What If ......?

[Guest Hussar]

Recently re-reading 'The First Day of the Somme' a thought crossed my mind ( didn't have far to travel!! )

What if the weather had held and the attack had gone ahead, as planned, on the 29th of June?

Might the assault have been more successful?

Taking into account the demoralising effects of the postponement, the added stress of further waiting, the fatigue of having to withdraw from the jump off positions then march back again later and the reduction in the intensity of the bombardment due to it's extension.

[Guest Ian Bowbrick]

Or would have the British suffered the same problems as they did at Cambrai a year later?

Ian

[dah]

Hussar,

I am by no means fully versed on the many factors involved - but here are a few thoughts that occur to me.

The French will have suffered the same inconveniences of postponement, but managed to do 'comparatively' well (will I get shot for saying that ?).

The German wire facing the British was (presumably) as uncut on 29th June as on 1st July.

The blowing of the Hawthorn mine and cessation of British artillery at 7.20am was surely a decisive contributing factor to the debacle.

Seems to me that the Somme was an extremely painful part of the British army's learning curve....although history and the benefit of hindsight suggest (to me) that we should have learned the lessons before 1st July....and seemingly the lessons were not actually learned (or at least acted upon) until some considerable time later.

In other words, IMHO the 29th June would only have been a slightly different version of the same almighty cock-up.

David