The year 1916 was certainly interesting in terms of both the massive movement of manpower and the discreet amount of behind-the-scenes diplomacy. The German Army had attacked Verdun early in the year, their leaders fully intent on capturing Paris and expecting the British to retire from the war. On other fronts, 100 years ago, the Italians fought the Austro-Hungarians in the numerous Battles of Isonzo, while the Russian Army was engaging and defeating the Turks in the Caucasus - and their Brusilov offensive in Carpathia nearly knocked Austria-Hungary out of the war.
Britain, and its Commonwealth allies, prior to launching their Somme offensive on 01 July, having successfully "put down" April's Easter Rebellion in Dublin, were busy in Mesopotamia marching on Baghdad, and supporting the Arab Revolt against the Turkish forces in Mecca. In July, with the Somme well underway, US Marines landed in Haiti. In August both Italy and Romania entered the fray by declaring war on the Germans, who announced in that same month they were suspending their U-boat campaign.
Toward the end of the year, Woodrow Wilson was re-elected in the US and David Lloyd George replaced H.H. Asquith as (the Liberal) British Prime Minister in December. On 12 December, with fighting along the Somme and at Verdun ended, Germany actually issued a "peace note" with suggestions of a compromise to end the war. Six days later, President Wilson requested statements of "war objectives" from the various nations at war.
With respect to the Battle of The Somme, when launched, Lloyd George was Minister of Munitions for Britain and ensured there would not be a shortage of shells for his forces and dramatically increased production to meet demand - within a year it became the largest buyer, seller, and employer in Britain. Then, in June 1916, Lloyd George succeeded Lord Kitchener, who had significantly increased the volume of new recruits needed on the Western Front (called Kitchener's Army), when he was lost at sea, his ship sunk by a mine en route to Russia, as Secretary of State for War.
The limited gains at the Somme frustrated Lloyd George, given the British casualty ratios were worse than the French, and he sought to intervene. Hastily trained and assembled to fight on the Somme, British troops comprised a mixture of the remains of the pre-war regular army; the Territorial Force; and Kitchener's Army, the aforementioned volunteer force, including many Pals' Battalions, recruited from the same places and occupations. The first day on the Somme was the worst day in the history of the British army, which suffered 57,470 casualties, occurring mainly between the Albert–Bapaume road and Gommecourt, where their attack was focused and defeated.
The battle was also notable for the importance of air power and the first use of the tank. At the end of the battle in November, after launching over 90 attacks, Allied forces had penetrated roughly six miles into German-occupied territory. On 15 September, after much development and testing, at Flers Courcelette, some of the 40 rather primitive tanks advanced over a mile into enemy lines but were too slow to hold their positions during the German counterattack and subject to mechanical breakdown. Yet Haig, the commander of Allied forces at the Somme, saw its promise and ordered the war department to produce hundreds more. And they did.
Back in April a captured German Eindecker (the monoplane responsible for the Fokker Scourge, though pilots could - and easily did - shoot off their own propeller) was tested by the Allies, and found to be inferior in performance to the Morane-Saulnier. By July, the Eindecker was simply obsolete, mainly due to the British introduction of their "pusher" aircraft: the Gun Bus, the FE2b and the DH2, notwithstanding the French Nieuport 11, which each now flew successfully in organized units.
The powerful UK media barons at that time, who viewed the military defeats at Gallipoli and Kut as politically-motivated, wanted no such intervention as sought by Lloyd George, arguing on behalf of Generals Haig and Robertson that strategy on the battlefield be left in the hands of professionally trained soldiers. Asquith resigned in December after refusing Lloyd George's demand to chair a small committee to manage the war effort. When Lloyd George became Prime Minister, with Britons demanding he take charge, after Germany's offer of a negotiated peace, he effectively rebuffed President Wilson's request for the warring nations to state their aims by demanding terms tantamount to German defeat.
At the end of the year, for many people who had lost sons, fathers, husbands, boyfriends and brothers, the Somme Offensive symbolised the horrors of warfare in
#WW1 and seemed to epitomise the futility of trench warfare. Haig bore the brunt of criticism for the way the Battle of the Somme was fought, based on the overall casualties suffered by the Allies. The combined British armies had suffered 420,000 killed and wounded, the French lost 200,000 men and the Germans nearly 500,000.
For those who served in “Kitchener’s Army” going over the top at the Somme was their first taste of battle; many enlisted after seeing posters showing Lord Kitchener himself summoning these men to arms to show their patriotism. Some soldiers were really still boys as young as 16, and the majority of men going to battle had no idea what modern warfare truly entailed. Lest we forget.
There was still two more years to go until Armistice Day.
