Why did the battle of somme result in such high casualties?

Answer 1

Frontal assaults; and they believed that the continued bombing of the defenses were successful, when in fact they produced very little results:

The Battle of the Somme was planned as a joint French and British operation. The idea originally came from the French Commander-in-Chief, Joseph Joffre and was accepted by General Sir Douglas Haig, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) commander, despite his preference for a large attack in Flanders. Although Joffre was concerned with territorial gain, it was also an attempt to destroy German manpower.

At first Joffre intended to use mainly French soldiers, but the German attack on Verdun in February 1916 turned the Somme offensive into a large-scale British diversionary attack. General Sir Douglas Haig now took over responsibility for the operation and with the help of General Sir Henry Rawlinson, came up with his own plan of attack.

"Haig's strategy was for a eight-day preliminary bombardment that he believed would completely destroy the German forward defences."

General Sir Henry Rawlinson was was in charge of the main attack and his Fourth Army were expected to advance towards Bapaume. To the north of Rawlinson, General Edmund Allenby and the British Third Army were ordered to make a breakthrough with cavalry standing by to exploit the gap that was expected to appear in the German front-line. Further south, General Fayolle was to advance with the French Sixth Army towards Combles.

Haig used 750,000 men (27 divisions) against the German front-line (16 divisions). However, the bombardment failed to destroy either the barbed-wire or the concrete bunkers protecting the German soldiers. This meant that the Germans were able to exploit their good defensive positions on higher ground when the British and French troops attacked at 7.30 on the morning of the 1st July. The BEF suffered 58,000 casualties (a third of them killed), therefore making it the worse day in the history of the British Army.

Haig was not disheartened by these heavy losses on the first day and ordered General Sir Henry Rawlinson to continue making attacks on the German front-line. A night attack on 13th July did achieve a temporary breakthrough but German reinforcements arrived in time to close the gap. Haig believed that the Germans were close to the point of exhaustion and continued to order further attacks expected each one to achieve the necessary breakthrough. Although small victories were achieved, for example, the capture of Pozieres on 23rd July, these gains could not be successfully followed up.

On 15th September General Alfred Micheler and the Tenth Army joined the battle in the south at Flers-Courcelette. Despite using tanks for the first time, Micheler's 12 divisions gained only a few kilometres. Whenever the weather was appropriate, General Sir Douglas Haig ordered further attacks on German positions at the Somme and on the 13th November the BEF captured the fortress at Beaumont Hamel. However, heavy snow forced Haig to abandon his gains.

With the winter weather deteriorating, Haig now brought an end to the Somme offensive. Since the 1st July, the British has suffered 420,000 casualties. The French lost nearly 200,000 and it is estimated that German casualties were in the region of 500,000. Allied forces gained some land but it reached only 12km at its deepest points.

Answer 2

Apart from the artillery preparation mentioned, another key factor was the sheer inexperience of the British troops.
The massive expansion of the army from 1914 meant problems with training at all levels.

The army, from new sergeants on up, was just not yet capable of sophisticated tactics, and British industry was not supplying anything like the number of artillery shells that were wanted. (when the numbers increased , there was a initially a large increase in dud shells, as new American and British factories learned *their* business).

Overall the Somme *campaign* was a success. Haig did not want to attack then or there, but allowing the French to collapse at Verdun could have lost the war.

The casualty rates were similar to the Somme for the first American divisional assaults in 1918. Inexperienced troops and staff officers.

The casualty rates for infantry for the ten weeks of the Normandy bridgehead campagn in WW2 were marginally worse than for the Somme campaign in WW1.

As the French General Charles Mangin wrote: "Whatever you do, you lose a lot of men."
Has anyone come up with a better answer that was available at the time? Waiting for tanks or more artillery or more trained troops (Haig's preferred choice) weren't options.

Answer 3

Because it involved so many people on such a wide front for such a long time. You know, the reasons that you might expect.

Answer 4

It was like a Turkey shoot with machine guns instead of shot guns