The enormous combined British and French offensive, the Battle of the Somme had begun last week,
and this week saw a lesson play out that hopefully someone would learn; when you have many many
units attacking and you don’t coordinate those attacks, you die.
I’m Indy Neidell; welcome to the Great War.
Last week, as I said, the Battle of the Somme had begun and the British took 57,000 casualties
in one day, the largest one day total of the war. Alexei Brusilov’s Russian Offensive
was still smashing through the Austro-Hungarian lines, but far to the north General Evert
was being whipped by the Germans, and in the Middle East, Mecca fell to the Arab Revolt.
Here’s what came next.
Well, the Somme was in full swing in the west.
By its second week it had become a day-to-day fight for small woods and villages. You had
La Boiselle falling on the 6th, you had Contalmaison taken by the British on the 7th and then lost
to the Germans that evening. On the 8th, the British captured most of Trones Wood, but
a German counter attack forced them out. In each of these attacks hundreds of men were
killed and thousands more were wounded. Still, by the 9th and 10th, the Germans had been
pushed back as many as two or three kilometers in places.
In this phase of the Battle, British General Headquarters repeatedly reported that the
Germans were on the verge of collapse. General Sir Henry Rawlinson seemed to see his role
in things as just a conduit to pass along such messages to corps commanders. What he
did not do was use Fourth Army Headquarters to make sure attacks were simultaneous or
supported by as much artillery as possible. You can really see the results of this style
of “command”. For example, between July 3rd and 10th the 23rd Division of III Corps
attacked Contalmaison eight times, right? Just to their right at that same period, the
17th Division of XV Corps launched 11 attacks against the next trenches over. Not one single
time did these attacks happen simultaneously and only once did one Corps’ artillery assist
the other Corps. So those divisions took huge casualties for pretty small advances.
On the 12th, Mametz Wood was taken and on the 14th, a push through the German lines
that would hopefully yield Longueval and Bazentin- the Battle of Bazentin Ridge- began, which
we’ll see next week. Now, Mametz wood was interesting. It was about a square mile big.
A Division that had not yet seen battle, the Welsh 38th, took over from the 7th Division
on July 5th. Now, the 7th Division had done well back on the 1st by using creeping barrage
techniques, and they had even specifically stated it was a big reason for their success,
but nobody passed this info onto the Welsh, who would attack without it. They attacked
from July 7th-11th on 7 occasions. These happened, just about every time, with no support from
either flank. The whole operation was a mess, though it got better after the 10th when they
finally began to use creeping barrages, but in just five days that division took 4,000
casualties including 7 of its 12 battalion commanders.
Still, after the first 13 days of the battle, British casualties stood at 85,000, BUT even
though it was a bunch of narrow-front attacks, most often without sufficient artillery, that
enabled Germany to concentrate reserves, they did take a bunch of fortified positions in
a fairly short time period. On July 1st they’d taken 3 square miles, from the 2nd to the
13th they took 20, so as long as they were willing to disregard the enormous casualties
this was a period of steady achievement.
The Germans were, of course, not on the brink of collapse, but they were in some disarray.
These operations were happening where their lines had been overrun back on the 1st, also
a lot of the German batteries here had been knocked out by the French and British artillery,
and a big third - German high command insisted that every fragment of territory lost be immediately
recovered, so by this time all the German reserves in the area had been used. A tactical
withdrawal could have been a good idea, but when one commander planned to do such a thing,
he was sacked by German Army Chief of Staff Erich von Falkenhayn, who issued orders to
counter attack to the last man. Here’s a quote from “The Somme”, by Robin Prior
and Trevor Wilson, “It is important to take note of this directive. We have witnessed
so many examples of ineptitude on the part of the British command that it is important
to remember that they could be equaled or exceeded by the Germans whenever the opportunity presented.”
The Germans were launching some offense of their own, this week, at Verdun, now in its
5th month of battle.
They were again trying to take Fort Souville and at midnight July 10th began shelling the
French with green cross gas shells containing deadly phosgene gas. To not repeat their mistake
of June 23rd, they continued shelling the French with gas until well after their infantry
were on the move. Silence spread among the French guns. The Germans advanced into the
dawn, and suddenly a barrage of 75mm field guns blasted them from the entire French lines.
Huge gaps were torn in the German lines, and within a matter of minutes the advance was
stopped and the Germans retreated or dug in. What had happened was that the French had
a new and more effective gas mask, and they had just patiently held their fire until the
enemy revealed himself.
There were German advances that day, though; attacks and counterattacks, and the Bavarian
Alpine Corps punched a hole 400m deep in the French lines. German flamethrowers took out
a whole French battalion, killing or capturing 33 of its officers and 1,300 men. By nightfall
the Germans had captured 2,400 French prisoners and knocked out the Fort Souville garrison
with artillery. On the 11th, a couple dozen German soldiers reached the outer wall of
the fort and raised their flag. They could see the twin towers of Verdun cathedral two
miles away. But inside the fort were 60 French soldiers under Lieutenant Kleber Dupuy; they
went out and re-took the outer wall. Verdun was still secure.
And the French ally Russia in the east was secure as well.
On the 9th Stavka told General Brusilov that he was entrusted with the battle of decision.
The day before, the Russian advance had reached Delatyn, less than 50 km from the Hungarian
border, but General Platon Leschitski had lost 70,000 men since the beginning of July,
so he had to pause to regroup. Then German reinforcements arrived to defend the Stockhod
River, and the Russians were unable to pass it this week. Still, for the five weeks of
battle, the Russians had taken 300,000 prisoners and looked pretty good.
And a personal note that I didn’t have time to mention last month that partly deals with
Russia:
Back on June 5th was the trial of philosopher Bertrand Russell. He was fined 100 pounds
for distributing a leaflet supporting conscientious objection. That same day another philosopher
Ludwig Wittgenstein was fighting the Russians at Okna with the Austro-Hungarian army, and
for his bravery there, Lance Corporal Wittgenstein won the Silver Medal for Valor, Second Class.
Apparently he had ignored his officer’s yells to take cover and continued observing
mortar fire until he could locate the attacking heavy mortars so his battery could take them out.
And yet another side note I haven’t mentioned yet:
Back on June 21st, US troops fought Mexican troops at Carrizal. “Black Jack” Pershing’s
forces were looking for Pancho Villa’s, but they ran into Mexican Army troops. They
attacked anyhow and were beaten back. This caused enough tension between Mexico and the
US that war seemed possible. Just thought that deserved mention.
And the week ends, with dozens of micro battles raging at the Somme, the Germans coming close
to the prize at Verdun, and the Russians taking more ground in the east.
It’s easy to look back and say “what was Rawlinson thinking?” Of course all the smaller
attacks at the Somme should’ve been coordinated! But hang on; Rawlinson - or any other British
commander - had never had to deal with forces of this magnitude before. British power had
rested on its navy. Before the war, the only fighting the army was doing was colonial stuff,
and that was miniscule compared to the Somme, so you may be inclined to cut Rawlinson some
slack. Then you think about the thousands upon thousands of men that needlessly died
in those uncoordinated attacks, and you don’t cut him slack any more.
If you are interested in Mexico’s situation during World War 1, check out our special
episode right here.
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