Saturday, April 11, 2020

Why Was The First Day Of The Battle Of The Somme S Essays - France

Why Was The First Day Of The Battle Of The Somme Such A Disaster? There were many reasons that led to the British tragedy of the Somme including: defective ammunitions for the artillery and the strength of the German trenches. In retrospect, I believe that the most important and effecting factor that led to Britain's failure was the German's strength. The first problem with the Somme was the lack of British experience when manufacturing and using ammunitions. This was a serious problem because the attack relied on mostly the artillery's ammunition destroying the Germans defences. The defective ammunitions were not the only problem though. On the day of the Somme the British military did not have enough trained soldiers to operate the artillery so they had to use untrained and inexperienced men this was to their downfall because for the artillery to work they had to be fired a t precise points which clearly the soldiers would struggle with because they were untrained. Another mistake that the British army made on the first day of the Somme was the fact that they underestimated the Germans. The before the attack the German military had been working had at making sure that their trenches were the best that they could be. They did this by not only building them into specific areas that were naturally reinforced but also made sure that the conditions inside were good for their soldier so that they would be healthy and ready to fight. A third precaution that the Germans took that Britain could not have foreseen was Germany's research into the soldier's helmets. The German military created a helmet that not only was super strong but covered the most essential parts of the wearer's neck saving countless lives. The third cause of Britain's downfall was their attacking pattern. This was such a large factor because the way the British advanced helped the Germans shoot them down easier. Due to the lack of experience of the British military the government tried to create a simple formation that everyone could follow with ease. The tactic was to advance slowly in a straight horizontal line this was such a problem because they just became slow moving lined up targets for the German machine guns to easily shoot down. In conclusion, I think that the most important reason that led to Britain's downfall was the reinforced German trenches. This is because even if the British ammunition was not defective and they had a decent advancing strategy then they would still have been arrived with the task of destroyin g the trenches which would still have been no easy feat.