What Did The British Learn At The Battle Of The Somme?

[mike475]

I'm really stuck on my History essay that's gotta be in tomorrow, so I was wondering if someone could tell me plain and simple; "What did the British learn at the end of the Battle Of The Somme?" I've done most of it except this and the conclusion.

Some rough examples of what they learnt maybe something about using weapons, or new tactics or something.

Cheers loads in advance for any help!
- Mike

[VerbalWhale]

That they suck and they needed the American's to win the war for them.

That pretty much sums that up in a nutshell.

[mike475]

Yeah I know that but my teacher would say "it needs to be real not your own opinion ...blah..blah..you suck...blah"

:D

[VerbalWhale]

That is real 100% true fact. The actuall convsation after it went as followed

'OmGrz, our army sucks ****, and couldnt hit a cows **** with a banjo'

'God damnit, looks like were going to have to call in the American scum, and let them rub it in our faces that they are bigger, better and more powerful than us for the next 100 years'

Use this post as a source in your essay ;) Your guaranteed full marks

[mike475]

Lol that made me chuckle!! If I could rep you I would!! Anyway heres what I came out with thanks to a good friend!

Some may say that the Battle Of The Somme was a success, and they have good reason to. This is because when the war ended, the British got some ideas for next time something like this may happen. Some of these are that they shouldnt push soldiers into certain death anymore, for example sending incorrectly trained soldiers to fight. And this brings up the fact that they need to train their troops better for example, giving lessons in first aid, how to handle things such as an attack, hostage taking etc.. They also learnt that they needed to communicate more, and leave decisions that needed an instant answer to men on the ground because they were there and knew what was happening.

:eusa_danc

Edit: I think I can!! Well I just did (I think!)

Cheers again anyway :D

[FlyingJesus]

That they suck and they needed the American's to win the war for them.

That pretty much sums that up in a nutshell.

Actually it was the Russians who did the most, they took on over 75% of the entire German army. Also if you knew anything about the war other than the worthless drivel that your over-patriotic leaders would have you believe, you'd know that the Americans did nothing to help with the Battle of the Somme, and actually did the least out of all combatants throughout the war. Even New Zealand did more.

edit: use http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Somme_(1916)) for reference, some good reading there.

[mohammed]

That they suck and they needed the American's to win the war for them.

That pretty much sums that up in a nutshell.
shut up imbecile.

[VerbalWhale]

shut up imbecile.

OH NO, SOMEONE IS INSULTING ME OVER THE INTERNET, WHAT EVER WILL I DO!?!?! [/shock horror]

Btw im not actually American, and as for my History knowlage, blame my History teacher, its what said as far as I know that the introduction of American troops turned the tide of the war on the Western Front, then again its only GCSE so its probably all propagandic ******** anyway...

[Mentor]

That it is possible to kill over a milliuon people in a day by sending wave over wave of them, carrieng hevey gear in to waves of fire from the german trench's which although were bombed were far better built than the british ones and were almost complety undamaged.

VerbalWhale: i think you actualy managed to avoide useing any facts in your statment? We didnt even win WW1 it was a cease fire. The amercans entered the war when it was already won.

FlyingJesus: i may be wrong but i think you got wrong war, Russia was involved in WW2, they mostly stayed out of ww1 which is the war in which the somme took place.

Also the americans caused ww2 by destroying the leage of nations in not joining, as although the forward thinking president of the time said this would happen, he got voted out as "the american people dont care what happens half way around the world"
And there lead the path to hitler and ww2.

The Americans only joined after the germans sank one of there boats anyway, they made billions of the war, selling wepons and equipments to BOTH sides... They also used the computeing equpment to help the germans, or at least the big computing companys of the time did, while the UK had collousus which was classifed at the time doing the same job over here, so 2/3 the war the americans were helping the germans, you could even say they stayed on boths good side, and then joined the one that was winning for the end...

[FlyingJesus]

Well if you want a good GCSE history grade don't say that it was the Americans who won it, because 1) it's a lie and 2) the examiners will be British.

@Mentor: quite true, got mixed up there. The Russians were in WWI but left when the Bolsheviks seized power

[Mentor]

We didnt win, it was a cease fire =.=

[mohammed]

lemme guess, your history teacher is a yank?

[VerbalWhale]

O dear jesus

You do know that the first two posts were all tounge in cheek? Right?

And as for the lead up to WW2, and the inability of the LoN to do anything about anything, thus leading to a rise of fascism as the big western powers would appease anyone to make sure communism didnt get its way, I could go all day on that.

[FlyingJesus]

If you're looking for a scapegoat for the rise of fascism, there's a theory that it all leads back to Plato in ancient Greece, as he was the first person to question the Athenian form of democracy.

[Janeisntpleased]

Actually it was the Russians who did the most, they took on over 75% of the entire German army. Also if you knew anything about the war other than the worthless drivel that your over-patriotic leaders would have you believe, you'd know that the Americans did nothing to help with the Battle of the Somme, and actually did the least out of all combatants throughout the war. Even New Zealand did more.

edit: use http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Somme_(1916)) for reference, some good reading there.

russia hardly did anything..
the best thing they did in the whole war was to mobilize quickly so germany had to face a war on two fronts.

anyway. i dont remember much about the somme, but it was a cease fire in the end, was it not?
i do remember that britain lost a hell of a lot of troops due to poor tactics from haig tho.

[Mentor]

Quickly he he, if i remember correctly (this is ww2) stalin had killed so many of his genrals the russian army was actualy unable to move at first, hence why he gave so much land to hitler at first and conceeded defeat.

When they did go, they went underequiped there were one gun and a few bullets to an entire group, untrained and had no tactics, the reason hitler got stuck here was due to the population sizes, since russias armt included a 10s of millions of soluders which are kinda overwelming especaly when your already fighting one war "/

[FlyingJesus]

Pretty good tactics I reckon, throw peasants at them until the other team runs out of men.