How many british were killed on July 1 1916 world war 1?

Answer 1

Roughly 20,000 British men were killed on the 1st July 1916.

There were about 60,000 British casualties in total, plus around 7000 French attacking on the flank and about 8000 of the defending Germans.

This is the First Day of the Somme offensive it is the bloodiest day in British military history.

The "new armies" of volunteers raised in response to the start of WW1 and Lord Kitchener's appeal for men were deployed in large numbers for the first time. These new recruits lacked the training and skills of Britain "old army" which had mostly been destroyed in the battles of 1914/15. These battalions were made up often of "pals" whole factories or towns signing up together and fighting together, their officers and NCOs often were the Town officials or the factory foremen. This new army couldn't use complex tactics or manoeuvres so the plan was for a massive artillery bombardment to crush resistance before a straight frontal assault was launched. Battalions advanced in line formation over several waves.

The result was mixed with most units failing to reach their objectives and taking massive casualties. The bombardment was found not to have destroyed German wire or knocked out sufficient machine guns so the advancing infantry were cut down.

Later battles would have altered tactics, both for infantry and bombardments.

However this day more than any is the image most people now have of the First World War - lines of men walking into machine gun fire and barbed wire through a field of mud.