Okla-homey
11/18/2010, 07:44 AM
Nov 18, 1916: Haig ends Battle of Somme
http://i844.photobucket.com/albums/ab7/Okla-homey/battle200px-Douglas_Haig.jpg
Douglas Haig. A Scot, he has been described as the greatest of Scottish generals, since he killed the highest number of English soldiers at any front in history, perhaps a slightly facetious point as Scotland in fact suffered one of the highest proportionate losses of any Allied nation.
94 years ago today, Douglas Haig, commander of the British Expeditionary Force in World War I, calls off the Battle of the Somme in France after nearly five months of mass slaughter.
http://i844.photobucket.com/albums/ab7/Okla-homey/battleWestern_Front_Somme_focus.jpg
Overview of the western front
The massive Allied offensive began at 7:30 a.m. on July 1, 1916, when 100,000 British soldiers poured out of their trenches and into no-man's-land. During the preceding week, 250,000 Allied shells had pounded German positions near the Somme River, and the British expected to find the way cleared for them. However, scores of heavy German machine guns had survived the artillery onslaught, and the invading infantry were massacred.
http://i844.photobucket.com/albums/ab7/Okla-homey/battle767px-Wiltshire_Regiment_Thiepval_7_August_1916.jpg
British infantry from The Wiltshire Regiment attacking near Thiepval, 7 August 1916, during the Battle of the Somme
By the end of the day, 20,000 British soldiers were dead and 40,000 wounded. It was the single heaviest day of casualties in British military history.
http://i844.photobucket.com/albums/ab7/Okla-homey/Battle793px-Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-R05148_Westfront_deutscher_Soldat.jpg
Young German soldier
After the initial disaster, Haig resigned himself to smaller but equally ineffectual advances, and more than 1,000 Allied lives were lost for every 100yards gained on the Germans.
http://i844.photobucket.com/albums/ab7/Okla-homey/Battle_of_the_Somme_1916_map.png
Even Britain's September 15 introduction of tanks into warfare for the first time in history failed to break the deadlock in the Battle of the Somme. In October, heavy rains turned the battlefield into a sea of mud, and on November 18 Haig called off the Somme offensive after more than four months of slaughter.
Except for its effect of diverting German troops from the Battle of Verdun, the offensive was a miserable disaster. It amounted to a total gain of just 125square miles for the Allies, with more than 600,000 British and French soldiers killed, wounded, or missing in action. German casualties were more than 650,000.
Although Haig was severely criticized for the costly battle, his willingness to commit massive amounts of men and resources to the stalemate along the western front eventually contributed to the collapse of an exhausted Germany in 1918.
http://i844.photobucket.com/albums/ab7/Okla-homey/battle200px-Douglas_Haig.jpg
Douglas Haig. A Scot, he has been described as the greatest of Scottish generals, since he killed the highest number of English soldiers at any front in history, perhaps a slightly facetious point as Scotland in fact suffered one of the highest proportionate losses of any Allied nation.
94 years ago today, Douglas Haig, commander of the British Expeditionary Force in World War I, calls off the Battle of the Somme in France after nearly five months of mass slaughter.
http://i844.photobucket.com/albums/ab7/Okla-homey/battleWestern_Front_Somme_focus.jpg
Overview of the western front
The massive Allied offensive began at 7:30 a.m. on July 1, 1916, when 100,000 British soldiers poured out of their trenches and into no-man's-land. During the preceding week, 250,000 Allied shells had pounded German positions near the Somme River, and the British expected to find the way cleared for them. However, scores of heavy German machine guns had survived the artillery onslaught, and the invading infantry were massacred.
http://i844.photobucket.com/albums/ab7/Okla-homey/battle767px-Wiltshire_Regiment_Thiepval_7_August_1916.jpg
British infantry from The Wiltshire Regiment attacking near Thiepval, 7 August 1916, during the Battle of the Somme
By the end of the day, 20,000 British soldiers were dead and 40,000 wounded. It was the single heaviest day of casualties in British military history.
http://i844.photobucket.com/albums/ab7/Okla-homey/Battle793px-Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-R05148_Westfront_deutscher_Soldat.jpg
Young German soldier
After the initial disaster, Haig resigned himself to smaller but equally ineffectual advances, and more than 1,000 Allied lives were lost for every 100yards gained on the Germans.
http://i844.photobucket.com/albums/ab7/Okla-homey/Battle_of_the_Somme_1916_map.png
Even Britain's September 15 introduction of tanks into warfare for the first time in history failed to break the deadlock in the Battle of the Somme. In October, heavy rains turned the battlefield into a sea of mud, and on November 18 Haig called off the Somme offensive after more than four months of slaughter.
Except for its effect of diverting German troops from the Battle of Verdun, the offensive was a miserable disaster. It amounted to a total gain of just 125square miles for the Allies, with more than 600,000 British and French soldiers killed, wounded, or missing in action. German casualties were more than 650,000.
Although Haig was severely criticized for the costly battle, his willingness to commit massive amounts of men and resources to the stalemate along the western front eventually contributed to the collapse of an exhausted Germany in 1918.