why did the battle of the somme take place

The Somme River, also known atomic number 3 the Somme Scrimy, was fought during the First World War from 1 July to 18 November 1916. In the summer of 1916 the British launched the largest battle of the war connected the Western Presence, against German lines. The offensive was one of the bloodiest in human history. Over the course of five months, more or less 1.2 jillio men were killed or injured at the Somme River. The Canadian Corps (see Canadian Military Force) was involved in the final cardinal months of fighting. On the first day of the offensive, the First Newfoundland Regiment, which was non part of the Canadian forces, was nearly annihilated at Beaumont-Hamel. The Fight of the Somme produced little gains and has long been an example of senseless drubbing and the futility of trench warfare (see also The Somme).

The Battle of the Somme, alias the Somme Repellant, was fought during the Early Creation War from 1 July to 18 November 1916. In the summertime of 1916 the British launched the largest battle of the war on the Western Breast, against German lines. The offensive was one of the bloodiest in human history. Concluded the course of quint months, approximately 1.2 million men were killed or injured at the Somme. The Canadian Corps (see Canadian Expeditionary Force) was involved in the final three months of fighting. On the first day of the offensive, the First Newfoundland Regiment, which was not region of the Canadian forces, was nearly annihilated at Beaumont-Hamel. The Battle of the Somme produced little gains and has yearlong been an example of senseless slaughter and the futility of trench warfare (see also The Somme).

Battle of the Somme
Date	1 July to 18 November 1916
Emplacemen	Somme River valley, septrional France
Participants	British Empire (including Canada and Newfoundland), Anatole France; German Empire
Casualties	420,000 British Empire (including 24,000 Canadians and 700 Newfoundlanders) 194,000 French 440,000 Germans

Canadian soldiers returning from the Battle of the Somme in France, November 1916.

1 July 1916

After ii long time of deadlock in the vast entrench works held by the Allied and German language armies on the Western Front, the British launched a solid offensive in the Battle of the Somme valley in northern France. It was hoped the assault on a 25 km section of the front would not only bump the stalemate, but relieve pressure on beleaguered French forces defending against the long-operative German assault promote south, at Verdun.

The Somme on the offensive opened with a massive artillery barrage, which lasted five days and did little to knock against unstylish enemy troops and weapon guns. The Germans only hid in their deep and reinforced dugouts until the barrage fire ended, emerging largely whole to human face the onset attackers. Many British shells had also been under the weather manufactured and clad to be duds; others lacked the fuses necessary to explode connected contact with the barbed wire strung across no man's demesne between the hostile sides.

A Canadian heavy howitzer during the Battle of Somme, France. November, 1916. Ikon courtesy of Canadian Section of National Defence/Library and Archives Canada/PA-000917.

When British soldiers "went over the summit" of their trenches in the backwash of the barrage, the answer was catastrophe: tens of thousands were mown down by machine-accelerator pedal fire or caught up in barbwire then killed as they tried to reach the German lines. The British lost more than 57,000 men killed or wounded on only the introductory day of the fight, with little to show for their give.

Battle of Beaumont-Hamel

At the northern close of the Somme front, near the village of Francis Beaumont-Hamel, about 800 military personnel of the First Newfoundland Regiment were gathered on 1 July in a support trench nicknamed John the Evangelist's Road. They were portion of a third wave of troops to attack German lines. At 9:15 a.m., the Newfoundlanders began their assault, crossing no man's land in rehearsed lines. Out in the open, they power saw that the first waves of British attackers had failed — the soldiery fabrication slain, operating room trapped in no man's land, slash by machine guns and artillery fire while trying to navigate a few narrow gaps in the barbed wire.

The Newfoundlanders ironed forward into this firestorm. Some were hit before they even reached the front of the active British lines. Others died upon reaching the base of the Danger Tree, a spectacular tree halfway betwixt the British and German lines, where opposition bullets soon found them.

Less than 30 minutes after leaving their trench, it was ended for the Newfoundlanders. Small groups of survivors unsuccessful in vain to fight on. Hundreds of injured men were left to fend for themselves on the battlefield through the dark, where they died of their wounds or were killed by German snipers.

Many than 700 soldiers of the First Newfoundland dog Regiment were cut down at Beaumont-Hamel. Of the regiment's 801 members, only 68 could answer roll call by the end of the opening day.

DID YOU KNOW?
Every 1 July, while Canadians lionize Canada Day, the people of Newfoundland and Labrador gather to also watch Monument 24-hour interval in honour of the men who fought at Beaumont-Hamel. The battlefield of Beaumont-Hamel is now a parkland. At its highest point, a statue of a Greenland caribou, the official allegory of the Newfoundland Regiment, looks out over the field where so galore died.

The caribou statue atop the memorial commemorating the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, at the Beaumont-Hamel battlefield, France.

