Joffre and the Origins of the Somme: A Study in Allied Military Planning

This paper examines the origins of the Battle of the Somme within the context of French Commander-in-Chief Joseph Joffre’s effort to coordinate Allied military operations in 1916 and to mount a combined Anglo-French offensive on the Western Front. The French chose a joint operation on the Somme, in which they would play the major role, as a means of leading the British into battle. But a major British attritional operation preceding the offensive was dropped, and ironically, the French Army bore the brunt of Allied wastage in the German attack at Verdun until the Somme offensive began on 1 July 1916.