The Battle of the Somme Through German Eyes

‘We knew that this time we were on the verge of a battle such as the world had never seen. Soon our excited talk rose to a pitch that would have rejoiced the hearts of any freebooters, or of Frederick’s grenadiers. A few days later there were very few of that party still alive.’

Everyone is familiar with the story of the Battle of the Somme: on the morning of Saturday 1 July 1916 the finest army that Great Britain ever produced climbed out of their trenches and jauntily walked towards the German lines. In a few terrible, blood-soaked minutes they were mown down in their tens of thousands by merciless German machinegun fire – the flower of an entire generation lost, lions led by donkeys. The Somme was the worst defeat Britain ever suffered, a tragic lesson in history – but is this true? If it was then why did one German staff officer of the time write that ‘the Somme was the muddy grave of the German field army’?

In truth the Battle of the Somme didn’t end on that fateful Saturday but continued for over four months as the astounding German victory of 1 July gradually evolved into a shattering defeat that would alter German strategy for the rest of the war. It would see the core of their army in the West gradually ground into the mud. The mass of histories on the battle have focused on the British experience, and especially on the tragedy of 1 July, but the German side has been largely forgotten. This is the story of the German soldiers who manned those deadly machineguns on 1 July and who were then forced to fight a losing battle until its remorseless end.