Princess Elizabeth in Wartime

The Battle of the Somme

The Somme: A Clear Day; The Somme: A Clear Day. View from the British trenches opposite La Boisselle, showing German front line and mine craters, 1917, by Sir William Orpen. This oil painting by the artist William Orpen depicts the Somme battlefield in summer 1917, one year after the start of the Battle of the Somme. Shell craters and patches of exposed white chalk soil are clearly visible in the grassy landscape.

The Somme: A Clear Day

art

The Somme: A Clear Day. View from the British trenches opposite La Boisselle, showing German front line and mine craters, 1917, by Sir William Orpen. This oil painting by the artist William Orpen depicts the Somme battlefield in summer 1917, one year after the start of the Battle of the Somme. Shell craters and patches of exposed white chalk soil are clearly visible in the grassy landscape.

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A joint operation between British and French forces, the Battle of the Somme was intended to achieve a decisive victory over the Germans on the Western Front after 18 months of trench deadlock. For many in Britain, the resulting 1916 battle remains...

A joint operation between British and French forces, the Battle of the Somme was intended to achieve a decisive victory over the Germans on the Western Front after 18 months of trench deadlock. For many in Britain, the resulting 1916 battle remains the most painful and best-remembered episode of the First World War.

Allied forces met in December 1915 to discuss strategies for the following year, agreeing to undertake a Franco-British attack on the Western Front in the region of the River Somme beginning July 1916. However, French forces were overtaken in the German assault on Verdun in February 1916, and the British had to assume the main role in the Somme offensive.

The British commander, General Sir Douglas Haig, intended to punch a hole in the German line north of the Somme. He would then send his cavalry through to drive the Germans up towards Arras. However, the German defences had been carefully laid out over many months and, in the end, proved too strong. No breakthrough was achieved. Instead, the Somme became a hard, bitter struggle that wore both sides down.

Over the next 141 days, the British advanced a maximum of seven miles. From nearly 420,000 casualties, 125,000 men were killed. The Germans, too, suffered heavily, with estimates ranging from 437,000 to 680,000. French losses were just over 204,000. More than one million men were killed, wounded or captured on the Somme in 1916.

Popularly, ‘the Somme’ sums up the loss and apparent futility of 1914–1918. Yet, from it British commanders learned hard but important lessons. In particular, their experiences on the Somme taught the British how to fight a modern war, beginning a process that helped bring about ultimate victory in 1918.

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  • Letter from Lieutenant Alan Holt

    private papers

    Letter from Lieutenant Alan Holt; Letter written on 1 July 1916 by Lieutenant Alan Holt, 17th Battalion, The Manchester Regiment. Lieutenant Alan Holt, serving with 17th Battalion, The Manchester Regiment, wrote this letter to his mother about his experiences on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. Holt’s battalion was part of 30th Division, whose objective for the day was the village of Montauban. The village was taken by 10.30am, although heavy fighting continued throughout the day. The capture of Montauban was one of few successes on the first day of the battle.

  • Brodie Mark I steel helmet

    uniforms and insignia

    Brodie Mark I steel helmet; The yellow insignia painted on the left side represents the Lancashire Fusiliers and was worn by their 1st Battalion on the first day of the Somme Offensive. This form of recognition badge was worn by their 1st Battalion on 1st July, the first day of the Somme Offensive, when that Battalion lost 21 officers and 465 men in the attempt to take Beaumont Hamel.

  • Writing case

    souvenirs and ephemera

    Writing case; Writing case owned by Lieutenant Colonel Frederick Heneker, 21st Battalion (2nd Tyneside Scottish) Northumberland Fusiliers. Before the outbreak of the First World War, Lieutenant Colonel Heneker was serving as an instructor at Sandhurst. On 30 June 1916, he was seconded to the 2nd 'Tyneside Scottish' (21st Battalion, The Northumberland Fusiliers) as their Battalion Commanding Officer and was killed (aged 43) on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, 1 July 1916. The Tyneside Scottish were part of 34th Division, and attacked at La Boisselle.

  • Sommeschlacht VIII

    art

    Sommeschlacht VIII; Sommeschlacht VIII - Die Erste Hilfe, 1920, by Max Pechstein. Max Pechstein, a German painter and printmaker, was an important member of the German Expressionist group Die Brücke between 1906 and 1912. Pechstein was drafted into the German Army in 1916 and his experiences of the mechanised warfare of the Western Front are captured in a series of eight etchings. In this example, number eight in the sequence, a kneeling, blank-faced soldier tenderly holds his dying comrade, still threatened by the explosion of a shell in the sky.

  • British infantrymen give a helping hand to wounded German prisoners

    photographs

    British infantrymen give a helping hand to wounded German prisoners; British infantrymen give a helping hand to wounded German prisoners near la Boisselle on 3 July 1916. A first day objective, the village of La Boisselle was taken in stages by the 19th Division between 2 and 4 July.

  • Letter from Private Arthur Burke, August 1916

    private papers

    Letter from Private Arthur Burke, August 1916; This is one of a series of letters written by Private Arthur Burke of 20th Battalion, The Manchester Regiment to his family back home in Salford. In this letter dated 17 August 1916 he refers to losses sustained during the opening weeks of the Battle of the Somme in July 1916, 'there are very few of the old lads left'.

  • Cigarette case

    souvenirs and ephemera

    Cigarette case; Cigarette case owned by Private Albert Tattersall, 20th Battalion (4th City Pals), The Manchester Regiment. This cigarette tin was sent back to the family of Albert Tattersall, together with the rest of his personal effects, after his death on 3 July 1916 from wounds sustained during the first day of the Battle of the Somme. His letters and service medals are also preserved at IWM.