The Battle of the Somme was a large Allied offensive that embodied elaborate battle preparations and military strategies. The original plan for the battle was to attack the Central Powers on three fronts, with Great Britain and France attacking in the West, Russia attacking in the East, and Italy attacking in the South. However, because of the Battle of Verdun, the Battle of the Somme became a predominantly British initiative with French assistance. In order to prepare for the Battle of Somme, the Allies accumulated immense stores of ammunition, improved roads for travel, created numerous wells for water sources, dug shelters for troops, and tunneled miles of trenches to allow for effective communication (“Sir Douglas Haig, British Commander-in-Chief of France and Flanders, 2nd Dispatch”, 2). The Allies planned to launch this major offensive against the Germans along the Somme River in France for three reasons as explained by Sir Douglas Haig, “To relieve the pressure on Verdun, to assist our Allies in other theaters of war by stopping any further transfer of German troops from the Western Front, and to wear down the strength of the forces opposed to us” (“Sir Douglas Haig, British Commander-in-Chief of France and Flanders, 2nd Dispatch”, 2). The Germans had a strategic position because they were situated on the high ground of the Somme watershed and the Allies were situated in the depressions and lower regions looking up at the Germans. The Germans also had a heavily fortified system of defenses with two systems of trenches several lines deep, bomb-proof shelters, and deep cellars. The British strategy was to coordinate a surprise attack with the French consisting of three phases in order to exploit the salient in the German line and push them back to gain territory. The French would attack simultaneously from the South and the British would attack from the North end of the Somme valley. The attack opened with a large daily artillery barrage and gas attacks against the German forces. This tactic was successful because the Germans were caught off-guard and disorganized, so it forced them to take a defensive position during the course of the battle. Then, the infantry assault was launched with British soldiers sent up over the top of the trenches and marched shoulder-to-shoulder through No Man’s Land to the enemy’s trenches with machine guns, essentially enacting the frontal assault. This tactic, while allowing for the success of gaining territory, caused a significan