The British Army that started the great Somme Offensive of 1916 was enthusiastic, amateurish, and the disaster of the first day was --until the surrender of Singapore in 1942 -- the worst catastrophe in the history of the British Army.  With 57,470 casualties, including 19,240 dead, to the British 4th Army alone on July 1st, it was certainly the bloodiest day in the history of British arms.

While many people regard this -- rightly -- as a debacle, they forget that the Somme Offensive continued until early November; even then this is widely regarded as an exercise in bloody-minded futility by a set of out-dated Generals incapable of understanding modern war.  This opinion is dead wrong.