French casualties on 1 July 1916

[Footsore Private]

Greetings Forum!

Looking for sources for French casualties on 1 July 1916 noting the XX Corps attack north of the Somme and the XXXV and I Colonial Corps attack south of the Somme were both successful in reaching their objectives.

Thank you!

 

 

[PhilC]

In William Philpott's 'Bloody Victory: The Sacrifice on the Somme and the Making of the Twentieth Century' he quotes Brigadier- General Seely's 'Adventures' in which Seely stated that Foch told him that the French had suffered 1590 casualties on 1 July.

Elizabeth Greenhalgh in her 'The French Army and the First World War' gives a bit more detail, but not much and doesn't give the source for her figures:

"At 7.30am on 1 July, at the same time as the British, XX Corps began its assault of the German positions in the narrow sector north of the river and in two days of fighting overran the whole first position defences at a cost of about 800 casualties. South of the river, I Colonial Corps too overran the German first position and by nightfall on the first day was poised ready to attack the second position. The southernmost corps suffered more casualties because of its place on the flank of the operation, but like its neighbour, XXXV Corps took all its objectives in the German front line. The opening moves were a huge success, and Joffre was delighted."

There is a bit of a discrepancy between Greenhalgh's figures and those of Foch as, if XX Corps suffered about 800 casualties and XXXV Corps had more, then you would expect total casualties to be in excess of Foch's figure but I wouldn't think the actual figure would be all that much different.

 

[phil andrade]

A fair reckoning might be that the French suffered fewer casualties that day than the number of prisoners they captured.  I would be surprised, though, if they were as low as Foch claimed.

Phil

Edited 14 September , 2023 by phil andrade

[phil andrade]

This might help. From an interesting and remarkably bold re-assessment of the Somme, and it’s place in the wide geo-strategic context of the war, on page 295 of Benoit Chenu’s book,

 

1916. The Battle of the Five Empires, 15 May- 27 September 1916. :

” On the French side, the losses of these first two days appeared very low compared to a success that appeared spectacular. The five divisions involved counted only a few hundred killed and three thousand wounded, the majority of whom were only slightly wounded.”

Chenu is the great grandson of General de Castlenau, and possessed of access to archives that affords him a privileged outlook.

One might assume from his citation a total of three and a half thousand French casualties in the first two days, and perhaps it’s fair to attribute the greater part of these to the first day. Two thousand at a minimum, I would opine. 
 

More solid statistics are provided by the official French History of the Army in the Great War, which reveals a total of 49,859 casualties for the month of July in the Battle of the Somme.  That implies a daily average of  1,608.  It’s hard to believe that the momentous first day, for all its success, entailed fewer French casualties than the daily average for the whole month.

 

Phil

 

Edited 14 September , 2023 by phil andrade