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Ginchy, the capture of which enabled the British and French armies to
make much bigger attacks, capture more ground and inflict heavy
casualties on the German defenders,
•
Flers–Courcelette where the British used tanks on the battlefield for the
first time.This was where New Zealand made its first major contribution
on theWestern front and here also Canadian soldiers used the recently
developed tactic called the creeping barrage, advancing behind a wave of
artillery fire.
•
Thiepval in September which became the worst month for casualties for
the Germans as they struggled to withstand the preponderance of men
and material fielded against them.
•
Ancre in October and November which was the last big British operation
of the year.
•
Beaumont Hamel where the 1st Battalion of the Newfoundland
Regiment, lost two-thirds of its entire strength in an hour.
Air power came into its own at the Somme. From the start of the campaign
squadrons of Allied aeroplanes established air control over the battlefield,
bombed German depots and lines of communications and brought down the
long, sausage-shaped kite balloons which the Germans used as observation
platforms.The opposing sides struggled to maintain the lead in aircraft
superiority.
Before such a battle, vast stocks of ammunition and stores had to be accumulated
within a convenient distance of the front. Miles of new railways were built, and
narrow gauge tracks were laid in trenches and old roads were improved and new
ones constructed.A hundred and twenty miles of water mains were laid. Scores
of miles of trenches were dug for assembly, assault and communications, and
numerous gun emplacements and observation posts made ready and all of these
preparations had to be made under enemy fire.
The Battle of the Somme was the beginning of modern all-arms warfare for the
British Army and where it began to learn to fight as a mass army, something the
continental armies had been doing since the outset of the war. BothVerdun and the
Somme also laid bare the effects of industrialisation on war. Fighting was now
shaped by the pace of factory production and by its most obvious output, artillery.