Thousands of wounded were being brought back to Britain for medical attention, so much so that schools and church halls were being pressed into use as makeshift hospitals.
Haig justified the losses being sustained at the Somme by stating that they were only slightly above what would be considered normal.
By the end of July casualties amounted to 165,000. In itself this was almost double the entire strength of the British Expeditionary Force which set off in August 1914.
The greatest concern was that more than 40,000 of the 165,000 were dead.
The Daily Chronicle (July 3, 1916)
1st July, 1916: At about 7.30 o'clock this morning a vigorous attack was launched by the British Army. The front extends over some 20 miles north of the Somme. The assault was preceded by a terrific bombardment, lasting about an hour and a half. It is too early to as yet give anything but the barest particulars, as the fighting is developing in intensity, but the British troops have already occupied the German front line. Many prisoners have already fallen into our hands, and as far as can be ascertained our casualties have not been heavy.
By the end of September questions were being asked about the rate of attrition the men of the Allied forces were suffering.
The losses on the Somme followed 90,000 casualties in 1914, of which 50,000 were killed or missing. These losses had effectively wiped out the original Regular Army the war had started with.
During 1915 casualties exceeded 285,000, of which 92,000 were killed or missing. In turn this had wiped out the majority of the Reservists and Territorials.
During the first three months on the Somme 228,632 men had been sent back from the fighting because of injury and a further 90,000 had been killed.
It was clear that Kitchener’s ‘New Army’ was also being wiped out. In the first three months of fighting on the Somme the losses all but equalled the entire losses sustained in the first 16 months of the War.
In his book, Traveller in News, William Beach Thomas wrote about his reporting of the Battle of the Somme for the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror.
A great part of the information supplied to us by (British Army Intelligence) was utterly wrong and misleading. The dispatches were largely untrue so far as they deal with concrete results. For myself, on the next day and yet more on the day after that, I was thoroughly and deeply ashamed of what I had written, for the very good reason that it was untrue. Almost all the official information was wrong. The vulgarity of enormous headlines and the enormity of one's own name did not lessen the shame.
