battle of the sommes first only tank battle

Following a tradition well-established since the Crimea, the War had, of course, been the subject of intense written and graphic journalistic interest from its first weeks and was immediately represented in the daily and weekly illustrated press by photographs, sketch maps, artists’ impressions and, eventually, cartoons. It also saw the first battlefield presence of British Official War Artists 2, Official War Photographers and Official War Cinematographers 3 whose efforts combined to create the extensive―and cohesive and censored― representation of the battle offered to the British people, their allies and neutral states.ģIn this paper, we will examine the ways in which the visual representation of the Somme was organised in and by the British press. From a technical point of view, the Somme saw the first use of tanks at Flers-Courcelette and the biggest yet recorded artillery barrage by some 1500 BEF guns in the 8-day softening-up bombardment that preceded the July 1 st dawn assault. A significant number of the British victims were volunteer members of Pals units of Kitchener’s New Army and their loss had devastating results on small-town communities at home 1. More than 500,000 German and 200,000 French soldiers were also killed or wounded.

There were 58,000 British Expeditionary Forces casualties on the first day, a third of them killed and 420,000 BEF casualties by the end of the Battle. Fighting along an initial front 30 km long the Allies gained only 12 km of territory over the four and a half months of fighting, and this was at great cost. 3 The film, The Battle of the Somme, sponsored by the War Office and shot by Geoffrey Malins was mad (.)ĢThe Somme was, and remains, startling in its figures and “firsts” 53 of the 56 Divisions of the British Army in 1916 fought on the Somme and the Battle also involved troops from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India and South Africa.

2 The first Official War Artist was Muirhead Bone, appointed in May 1916 and sent to “cover” the Som (.).

1 The Accrington Pals lost 584 killed, wounded or missing out of 784 on the first day of the Battle, (.).

Battle of the sommes first only tank battle