The Germans had been on the Somme since 1914.  The chalk beneath the clay topsoil was ideal for digging trenches, dugouts and tunnels.  Some dugouts were 40 feet (12m) underground and equipped with electric lights.  By 1916 the Germans had constructed a formidable defensive system incorporating nine fortified villages and 11 heavily defended ‘redoubts’ which dominated the high ground overlooking the British lines. Machine gun companies attached to the infantry regiments had been reinforced, and approximately 1,000 machine gun posts are thought to have been in the German lines on 1 July.

Although the Germans had deep defences with up to three lines of trenches, General Erich von Falkenhayn, the German Chief of Staff, ordered that ‘not one foot of ground should be lost.’  This resulted in enormous casualties on the German side, and Falkenhayn’s dismissal in August 1916.

Between February and April 1917 the Germans withdrew 25 miles (40km) eastwards to the shorter and stronger Hindenburg Line, voluntarily giving up ten times more territory than the Allies had captured during the Somme offensive.