HistoricalContext:BattleoftheSomme

Iwrote aboutmy event becauseI wantedtodigdeeperintotheBattleof

theSommeandtheBritishside.TheBattleoftheSommehasinterestedmeever
since Richard (apracticum studentin ourclass for acoupleweeks)talkedabout
it during alessonofhis. Wewere ableto reenact the battlebyturningtableson
theirsides,andthrowingmarshmallowsateachothertorepresentgunfire.Other
than the fun simulation, another thing that interested me washow manypeople
died insuch ashort time.Itisalso one ofthebiggestbattlesandheaviestlosses
theBritishhadduring WorldWarI. Therewereabout88,000allied menlostfor
every milegainedduringthebattle.There wereabout25milesonthebattlefield
that the allies gained. I also wanted to know more about what it was like for
soldiersandwhatallhappenedduringit.
As stated by history.com, TheBattleoftheSomme, alsoknownasthe
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Somme Offensive, wasone of the largest battlesoftheFirstWorldWar.
This
battle was fought between July 1 and November 1, 1916. The British and the
Germans were the main combatants duringthe battlebuttheBritishdid havea
little help from the French, who were recovering fromtheirmostrecentbattle
Verdun. On the firstday alone,the British suffered more than57,000casualties
and bytheendofthecampaign,the Allies andCentralPowerswouldlosemore
than1.5millionmen.ItwascalledtheBattleoftheSomme.
The Battle of theSommehappenedbecause it granted the Frenchrelief
from the battle of Verdun. In the wordsofhistorylearningsite.com,To relieve
theFrench, theAlliedHighCommanddecidedtoattacktheGermanstothenorth
ofVerdunthereforerequiringtheGermanstomove someoftheir menawayfrom
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theVerdunbattlefield thusrelievingtheFrench.
TheGermansstartedtoretreat
so they could defend at the Somme. Due to this, the French were ableto start
gaining ground. Themain reason forSomme was tokeep the Frenchin the war
becausetheyweretakingheavylossesatVerdun.
Although the Battle of the Somme wasanexpensive lessononhownot
to mounteffective attacks, the Germanarmywas alsoweakened.Basedonwhat
theauthor C NTruemanstatedin thearticleBattleofSomme,inFebruarythe
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Germans retreated to new and shorter defensive lines.
Also, for a number of
months,theFrench hadbeen takingsevere losses atVerdun, acitytotheeastof
Paris. As stated by Michael Duff, The French Commander in Chief, Joffre,
conceived the idea as a battle of attrition, the aim being to drain the German
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forces of reserves, although territorial gain was a secondary aim.
Due to the
amount of men that were lost in ashort period, this battlewasbit ofawakeup
calltotheBritish.Afterthisbattletheyimprovedtheirwartacticsgreatly.

Awordfromtheauthor:


The form I chose to write my poem in was terza rima in iambic
tetrameter.Iwanted todo toterza rimabecauseithasaunique rhymingscheme.
Poets.org states that, Terza rima is composed of tercets woven into a rhyme
scheme thatrequires theendword of the secondlinein one tercetto supplythe
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rhymeforthefirstandthirdlinesinthefollowingtercet.

In mypoem I mention the fogofwar.What I meanbythatmetaphoris

the uncertainty of death and what's going to happen. In conclusion, from the
article Battle of Somme in WW1 and the Battle of the Somme, artillery did
most of the killing so it was up to luck and where a shell landed that would
determineyour fate.6
Mypoem is adualpoem ofaBritishsoldierin theBattle
of the Sommeandhis wife who is anurse helping the wounded.Whencreating
this I used letters, documents and online resources I found and creatively
incorporatedthatintomypoem.Idid ajointpoemof splitperspectivesfirstthe
soldiers andthenthenurses.Inmypoem I talk aboutthehighwatermarkand
men beingstrung out like wreckage.In mymindIthinkofanoceantideandthe
bubbles it brings with it. Instead of bubbles, the main character saw dead
soldiers. This quote is from machine gunner George Coppard, who was at the
battle, The Germans musthavebeen reinforcing the wire for months. It wasso
dense that daylight couldbarelybeseenthroughit.Throughtheglassesitlooked
a black mass.Both this andthehigh watermarkputaprettygruesomeimagein
your head that these men have actuallywitnessed. I mention these inmy poem
with the italics. During the process of writing this, my main inspiration about
Britainwas that IstudieditlastyearduringtheModelUNprojectinHumanities.
TheBritishwereanimportantnationinbothWW1andWW2.Iwantedtodothe
nursepieceofmypoem,because nooneelsewasdoinga splitpoemswithtwo
perspectives.MostofmyinformationwasfromanunknownFrenchnursesdiary
and herexperiences.Iappreciateboththesepeoplefor whattheydidduringthe
warandthatIwasabletoreadaboutit,andgettoincorporateitintomypoem.


"Terza Rima."
Poets.org
.Academy of American Poets, 28 Sept.2004.Web. 20
1
Jan.2016.

JAEWONN."JournalEntryofaFrenchNurseduringWWI:FirstDay."
2
Jaewonnn
.N.p.,20Feb.2012.Web.20Jan.2016.

"BattleoftheSomme."
History.com
.Ed.RobertCowleyandGeoffreyParker.
3
A&ETelevisionNetworks,1996.Web.20Jan.2016.

Duffy,Michael."Firstworldwar.com."
FirstWorldWar.com
.N.p.,22Aug.2009.
4
Web.20Jan.2016.

Trueman,C.N."TheBattleoftheSommeHistoryLearningSite."
History
5
LearningSite
.N.p.,17Apr.2015.Web.20Jan.2016.

Simkin,John."SpartacusEducational."
SpartacusEducational
.N.p.,Sept.1997.
6
Web.20Jan.2016.