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{{Short description|WWI battle pitting France and Britain against Germany}}
{{for multi|the battle fought in 1918|Second Battle of the
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2018}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2016}}
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict =
| width =
| partof = the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]] of the [[First World War]]
| image = Map of the
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption = Complete map of the Battle of the Somme
| date = [[
| place = [[Somme River]], north-central [[Somme (department)|Somme]] and south-eastern [[Pas-de-Calais]] Départements, France
| coordinates = {{Coord|50|00|56|N|02|41|51|E|type:event_region:FR|display=inline,title}}
| territory = Bulge driven into the [[Noyon Salient|Noyon salient]]
| result = Inconclusive
| combatant1 = {{clist|bullets=y|title={{nobold|{{flag|British Empire}} }}
|{{flagcountry|size=23px|United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland}}
|{{flagcountry|size=23px|Canada|1907}}
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|{{flagdeco|size=21px|Southern Rhodesia|1890}} [[Company rule in Rhodesia|Rhodesia]]}}
{{flagcountry|French Third Republic}}
| combatant2 = {{flagcountry|German Empire}}
| commander1
| commander2 = {{flagicon|German Empire}} [[Erich von Falkenhayn]]<br />{{flagicon|German Empire}} [[Paul von Hindenburg]]<br />{{flagicon|German Empire}} [[Erich Ludendorff]]<br />{{flagicon|German Empire}} [[Rupprecht, Crown Prince of Bavaria|Rupprecht of Bavaria]]<br />{{flagicon|German Empire}} [[Max von Gallwitz]]<br />{{flagicon|German Empire}} [[Fritz von Below]]
| units1 =
| units2 =
| strength1 = '''1 July'''<br />{{flagicon|British Empire}} 13 divisions<br />{{flagicon|French Third Republic}} 11 divisions<br />'''July–November'''<br />{{flagicon|British Empire}} 50 divisions<br />{{flagicon|French Third Republic}} 48 divisions
| strength2 = '''1 July'''<br />{{flagicon|German Empire}} 10 {{frac|1|2}} divisions<br />'''July–November'''<br />{{flagicon|German Empire}} 50 divisions
| casualties1 = {{flagicon|British Empire}} {{circa|420,000}}{{sfnm|1a1=Sheldon|1y=2006|1p=398|2a1=Sheffield|2y=2011|2pp=194, 197|3a1=Philpott|3y=2009|3p=602–603}}<br />(95,675 killed or missing)<br>{{flagicon|French Third Republic}} {{circa|200,000}}{{sfnm|1a1=Doughty|1y=2005|1p= 309|2a1=Harris|2y=2009|2pp= 271|3a1=Philpott|3y=2009|3p=602–603}}<br>(50,729 killed or missing)
| casualties2 = {{flagicon|German Empire}} {{circa|440,000}}{{sfnm|1a1=Wendt|1y=1931|1p= 246|2a1=Harris|2y=2009|2pp= 271|3a1=Philpott|3y=2009|3p=602–603}}<!-- Harris used the world "perhaps" See [[Wp:alleged]], 600,000 cannot be considered --><hr>41,605 men captured by French{{sfn|Philpott|2009|p=438}}<br>31,396 men captured by British{{sfn|Philpott|2009|p=438}}
}}
{{Campaignbox Somme 1916}}
{{Campaignbox Western Front (World War I)}}
The '''
The French and British had committed themselves to an offensive on the
On the [[first day on the
At the end of the battle, British and French forces had penetrated {{convert|6|mi|km|0|abbr=on}} into German-occupied territory along the majority of the front, their largest territorial gain since the [[First Battle of the Marne]] in 1914. The operational objectives of the Anglo-French armies were unfulfilled, as they failed to capture [[Péronne,
== Strategic developments ==
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[[File:Western front 1915-16.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|{{center|The Western Front 1915–1916}}]]
Allied war strategy for 1916 was decided at the [[Chantilly Conferences|Chantilly Conference]] from 6th to 8th December 1915. Simultaneous offensives on the [[Brusilov Offensive|Eastern Front]] by the Russian army, on the [[Italian Front (World War I)|Italian Front]] by the Italian army and on the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]] by the Franco-British armies were to be carried out to deny time for the [[Central Powers]] to move troops between fronts during lulls. In December 1915, General Sir [[Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig|Douglas Haig]] replaced Field Marshal Sir [[John French, 1st Earl of Ypres|John French]] as Commander-in-Chief of the BEF. Haig favoured a British offensive in Flanders
In January 1916, Joffre had agreed to the BEF making its main effort in Flanders but in February 1916 it was decided to mount a combined offensive where the French and British armies met, astride the
The Chief of the [[German General Staff]], [[Erich von Falkenhayn]], intended to end the war by splitting the Anglo-French Entente in 1916, before its material superiority became unbeatable. Falkenhayn planned to defeat the large number of reserves which the Entente could move into the path of a breakthrough, by threatening a sensitive point close to the existing [[front line]] and provoking the French into counter-attacking German positions. Falkenhayn chose to attack towards Verdun to take the [[Meuse]] heights and make Verdun untenable. The French would have to conduct a counter-offensive on ground dominated by the German army and ringed with masses of heavy artillery, leading to huge losses and bringing the French army close to collapse. The British would mount a hasty relief offensive and suffer similar losses. Falkenhayn expected the relief offensive to fall south of [[Arras]] against the 6th Army and be destroyed. (Despite the certainty by mid-June of an Anglo-French attack on the
=== Battle of Verdun ===
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===Transport===
