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The Battle of the Somme (French: Bataille de la Somme; German: Schlacht an der Somme), also known as the Somme offensive, was a major battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and the French Third Republic against the German Empire.
As the highest point on the 1916 Somme battlefield, the town was a vital objective – whichever side controlled it would have unimpeded views of much of the enemy front. The Allies expected to capture the town (and beyond) on 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, but three weeks later it was still firmly in German hands.
The Battle of the Somme was an offensive fought on the Western Front during World War I from 1 July to 18 November 1916 as one of the greatest engagements of the war. It was fought between French , British and Dominion forces and the German Empire in the Somme River valley and vicinity in northern France .
The first day on the Somme (1 July 1916) was the beginning of the Battle of Albert (1–13 July) the name given by the British to the first two weeks of the Battle of the Somme (1 July–18 November) in the First World War.
The Somme (UK: / s ɒ m / SOM, US: / s ʌ m / SUM; [1] [2] French: ⓘ) is a river in Picardy, northern France. The river is 245 km (152 mi) in length, from its source in the high ground of the former Arrouaise Forest [ fr ] at Fonsomme near Saint-Quentin , to the Bay of the Somme , in the English Channel .
The 1st Army held the Somme front from the River Somme north to Gommecourt and had a similar number of troops to the British opposite, with ten divisions in reserve. [2] [a] On the night of 1/2 January, a German attack captured Hope Post near the Beaumont Hamel–Serre road, before being lost along with another post on the night of 5/6 January. [3]
The British Third and Fourth armies, together with nine corps of the French Sixth Army, would attack the German 2nd Army in an area stretching from Foucaucourt south of the River Somme northwards beyond the River Ancre, to Serre and Gommecourt, 3.2 kilometres (2 mi) beyond. The objective of the attack was to capture the German first and second ...
The Second Battle of the Somme of 1918 was fought during the First World War on the Western Front from late August to early September, in the basin of the River Somme. It was part of a series of successful counter-offensives in response to the German Spring Offensive , after a pause for redeployment and supply.