First Day On The Somme - Plans

Plans

The British plan for the Somme offensive was to achieve a breakthrough that could be exploited by cavalry. Once the German front was penetrated, a mobile force would sweep north towards Arras, rolling up the German line. However, the British had insufficient experience in trench warfare to be prepared for the battle becoming attritional.

The Allies were confronted by three lines of German defences, the first two being complete while the third was still under construction. The approximate centre line of the battlefield was defined by the Roman road that ran straight from Albert in the west to Bapaume in the east. The Somme River ran east–west some 5 miles (8.0 km) south of the road.

The main attack was to be carried out by the Fourth Army under the command of General Sir Henry Rawlinson. A diversionary attack was to be made on the northern flank by two divisions of General Edmund Allenby's Third Army. When the breakthrough was achieved, the exploitation phase would be carried out by the three cavalry divisions of General Sir Hubert Gough's Reserve Army. For all three men, the Somme would be their first battle in command of an army.

The main French effort would be carried out by the French Sixth Army of General Marie Émile Fayolle. The southern-most French army on the Somme was the French Tenth Army of General Alfred Micheler which would play a small role in the battle. These two armies were part of the French Northern Army Group, commanded by General Ferdinand Foch from 3 July 1916.

The natural division between the British and French forces would have been the wide marshland along the Somme River but instead the French commander-in-chief, General Joseph Joffre, placed the French XX Corps north of the Somme alongside the southernmost Fourth Army unit (the British XIII Corps) so that the British were unable to act independently.

The British and French on the Somme were confronted by the German Second Army of General Fritz von Below. The Germans became aware of preparations for an Allied offensive in April but were dismissive of the threat posed by the British forces, considering them of "limited combat value". However, by June the developments were sufficiently alarming for von Below to request permission to mount a preemptive attack to disrupt the Allied plans. However, on 4 June the Russians launched the Brusilov Offensive and the Germans were required to send forces to the east to answer the growing crisis. Consequently few troops could be spared on the Somme; four divisions plus artillery were the only reinforcements provided.

Therefore, von Below had only six divisions manning the front and four and a half in reserve when the Allied offensive was launched by 13 British and six French divisions.