125th Infantry Division The Fourth Army was formed on 5 February 1916 under the command of General Sir Henry Rawlinson to carry out the main British contribution to the Battle of the Somme . 3rd Colonial Infantry Division [28], The Battle of Fromelles was a subsidiary attack to support the Fourth Army on the Somme 80km (50mi) to the south, to exploit any weakening of the German defences opposite. The high Allied casualties of July 1916 are not representative of the way attrition turned in the Allies' favour in September, although this was not sustained as the weather deteriorated. Haig was not formally subordinate to Marshal Joseph Joffre but the British played a lesser role on the Western Front and complied with French strategy. Initial plans called for the French army to undertake the main part of the Somme offensive, supported on the northern flank by the Fourth Army of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). [25], The Battle of Albert was the first two weeks of Anglo-French offensive operations in the Battle of the Somme. ", "Battle of the Somme to be commemorated with two-minute silence", "Thousands gather in Manchester to mark Battle of the Somme centenary recap", "Cinema, spectatorship and propaganda: 'Battle of the Somme' (1916) and its contemporary audience", "Learning War's Lessons: The German Army and the Battle of the Somme 1916", "X. Haig versus Rawlinson-Manoeuvre versus Attrition: The British Army on the Somme, 1916", "Historiographical Essay on the Battle of the Somme", "The Somme from the German side of the wire (From The Northern Echo)", "The Somme in Oral Histories of the First World War: Veterans 19141918", Records and images from the UK Parliament Collections, Battle of the Somme, maps and photo essay, The British Army in the Great War: The Battles of the Somme, 1916, Experience of the German First Army in the Somme Battle, 24 June 26 November 1916, Below F., pp. the Dorsetshire Regiment raised eleven battalions, whilst the London Regiment managed to raise eighty-eight battalions). [76], Doughty wrote that French losses on the Somme were "surprisingly high" at 202,567 men, 54 per cent of the 377,231 casualties at Verdun. The German offensive at Verdun was intended to threaten the capture of the city and induce the French to fight an attrition battle, in which German advantages of terrain and firepower would cause the French disproportionate casualties.

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