Gruesome World War I Diary Unearthed: First-Hand Account of Somme's Bloodiest Battle Revealed in UK Hoard
“Something awful,” wrote Diggens on that fateful day. “Never witnessed anything like it before. After a bombardment of a week the Germans mounted their own trenches and the infantry reckon that every German had a machine gun. Our fellows were mowed down.”
Jacob King/PA Images/Getty ImagesMilitary history expert Adrian Stevenson of Hansons Auctioneers holds Pvt. Arthur Edward Diggens’ diary.
The Battle of the Somme began in July and ended on Nov. 18, 1916. Allied commanders had met the previous December to settle on strategies for the next year, when they agreed on a joint French and British attack near the River Somme that upcoming summer.
With the French taking heavy tolls at Verdun throughout 1916, it fell to the Brits to spearhead the action on the Somme. The Germans were well prepared, and had carefully laid out defenses for months prior to the battle. The Brits expected a quick breakthrough, but rapidly became entrenched.
To clarify just how deadlocked the bloody battle became, it took British troops 141 days to advance just seven miles. More than one million soldiers from all sides were either killed, wounded, or captured. The first day of battle saw 57,000 British casualties. 19,240 of them died.
It was the bloodiest day in British military history. In terms of how some British people view 20th-century combat, the Battle of the Somme is symbolic of the hopeless futility of war.
On the other hand, commanders learned valuable lessons on the Somme — without which they may have never been able to help win the war in 1918.
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