I'm not surprised it was the bloodiest massacre of ww1.The Brits ""WALKING"" into battle (final scene) with their stiff upper lips.I'd have had to charge purely because my adrenaline/spirit would have made me.They walked into anihilation.60,000,shameful.
"How do you know my name..?"
..."It's stenciled on the back of your shorts". {"\ (*_*) /"}
so you'd run into gun fire?
they where forced to go over the top, i very much doubt any of them wanted to run to there deaths. i certainly wouldnt.
If your running,or crawlling,you are harder to hit.You might even make it to the enemy,and take a few of them out.If they had all charged,who knows how many would have made it,they may well have even taken the enemies camp.After all,I presume that they were tring to get to the other side.Walking as they did,they may as well of just sat on the ground.
"How do you know my name..?"
..."It's stenciled on the back of your shorts". {"\ (*_*) /"}
Running makes more sense obviously, you cover the ground quicker and are exposed for a shorter amount of time, are more difficult to aim at etc. It's not about running to your death, it'd be 'safer' for want of a better word to run.
I think i read once that they were not allowed to run. Even punishable by shooting, by the officer in charge.
Tactics were terrible. It wasn't the soldiers fault.
"Every jackass thinks he knows what war is. They're the ones that have never been"
Question....
Do you get wetter running from A to B in a hail of rain than you do if you walk?
Answer.....
You get wetter if you run! (scientific fact)
Ergo
Question....
Do you get dead faster by running from point A to B into a hail of bullets than you do if you walk?
Answer......
Who knows! Either way you get dead, just as you get wet. Only scientific fact that matters is you cease breathing, and don't really give a *beep* thereafter.
Walking was a discipline thing, dictated by Generals - stiff upper lip crap again. Most of those boys would rather not have gone at all I'd wager, and even then if they had to would rather run and get death over with. You could see the fear from having to wait.
Stick all the Generals on the front line and see how they like it!
Ras
I think people are overlooking the small detail of distance. Cavalry charges ALSO began with walking, before moving to a trot and then finally a charge for the final assault. No point running the whole distance if you're tired and out of breath when you reach the actual fight. This doesn't really take machine guns into account, I realise, but at that point in time I'm not sure any infantry tactic existed to effectively deal with that situation.
>>>Most of those boys would rather not have gone at all I'd wager
I think that's pretty certain - remember the scene where the sergeant makes it pretty clear that the men would really need to all be drunk before going over the top. Mind you, from the officer's point of view running an attack like that would probably be a lot like herding sheep - the men's instinct would be to head for cover at the first opportunity, so keeping them on their feet and advancing would be the big problem.
ok, i dont know were all you guys are from but im from England and i have to say that this is the reason they walked.
the british forces before WWI were very tactful in what they needed to do, i.e. inaccurate rifles that needed to be quite close to the enemy to kill
so the reason why they walked was becuase with those rifles they would only hurt, or possibly kill a few when they marched forward, this would then intimidate the enemy but then WWI did start and in any big war (id say it was a big war!) there are always improvments in weapons.
so anyway machine guns were created but tactics were kept the same becuase it was thought that it was merely another weapon and when we look back now we think its stupid but back then it wasnt a known fact that they could wipe out platoons. there were even calvary marches in the first year of WWI
[deleted]
the army was ordered to walk for what may have been good reason - it wasnt incompetence as hindsight often attributes to WW1 generals.
The reasons they were ordered to walk were
to get the main body of men to arrive at the enemy trench en masse and t ensure as someone has already said, that they were not totally knackered will doing so.
they were also occasions where there was a 'creeping' barrage of artillery - and the men were to arrive just behind the cover of that barrage by walking.
they also had good reason to expect that on the Somme, the German trenches would be evacuated due to the unprecedented amount of shells fired, unfortunately the depth of german trenches was underestimated.
one other reason for the men walking at the Somme, was the belief that as most of the British army of 1916 offensive were new volunteers, they would be better suited to stay together for support.
there are many reasons fo rthe tactics of the time and we can question them now - however, it was rarely the deliberate wanton disregard for life that 'Blackadder' suggests
Indeed even Haig was keen to develop tactics to help the men such as the creeping barrage and tanks - unfortunately the machine ruled at the time and air cover was inadequate and so it was unltimately flesh against the Maxim gun.
The tactics used were as a result of the training that the soldiers had received. The Somme was the first battle that Kitchener's civvies army and due to the need to train large numbers in a short amount of time meant that they weren't proficient in the fire and manoeuvre tactics that was used by the pre-war British Army. I think they were asked to walk slowly rather than charging to keep the line straight and to ensure that they arrived on the German trenches at the same time.
The German and French armies had an advantage over the British in that their armies were conscripted for decades before the start of the war and therefore even the reservists had more training in fire and manoeuvre. Not that it served them very well.
The tactics of the day where to march towards the enemy. Fire and manouver didnt really start until later in the war and after.
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