History of World War One

The extensive artillery bombardment had not cut through the German barbed wire and the German soldiers emerged unscathed from their deep dugouts. 

Some of the British soldiers are hit by concentrated machine gun fire.

BBC iWonder: Why was the first day of the Somme such a disaster?

History of World War One

Image source, Getty

BBC iWonder: Why was the first day of the Somme such a disaster?

Across the nation, and at the vigil sites at Westminster Abbey, Edinburgh Castle, the Somme Heritage Centre in County Down, the Welsh National War Memorial in Cardiff, as well as in France, the silence was observed.

A gun salute in Parliament Square marked the end of the silence in London, and whistles were blown, before a lone piper processed through Westminster Abbey.

History of World War One

At zero hour, whistles blew and thousands of British troops rose out of their trenches to advance across No Man’s Land.

Find out more with this interactive showing the Battle of the Somme hour by hour, external.

The nation is falling silent for two minutes to mark the start of the Battle of the Somme 100 years ago. 

The first day saw the heaviest losses ever suffered by the British military - by the end of 1 July 1916, there had been 19,240 deaths.

The battle, in northern France, lasted five months. In total, there were more than one million dead and wounded on all sides.

Historian Richard van Emden told the BBC's Huw Edwards that at this moment, 100 years ago, the men waiting in the trenches would have been eager to get under way.

"They're dry-throated, very nervous, looking at each other - 'Am I going to survive?'," he said. 

"And they would want to go. At this point now, they would have been desperate to get over. There's nothing worse than waiting for those final minutes to tick down.

"All they wanted to do now is get over the top and get into action."

It had been a beautiful summer's morning - in contrast to the cloudy, windy conditions seen in France today, 100 years on. 

However, he added: "Within 20 minutes, half an hour, they would have been aware it was turning into a catastrophe." 

For the survivors, the trauma stayed with them "for the rest of their lives", he said.

Ten minutes before men went over the top, the British detonated a giant underground mine. Around 40,000lbs of high explosives went up at the end of a long tunnel under German lines at Hawthorn Ridge Redoubt.

Over the following few minutes, five more mines were detonated beneath German lines.

The explosions alerted the German soldiers to the attack – and they rushed to their parapets to prepare for battle.

Image source, Getty

BBC iWonder: Was the tunnellers’ secret war the most barbaric of WW1?, external

History of World War One

Over an eleven-and-a-half mile long section of the front, 18 divisions of the British Army prepared for battle. For the most part, they were young volunteers from every corner of the Empire, with little experience of combat.

Many of the soldiers had volunteered and been trained in the months before the battle. However they had not experienced combat first hand.

List all regiments involved in first day of the Somme, external

By 4am on 1 July 1916, the majority of the British soldiers massed in the trenches ready for battle. Today, we will tell some of their stories.

BBC iWonder: Was the Western Front the most multi-racial place on Earth?

History of World War One

Ghosts of Thiepval is a virtual reality experience taking you into the trenches occupied by the 36th Ulster Division. Hear voices from men preparing to go over the top.

See the full Virtual Reality or 360°video of Ghosts of Thiepval, external.

History of World War One

There were three elements to the British strategy that led the generals to believe they would be successful.

Devastating artillery bombardment 

The massive seven-day artillery barrage would fire over a million shells at the German trenches. 

Destroying German defences

The plan was to cut through the barbed wire and destroy the German Army’s defences and trench systems. The Allies planned to send 100,000 infantrymen over the top to take the German trenches.

Another component of the battle plan was the construction of huge underground mines, created by soldiers tunnelling extensive networks below the trenches. Detonating these mines shortly before the attack would weaken the German defences.

BBC iWonder: Was the tunnellers’ secret war the most barbaric of WW1?, external

Deploying a supporting barrage

Unlike the French who employed a creeping barrage that would fire shells just in front of the advancing troops, forcing the German soldiers to shelter in their trenches, the British barrage would ‘lift’ just in time for the British to attack, allowing the Germans time to man their defences while not under fire. 

History of World War One

The British and German troops faced each other's trenches, separated only by a few hundred yards of “no-man’s land”.

