Arty v. Barbed wire/trenches Hist Chan (U.S.) now! 10 p.m. PST

[John Kettler]

Battlefield Detectives uses forensic techniques to figure out why the Somme was a debacle. Just showed shrapnel live fire and buried burst vs. much weaker modern barbed wire entanglement (German stuff was thick as your thumb). Graze fuze next!

Dud rate ~30%. MG fire vs. exposed infantry shortly.

Regards,

John Kettler

[SpitfireXI]

That was a facinating show, I must watch it more often. The devastating effects of HE artillery vs. barbed wire was interesting. Any reason why I can't do the same in CMAK? On a related note did anyone see the Battlefield Detectives about Market Garden?

[Bannon DC]

Yes... I saw that show. Very good information. It is a wonder why more men in WWI did not mutany. The movement vs. machine gun fire was a good demonstration. I've always wondered why even the most basic tactics were not employed until late in the war. By 1916, they had ample knowledge about advancing against machine gun fire... yet they did it all over again time and time again.

[Snarker]

Population control? Seriously, it's been said generals refight the last war. Same tactics, more casualties usually because of technical advances.

[GreenAsJade]

'cmon then - share with us history-channel-deprived some of the details!

Why was the Somme a debacle? What was the deal with HE vs barbed wire? What mistakes did they make against MGs?

[Salkin]

Bring it !

[John Kettler]

Most of the massive British prep fires consisted of

relatively light 18 pdrs. firing shrapnel. Nil effectiveness vs. enormous and thick German barbed wire defenses. British artillery dud rate was around 30%, further reducing the prep fires' effectiveness, even when scarce heavier artillery was employed. No graze action fuzes were available, which meant that heavier rounds which should've torn up the wire didn't, for they expended much of their force by detonating well below the surface.

The Germans avoided most of the bombardment in bombproofs as much as thirty feet below ground, bombproofs equipped with everything needed to keep the soldiers fighting fit, then emerged after the barrage lifted, set up their machine guns, and simply hosed the plodding ranks (upwards of 150 lbs. of gear per man) of Tommies deployed close together in combat line (only formation high command trusted newly recruited formations to fight in). By contrast, the Tommies' trenches were places of semideliberate squalor, left in rough condition to keep the troops from liking them too much and becoming soft. Result? Miserable subhuman conditions which demoralized and devitalized the troops, not to mention putting many out of commission with trench foot, pneumonia, etc. When the Germans offered unexpected heavy resistance, they threw off the entire attack timetable and caused chaos in the British communication trenches as the returning wounded and advancing troops got gridlocked for hours before the British HQ even knew there was a problem. The weapons were modern, but the communications were relatively crude, little better than during the American Civil War.

Experiments (using laser firing simulators) conducted for the program using a Maxim MG and a "platoon" of British officer candidates (10 people) over open, gently rolling grasslands typical of the Somme found that historical tactics and loads yielded 80% casualties in an advance of only 300 yards. As I recall, having the troops run for short distances got the casualty rate down to 60%, and putting them in light kit (ostensibly rifle, ammo, water and gas mask) and zigzagging at the run got them down to 40%. Saw no attempt to move by successive rushes then dropping prone. Remember, this is advancing while opposed only by one MG and no riflemen.

What first day success the British had on a day they took 60,000 casualties came from a few divisions whose commanders threw out the book and did things their own way, to include actually having their men well out in No Man's Land before the attack began, advancing behind a creeping barrage all the way to the German trenches, etc.

The show said that after the Somme, a campaign which lasted for months, the British instituted all kinds of reforms at every level, reforms which ultimately led to winning the war.

For a look at the horror the British infantryman underwent at the Somme, please see the pertinent chapter in John Keegan's THE FACE OF BATTLE. For a look at how the British planned to defeat the German Army in the field and ultimately succeeded using fully integrated combat arms, including routine employment of an array of chemical agents,

please see Palazzo's seminal SEEKING VICTORY ON THE WESTERN FRONT.

Hopes this helps.

Regards,

John Kettler