Planning the Battle of the Somme On 1st July 1916, Haig and Joffre planned a joint attack on the German lines near Bapaume (although Haig would have preferred to fight further north). The action was designed to relieve some of the strain on Verdun. Haig was quite hopeful that it would break through the German lines and bring the Allies victory. Artillery Bombardment The attack was preceded by an eight-day artillery bombardment, in which 1537 British guns fired 1,723,873 rounds. The sound of the bombardment could be heard in England. The aim of the bombardment was two-fold: firstly to kill the German soldiers and reduce them to shell-shocked chaos, secondly to destroy the German barbed wire. But the artillery failed. The shells were not powerful enough to break down into the German dug-outs (which were up to 9 metres deep), and the shrapnel shells, which consisted merely of cases filled with ball-bearings, did not destroy any of the wire, but simply made it more tangled and impassable. 1st July Mines (tunnels) had been dug under the German trenches and packed with explosives. At 7.28 am these were detonated just before the British attack, giving the Germans 2 minutes warning. Then, at 7.30 am, whistles were blown and the men went 'over the top'. Each man carried a gas mask, groundsheet, field dressings, trench spade, 150 rounds of ammunition and such extras as sandbags or a roll of barbed wire - up to 80 pounds of equipment. Thinking that the Germans had been destroyed by the bombardment, and fearing that their inexperienced soldiers would become disorganised in a rush attack, the generals had ordered that the men should walk, in straight lines, across No Man's Land. They were slaughtered. 'They went down in their hundreds. You didn't have to aim, we just fired into them,' wrote one German machine-gunner. One British battalion was unable to advance because it could not climb over the bodies of the dead and wounded blocking the way. The British officers, ordered to carry only a pistol, and leading
were poor and men loathed them. The soldiers slept on a bed of mud and
As they tried to get through the enemy line a lot of the Light Brigade
Before the landings were to begin, the coastal German defenses had to be adequately prepped, and softened by a combination of a massive battering by United States ships, and bombing by the United States Air Force. Between the hours of 0300 and 0500 hours on the morning of June 6, over 1,000 aircraft dropped more than 5,000 tons of bombs on the German coastal defenses. As soon as the preliminary bombing was over, the American and British naval guns opened fire on the Normandy coastline (D' Este 112). A British naval officer described the incredible spectacle he witnessed that day: "Never has any coast suffered what a tortured strip of French coast suffered that morning; both the naval and air bombardments were unparalleled. Along the fifty-mile front the land was rocked by successive explosions as the shells of ships' guns tore holes in fortifications and tons of bombs rained on them from the skies. Through billowing smoke and falling debris defenders crouching in this scene of devastations would soon discern faintly hundreds of ships and assault craft ominously closing the shore.
Source A tells us that Haig did not care about his men and is willing
middle of paper ... ... After I was disposed of, the corporal then made the majority of the 27 sufferers march with the rest of the troops. Most of the men, including an Australian chaplain, died during succeeding weeks, largely as a result of this calculated brutality.’ (Iggulden, 2009, p.22)
Operational leaders see how the individual components of an organization fit together and use those individuals work to make a larger outcome. When they focus on a problem, they think of what works best within the process and systems to make an impact on the situation. These types of leaders play a big part in making sure that things get done in an effective and functioning manner. According to the Army Doctrine ADP 6-0, the Army over time has strayed away from operational leaders and adapted Mission Command, which gives leaders the ability at the lowest level the capability to exercise disciplined initiative in an act of carrying out the larger mission . Mission Command is made up of the following six steps: Understanding, Visualize, Describe, Direct, Lead and Assess, in which a commander is responsible for. General Patton understood the intent of the Battle of the Bulge on different levels, he was able to form a mental image for the course of actions for the allies, enemies and lead his Army into combat while guiding his officers and soldiers to succeed in meeting his intent. The Battle of the Bulge is where General Patton gained one of his greatest military achievements by using his tactical leadership and logistical genius, which in return helped him turn around the main forces and forced the Germans to drive back in their final counter-offensive. General Patton strongly exercised Mission Command by understanding, visualizing, leading, and commanding what was known as the largest and bloodiest battle during World War II.
