The resulting battle, known alternately as the Battle of the Somme or the Somme Offensive, lasted for nearly 3 1/2 months. However, shortly after the plans were made, the Germans began their assault on Verdun, which forced the Allies to rethink their strategy, but the overall plan of forcing the Germans out of their trenches in France and pushing them out of Belgium remained. In early 1916, French and British leadership decided on a massive assault on the German lines across the Somme river in northern France. A complex series of mutual defense treaties amongst the European powers meant that when Austria declared war on Serbia, a series of dominoes fell and by August 4, all of the major European powers had declared war on one another. World War I was triggered by the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo on June 18, 1914. We ended up working out an itinerary that took us to the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the war, and the place where that armistice was signed. And in case you’re in that group: the armistice that ended the fighting in World War I was signed on November 11, 1918.Īs my wife and I began planning our trip with the kids to France this past summer, I knew right away that if we were going to be driving through Northern France, as was the plan, I wanted to take them to some of the key sights related to the war that has already seemingly begun to be forgotten, at least here in the US. If you ask most Americans why we commemorate Veterans Day on November 11 each year, many probably won’t know. One of the memorials at the Somme battlefield.
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