The Battle of the Somme lasted approximately four months with very little reward for Britain and her Allies. The casualties sustained by each side were monstrous; the Brit Military sustained 420,000 rubbed out and hurt, the French Military 200,000 and the Germans almost half-a-million.

The German squaddies were well dug in and tactically held the more expedient ground therefore it was plain a huge effort would be needed to make inroads into their lines. The plan was to lay down an artillery bombardment for seven days prior to the offensive. In addition, masses of mines were laid under the German ditches. It was supposed that the mines and artillery would generate such devastation, Allied Forces would simply need to walk through no mans land and take the trenches. Sadly, this was not the way things worked out.

For 7 days prior to the attack, a terrifying barrage was put down by the Alllies firing virtually 2 million shells. Having said that, the German ditches were dug deep into the earth delivering them with relative safety from the barrage. The mines did impose deaths as planned but mostly, the Germans had satisfactory time to make ready their defences once the artillery stopped and Britain and her Allies went OTT.

All along the line, the scenario was similar. Brave men went over the top and were fatally injured prior to getting anywhere close to their objectives. At Beaumont Hamel, only 68 of the 1st Newfoundland Regiment, ended the day uninjured out of about 800 men. At La Boisselle, the Tyneside Irish was actually destroyed as it attempted to advance more than 1 mile across open ground in full sight of German machine guns.

Even allowing for that there were some positive results. The French Military had made advances in the north and south of the lines. The 36th Ulster advanced on and took the Schwaben Redoubt as a result becoming actually one of the few to attain their main objective. Unfortunately , running out of ammunition, German counter attacks forced the Ulstermen to tug back later in the evening.

The 1st day of the Somme had cost Britain about 54,000 casualties, 21,000 of those being snuffed out. Now, the location of the Schwaben Redoubt is revealed by the Ulster Tower and close by at Thiepval, the Memorial to the Missing commemorates the names of about 70,000 men who fought at the Battle of the Somme.

The futility of ditch warfare in World War I are summed up by the 1st day of the Somme. Army tactics had been left at the back by advances in weapons technology and ended in the deaths of countless men.