"Feature Articles - Life in the Trenches." Firstworldwar.com. First World War, n.d. Web. 05 Apr.
The purpose of this speech for the class is to gain better knowledge of one of the most tragic and devastating battles of World War II, the Battle of the Bulge.
These two sources are different because they are opposite opinions which are referring to the Battle of the Somme but they are written by the same person which was Lloyd George. The two sources however were very different from each other. Source I was written by Lloyd George on the 21st of September 1916 when he visited the battlefield with Sir Douglas Haig. It says that Lloyd George was the secretary for the War at this time of the Somme he was the war leader from 1906-1916. Source J is very negative about the Battle of the Somme when compared to Source I. This was written in the 1930’s; he could then have written what he actually wanted to write as he wasn’t the wars secretary, it was also an ok time for him to write it as he had lost the elections the previous year so he wasn’t in the public eye as much as before so he had much more freedom to have his own opinions without having the responsibility of a job. David Lloyd George was also at a very good time to be more confident in criticising the battle of the Somme because the War was over and most importantly, Sir General Do...
Although the shelling was aimed at the German trenches and defensive positions on the Ridge, the Canadians also shelled enemy batteries. They had become adept at locating German gun-positions and had identified the positions of 80 per cent of them. April 9th. 1917 - Easter Monday - dawned cold, with freezing rain and sleet.
The First World War witnessed an appalling number of casualties. Due partly to this fact, some historians, developed the perception that commanders on both sides depended on only one disastrous approach to breaking the stalemate. These historians attributed the loss of life to the reliance on soldiers charging across no-man’s land only to be mowed down by enemy machineguns. The accuracy of this, however, is fallacious because both the German’s and Allies developed and used a variety of tactics during the war. The main reason for battlefield success and eventual victory by the Allies came from the transformation of battlefield tactics; nevertheless, moral played a major role by greatly affecting the development of new tactics and the final outcome of the war.
On the western front the soldiers had to build trenches to provide defence for the army and hold their position to show their opponents they weren?t going anywhere. The trenches were built in a crocked line next to each other because if the line was straight and a shell landed on it the explosion would kill and injure much more people then if it was straight. They had barbed wire and Sandbags at the top of trench to protect them from enemies coming in and attacking them. The trench had many layers and at the bottom there were dug outs were the sold...
In the late May in 1918, the German forces put together four divisions and launched the Aisne offensive. The bombardment began at one in the morning on May 27th. The British and French front lines were torn apart by the current waves of German infantry and artillery. Both armies began to disintegrate before the might of the Germans, and were unable to halt the advancement of their awesome force. The Germans didn’t press further after the Marnes River, giving the French time to call in reinforcements and American assistance. When the American forces arrived, a French office asked Marine Colonel Wendell C. Neville if a tactical retreat would be in order, he replied with th...
The stalemate on the Western front had developed by December 1914 because of the new advances in defensive weaponry where both sides had developed lethal weaponry like the machine guns and artillery, which subsequently led to trench warfare. The Machine Gun was a very dominant weapon in the First World War. It could kill hundreds of men a minute due to its rapid firing rate of 600 bullets a minute. However the machine guns that were used in the First World War weighed between 30kg – 60kg, would require a four to six operators and could heat up extremely quickly; clearly not very effective as a offensive weapon (Duffy, Michael. "Machine Guns.") Machine Guns were only effective for defense as they were extremely heavy, required a lot of ammunition a needed to be fixed into the ground. This made it severely difficult to attack and move with machine guns. Artillery was even deadlier as a defensive weapon and was one of the most important weapons of the First World War as it was the cause of the majority of human losses. The artillery ranged from field artillery to heavy and long range artillery that could fire long distances and would trap the enemies in their trenches. The Trench Mortar was also a very effective weapon in the war, which was a “tube” that would fire at a vertical angle (higher than 45 degrees) and could therefore be fired within the safety of the trench, unlike artillery. All these new advances in technology made trenches almost impossible to attack yet also kept each side trapped in their trenches.
“The Battle of the Bulge, fought over the winter months of 1944 – 1945, was the last major Nazi offensive against the Allies in World War Two. The battle was a last ditch attempt by Hitler to split the Allies in two in their drive towards Germany and destroy their ability to supply themselves” (Trueman).