Attrition

Attrition tells the story of one year, two battles and several million men. At the start of 1916 everything looked hopeful for the Franco-British Armies on the Western Front. They were getting the men and guns they needed. New technology in the shape of tanks and aircraft was about to appear and, after more than a year of fighting what amounted to private wars, the Entente Powers (Britain, France, Italy and their allies) were about to mount a number of co-ordinated offensives against the German and Austrian Armies, culminating in the Big Push: a joint Anglo-French offensive astride the Somme. But then, unfortunately for the Allies, the Germans struck first, at Verdun. By New Years Day, 1916, the fighting on the Western Front had cost some two million lives - by the end of the year it had risen to four million men and the territorial gains had been negligible.