building defensive positions; they had high laid positioned trenches which were also deep. These positions had many strong points, where machine guns could be settled. This explained why the allied artillery could not easily hit the enemy. The allied troops where not protected by anything during their assault. Haig asked an immense effort from his troops and knew that the coming battles would result in a terrible sacrifice of men with no guaranty of gain.
             On the first day of the Somme battle, the British forces lost around 58,000 men. Despite the terrible losses, Haig ordered the attack to continue. This shows how bad leadership affects a war, and can make it much harder to succeed in winning. As mentioned before, Haig's intention was to destroy the enemy, but the following picture, called the "The Somme Punch" shows and explains what really happened instead.
             This picture shows that the French and British had failed to destroy the enemy, and had only broken its nose instead of his whole face. The Kaisers face looks as if it is overwhelmed by the opposition, although it does not give up. The face can also be seen as the western front itself. Then the fist was designed by the British to give a knock out blow to the German forces. The purpose of this ca
             ...