Introduction

Medieval warfare ended on the 1^st July 1916. The battle of the Somme began with British soldiers being used as human battering rams. Its failure was so devastating warfare transitioned into modernity.¹ Modern warfare then pivoted from battlefields to slaughtering civilians.

Discussion

The attack began with a week-long bombardment of German positions. This was the prelude to a mass infantry advance across No Man’s Land. The Germans slaughtered British soldiers with machine guns.

First world war generals were notorious for being ‘bone-headed’. British soldiers said their army was, ‘Lions led by Donkeys’. But even the generals were shocked by the unprecedented carnage. On July 1^st, the first day of the attack, the British suffered 57,470 casualties. They were volunteer soldiers fighting for ‘King and Country’.

Allied combatants plus the Germans suffered one million casualties during three and half months of battle. A third of all soldiers were casualties.³

The tactical failure of the Somme had a political outcome in Britain. David Lloyd-George become prime minister in 1916.⁴ The army were now under a powerful democratic leader. Pure attrition was abandoned and soldiers were supported with technology. Tanks were used from 1917, with chemical warfare – mustard gas – also in 1917. Carnage was unacceptable as a tactic.  Attrition warfare is, ‘We’ve got more men than they have and so we can bleed them dry!’⁵

Modern warfare

The 1^st of July 1916 ended medieval warfare. Warfare became technological. Battlefields became as quaint as castles and cavalry charges. Atrocities like Hiroshima, 1945, are factored into military thinking. The current Russia-Ukraine war is so technical that soldiers are a subsidiary to technology. Russia does include attacks by soldiers but they rely on drone attacks. These are designed to destroy civilian morale.

The battle of the Somme was the stepping stone to technological warfare.

Notes

1 Battle of the Somme – Wikipedia

2 This was open land between the trench systems

3 The incredibly powerful TV series Blackadder Goes Forth illustrates the despair that the soldiers had. Blackadder Goes Forth – Wikipedia

4 David Lloyd George – Wikipedia

5 Battle of Verdun – Wikipedia This battle lasted eleven months in 1916 and the intention  was to bleed Germany dry. This was a French-German battle