At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, the entire British army, including infantry, consisted of volunteers and numbered around 250,000. regular troops. It is worth adding that the army underwent considerable changes after the Second Boer War (1899-1902), which concerned uniforms (e.g. the introduction of khaki uniforms), equipment and weapons. She was undoubtedly excellently trained and put a lot of emphasis on shooting training. However, the realities of World War I led to the introduction of general conscription in Great Britain in January 1916, which led to a significant increase in the size of the British armed forces - including infantry. As in other European armies at that time, the basic organizational unit at the tactical and operational level was the division. For example, the 27th Infantry Division formed in 1914 consisted of three, and from 1915, four infantry brigades. In addition, there were support units in the form of artillery units, sappers, medical and supplies. The primary weapon of the British infantryman was the Lee Enfield Mark III Short Magazine rifle. During the course of the war, the successful light Lewis machine guns were introduced on a large scale. The field artillery units, on the other hand, most often used 84 mm 18-pounder guns. The tactics of British infantry in the course of the war clearly changed and evolved - from emphasizing the fire of a single infantryman, through attack with a tyralier, to the use in 1918 of the most flexible tactics of attack with the maximum use of machine guns and grenades. It is worth adding that at the end of 1918, the British army had a total of 3.82 million soldiers formed in 70 divisions. The lion's share of them are infantry. It is quite commonly accepted that the British infantry underwent its baptism of fire in World War I at Mons in 1914, and its bloodiest battle was the Battle of the Somme in 1916.
The Battle of the Somme was fought in the period from July 1 to November 18, 1916. It is considered one of the bloodiest and heaviest battles of the First World War. The battle was mainly fought by British troops (with significant French support), under the supreme command of Douglas Haig, and German troops where the main role was played by generals Maz von Gallwitz and Fritz von Bellow. At the start of the battle, the British put around 390,000. people, French - approx. 330 thousand people, and Germany - approx. 315 thousand. soldiers. Initially, it was assumed in the Allied headquarters that the offensive on the Somme would break the German front and hasten the end of the war, but at the start of the war, it was primarily intended to relieve the French fighting at Verdun. One of its most tragic episodes was the first day of the offensive, on July 1, 1916, when the British army lost about 57,000 people wounded and killed. These were the greatest losses the British Army suffered in a single day in its history! The battle itself, dragging on for many months, is a classic example of a trench warfare, when the front - despite the use of enormous forces and means - moved at most a few hundred meters. It was therefore a situation analogous to that of the Battle of Verdun. It is worth adding that during the Battle of the Somme, for the first time in military history, the British army used tanks on a large scale. It is assumed that in the course of the battle, the British, French and German troops lost a total of approx. 1 million soldiers ...
At the start of World War I, in August 1914, the army of imperial Germany was considered the best and most efficient in the Old Continent. Such a conviction resulted mainly from the fame of the victories won in the course of the wars with Austria in 1866 and with France in the years 1870-1871. Also, many organizational solutions used at that time in the Prussian army, and later in the German army (e.g. strategic railway lines or mobilization techniques) were copied in other European countries. As in the French and Russian armies, the largest number of armed forces in the German army in 1914 was infantry. The German infantryman at that time was his main armament with the successful 7.92mm Mauser Gewehr 98 rifle, and on his head he wore the famous pickelhaub - so mercilessly used as a symbol of German militarism in the caricature of the Entente countries. It is worth adding that the German infantry uniform was much less colorful than its French counterpart. At the outbreak of the Great War, the German corps consisted of the headquarters, 2 infantry divisions, a heavy artillery squadron (16 150 mm caliber howitzers), a communications battalion, a searchlight company and an air company. The infantry division in turn consisted of two brigades, each of them two infantry regiments. On the other hand, a single infantry regiment consisted of 3 battalions and a machine gun company of 6 heavy machine guns. It is worth adding that the infantry division was supported by an artillery brigade of 72 guns. Of course, in the course of World War I, the German infantry underwent far-reaching changes. First of all, a steel helmet (German Stahlhelm) was introduced into the weaponry, which, with minor changes, survived in the German armed forces until the end of… World War II! Hand grenades, gas masks and light machine guns (German: leichte Maschinengewehr - abbreviated as lMG) also began to be used on a large scale. Branches such as Stosstruppen also appeared.