The First World War Battle of the Somme began on 16 July 1916 â one of the bloodiest conflicts in human history and the worst ever for the British army. Trench warfare along the western front in France had been going on for nearly two years, locking in stalemate the Germans on one side and the French and British on the other. The front had hardly moved but for a number of months the French had been taking severe losses at Verdun, east of Paris. It was decided to attack the Germans to the north of Verdun at the Somme so that the Germans would move men away from the Verdun battlefield, thus relieving the French. The Battle of the Somme, along a 15-mile front of Northern France, lasted for 141 days, finally ending on November 18, 1916. The official number of British dead, missing or wounded during that period is 419, 654. For France, the figure is 204,253 and for Germany, about 500,000, making the total casualties 1,123,907. The Battle of the Somme was hardly a victory for either side. rochestermilitary.com