For two years, the British had mostly allowed the French and Russians to absorb the brunt of Germany’s blows.56 But in July 1916, during the bloodbath at Verdun—launched by the Germans in a new strategy of attrition to overcome the stalemate by bleeding the French to death—the British countered with an offensive on the Somme farther west in France. At least 20,000 British soldiers were killed and another 40,000 wounded during the first twenty-four hours. This was the greatest loss of life—working class and aristocrat—in British military history. Before the Battle of the Somme, just like
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