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In a speech in the Lords on March 14 (see Somme Centenary), Alistair Lexden spoke about the significance of the Battle of the Somme, whose centenary will be marked by major commemorative events in July. He returned briefly to the subject in a letter published in the TLS: The Times Literary Supplement on May 6.
Sir,--David Roman (Letters, April 29) believes “the overarching strategic objectives in the Somme were extremely modest”. On the contrary, they were extremely ambitious. Douglas Haig sought a decisive victory by breaking through the formidable German trenches. Under his carefully laid plans, the greatest artillery bombardment ever seen and the massive infantry attacks that followed were designed to clear a route for his cavalry regiments which would then sweep the Germans from the villages and towns of northern France. Military historians debate the extent to which grave tactical errors by British commanders on the one hand, and the sheer strength of the German defences on the other, thwarted Haig’s ambitions. There was a second strategical objective which was successfully accomplished. Intense fighting at the Somme enabled the French to survive an even greater struggle at Verdun by diverting German troops from it. Defeat at Verdun would have spelt disaster for the allies by opening the road to Paris to the forces of the Kaiser. Churchill’s famous heartfelt plea for a strategy that did not send “our armies to chew barbed wire in Flanders” naturally strikes a deep chord. But, as Andrew Roberts puts it in his recent book, Elegy: The First Day on the Somme, “if there was a way of fighting the First World War that did not involve trying to smash frontally through formidable defences, neither side discovered one”.
Alistair Lexden
House of Lords