The second battle of 1916 was the Battle of the Somme. In this the British and French armies tried to break through the German defences in the valley of the river Somme. The battle started on the first day of July 1916 as huge guns bombarded the German trenches. Then thousands of troops charged across no-man's land to press home the attack.
The trenches of the British ran for 20 miles from the village of Hebuterne south across the Ancre to the Willow stream by Fricourt, east to the Bois de Maricourt. Two miles to the south lay the left bank of the Somme. Opposite both Rawlinson's and Fayol…
