What were the aims of the Battle of Somme?
The Somme campaign originated from a conference at French military headquarters in Chantilly in December 1915. The plan called for an assault by the allies on 3 sides, The Italians from the south, the Russians from the east, and a combined British-French assault from the west. This would prevent the Germans from deploying it’s forces first against one force, then another as it would be attacked on all fronts. There was a school of thought to wait for a massive German offensive and then launch a counter-offensive once the German force had been drained, but there were concerns that the Germans were already in possession of the most valuable mining and manufacturing regions of France and all of Belgium and might decide to simply hold out and wait for the Allies to tire of war and sue for peace. Once the offensive was agreed upon, it was also deemed necessary that a series of spoiling attacks would be needed to whittle away at the German reserves in the months leading up to the mass offens
