From the Somme to the Armistice | 1917>> | 1918>>

From the somme to the Armistice
And so the statisticians were left to tally up the grim totals. In terms of loss of life, Saturday 1 July was the most expensive day of the war : 21,000 British soldiers had died or been mortally wounded - over 35,000 had been injured and more than 600 were prisoners. Of all the Divisions taking part, the Ulster Division ranks fourth in the table of losses.
Middlebrook notes 5,104 casualties of which at least 2,000 probably died. When this figure is added to the casualty list for 2-3 July and the casualties in the regular Irish Battalions and Scottish Regiments where Ulstermen also served, it may be assumed that the total of Ulster losses was much greater.
The Ulster Volunteers ended their participation in the Somme campaign with a fine reputation. Not only had they broken through and taken more than 500 prisoners in the first two days of the campaign, but they had gained four VCs for outstanding individual heroism.(a further 5 VC's were awarded by the end of the War)
But of what use was a fine reputation? In terms of a contribution to winning the war, the Ulster Division had done virtually nothing. The ground they had won had been lost again and not until October was the Schwaben Redoubt retaken and consolidated. By mid-November, when the Somme campaign ended, Grandcourt had still not been taken. The ‘Battle of the Somme’ as a whole had cost more than 400,000 British casualties and had gained roughly six miles. In mid-November, the British troops had still not taken Bapaume, and the war had two more years to run.

The Duke of Connaught inspecting the much reduced ranks of the Royal Irish Rifles
near Vlamertinghe in September 1916

The immediate result of the Somme offensive was a drop in enlistment to the 36th Division. But recruitment had already been falling off before the extent of the Somme casualties became known. A decline in recruitment had taken place all over Britain as the war had gone on, and whereas conscription swelled ranks in the mainland Regiments, it was not applied in Ireland. Immediately after the Somme the reserve Battalions of the Ulster Division were able to fill the gaps, but soon the process had to begin of introducing Scots, English, Welsh and indeed Catholic Irish. The Volunteer spirit was whittled away and the term ‘Ulster Division’ was to become a misnomer. But there were men who stayed with the 36th and who fought and died on various battle fronts during the two years of warfare that remained. A few survivors of the men who had packed the recruiting rooms of Ulster in 1914 stayed until the whole ghastly carnage stopped on 11 November 1918.

The declaration which captured British soldiers had to sign at German Prisoner-of-war camps

From the Somme to the Armistice | 1917>> | 1918>>

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