Armed with either 6-pounder cannons or machine guns, the primitive tanks failed to break the military deadlock. On September 15, the British deployed 32 Mark I tanks in an attack at Flers-Courcelette. The battle included the first use of tanks in warfare.
#Battle of tannenberg important movie#
“The Battle of the Somme” remains one of the most-watched films in British cinema history and blazed the trail for the movie industry’s ongoing obsession with war as a subject. Incorporating both staged footage and real battle scenes captured between June 25 and July 9, the movie sparked controversy by depicting the brutality of war, including scenes of corpses being tossed into communal graves. Expecting a victory, the British War Office embraced the new medium of motion pictures and granted filmmakers Geoffrey Malins and John McDowell permission to record the battle in the hopes it would rally support for the war effort and aid recruiting. Throughout the autumn of 1916, more than 20 million Britons, nearly half the country’s population, flocked to cinemas to watch “The Battle of the Somme,” the first feature-length war documentary. A silent movie about the battle became one of the first box-office blockbusters. The casualties also included 200,000 French troops and 500,000 German soldiers. Casualties topped 1 million, including the deaths of more than 300,000.īritish troops sustained 420,000 casualties-including 125,000 deaths-during the Battle of the Somme. Over the course of the 141-day battle, the British advanced a total of only five miles.ģ. We see it, feel it, eat it and curse it, but we can’t escape it, not even by dying.” Allied forces launched no fewer than 90 attacks before British Commander-in-Chief Sir Douglas Haig called off the offensive on November 18. We sleep in it, work in it, fight in it, wade in it and many of us die in it. “The conditions are almost unbelievable,” wrote Australian soldier Edward Lynch. The Battle of the Somme lasted more than four months.įollowing the horrific losses on the first day, the battle settled into a terrible war of attrition as the heat of summer gave way to autumn rains. Thirty-seven sets of British brothers lost their lives on the battle’s first day, and one man was killed every 4.4 seconds, making July 1, 1916, the bloodiest single day in the history of the British Army. Instead, the Battle of the Somme became, as war poet Siegfried Sassoon described, a “sunlit picture of hell.” Of the 120,000 Allied troops-including those from Australia, India, South Africa, New Zealand, Newfoundland and Canada-who launched the initial attack, nearly 20,000 were killed, most of them in the first hour, and another 37,000 were wounded. The British expected little German resistance following the week-long bombardment.
The first day of the Battle of the Somme was the bloodiest in the British Army’s history.
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