Keegan: Face of Battle - The Somme

Question 1

Where does the Somme take its name?

Answer 1

From the river.

Question 2

How does Keegan introduce the Somme region?

Answer 2

Slow-moving, like the river, like the pace of life, which moves through the primary crop, sugar beets.

Question 3

What time is presented in the introduction?

Answer 3

The present. As the sugar beet fields are plowed after harvest, shells are unearthed for careful disposal. It seems that more shells surface here than anywhere else.

Question 4

The Somme captures the imagination of which nation?

Answer 4

The British. Unlike Ypres, they had some triumphs among the miseries. They introduced tanks (September 15, 1916), and two years later had the first great armored breakthrough.

Question 5

When did the Battle of the Somme start? Where?

Answer 5

July 1, 1916 at the battle of Albert.

Question 6

Before the Battle of the Somme started was this an active sector?

Answer 6

No, the French and the Germans has been content to have it as a quiet sector.

Question 7

Did the French and British think there were many favorable locations for a major attack in 1915?

Answer 7

No, between the terrain and well-defended positions, only the Somme, Artois, and Champaign were suitable. Early action in Artois and Champaign were unsuccessful.

Question 8

Who was Joseph Joffre?

Answer 8

The commander-in-chief of the French Army during World War I from 1914-1916

Question 9

Why did Joffre insist on an attack at the earliest possible date?

Answer 9

To relieve the pressure on the French on Verdun, where they were losing men in a war of attrition.

Question 10

Who was Joffre’s British counterpart?

Answer 10

Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig. During the First World War he commanded the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the Western Front from late 1915 until the end of the war.

Question 11

What was the key to the proposed plan?

Answer 11

Artillery bombardment up to the limit of Effective Fire, which meant Observable Fire. That is, approximately 4000 yards in front of the front trench, because he had to see where to direct the shells.

Question 12

What was a unique feature of the British enlistments?

Answer 12

Battalions built on Pals. That is, groups of volunteers who volunteered together. They typically came from the same workplace, church, civic association, sporting club, etc. They were promised that they would be able to serve together.

Question 13

What was the New Army?

Answer 13

Also known as Kitchener’s Army, an all-volunteer portion of the British Army formed in the United Kingdom from 1914. It originated on the recommendation of Herbert Kitchener, then the Secretary of State for War to obtain 500,000 volunteers for the Army. Kitchener disagreed with the popular belief that the war would be over by Christmas 1914, and instead predicted a long and brutal war, so he raised large numbers of volunteers.

Question 14

According to Keegan, how did the New Army transform 20th century Britain.

Answer 14

Mixing officers from different, more genteel parts of the country with the poor transformed middle-class attitudes towards the poor.

Question 16

Was the New Army well-trained?

Answer 16

No. Many divisions were unable to issue a rifle to every infantryman until just weeks before they were sent to France, so their training was often little more than marching.

Question 16

What caused most wounds?

Answer 16

Artillery. Typically bullets caused 30% of new wounds (probably more on the first day of the Somme because the machine gunners had many targets).

Question 16

If the British depended on a complex artillery barrage for their attack, what did the Germans depend on for their defense?

Answer 16

Machine guns.

Question 17

Did the British use gas in the initial bombardment?

Answer 17

Yes, Chlorine gas.

Question 17

Was the British initial bombardment successful?

Answer 17

No. The Germans were able to retreat into deep holes, and while the British fired many shells, most of the German machine guns survived to do great damage to the British infantry.

Question 18

Which army appeared to make the most progress with surgical techniques?

Answer 18

The British, who improved on the French triage techniques. Some soldiers were sent to hospitals in the rear, some were operated on immediately, and others were left to die.

Question 19

When did the Battle of the Somme end?

Answer 19

November 18.

Question 20

How many casualties?

Answer 20

419,654 British, 200,000 French, unknown German.

Question 21

What does Keegan say is the principal memorial which the Somme left the British Nation?

Answer 21

Intellectual and Literary, stemming from the realization (previously shielded by their Navy) that war could threaten with death the young manhood of a whole nation.