Troops, Battles, & Casualities
Madison Chessare
British Soldiers - Tommys -
Battles Fought in
The Battle of Cambrai, 1917
The Battle of the Somme, 1916
On the 1st July, 1916, after the "Big Push" attack across the river Somme. The French army was in Verdun, the British intended to breakthrough the German defences in a matter of hours. When the attack began the Germans left the trenches and basically destroyed the large amounts of the British Soldiers. After the first day, with a gain of only 1.5km, the British had suffered 57,470 casualties. Although war general Butcher Haig continued with the attack until November 19th of the same year. Due to the battle, British had 419,654 casualties with German casualties between 450,000 and 680,000. Finally after it was over the British were still 3 miles short of Bapaume and Serre, with was "part of their first-day objectives."
German Soldiers - Prussians -
Battles Fought In
The Battle of Verdun, 1916
The Battles of Ypres, 1914, 1915, 1917
The First Battle of Ypres
The first Battle of Ypres took place between October 30th and November 24th, 1914. British, French and Belgian troops were outnumbered by the Germans who were trying to get to the English Channel. The Allies won the battle after 34 days of fighting, it started trench warfare on the western front.
The Second Battle of Ypres
The second battle took place between April 22nd and May 25th, 1915. The Germans used a new weapon, gas. They used poisonous chlorine gas, it was heavier than air and flowed over the ground and into allied trenches. After five weeks of fighting the battle was going nowhere for either side, the Germans ended it. The Allies had 60,000 casualties, the Germans had a total of 35,000 casualties.
The Third Battle of Ypres
The third battle took place between July 31st and November 10th, 1917. On June 17, the British took the village of Messines. Between July 31 - November 10, an extreme amount of rainfall and artillery fire made the battlefield into a muddy swamp. It was almost impossible to march across. The Germans, who were in concrete bunkers, killed a lot of the Allied troops with mustard gas and machine guns. The Canadians eventually took the village of Passchendale after months of fighting. The Allies then stopped their offensive. In the end the Allies only gained 8km, the casualties totaled 250,000 soldiers for each side.