Somme

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Somme

Coat of arms of the Somme department
Location

Administration
Department number:	80
Region:	Picardie
Prefecture:	Amiens
Subprefectures:	Abbeville Montdidier Péronne
Arrondissements:	4
Cantons:	46
Communes:	783
President of the General Council:	Daniel Dubois
Statistics
Population	Ranked 40th
-1999	555,551
Population density:	90/km²
Land area¹:	6170 km²

¹ French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km².

The Somme is a department of France, located in the north of the country and named after the Somme river. It is part of the Picardie region of France.

The Somme was the site of many great battles in World War I and the department is home to a number of military cemeteries and to several major monuments commemorating the many soldiers from various countries who died on its battlefields.

1 Battles of the Somme
2 See also
3 Other
4 External links

[edit] Battles of the Somme

Main article: Battle of the Somme

In 1916 the Somme was the location of one of the largest battles of World War I, with over a million casualties (the British Army had suffered 420,000 casualties including nearly 60,000 on the first day alone. The French lost 200,000 men and the Germans nearly 500,000). It is one of the bloodiest battles in human history. The Allied forces attempted to break through the German lines along a 25-mile (40 km) front north and south of the River Somme in northern France. The Allies had originally intended the Somme to be the site of one of several simultaneous major offensives by Allied powers against the Central Powers in 1916. However, before these offensives could begin, the Germans attacked first, engaging the Allies at the Battle of Verdun. As this battle dragged on, the purpose of the Somme campaign (which was still in the planning stage) shifted from striking a decisive blow against Germany to drawing German forces away from Verdun and relieving the Allied forces there. By its end the losses on the Somme had exceeded those at Verdun.

While Verdun would bite deep in the national consciousness of France for generations, the Somme would have the same effect on generations of Britons. The battle is best remembered for its first day, 1 July 1916, on which the British suffered 57,420 casualties, including 19,240 dead — the second bloodiest day in the history of the British Army to this day (after Towton). As terrible as the battle was for the British Empire troops who suffered there, it naturally affected the other nationalities as well. One German officer famously described it as "the muddy grave of the German field army." By the end of the battle, the British had learned many lessons in modern warfare while the Germans had suffered irreplaceable losses. British historian Sir James Edmonds stated, "It is not too much to claim that the foundations of the final victory on the Western Front were laid by the Somme offensive of 1916."

For the first time the home front in Britain was exposed to the horrors of modern war with the release of the propaganda film The Battle of the Somme, which used actual footage from the first days of the battle.

The Somme experienced war twice more in the First and Second Battles of the Somme of 1918.