The Battle of the Somme:
By 1916 both the Germans and Allies had reached a point of deadlock in trench warfare. The Allies planned to break this deadlock with an attack on all Germany's

fronts simultaneously in the middle of 1916. Their plans were pre-empted by Germany's offensive at Verdun, which the French vigorously resisted, and so the 1916 offensive fell to the Commonwealth armies. In France the location selected for the offensive was the Somme valley.

General Haig who masterminded the Somme offensive

The tank was not commisioned until September 1916 and so the burden of the attack fell upon the infantry which had to cross no-man's land before even reaching the German lines. The "big push" began on 1st July 1916. On the first day 100,000 allied troups assembled at their marshalling points and then at 07:30 hours marched out, shoulder to shoulder, into no-man's land and towards the entrenched German positions. The grand set-piece

offensive quickly degenerated into wholesale slaughter. The allied causalities on this first day alone were nearly 60,000 (20,00 of which were fatal). The Somme offensive did little to affect the outcome of the War and by the time the offensive ended in November the allied casualties were over 600,000.

The British Army in its optimism even produced a magazine in October 1916 promoting the offensive. The battle was also filmed by the official cinematographer (see The Taking of Beaumont Hamel).

The Somme was one of the most terrible battles of the Great War, if not of all time. All Commonwealth countries, including New Zealand, were involved and so the name "Somme" signifies throughout the world the wastfulness of the Great War.

Somme Magazine cover

A Soldier looking through barbed wire at the Somme

The tune itself was composed shortly afterwards by Pipe Major William Laurie of the 8^th Battalion, Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders. It was commonly regarded as the best composition of the First World War. Unfortunately Pipe Major Laurie died later that year of illness after being invalided home. The Battle of the Somme was a Battle Honour of the Wellington Regiment.

Also see "Tragedy on the Somme: A Second Balaclava" at the Trenches on the Web site.