Until 1916, transport arrangements for the BEF were based on an assumption that the war of movement would soon resume and make it pointless to build [[infrastructure]], since it would be left behind. The British relied on motor transport from [[railheads]] which was insufficient where large masses of men and guns were concentrated. When the Fourth Army advance resumed in August, the wisdom of not building light railways which would be left behind was argued by some, in favour of building standard gauge lines. Experience of crossing the beaten zone showed that such lines or metalled roads could not be built quickly enough to sustain an advance, and that pausing while communications caught up allowed the defenders to recover. On the Somme the daily carry during attacks on a {{cvt|12|mi|km}} front was {{cvt|20000|
=== Casualties ===
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== References ==
===Books===
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/unquietwesternfr00bond |title=The Unquiet Western Front: Britain's Role in Literature and History |last=Bond |first=B. |publisher=CUP |year=2002 |isbn=0-52180-995-9 |location=London}}
* {{cite book |title=Sir Douglas Haig's Despatches |last=Boraston |first=J. H. |publisher=Dent |year=1920 |edition=repr. |location=London |oclc=633614212 |orig-year=1919}}
* {{cite book |title=The World Crisis |last=Churchill |first=W. S. |year=1938 |publisher=Odhams |location=London |oclc=4945014}}
* {{cite book |title=Imperial Germany and the Great War, 1914–1918 |last=Chickering |first=R. |publisher=CUP |year=2004 |isbn=0-52154-780-6 |edition=2nd |location=London |orig-year=1998}}
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* {{cite book |title=Verdun 1916 Die Angriffe Falkenhayns im Maasgebiet mit Richtung auf Verdun als strategisches Problem |last=Wendt |first=H. L. |publisher=Mittler |year=1931 |location=Berlin |language=de |trans-title=Verdun 1916 The attacks by Falkenhayn in the Meuse area towards Verdun as a strategic question |oclc=503838028}}
* {{cite book |title=If Germany Attacks: The Battle in Depth in the West |last=Wynne |first=G. C. |publisher=Faber |year=1976 |isbn=0-8371-5029-9 |edition=Greenwood Press, NY |location=London |orig-year=1939}}
{{refend}}
===Journals===
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite journal |last=Robinson |first=H. |year=2010 |title=Remembering War in the Midst of Conflict: First World War Commemorations in the Northern Irish Troubles |journal=20th Century British History |volume=XXI |issue=1 |pages=80–101 |doi=10.1093/tcbh/hwp047 |issn=1477-4674 }}
{{refend}}
===Websites===
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite web |url=http://www.awm.gov.au/wartime/36/article.asp |title=Disaster at Fromelles |last=McMullin |first=R. |year=2006 |publisher=[[Australian War Memorial]] |location=AU |issn=1328-2727 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070609104522/http://awm.gov.au/wartime/36/article.asp |archive-date=9 June 2007 |access-date=14 April 2007 |newspaper=Wartime Magazine |volume=36}}
* {{cite web |url=http://samilitaryhistory.org/vol072iu.html |title=The South Africans at Delville Wood |website=Military History Journal (S Afr MHJ) |publisher=The South African Military History Society |issn=0026-4016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090420022107/http://samilitaryhistory.org/vol072iu.html |archive-date=20 April 2009 |access-date=23 July 2009 |volume=VII |issue=2}}
* {{cite web |url=http://www.collectionscanada.ca/first-world-war/interviews/025015-1400-e.html |title=The Somme in Oral Histories of the First World War: Veterans 1914–1918 |publisher=[[Library and Archives Canada]] |location=Ottawa |oclc=439730254 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190506210945/http://www.collectionscanada.ca/first-world-war/interviews/025015-1400-e.html |access-date=9 September 2009|archive-date=6 May 2019 }}
{{refend}}
== Further reading ==
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* {{cite book |title=The Somme: Heroism and Horror in the First World War |last=Gilbert |first=M. |author-link = Martin Gilbert |publisher=Henry Holt and Company |year=2006 |isbn=0-8050-8127-5 |edition=repr. |orig-year=1994}}
* {{cite book |title=Writing the Great War: Sir James Edmonds and the Official Histories 1915–1948 |last=Green |first=A. |publisher=Frank Cass |year=2003 |isbn=0-7146-8430-9 |location=London}}
* {{cite book |last=Greenhalgh |first=Elizabeth |series=Cambridge Military Histories |title=Foch in Command: The Making of a First World War General |year=2013 |orig-year=2011 |chapter=Chapter 7: The Scientific Method: planning the Somme, 1916 and Chapter 8: Fighting on the Somme, July–November 1916 |pages=140–191 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |edition=pbk. repr. |isbn=978-1-107-63385-8}}
* {{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/historiesoftwohu02unit |title=Histories of Two Hundred and Fifty-One Divisions of the German Army which Participated in the War (1914–1918) |last=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |publisher=United States Army, American Expeditionary Forces, Intelligence Section |year=1920 |isbn=5-87296-917-1 |location=Washington |access-date=13 September 2013}}
* {{cite book |title=A Record of the Battles and Engagements of the British Armies in France and Flanders 1914–1918 |last=James |first=E. A. |publisher=Gale & Polden |year=1990 |isbn=978-0-948130-18-2 |edition=London Stamp Exchange |location=Aldershot |orig-year=1924}}
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[[Category:Battle of the Somme| ]]
[[Category:Battles of the Western Front (World War I)]]
[[Category:
[[Category:1916 in France]]
[[Category:Battles in 1916]]
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