![]() ![]() ![]() The British troops on the Somme comprised a mixture of the remains of the pre-war army, the Territorial Force and Kitchener's Army, a force of wartime volunteers. When the Imperial German Army began the Battle of Verdun on the Meuse on 21 February 1916, French commanders diverted many of the divisions intended for the Somme and the "supporting" attack by the British became the principal effort. Initial plans called for the French army to undertake the main part of the Somme offensive, supported on the northern flank by the Fourth Army of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). The Allies agreed upon a strategy of combined offensives against the Central Powers in 1916 by the French, Russian, British and Italian armies, with the Somme offensive as the Franco-British contribution. The French and British had committed themselves to an offensive on the Somme during the Chantilly Conference in December 1915. More than three million men fought in the battle and one million men were wounded or killed, making it one of the deadliest battles in human history. The battle was intended to hasten a victory for the Allies. It took place between 1 July and 18 November 1916 on both sides of the upper reaches of the Somme, a river in France. The Battle of the Somme, also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and French Third Republic against the German Empire. ![]()
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