The French sector
The French Army fighting with the British at the Battle of the Somme did much better than their British allies. The military historian AH Farrer-Hockley suggests that there were four reasons for this:
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The Germans, who were attacking the French fiercely at Verdun, believed that the French were worn-out and would not be able to mount a major attack at the Somme as well. |
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French artillery had utterly destroyed the German trenches, and most of the German artillery as well. |
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Most of the French divisions attacked at 9.30am, two hours after the British attack, by which time the German had decided that the French were not going to attack, and were taken by surprise. |
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The French had more experience of large-scale WWI set-piece battles; instead of walking in a line towards the enemy, they split up immediately after going over the top into small groups, which dashed forward from crater to crater trying to outflank the enemy: 'Thus they denied the enemy the brave targets of Redan Ridge, Thiepval and la Boiselle'. |
By 9.45pm, the French had achieved all their objectives, had pushed part of their line 1000 yards further than planned, had taken 3000 prisoners and a great quantity of arms and equipment.