By the end of the day, 20,000 British, Canadian and Irish men and boys would never again see home, and a further 40,000 would lie maimed and injured.īut why was this battle of World War I fought in the first place? For months the French had been taking severe losses at Verdun to the east of Paris, and so Allied High Command decided to divert German attention by attacking them further north at the Somme. ‘Pals’ from towns and cities across Britain and Ireland, who had volunteered together only months earlier, would rise from their trenches and walk slowly towards the German front-line entrenched along a 15-mile stretch of northern France. On 1st July 1916 at around 7.30 in the morning, whistles were blown to signal the start of what would be the bloodiest day in the history of the British Army. July 1 st 1916 – the bloodiest day in the history of the British Army The Battle of the Somme
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