GERMANS LOSE FIVE TOWNS

JFK+50:  Volume 7, No. 2231

GERMANS IN RETREAT ON WESTERN FRONT

British Headquarters in France (JFK+50) 100 years ago today, February 25, 1917, the German army conducted the "greatest retirement" of the fighting on the Western Front in two years.

The Chicago Daily Tribune reported on February 26, 1917 that the British army had taken five French towns.  They included Pys, Serre, Miraumont, Petit Miraumont and Butte de Warlencourt.

The Tribune said that it was estimated that the German retreat extended to a depth as far as three miles as British patrols harassed them.  The newspaper also speculated that there was the distinct possibility that the British would be able to force the evacuation of Bapaume* described as "the key to the German position since the beginning of the Battle of the Somme**."

*Bapaume, a farming & light industrial town, is located in northern France.  It was one of the strategic objectives of the Allies in 1916.  The city was occupied by Germans on Sept 26, 1914, by the British on March 17, 1917, & by the Germans once more on March 24, 1918.

**After the loss of a considerable amount of ground to the British 5th Army in Feb 1917, the German armies on the Somme were ordered to withdraw to reserve lines closer to Bapaume.

SOURCE

"Germans Lose Five Towns, Somme Lines Break Before British Drive," The Chicago Daily Tribune, February 26, 1917, www.archives.chicagotribune.com/

Germans Leave Bapaume

August/September 1918

German Federal Archives Photo

A Young German Sommekampfer

German Federal Archives Photo (1916)

THE TANK INTRODUCED AT BATTLE OF THE SOMME

JFK+50:  Volume 6, No. 2070

BRITISH USE MECHANICAL MONSTERS ON WESTERN FRONT

The Western Front, France  (JFK+50) One hundred years ago today, September 15, 1916, the British army sent into battle against the Germans thirty-five tanks*, described by signal officer Bert Chaney as "mechanical monsters."

Chaney describes the scene for Eye Witness to History...

"My first impression was that they looked ready to topple on their noses (but) it was most heartening to watch their advance."

Two of the three tanks in Chaney's sector soon met with problems.  One got caught on a tree stump while a second had its rear steering wheels shot off.  A third, however, continued on and "flattened everything."

The idea of "combing the caterpillar track of an American tractor with an iron-clad machine that could straddle enemy trenches" was envisioned one year earlier.  With the war bogged down on the Western Front, the tank, it was hoped, would give the British the capability of breaking through German lines.

Winston Churchill created the Landship Committee in February 1915 but by June the project was shared by the War Office and Admiralty.  The term landship, thought to be too descriptive, was replaced by tank (as in water tank) and the factory workers were told that what they were producing.

In its premier outing, however, while the tank demonstrated promise, it mostly performed poorly due to mechanical failures and ineffective battlefield tactics.

*50 tanks were available but the British employed only 35 at the Battle of the Somme on Sept 15, 1916.  Each of the 30 ton tanks had a four-man crew & two cannons mounted on their sides.


SOURCES

"Tank 100," The Tank Museum, www.tankmuseum.org/

"The Battlefield Debut of the Tank, 1916," Eyewitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/

British Mark V Tank

WORST DAY IN BRITISH MILITARY HISTORY

JFK+50:  Volume 6, No. 1997

BATTLE OF THE SOMME BEGAN 100 YEARS AGO 

Theipval Memorial, Northern France (JFK+50) One hundred years ago today, July 1, 1916, the British army lost 19,240 soldiers in the first day of fighting of the Battle of the Somme*.  It remains the "worst day in British military history."

According to Sophie Long of the BBC, ten thousand people attended a ceremony today here at Theipval Memorial** in honor of the 100th anniversary of the first day of the Battle of the Somme.  Back in the UK, after a two minute silence, the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery fired guns from Parliament Square lasting 100 seconds.

The Battle of the Somme was fought along the River Somme in northern France.  After five months of fighting in which more than a million soldiers on both sides were killed or wounded, the British advanced only seven miles and were unable to break the German defenses.

*Battle of the Somme (July 1 to Nov 18, 1916) was the largest battle of WWI on the Western Front & one of the bloodiest battles in world history.  

**The Theipval Memorial, located near the village Theipval, Picardy in northern France, was built between 1928 & 1932.  It was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens & memorializes 72,246 missing British servicemen from the Battle of the Somme of WWI.

Following is the inscription on the memorial...

"Here are recorded names of officers and men of the British armies who fell on the Somme battlefields...but due to the fortunes of war denied the known and honoured burial given to their comrades in death."


SOURCES

"At the Theipval Memorial ceremony," by Sophie Long, BBC News, www.bbc.com/

"Battle of the Somme:  Royals at Somme centenary commemoration," BBC News, www.bbc.com/

Theipval Memorial

Northern France

Photo by Chris Hartford

from London, UK (2005)