Battle of the Somme and Sir Douglas Haig (Canadian History)
... and the artillery shells often were packed with nails and/or pieces of scrap metal. These two things caused about fifty percent of all the wounds. Saturday July 1st, 1916 was the first day of the Battle of the Somme. During this battle Douglas Haig and 100,000 Allied Soldiers, including Newfoundlanders, expected to smash through the German line of defense and clear a path for the cavalry to advance the channel to the coast. The assault was near the town of Beaumont-Hamel. In this Battle, because of badly planned attacked, there was a total of 620,000 casualties. Douglas Haig believed success to come in three forms: 1. Relieve pressure on Verdun 2. Stop any further transfer of German troops on the Western front 3. Wear down strength of opposing forces The Germans had spent two years digging out their trenches. In some places, a man could be sheltered in the chalky terrain up to forty feet deep. They also had three lines of trenches with rows of extremely deep barbed wired in front. This battle was mainly ‘over the top’ assaults. Walls of men would come out of their trenches, shooting at the Germans until eventually, they were shot down with one of the German army’s many machine guns. On the first day of b...