The Battle of Somme
November 1916
October 1916
September1916
July 1916
July 1 - Battle of the Somme begins. French troops advance, but British forces suffer almost 20,000 men dead in one day.
July 14 - Renewed British assault along shorter front line. South African troops begin important attack on Delville Wood.
July 23 - British and Commonwealth attack on key Guillemont-Pozieres area begins. Australians finally capture Pozieres two days later.
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3–6 September — Battle of Guillemont
9 September — Battle of Ginchy
15–23 September — Battle of Flers-Courcelette – begins with first ever tank attack
25–28 September — Battle of Morval on boundary between British and French forces
26–28 September — Battle of Thiepval – concludes with the capture of the Thiepval position which had resisted all attacks since 1 July
1–18 October — Battle of Le Transloy Ridge
October 7 - Rain delays further Allied advances, leading to a renewed war of attrition.
As October began, bad weather stymied another Allied attack, with soldiers struggling to cross muddy terrain under fierce fire from German artillery and fighter planes. The Allies made their final advance of the battle in mid-November, attacking the German positions in the Ancre River valley. With the arrival of true winter weather, Haig finally called the offensive to a halt on November 18, ending the battle of attrition on the Somme, at least until the following year. Over 141 days, the British had advanced just seven miles, and had failed to break the German line.
1 October–11 November — Battle of the Ancre Heights
13–18 November — Battle of the Ancre and capture of Beaumont-Hamel
November 18 - End of Somme offensive.
September 3 - Renewed British attack in northern section of Somme battlefield.
September 15 - Tanks used in battle for first time in history.
September 26 - Joint Franco-British offensive. Thiepval finally taken.
The Battle of the Somme—and especially its devastating first day—would be remembered as the epitome of the brutal and seemingly senseless carnage that characterized trench warfare during World War I. British officers, especially Haig, would be criticized for continuing the offensive in spite of such devastating losses.
British General Sir Douglas Haig ordered a week-long artillery bombardment of more than a million shells starting on June 24. The hail of shells was intended to wipe out German barbed wire, front line trenches, artillery—and the morale of the German army.
On September 15, during an attack at Flers Courcelette, the British artillery barrage was followed by an advance of 12 divisions of soldiers accompanied by 48 Mark I tanks, making their first-ever appearance on the battlefield. But the tanks were still early in their development stages, and many of them broke down before making it to the front line. Though the British were able to advance some 1.5 miles, they sustained some 29,000 casualties and fell short of a true breakthrough.
The British Army gained valuable experience. Although the British Army suffered heavy casualties for relatively little territorial gain on the Somme, the battle has increasingly been seen as important in providing experience that later contributed to victory on the Western Front.
On November 18, 1916, British Commander in Chief Sir Douglas Haig calls a halt to his army's offensive near the Somme River in northwestern France, ending the epic Battle of the Somme after more than four months of bloody conflict.