Photo of the Day

On this day in 1916, the Battle of the Somme ended.

It had begun in July.

And, on its first day, fifty-seven thousand British men were wounded or killed.

British infantrymen crouch in their trench, awaiting the "Go!" order to advance over the top, 1916.

This British-led offensive against German positions arrayed along the Somme River in northern France had been intended to relieve pressure on the embattled French army in Verdun.

It was thought the Somme offensive could bring the Allies a decisive victory and end the two-year-old war on the Western Front.

British front line troops on their way to rear positions for a rest.

A heavy allied bombardment in the week preceding the initial assault was used to break holes in barbed wire entanglements and destroy German positions.

War planners thought these tactics would enable infantrymen to break through the German lines quickly.

Heavy British field artillery.

The detonation of underground mines on the opening day of battle was intended to bring further destruction to the German lines.

The Hawthorne Redoubt mines explodes, July 1, 1916.

But the Germans had been preparing their defensive positions along the Somme for months.

And they included concrete trench dugouts.

British troops occupy a captured German trench, July.

The British artillery fusillade failed to damage these dugouts or cut through barbed wire entanglements in no-man’s-land.

British artillery unit.

And the British made tactical errors.

British infantry units were ordered to advance through no-man’s land in long, close-formed lines, which proved to be easy targets for German machine guns.

British infantrymen advance across no-man's-land.

So, there was no quick British breakthrough.

British nighttime bombardment of German positions near Beaumont Hamel, July 2, 1916.

And the fighting along the Somme soon devolved into attritional warfare, with little change in battle lines.

Delville Wood, July.

After four months of fighting, with winter approaching, the British commanding general called a halt to further offensive action there.

Left: A pile of empty ammo boxes at Albert, July. Right: The British brought tanks into the battle in September, but just a few dozen. They suffered mechanical troubles and, while having a certain shock value, did little to advance the British line.

By then, nearly three million men — British, French and German — had become casualties.

Of these, one million were dead.

British wounded at a field dressing station.

Among the dead was the son of the sitting British prime minister.

Among the wounded was Corporal Adolph Hitler, whose thigh was injured in the explosion of a British artillery shell.

And the war would go on for two more years.

Temporary British cemetery, August 1916.

“Never think that war, no matter how necessary nor how justified, is not a crime.

Ask the infantry and ask the dead.” ― Ernest Hemingway ¹

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I’ll see you tomorrow.

— Brenda

Photos from the Imperial War Museum, London.

1. Ernest Hemingway, “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” 1940.