Conclusion
Foley argues that the Germans were caught by surprise by both the intensity and ferocity of the Allied attacks. They were caught completely off guard and suffered high casualties. However they learned quickly and improvise a new defensive tactical doctrine.
It is difficult to declare the Battle of the Somme a victory for either side. The British and French captured 7-mile (11 km) at the deepest point of penetration on a front of 16-mile (26 km) from Gommecourt to Maricourt thence from Maricourt to Foucaucourt-en-Santerre (and later south to Chilly). The French and British had gained approximately six miles in depth (to the foot of the Butte de Warlencourt and beyond Geuedecourt) and lost about 419,654 British and 202,567 French casualties against 465,181 German, meaning that a centimetre cost about two men. Some historians have since the 1960s argued against the widely-held view that the battle was a disaster; arguing that the Battle of the Somme was an Allied victory. As British historian Gary Sheffield said, "The battle of the Somme was not a victory in itself, but without it the Entente would not have emerged victorious in 1918".
Read more about this topic: Battle Of The Somme
Famous quotes containing the word conclusion:
“It is a great many years since at the outset of my career I had to think seriously what life had to offer that was worth having. I came to the conclusion that the chief good for me was freedom to learn, think, and say what I pleased, when I pleased. I have acted on that conviction... and though strongly, and perhaps wisely, warned that I should probably come to grief, I am entirely satisfied with the results of the line of action I have adopted.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“We must not leap to the fatalistic conclusion that we are stuck with the conceptual scheme that we grew up in. We can change it, bit by bit, plank by plank, though meanwhile there is nothing to carry us along but the evolving conceptual scheme itself. The philosopher’s task was well compared by Neurath to that of a mariner who must rebuild his ship on the open sea.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)
“So this
Is man; so—what better conclusion is there—
The day will not follow night, and the heart
Of man has a little dignity, but less patience
Than a wolf’s,”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)