First day of Somme
Before the first day of Somme there was 5 days of bombing by the British to the German trenches hoping to keep the Germans in their trenches and destroy the barbed wire.
It is the bloodiest day in the history of the British army with around 60,000 men either killed, injured or missing. Inexperienced British men attempted to advance across ’No man’s land’. Wave after wave of infantrymen were shot down and killed by German gunners and artillery.
All of this resulted in Britain advancing hardly anywhere and making very little inroads into the German defence.

Going over the top
When going over the top men faced machine guns firing at them and other artillery. Also getting through ‘No man’s land’ is hard because there is lots of mud and is up to knee high. When they reach the German trenches they have to get past the barbed wire and then they have to do hand to hand fighting using their bayonets.

Routine
1 week in the line, equally split between the front line trench and the supporting trenches.
1 week in the reserve lines to counter attack and to get reinforcements and rest.
2 weeks behind the lines for training, receiving reinforcements and to get rest.

Medical support
Advanced medical support like anaesthetics and morphine were available to soldiers who were wounded which reduced the amount of suffering.
Still 1 in 3 British casualties died because of the lack of antibiotics and blood transfusion.

Wilfred Owen He was a World War 1 soldier and wrote poems about the war. When he first went to war he experienced bad things and was declared unfit to fight due to shellshock. He was sent to Edinburgh for treatment from a psychiatrist. He wrote poetry whilst he was there. Soon afterwards, a better-known poet called Siegfried Sassoon came to the hospital as a patient and Owen became friends with him. Sassoon helped Owen to improve