Battle of the Somme
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Battle of the Somme happened in the First World War. It started on July 1, 1916 and finished in November of the same year. The Somme is a river in northern France and it is called the Battle of the Somme because the battle happened around the river. On the first day, there were about 60,000 casualties in the English force and 20,000 of those died.
The first day on the Somme was the bloodiest day in British military history. For 5 days before the 1st July, the British army shot non-stop at the German trenches, to destroy their trenches and the barbed wire that was in front of them. Thinking that most of the German defence was destroyed, at 7:30 on the morning of July 1st, the Bristish generals told all of the British soldiers to get out of their trenches and walk slowly over to the German trenches. They thought that it would be safe to do this, but they were very wrong. As the British soldiers climbed out of their trenches the German soldiers started to shoot them. The soldiers had to do what they were told and keep walking over to the German trenches, even though they were walking straight into bullets. This is why so many soldiers died. Many of the soldier's bodies lay in the mud for weeks after they had been killed because it was too dangerous for other soldiers to go and get them.
Today, the place where the Battle of the Somme took place is called the battlefields of the Somme and there are lots of cemeteries, war memorials and museums near these battlefields for people to visit and pay their respects.
