How far do you agree that the Battle of the Somme was a complete disaster for the British Army? The Battle of the Somme was indeed dreadful and appalling and could definitely be seen as a complete disaster because of the number of deaths caused. There were however some positive aspects that came out of it. The Battle began on July 1, 1916. The purpose of the battle was to take the pressure off the French army at Verdun.
There were nearly 4 million dead, wounded, captured or missing. Reasons for this was the inefficient ammunition supplies. The army was severely inequiped, out of the six and the half million men mobilised only 4.6 were armed with rifles. In reality soldiers were waiting for their comrades to die in order to fight for their homeland. These losses sparked off political unrest and left the floodgates open for criticism on the incompetence of the Tsar’s government ministers.
Haig only intention was to breakthrough to get the German trenches and defeat the army once and for all. The battle took more than 1,000,000 lives and as it was the bloodiest battle throughout the history, it is said that more than 20,000 soldiers died in the first hour and more than 60,000 casualties on the first day. The soldiers that took part in this insidious war were as young as 14 and had no training and they did not know that they’ll die so young. The Somme ended in bloodshed and the human cost was very high, 420,000 British soldiers and 200,000 French soldiers had died for their country, almost as many as the Germans added together. This insidious war The Somme was the most tragic moment for Britain and British history.
How important were the actions of officers rather than conditions in causing a high death toll in WW1. In World War One the amount of deaths were staggeringly high, this came down to many different reasons. Over the four years many men died from diseases, the conditions of the trenches and ‘no mans land’. However the most deaths came from within the army itself, it usually came from the poor actions that the officers made. Firstly, a main point that their actions were to blame would be that repetitive tactics and how they would refuse to change them.
How does Owen portray the horrors of war in Dulce et Decorum Est? “Sweet and honourable it is, to die for one’s country” World War I was an abominable ordeal that shocked the world, caused over 16 million people to lose their lives and millions more to suffer for years. Wilfred Owen has described so horrifically the horrors of war, each one seems to grow in significance until everything blurs together into a foul and futile torment that will haunt the dreams of every man for all their lives. Throughout the poem Owen attempts to eliminate the misconception that it is “sweet and honourable... to die for one’s country”, as the title of the poem suggests, through his use of vivid imagery, descriptive language and first person narrative. In the first stanza, Owen presents the idea that the personal struggles faced every moment on the front line are extremely underestimated, immeasurably terrifying and “obscene”.
They put restrictions on the German military, to make Germany weak and a second-rate power. Germany had huge financial losses, which brought the rise of the ultra-nationalist Nazis. They had to take acceptance of responsibility for the damage in the war even though they weren’t the only ones in the war. Germany had absolutely no say in the requirements and matters of the treaty. The Treaty of Versailles would prove to be one of the most disastrous mistakes in history.
There were other factors that Germany thought that were very unfair such as their tiny army and the amount of land that was taken from them. Their army had to be reduced to 100,000 men and also they could not have any military aircraft, submarines or armored cars. This made them very vulnerable to other countries and other countries took valuable resources from Germany making their future seem even worse. All the countries who had been involved in the war had different aims in the treaty these included France who at the time president was Clemenceau who was seen as the harshest of the big three. France in the war had suffered the most so it was only right that they wanted Germany to be crippled and Clemenceau with the support of France had the aim of crushing them.
Despite protest by majority of the country the German government agreed to sign the treaty on 28 June 1919. This has really been the worst possible start for the Weimar Republic. The country had already been demoralized due to the war loss and the country is thrown into even more disarray by the signing of this treaty. There was a hatred of the treaty and it cut across all classes in Germany. The treaty created a history of bitterness in German Society.
On 1st July 1916 England attacked the German trenches in a big bombardment to finally push the Germans back and win the war. However, despite the preparations and an unbelievable amount of 1,732,873 shells raining down on the German trench, Britain did not succeed in defeating Germany. Instead it was a disaster and the British army suffered some of the worst casualties in its entire history. But was this down to Haig’s poor leadership, failing technology or the things that Britain could not control? Haig, Britain’s leader was an experienced cavalry officer but he sometimes underestimated the power of the German Army.
al. 744) This was a very vicious thing that the Germans had done to the US GI's. The American troops led by Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe led the troops to Bastogne, a city of Belgium, were badly surrounded and our numbered by the Germans, that is were the American troops were demanded to surrender. In the end there were 800 tanks lost on each side, and 1,000 German aircraft lost as well. This was a lot of machinery to have lost Hitler could not replace all the things he lost, so he had nothing left to do but to