Truthful assessment is based on factual interpretation

The public feeling about the long-winded and indecisive events that transpired at the Somme is generally molded by the disaster of the first day. Indignation at the "meaningless" sacrifice of tens of thousands, wounded and dead in one day, on the altar of "ignorance" has stifled a more composed consideration of the tragedy. To focus attention or fault it all on the inefficiency of the commanders is a narrow and unsound assessment. We need to know what compelling situations may have determined the inevitability of events as they happened, and only from there to arrive at the real import that martyrdom has for history and humanity.

What is generally overlooked by general sentiment is that the operation was not a well devised one. It was a premature and much debated deployment of British troops in response to the surprise attacks launched by Germany at Verdun. Additionally, the First World War came at a time when technology was overhauling traditional human life. The war strategies and training successfully employed in the past proved to be inadequate for handling the innovations of military engineering resulting in either unintentional propagation or unwanted mitigation of damage. It was a scenario of "too much" or "too little."

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