We know that the First World War it was one of the events with the greatest impact in the history of mankind, mainly because its destructive potential was far superior to that of any other war that had preceded it. Many intellectuals who have experienced it, such as the French writer Leon Bloy, characterized it as “apocalyptic”. Well then, this apocalyptic tone of World War I can be seen both in its development as a whole and in the level of each battle fought. In the lines below we will expose some of the aspects of one of the bloodiest battles of that period, the BattleinSomme.
The Battle of Somme got its name from having been fought in the vicinity of the Somme river, in France. The main objective was to break through German army installations on French territory. Against Germany were the allied forces of the United Kingdom and France. It is known that, despite having lost the war, Germany had the most modern and efficient army of the time, having achieved overwhelming victories during the first two years of the first world conflict, 1914 and 1915.
Since February 1916, with the Battle of Verdun (which lasted until November of the same year), the war took on an even more colossal dimension than it already had. The confrontation at Somme paralleled that at Verdun, however, it started later, on June 1, 1916. The tactical decisions were taken by the general JosephJoffre, from France, and generally DouglasHaig, from England. The final plan for the Somme attack was conceived on February 14, 1916, in Chantilly (France). Germany was expecting an attack by the Allies in the regions of Artois and Alsace, but, even surprised, managed to establish an efficient containment system in Somme led by the general Erich von Falkenhayn.
The battle began with massive artillery attack. But what made it really bloody were machine-gun attacks like the Maxim used by the Germans, against infantry coming out of the trenches and marching against the enemy. On the first day of the battle alone, July 1, after 12 hours of fighting, 19,240 British soldiers were dead and around 30,000 wounded. The British even tried to use one of the first tanksinwar against the Germans, but because of mechanical failures, the machine had to be abandoned.
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The battle only ended in November 1916, with an Allied victory, but with an extremely impressive death toll. Among the military alone, casualties were 207,000 deaths among British fighters, 67,000 deaths among the French, and 170,000 deaths among Germans. the historian WilliamPhilipott, in his work “Bloody Victory: the sacrifice on the Somme” (“Bloody Victory: Somme's Sacrifice), even stated that, in the face of a carnage like this, there could be no victors. The Battle at Somme, as well as that of Verdun and others in 1916, has also contributed to the activity of contemporary historians, who aim to trace the roots of perspective of integration of the European peoples after the Cold War, taking into account the catastrophe that began at the beginning of the 20th century, as noted by the researcher Sílvia Belt:
“[...] the history of desertion that took place in many armies beyond national models, the reasons for its origin being transversal. Finally, the potential embodied in the transnational approach is evident in an institution clearly committed to escaping the confines of a national history of war: History of the Grande Guerre – Péronne (France) – a Great War museum and research center, resulting from collaboration in three languages, placed in the center from the command of the German army during the battle of the Somme, where Ernst Jünger considered to be the birthplace of the century XX. Together, the historians created a transnational museum to understand the integration of Europe in the 1990s, one had to understand its disintegration at the beginning of the century.” [1]
GRADES:
[1] CORREIA, Sílvia Adriana Barbosa. One hundred years of World War I historiography: between transnational history and national politics. In: Topoi (Rio de Janeiro), v. 15, no. 29, p. 650-673, Jul./Dec. 2014. P. 668.
By Me. Cláudio Fernandes