July 1-Nov. 18, 1916

The Battle of the Somme

100 years ago, the bloody birth of modern warfare

1916

French troops prepare to move on German positions.

Image: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images

On July 1, 1916, the first shots were fired in what would become one of the bloodiest engagements in human history, the 141-day Battle of the Somme.

It was nearly two years into what was then being called the Great War, and what was once expected to be a quick skirmish had turned into a mechanized war of attrition, in which dozens of trains a day ferried men and materiel into a maw of bullets, shells, gas and fire, to little effect.

The battle took place in northern France, along the upper reaches of the River Somme, in a morass of mud, shattered trees and barbed wire. In the early hours of dawn, the Allies completed a withering eight-day artillery barrage to soften up the German lines. At 7:30 a.m., the signal was given to go over the top and charge across no man’s land to assault the German trenches.

While the French and some portions of the British successfully took their objectives and pushed back the defenders, large swaths of the charging British attackers were cut down by machine gun fire from Germans who had weathered the artillery bombardment.

It was the bloodiest day of the war for the British, with 19,240 killed and thousands more wounded. They captured three square miles of territory.

July 1, 1916

A 45,000-pound mine under the German front line positions at Hawthorn Redoubt is fired 10 minutes before the assault at Beaumont Hamel on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. The mine left a crater 130 feet across and 58 feet deep.

Image: Lt. E Brooks/ IWM via Getty Images

1916

British troops go "over the top" in a scene staged for a newsreel film on the battle.

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July 1, 1916

Men of the Royal Irish Rifles rest during the opening hours of the Battle of the Somme.

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July 1, 1916

British 34th Division troops advance on the first day of the battle.

Image: Robert Hunt Library/Windmill Books/UIG via Getty images

1916

The British trenches, manned by the 11th battalion, The Cheshire Regiment, near La Boisselle.

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1916

An artillery depot behind German lines.

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July 2, 1916

Artillery barrages light up the sky during the attack on Beaumont Hamel.

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That bloody first day would set the tone for the rest of the long battle, as inches of mud were won at terrible cost.

1916

Wounded British soldiers return from the front lines.

Image: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images

1916

Indian cavalry of the British army.

Image: (Press Illustrating Service/FPG/Archive Photos/Getty Images

Before the world grew mad, the Somme was a placid stream of Picardy, flowing gently through a broad and winding valley northwards to the English Channel. It watered a country of simple beauty... then came the pestilence.

A.D. Gristwood

1916

Mametz Wood was the objective of the 38th (Welsh) Division at the Battle of the Somme. The division took 4,000 casualties capturing the wood.

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1916

German troops carry Lewis gun equipment.

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1916

Gas-masked men of the British Machine Gun Corps with a Vickers machine gun.

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1916

An aerial view of a French offensive.

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July 19, 1916

A British soldier dresses the wounds of a German prisoner near Bernafay Wood.

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1916

A French soldier peers over the edge of a trench.

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1916

Canadian troops fix bayonets before going over the top to assault German positions.

Image: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

We live in a world of Somme mud. We sleep in it, work in it, fight in it, wade in it and many of us die in it. We see it, feel it, eat it and curse it, but we can't escape it, not even by dying.

Edward Lynch

1916

A German field telephonist relays artillery requests from the front lines.

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July 14, 1916

A piper of the 7th Seaforth Highlanders leads four men of the 26th Brigade back from the trenches after the attack on Longueval.

Image: Lt. J W Brooke/ IWM via Getty Images

September 1916

Soldiers cross the river Ancre during the Allied attack on Thiepval Ridge.

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1916

German prisoners carry British wounded during the assault on Trones Wood.

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September 1916

British soldiers advancing under cover of gas and smoke while making a break in the German lines through to Serre and Thiepval.

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July 23, 1916

Men of the 1st Anzac Division, some wearing German helmets, pose for the camera after fighting near Pozieres Ridge.

Image: Lt. J W Brooke/ IWM via Getty Images

August 1916

Men of the Border Regiment rest in shallow dugouts near Thiepval Wood.

Image: Lt. Ernest Brooks/ IWM via Getty Images

Made some tea and had something to eat for the first time since Saturday morning ... We was fairly quiet from the Wednes to the Friday teatime, then Fritz started shelling us again. I was talking to these three men some 10 yards away and a shell dropped and killed all the three of them. It was an awful sight.

Diary of Pvt. Walter Hutchinson, July 4-7, 1916

September 1916

A 6-inch howitzer is hauled through the mud near Pozieres.

Image: Lt. Ernest Brooks/ IWM via Getty Images

August 1916

The 39th Siege Battery artillery in action in the Fricourt-Mametz Valley.

Image: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

September 1916

A man builds barbed wire obstacles on the Somme.

Image: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Sept. 15, 1916

Reinforcements cross the old German front line during the advance towards Flers.

Image: Robert Hunt Library/Windmill Books/UIG via Getty images

On September 15, 12 British divisions made an offensive push, aided by new friends — 48 Mark I tanks.

The fearsome new machines were a morale booster, but still struggled with mechanical problems and the soft terrain. Only 21 made it to the front line.

Sept. 15, 1916

A Mark I tank lies ditched north of Bouleaux Wood on the day tanks first went into action.

Image: Robert Hunt Library/Windmill Books/UIG via Getty images

Sept. 17, 1916

Soldiers gather near a Mark I tank at Flers.

Image: RRobert Hunt Library/Windmill Books/UIG via Getty images

By late September, the British had refined the tactic of the “creeping barrage,” in which a suppressive artillery bombardment was timed to land just ahead of advancing infantry units. This tactic allowed the British to capture several key positions, raising hopes that victory could be near.

Those hopes were dampened when the weather soured in October. Rains turned the trenches even more miserable and muddy than before, and made airborne reconnaissance and artillery sighting more difficult.

The Allies managed to push and capture a few more points before mid-November, when winter set in and the offensive was suspended until spring.

After 141 days of fighting, the Allies had pushed the front only seven miles. The casualties on both sides totaled more than a million men.