Try. The only substantial British success on the first day was in the south where, helped by a creeping barrage and an advance on their right by the French - who employed more imaginative tactics -18th and 30th Divisions took all their objectives, including Mon-tauban, and 7th Division captured Mametz. The 36th (Ulster) Division, attacking with great dash and gallantry at Thiepval, actually seized the formidable Schwaben Redoubt but were forced to withdraw by nightfall because of lack of progress on their flanks. Similarly, 56th (London) Division penetrated the German defences in the diversionary attack at Gomme-court yet were compelled to retire when the neighbouring 46th Division was unable to make headway. The limited advance on the right - about a mile (1.5km) deep and 3.5 miles (5.5km) wide - was all that Haig and Rawlinson had to show for 57,470 casualties, the biggest losses ever suffered by the British army in a single day.
Nevertheless, the offensive continued until November 19 1916. In a dawn attack on July 14, men of the New Armies demonstrated their real abilities when, following a night assembly in No Man’s Land, a 6,000-yd (5,500m) stretch of the German second position between Longueval and Bazentin le Petit was taken at one bound, but nearby Delville Wood was not Anally cleared until August 27 and High Wood was secured as late as mid-September. Pozieres, however, fell to the Australians late in July. By August the offensive had developed into a grim battle of attrition and it was only on September 15, when tanks were used for the first time, that British, Canadian and New Zealand units broke into the German third position at Flers-Courcelette. At the end of the offensive the British were still some 3 miles (5km) from Bapaume, and Serre - a first-day objective — remained in German hands. British and Imperial casualties on the Somme in 1916 totalled 419,654 while the French, to the south, lost 204,253. Estimates of German casualties vary between 450,000 and 680,000, although there is little doubt that 1916 seriously weakened the German forces in the west.
After manpower shortages and
The adoption of a new flexible defence system had contributed to the German decision to retire to the Hindenburg Line in the early spring of 1917, relative peace descended on the Somme area for a year. Then, during their March 1918 offensive, the Germans swept back across the old battlefield, with British Third Army evacuating Bapaume on March 24 and Albert two days later, although a defensive line was established west of the latter town. On March 30 and April 4-5, German Second and Eighteenth Armies made a determined but unsuccessful bid to reach Amiens. Employing tanks themselves for the first time, the Germans came closest to Amiens on April 24 when they briefly held Villers-Bretonneux but, as a result of an Australian counterattack, they had been ejected by noon the next day. The opposing armies passed across the Somme battlefield once more between August 21 and September 3 1918 in the Battles of Albert and Bapaume. Having pierced German Second Army’s front east of Amiens on August 8, the British Fourth Army, under Rawlinson, recaptured the ground won at such heavy cost two years before and then lost again earlier in 1918. Albert was taken on August 22, Pozieres fell on August 24 and Bapaume was entered by the New Zealand Division on August 29. Thus in only one week the British had advanced further than they had in five months in 1916. The capture of Peronne and Mont St Quentin by the Australian Corps at the beginning of September 1918 heralded the end of the fighting in the Somme region during World War I. PJS.
Sonar. Sound detection of submerged submarines, either active (original British term asdic - Anglo/French invention 1918) or passive (hydrophones).
Sopwith FI Camel (Br, WWI). Single-seat fighter; used by rfc and RNAS. First production deliveries May 1917. Production, 5,651. One 130/140hp Clerget, llOhp Le Rhone, 150hp BRl, lOOhp Gnome Monosoupape engine; max. speed 113.5mph (183kph); two 0.303in machine guns, 1001b (45kg)
Bombs.
Sopwith 2F1 Camel (Br, WWI). Single-seat shipboard fighter. Prototype flew early 1917; generally similar to Fl, but had detachable rear fuselage, redisposed guns. Allotted to warships, flying from tiny platforms. First carrier-borne strike in history, Tondern, July 19 1918; Zeppelin L53 destroyed August 11 1918. Production, at least 275. One 150hp BRl or LSOhp Clerget engine; max. speed 121.5mph (196kph); two 0.303in machine guns, 1001b (45kg)
Bombs.
Sopwith IV2 Strutter (Br, WWI). Two-seat fighter-reconnaissance/ single-seat bomber. Ordered for RNAS and RFC; deliveries spring 1916, many rnas two-seaters transferred to RFC for Battle of Somme. Single-seat bomber version used operationally by rnas only. Both versions extensively used France, Italy, Macedonia, Aegean, from ships. Used by French and US services. Production, Britain 1,294; France approx. 4,500. One 110/ 130hp Clerget or 110/135hp Le Rhone engine; max. speed 104mph (166kph); two 0.303in machine guns, 2601b (117kg) bombs (British) or 18 X 120mm bombs or equivalent (French).
Sopwith Pup (Br, WWI). Singleseat fighter. Production for rnas and RFC; deliveries from September 1916. An aircraft of exceptional controllability. Pioneered practical deck flying; one flown from HMS Yarmouth’s flight platform (15ft 6in [4.72ml long) shot down Zeppelin L23, August 21 1917. Production, 1,776. One 80hp Le Rhone, Gnome or Clerget, or lOOhp Gnome Monosoupape engine; max. speed 111.5mph (179kph); one 0.303in machine gun, or eight Le Prieur rockets.
Surge, Richard (1895—1944). Ger. Far Eastern correspondent of Frankfurter Zeitung in 1930s; a spy reporting to the German Embassy in Tokyo - but in reality a senior Soviet espionage officer. He is said to have given advance warning of “Barbarossa” and to have disclosed that Japan had no plans to strike into the USSR from Manchuria, but the influence upon Stalin remains debatable. Arrested in Tokyo, October 1941; executed, November 1944.
World History
