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Somme
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Somme | |
|---|---|
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|
| Coat of arms of the Somme department | |
| Location | |
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| Administration | |
| Department number: | 80 |
| Region: | Picardie |
| Prefecture: | Amiens |
| Subprefectures: | Abbeville Montdidier Péronne |
| Arrondissements: | 4 |
| Cantons: | 46 |
| Communes: | 783 |
| President of the General Council: | Daniel Dubois |
| Statistics | |
| Population | Ranked 40th |
| -1999 | 555,551 |
| Population density: | 90/km² |
| Land area¹: | 6170 km² |
| ¹ French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km². | |
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Somme is a French department, named after the Somme River, located in the north of France. It is part of the region of Picardie.
Many battles of World War I took place at Somme, and several major monuments to soldiers from various countries exist in the department. It also holds various graveyards for the many soldiers killed on the battlefield.
In 1916 Somme was the location of one of the largest battles of World War I, with more than one million casualties. It is also one of the bloodiest battles in human history. The Allied forces attempted to break through the German lines along a 25-mile (40 km) front north and south of the River Somme in northern France. One purpose of the battle was to draw German forces away from the Battle of Verdun; however, by its end the losses on the Somme had exceeded those at Verdun.
While Verdun would bite deep in the national consciousness of France for generations, the Somme would have the same effect on generations of Britons. The battle is best remembered for its first day, 1 July 1916, on which the British suffered 57,470 casualties, including 19,240 dead — the second bloodiest day in the history of the British Army to this day (after Towton). As terrible as the battle was for the British Empire and Canadian troops who suffered there, it naturally affected the other nationalities as well. One German officer famously described it as "the muddy grave of the German field army." By the end of the battle, the British had learned many lessons in modern warfare while the Germans had suffered irreplaceable losses. British historian Sir James Edmonds stated, "It is not too much to claim that the foundations of the final victory on the Western Front were laid by the Somme offensive of 1916."
For the first time the home front in Britain was exposed to the horrors of modern war with the release of the propaganda film The Battle of the Somme, which used actual footage from the first days of the battle.
The Somme experienced war twice more in the First and Second Battles of the Somme of 1918.
- Somme River
- Amiens
- Cambrai
- Cantons of the Somme department
- Communes of the Somme department
- Arrondissements of the Somme department
Somme is also the name of an instrumental post-rock group from Chicago. Their debut release was a five track EP entitled Weight.
- (French) Prefecture of Somme website
- (French) General council's website
- Pictures from the Somme