Somme, Battle of the

The Battle of the Somme (July 1–November 18, 1916) was the name given to the series of battles that comprised the main Allied offensive on the Western Front in 1916. The Somme campaign took place about 130 kilometers north of Paris along the Somme River between the cities of Hattencourt in the south and Beaumont-Hamel in the north. The initial attack by the divisions of General Sir Henry Rawlinson’s British Fourth Army thrust into the German lines east of the town of Albert.

The grinding slaughter that characterized the battle resulted in almost 60,000 dead and wounded British soldiers on the first day of battle alone and more than 1.1 million killed and wounded on both sides of the front by the time the battle ended ...