How would the modern British army fight the battle of the Somme?

Answer 1

Actually I think this is a very fair question. At first sight it appeared to me to be dependant on the opposition, what the enemy would do in any given situation. But actually it depends on having a view of the battle as it was fought and, with the aid of hindsight, re plan what actually happened with regard to the tactical & strategic requirements which were foremost in the minds of the planners of the time: what we know now was that there was a massive artilley barrage prior to the battle. We know this was, to a great extent, unsuccessful either in terms of denying the enemy the ability to defend, or to reduce the effectiveness of the barbed wire to any significant degree. We have a mass of untrained units eager to get to grips, but they are going to be killed en masse unless we do something very very different to what happened at the time. We, the British, need to be far more concealed in our development and infiltration. Our artillery weaponry needs to be more effective, we need better accuracy with small arms fire. We need armour, if it is available. I am no expert on WW1 history, but the Somme is the by word for British Military incompetance. The death toll on the side of the attacker must be drastically reduced if there is to be any alternative to what happened at the time.