There have been many arguments since 1916, nearly 80 years ago about whether the Battle of the Somme was a success or disaster. Before you try and understand whether the Battle of the Somme was a success or not, you first must look at what the objectives were.

The original objective of the Somme was to win the war. It was going to be an attack of an army two-thirds French and one-third British. It was going to be co-ordinated with an attack by Russia and another one by Italy and these attacks would be too much for the Germans and the Allies could win the war. This huge war plan was destroyed though by an unexpected German attack on February 21st at Verdun, a huge town that needed to be defended. This attack was...