To understand why the old front line ran where it did and how the German army prepared itself for the trial of the 1916 battle,

it is necessary to follow the story on the song as it unfolded from autumn 1914.

Author Jack Sheldon, the German Army on the song,

1914 to 1916. All right, folks, welcome to the Battles of the First World War podcast.

Episode one, war comes to the psalm.

Right now, it is spring 2016.

We're about midway through the centenary of the First World War. We're in the

centenary of the Battle of Verdun right now, and we're fast approaching the centenary of

the Battle of the Psalm. Together with the apocalyptic battle at Verdun, the slaughter on the psalm in summer and fall of the year

1960 made that year a particularly notable one as the full power of industrial warfare and

industrial scale killing came online on the Great Wars Western Front.

For those of you knew to the subject, the Battle of the Song kicked off on the 1st of July 1916,

when British and French troops went over the top and attacked German trench lines

that had been pounded with Allied artillery ceaselessly for a week.

Despite one of the longest and largest artillery barrages ever fired up to that time, the attacks proved only a limited and very costly success.

The 1st of July 1916 retains the macabre honor of being the bloodiest day in the history

of British arms.

Nearly 60,000 English and Dominion soldiers became casualties that day, with almost 20,000 of that number killed.

For this unimaginably expensive sacrifice, the British attacks failed on half their attack front,

and where there was some success, there was no dramatic breakthrough.

For that many casualties, you'd expect some major returns.

And that was just the first day.

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