The Battle of the Somme

In 1916, the French were taken by surprise at Verdun, trapped by the Germans. Quickly, Britain had to make an attempt to free the French army from their superior opposition. The plan was to make an attack at the Somme and then after defeating the Germans, free their French counterparts. However, the Germans were using scout planes and observer balloons, making themselves aware of the impeding British assault. They dug themselves deep in twelve-metre deep trenches; because there was nothing else that they could do, but defend their conquered land. As more new roads and railway lines appeared, so did many British volunteer soldiers, ammunition and other supplies. On 24th June 1916, the Allied forces began an artillery bombardment of the enemy trenches, unaware of how deep they were. This continued constantly until 1st July. The British commander, General Haig, believed that this had annihilated the German trenches and so it would be easy for his battalions to...