II. They suddenly found themselves because they had learned the lesson a couple
in what was effectively siege warfare, which of years later, by having tanks, which carried
was a shock to begin with but what it did mean guns forward. It was an empty tank with nothing
was that you had a far better pair in charge on it – rather like a truck with tracks – and they
than Falkenhayn. brought the guns forward on that. They moved
forward on very broken ground by using vehicles
CAN THE BATTLE BE VIEWED AS A GERMAN with tracks. The British learned those things A Lewis machine gunner of the Gloucestershire
“Glosters” Regiment in a trench at Ovillers
SUCCESS IN LIGHT OF THE FACT THAT from the Somme.

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