The Battle of the Somme — a new perspective. Part 1

The Great War

By the summer of 1916 Europe, after almost a hundred years of peace since Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo , was once again embroiled in a huge continental war. The invading armies of the German Empire and the Allies were fighting a conflict billed as a ‘World War’, but it was actually a European one. The broad reach of the empires on opposing sides (Britain, France and Russia against Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey) meant that combat stretched over many parts of the globe, but this was essentially a continuation of…