Key battles in WW1/WW2

Somme

The Battle of the Somme was the most deadliest British assault in history and the offensive was caused by the crying out of French forces at Verdun desperately clinging onto the city to prevent it from German capture. This would take place in the same year of Verdun in 1916 and would be an attack that would help but costed hundreds of thousands of troops in death and injured. The attack wouldn't have been so costly and deadly if the British intelligence didnt neglect that the Germans knew the assault was coming.

What gave away the hint that the British were planning the assault was when there was an increased number of artillery shells being fired at the German lines to soften their defences and many of the British thought that the German defences were in shambles and that the positions could easily be taken. However during this period of heavy shelling from the British. The Germans hunkered down to prevent being hit and many of the German defences were barely even touched. And most of the machine guns and pill boxes were also untouched so this was basically an attack that was throwing men at the far superior German defences and 57,000 casualties were recorded in just the first day of the assault.

As the British had the northern attack and some French troops had taken on the southern attack. The British northern attack was bogged down and barely advanced beyond the heavily defended Hindenburg line. The French army in the southern attack were far more successful. And had gained more land from the assault. However the despite the assault being pretty much a failure, the assault was enough to take the German attention off of Verdun alongside the Brusilov offensive aswell. Which many lives were lost. However within this battle the first ever tank attacks happened with the Mark I appearing on the battlefield and despite it's new towering appearance making the Germans piss themselves, the tanks weren't able to make much of a difference as they were still vulnerable to artillery shells and german gunners. Also they were prone to engineering problems as many times the engine proceeds to keep breaking down and many armoured pieces of the tanks would fall off leading to vulnerability inside the drivers area. And if the weak thin armour was pierced, there was a high chance it would hit the Tank ammunition storage for the cannon. And would result in an explosion. Much of the land they had gained was lost because of the engineering difficulties. However Britain also having the largest army in the world because if its overseas colonies like India, Canada and Australia. They had many men to transport globally which was the same fro the French aswell.

The Battle of the Somme would prove to be a challenging and treacherous idea but the attack despite losing many lives and casualties, the attack achieved its main goal of trying to divert troops away from the city of Verdun. And with poor planning and your enemies expecting your appearance, will lead to massive failures and casualties proved by the Somme. And also its first use of tanks proved their effectiveness on the battlefield. But they still fell short to engineering problems, engine failure and German gunners in pill boxes.