‘Over the top, amid bursting gas and tear shells in a determined assault on the...

‘Over the top, amid bursting gas and tear shells in a determined assault on the fortified Somme villages’, July 1916. Stereoscopic photograph, World War One, Western Front (1914-1918), 1916. At 7.30 am on 1 July 1916, 14 British divisions attacked on the Somme. In most cases they were unable to keep up with the artillery barrage that was supposed to take them through to the German trenches. This gave the Germans time to scramble out of their dugouts once the ineffective barrage had lifted, man their trenches and open fire. General Sir Douglas Haig’s infantry were welcomed by a storm of machine-gun, rifle and artillery fire and suffered nearly 60,000 casualties during the day. Although the French had made good progress in the south and there had been some local successes, in most places the attack was a bloody failure. From a collection of 101 stereoscopic photographs entitled ‘The Great War’.