Why was 1st of July such a disaster?
There are many reasons why 1st July 1916 was a disaster.
By the first day of the battle, the Germans already had their trenches very well built. This gave them an advantage.
The British aim was to kill many Germans, weaken the army and take over the Germans well built trenches. The British wanted to do this with minimum casualties.
The German aim was to kill many British solders and to defend the trenches and to move forward and take over France. They wanted to kill as many people, so they didn’t care about casualties.
What happened
The brinish method was to take over and to kill many Germans. They bombarded German trenches for a week or more before the British solders to go over the top and take over the German trenches. This would happen at 7:30. When the British solders went over to the top, they did this because they wanted to get rid of the German gunners and get rid or damage the barbed wires that were on no man land. The British used a mine to destory a machine gun post at Hawthorn Redoubt.
What Went wrong – Strengths of the Germans
When the British bombarded them, they didn’t know that the Germans had underground bunkers that were built 40ft deep. So the British bombardment was all for nothing. The British also didn’t know that the Germans practised speedy machine guns assembly making them faster to get their machine guns ready. They came out of the bunkers when they heard the British coming. Also when the british mined Hawthron Redoubt. It left a huge crater which can still be seen today. This huge crater, which gave the germans gunners a better spot which killed many more British solders.
What went wrong
There was not enough knowledge about the Germans. Especially the strength of their trenches and about their 40ft deep underground bunkers.
When the Germans bombardment stopped at 7:20, Giving the Germans 10 minutes to get ready when the British solders would go over the top at 7:30
Not finish, but help please :(
