1. The Battle of the Somme lasted nearly five months

© IWM Art.IWM ART 3006

The Battle of the Somme was one of the most bitterly contested and costly battles of the First World War, lasting nearly five months. Despite this, it is often the first day of the battle that is most remembered. The offensive began on 1 July 1916 after a week-long artillery bombardment of the German lines. Advancing British troops found that the German defences had not been destroyed as expected and many units suffered very high casualties with little progress.

The Somme became an attritional or ‘wearing-out’ battle. On 15 September, tanks were used for the first time with some success, but they did not bring a breakthrough any closer. Operations on the River Ancre continued with some gains, but in deteriorating weather conditions major operations on the Somme ended on 18 November. Over the course of the battle, British forces took a strip of territory 6 miles (10km) deep by 20 miles (32km) long.

2. There were over a million casualties

Image: IWM (CO 915)

As an attritional offensive, the Battle of the Somme involved heavy casualties on both sides. By the end of the first day on 1 July 1916, British forces had suffered 57,470 casualties, of whom 19,240 were killed. This represented the largest losses suffered by the British Army in a single day. 

While casualty rates were not as high as that for the remainder of the offensive, they were consistently heavy as both sides fought intensively for every yard of ground within a relatively small geographical area.

In total over a million men from both sides – including Britain and her Empire forces, France and Germany – became casualties during the battle.

3. It was the first major battle of Britain’s new volunteer army

Image: IWM (Q 53)

The Battle of the Somme saw the first involvement in battle of many men who had volunteered for Army service in 1914 and 1915. This included men who had joined Pals battalions – infantry units that were made up of friends, relatives and workmates from the same communities.

After around a year of training, most of these men began to see active service from late 1915 and early 1916, particularly on the Western Front. As a result, the Battle of the Somme, the largest offensive the British Army had yet launched, was the first to be fought by a largely citizen army made up of civilian volunteers rather than professional soldiers. This meant that many of the attacking British infantry did not have battlefield experience. As one French officer wrote on 10 July 1916, ‘The British…infantry… is very brave but undergoing a costly apprenticeship’.

4. The British Army gained valuable experience

Image: IWM (Q 2487)

Although the British Army suffered heavy casualties for relatively little territorial gain on the Somme, the battle has increasingly been seen as important in providing experience that later contributed to victory on the Western Front. 

During the course of nearly five months of fighting on the Somme, an inexperienced citizen army began to evolve into a battle-hardened one. The same was also true of British commanders, who had never previously commanded troops on this scale before. Improvements were made in the use of artillery and infantry tactics, and new weapons, including tanks, began to be integrated in the British Army’s methods. This came at a very high cost in casualties, but proved equally costly for the German Army, which began to realise that the British Army was becoming a major opponent.

5. 20 million people saw film footage from the battle

An official documentary film, The Battle of the Somme, was the first feature-length film to record soldiers in action. It was filmed by the official cinematographers Geoffrey Malins and John McDowell, who filmed the build-up and early days of the battle.

When the film was shown in cinemas from 21 August 1916, an estimated 20 million people saw it in the first months of its release.

Many hoped to glimpse a son, brother, father or friend. It was intended to show that the ‘Big Push’ had been a success and that British soldiers were well supplied and cared for. The later phases of the Somme offensive were also represented in a follow up film, The Battle of the Ancre and the Advance of the Tanks, released in 1917

The most storied Black combat unit of World War I

On the Western Front of World War I, death did not discriminate.

Artillery screaming towards the trenches treated men of all color the same. But the soldiers of the 92nd and 93rd divisions lived segregated lives both in and out of war.

These all-Black units, which served under mostly white officers, readily took up arms with their fellow Americans, hopeful that their patriotism and service would lead to better treatment at home.

In the end, the Harlem Hellfighters, as they were likely first dubbed by their German adversaries, spent more time in continuous combat than any other American unit of its size, with 191 days in the front-line trenches, according to the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

The unit also suffered 1,400 total casualties, more than any other American regiment. Many of those soldiers are buried or memorialized at American military cemeteries overseas managed by the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC).

More than 350,000 African Americans served in the Great War. The majority were assigned to labor and stevedore battalions—digging ditches, building roads and supplying the front lines.

Throughout the course of WWI, only about one in 10 African Americans in the U.S. military served in a combat role based on leadership decisions at the time.

The 369th Infantry Regiment of the 93rd Division, formerly the 15th New York National Guard Regiment, was unique.

The 369th landed at Brest, France, in December of 1917.

In March of 1918, the regiment began training under French command due to their need for replacements.

Despite the expectation that this arrangement would be temporary, members of the 369th never served under American command during the war.

By summer, they were fighting in the Champagne-Marne Defensive and the Aisne-Marne Offensive.

It would be then that the Harlem Hellfighters would see grisly combat during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, which began on Sept. 26, 1918.

As the 369th advanced, capturing towns and a key railroad junction, the losses mounted. In a matter of days, these advances cost the regiment 851 men, and shortly after they were relieved from the front lines.

In recognition of their bravery during the offensive, 171 officers and men received medals and the entire regiment received the Croix de Guerre from France.
 

The 369th returned to a huge victory parade in New York in February of 1919.

Thousands gathered along 5th Avenue and 42nd Street, outside the New York Public Library,  welcoming home the brave soldiers. The division was even featured prominently on the cover of the Sunday New York Times.

But despite this celebration, little to nothing changed in their day-to-day lives. It would take another world war, and decades of civil rights activism before the hopes of these African American doughboys would start to be realized.

In fact, the inequalities experienced by these brave men are still being remedied today. Legislation passed by Congress in 2014 paved the way for Pvt. Henry Johnson, a Harlem Hellfighter with the 369th, to receive the Medal of Honor. And in 2020, the Army Center of Military History approved the official special designation of the Harlem Hellfighters.

There are 169 members of the 369th Infantry Regiment, 93rd Division, buried or memorialized at ABMC cemeteries. The majority are at Meuse-Argonne, but also at Aisne-Marne, Oise-Aisne, St. Mihiel and Suresnes American cemeteries.

Among the more than 14,000 total American soldiers buried at Meuse-Argonne is Freddie Stowers, a member of the 93rd Division, 371st Infantry Regiment, and the first African American to receive the Medal of Honor from WWI.

As at all ABMC sites, the cemeteries are integrated. Race, rank, gender or creed had no determination on burial location and every day the fallen are remembered for their selfless sacrifice.