"The First Battle of the Somme took place in northern France during the First World War from 1 July to 18 November 1916. The battle (not to be confused with the Second Battle of the Somme, aka Somme Offensive of 1918) was fought between German forces and the armies of Britain and France and their respective colonial forces. One of the bloodiest battles in history, there were 58,000 British and British Empire casualties on the first day alone, a figure unmatched during the entire war."
"The battle was originally designed as part of a wider Allied offensive but then developed into a diversionary operation to relieve pressure on the French Army troops at the huge and ongoing Battle of Verdun, located further along the Western Front, where the Germans were trying to capture the French fortress city of that name. It was the French high command that insisted the British attack the Somme area since it was the point at which the British and French front lines joined."
The First Battle of the Somme occurred in northern France from 1 July to 18 November 1916 between German forces and the British and French armies including colonial troops. The attack aimed to support a wider Allied offensive and to relieve pressure on French forces at Verdun, focusing on an 18-mile front from Gommecourt to Maricourt. The British Fourth Army under General Henry Rawlinson spearheaded the assault, supported by part of the Third Army under Lieutenant-General Edmund Allenby. Nineteen British Empire divisions from several dominions took part. The battle caused enormous casualties and produced minimal territorial gain, prolonging attritional warfare on the Western Front.
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