The Germans had some significant advantages. They occupied the high ground and having had control of the area from late 1914 onwards, they had had time to fortify their positions. They had built deep shelters in the chalk earth, some of which reached 12 metres underground.

As well as having three lines of defences, the German’s artillery was well sited and was superior to British.

BBC iWonder: Why was the first day of the Somme such a disaster?

The overnight vigil at Westminster Abbey was overseen by military personnel from Britain and the Commonwealth - most of the watches lasted 15 minutes, with each dedicated to a man who fought at the Battle of the Somme.

It is the first time the abbey has hosted a vigil since the peace vigils for the Cuban Missile Crisis, more than 50 years ago. 

The abbey stayed open to members of the public throughout the night.

History of World War One

From February 1916, a terrible battle had raged at Verdun, external. The French army was subjected to a deadly and sustained German assault.

To relieve the pressure the British and French planned to launch an offensive to the north, near the river Somme.

This was part of an effort by Britain, Italy, Russia and France to collaborate and ‘intensify their efforts’ by launching simultaneous offences on the Eastern and Western Fronts. By presenting multiple threats, they hoped to deny Germans the chance to transfer troops between lines.

General Haig, the commander of the British forces, planned to destroy the German defences with an intense seven-day artillery bombardment of over a million shells and by detonating a number of massive mines under enemy lines. 

Watch this short video to find out how the British planned the attack on the first day of the Somme.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

If there is a sound other than gunfire associated with World War One then it is birdsong. It is this sound that has been enshrined in all the great literature that has depicted the Battle of the Somme ever since.

Gary Moore, wildlife sound recordist at the BBC's Natural History Unit, embarks upon a journey to the Western Front to capture the bird sounds the soldiers would have heard as they waited to march to their deaths.

History of World War One

Before the battle, the British shelled the German trenches for seven days. One and half million shells were fired on German positions.  

The battle was originally planned for 29 June, but a series of heavy summer storms in the preceding days meant it was postponed to 1 July.

Jim Naughtie
Radio 4 presenter

Image source, Getty Images

Memory can become more powerful as the years go by.

The centenary of the start of the Battle of the Somme is being marked with more ceremony and international attention than was given to the half-century in 1966, though there were many veterans there who could remember the sounds of the fighting. Now there are none.

Maybe it's because we live in warring times. Or, just as likely, because increasingly the Great War hasn't been seen as one awful sprawling event - the four years that bloodied and scarred a generation - but as the opening of a conflict that shaped the whole of the 20th Century, through World War Two to the division of Europe and the Cold War that followed.

That's why, when you watch visitors pointing to headstones in the cemeteries on the Western Front, you see them putting together the story of one solider - a great-uncle, grandfather, maybe even a father - with a broader understanding of the cost of modern warfare.

Part of the loss of innocence after 1914 was the realisation that a new kind of battle had begun, on a scale unimaginable to a generation who thought that Waterloo was the grandest of struggles.Read more from James Naughtie.

History of World War One

In the early hours of 1 July 1916, the Germans were sheltered deep in their trenches.

Forty-five minutes before men went over the top, the British began an intense final artillery bombardment, raining 30 bombs a minute onto the enemy’s front line.

BBC iWonder: What did WW1 sound like?

Whistles were blown for 30 seconds at the crater, before a lone piper walked around its perimeter. 

Prayers are being said around the crater - nearly 300ft (91m) in diameter and 70ft (21m) deep - and wreaths are being laid. 

Children are then scattering poppy petals, followed by the congregation, before hands are linked around the crater.

History of World War One

For almost five months between July and November 1916, the Battle of the Somme was fought in the fields of northern France. It would change the landscape of World War One, external, redefine military tactics and move the Allies one step closer to victory.

The battle came with a cost. It inflicted heavy losses on both sides and was one of the bloodiest battles of the entire war.

Image source, Getty Images

For the British forces, the first day of the Battle of the Somme resulted in the heaviest losses ever suffered in British military history. By the time night fell on 1 July 1916, there were 57,470 casualties, 19,240 of whom died. The British had gained just three square miles of territory.

How did this bloodiest of days unfold? And what was it like for the 100,000 British soldiers who went over the top? Today we look back in detail at the events that took place one hundred years ago.