Canadian Corps

North American country forces, stationed in Belgium near the city of Ypres, were spared the first some months of fighting on the Somme. By the end of August, still, with workforce happening the Somme running low, the first three divisions of the North American country Corps (seeCanadian Military Thrust) were relocated to the engagement to help with the offensive, still grinding connected low-level the orders of British generals.

The Canadians entered the struggle on 30 August, taking part in a number of bloody attacks from September through November, supported away the beginning tanks used in action happening the Southwestern Front (watch Armaments). The army corps captured a series of strategic objectives including Courcelette, Thiepval and Ancre Heights. In November, the 4th Division of the Canadian Army corps, then fighting aboard British troops, helped capture the German stronghold of Regina Trench.

DID YOU KNOW?
James Franklin, cardinal of the first Black Canadians to enlist in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces was likely the forward Black Canadian (and first Pitch-dark North American) killed in action in the World War I. Franklin served in the 76th and 4th Battalions and was killed during the Battle of the Ancre High, part of the Engagement of the Somme.

Hamilton Spectator, 10 November 1916. Courtesy of the Hamilton Public Program library, Local History & Archives

Battle of Courcelette

On 15 September, Canadian soldiers launched a whacking-scale attack, capturing the remnants of the village of Courcelette and holding their untried ground in the following years against German counterattacks (seeBattle of Courcelette).

During the attack, Canadian soldiers used a new military tactic that would eventually resolve the interpenetrate of the trenches in later engagements. Known every bit the creeping barrage, Canadians walked behind an artillery assault that steadily advanced across German lines — keeping enemy soldiers in their dugouts — until the Canadians were on top of enemy lines and make to fight. (Before this innovation, soldiers would wait for their army's artillery bombardment to final stage ahead charging across no man's land and into enemy guns.)

The Red Chateau. One of the hold out homes left standing in the French village of Courcelette, during the Battle of the Somme, Oct 1916. This building was used away the Germans and then Canadians as a field dressing station, then was gone in November.

Tanks were also tried on the battlefield for the first-year time, alongside the Canadians, at Courcelette. Although slow, plodding and nasty to move on, the large and imposing tanks were an operative psychological weapon against the Germans.

Courcelette was captured by the Canadian Corps on the first solar day of the set on, a rare Allied triumph on the Battle of the Somme, at the cost of several thousand Canadians casualties. Lonesome one tank met its objectives, the rest failed because of mechanical issues, proper perplexed or being strike past shellfire.

DID YOU KNOW?
The Purple 22e Régiment (or the Van Doos — from vingt-deux, meaning 22 in Gallic) was the only francophone foot unit in the Canadian Expeditionary Pull down that was active on the front. The Avant-garde Doos' first major attack of the First World War took lay at Courcelette. The French-Canadian soldiers, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas-Louis Tremblay, pushed back perennial European country assaults and held the hamlet while surrounded happening every last sides for three days and three nights (see alsoThe "Van Doos" and the Great War).

Soldier and war creative person Louis Weirter witnessed Canadian troops' capture of the hamlet of Courcelette, during the Battle of the Battle of the Somme, in September 1916. Atomic number 2 and so painted the scene in 1918.

Casualties at the Battle of the Somme River

Canadian officer C. G. Barns recalled the soggy losses that were typical of the battles of the Somme offensive: "We went in about 40 brawny to a platoon, 160 to a company, and if you brought out 40 or 50 men out of a company of 160, you did well. They weren't all killed, they were injured, but come out of action…. (The Germans) had these cement redoubts stuffed with machine guns, and you've got to go over to get them knocked out. You had to circle and make out in arse them. Well, 75 per cent of your men are knocked down before you can get in on that point."

Canadians dressing the wounded in a oceanic abyss at Courcelette, during the Battle of the Somme River, September 1916.

Rain and play false last brought the Fight of the Somme to an end. After five months of fighting, the Allies had only penetrated about 13 km on a 25 kilometre front. Allied losses were estimated at 614,000, of whom more 24,700 were Canadians and Newfoundlanders. German losses were estimated at 440,000.

Canadian soldiers returning from the trenches during the Battle of the Battle of the Somme, November 1916.

Significance

The seemingly pointless slaughter on the Somme light-emitting diode to questions and strong literary criticism of the Allied leaders, especially General Douglas Haig, commander of the British Expeditionary Force, of which some the Canadian Army corps and the First Newfoundland Regiment were a part. But the evil's failures besides sparked recent thinking about military maneuver — including the design of shells and the use of artillery, bettor planning and coordination among attacking forces on the field, and the importance of allowing small groups of ordinary soldiers to exercise leadership and personal initiative during the changing fortunes of an assault.

Some of these ideas were already being experimented with among the Canadian Army corps in the final months of fighting on the Somme. They would be successfully refined, contributing to the achievements of the corps in 1917 at Vimy Ridge and  Passchendaele.

The Virgin Riter Hamilton, oil on commercial canvas add-in.

why did the battle of the somme take place

Source: https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/battle-of-the-somme