. Battlefields of the World War, western and southern fronts; a study in military geography . nt of Verdun, against which he was then ready to French Governmentwas urging the hasteningof the Somme opera-tions, in order to relieveVerdun as quickly aspossible. To these ap-peals Joffre replied onJune 26 that the prepa-ration for the Somme of-fensive had already be-gun (the bombardmentstarted June 24) andthat the defenders ofVerdun should hold firmon the right bank. Onthe other hand, GeneralMangin leaves littledoubt that the breakingof the German line wasJoffres chief objective inthe So
. Battlefields of the World War, western and southern fronts; a study in military geography . nt of Verdun, against which he was then ready to French Governmentwas urging the hasteningof the Somme opera-tions, in order to relieveVerdun as quickly aspossible. To these ap-peals Joffre replied onJune 26 that the prepa-ration for the Somme of-fensive had already be-gun (the bombardmentstarted June 24) andthat the defenders ofVerdun should hold firmon the right bank. Onthe other hand, GeneralMangin leaves littledoubt that the breakingof the German line wasJoffres chief objective inthe Somme could not be relied upon to bring success as in cer-tain later offensives, for the enemys excellent observation ofthe Somme plain from the slightly higher land of the anticlinalarch (Fig. 45) gave him ample warning of the extensive pre-liminary preparation for the attack, while the moment of assaultwas foretold by the long bombardment. The line was to bebroken by unprecedented artillery fire, despite the massing of 11 Mangin, Rev. des Deux , Vol. 56, p. Fig. 45—Three sectors of operations in the1016 Battle of the Somme. 1, subsidiary attackeastward along the crest of the arch; 2, mainattack northeastward to gain the crest; 3,subsidiary attack eastward to drive the Ger-mans back on the Somme barrier. FIRST SOMME BATTLE 147
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