Yerres Historical Society
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Société d’Histoire d’Yerres
Yerres Historical Society |
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| At the end of the first day | |
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On the first of July, the British assault waves came out of the trenches at a walking pace (!) following the order that the men had received and marched towards the trenches occupied by the Germans who could not believe their eyes. The machine gun nests were intact and the British soldiers were mowed down by German automatic weapons fire. By the evening of the battle, the losses amounted to 50,000 men (19,000 killed), wounded, missing or prisoners. It was the deadliest day of the war. The French, on the other hand, reached their objectives in the south, a pocket a few kilometers deep, with much lower losses. On the right, the bombardment before the attack of July 1st. |
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