title: Second Boer War

text: The United States stayed neutral in the conflict, but some American citizens were eager to participate. Early in the war Lord Roberts cabled the American Frederick Russell Burnham, a veteran of both Matabele wars but at that very moment prospecting in the Klondike, to serve on his personal staff as Chief of Scouts. Burnham went on to receive the highest awards of any American who served in the war, but American mercenaries participated on both sides.


title: Second Boer War

text: From 1899 to 1901 the six separate self-governing colonies in Australia sent their own contingents to serve in the Boer War. That much of the population of the colonies had originated from Great Britain explains a general desire to support Britain during the conflict. After the colonies formed the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901, the new Government of Australia sent "Commonwealth" contingents to the war. The Boer War was thus the first war in which the Commonwealth of Australia fought. A few Australians fought on the Boer side. The most famous and colourful character was Colonel Arthur Alfred Lynch, formerly of Ballarat, Victoria, who raised the Second Irish Brigade.


title: Second Boer War

text: The Australian climate and geography were far closer to that of South Africa than most other parts of the empire, so Australians adapted quickly to the environment, with troops serving mostly among the army's "mounted rifles." Enlistment in all official Australian contingents totalled 16,463. Another five to seven thousand Australians served in "irregular" regiments raised in South Africa. Perhaps five hundred Australian irregulars were killed. In total 20,000 or more Australians served and about 1,000 were killed. A total of 267 died from disease, 251 were killed in action or died from wounds sustained in battle. A further 43 men were reported missing.


title: Second Boer War

text: When the war began some Australians, like some Britons, opposed it. As the war dragged on some Australians became disenchanted, in part because of the sufferings of Boer civilians reported in the press. In an interesting twist (for Australians), when the British missed capturing President Paul Kruger, as he escaped Pretoria during its fall in June 1900, a "Melbourne Punch", 21 June 1900, cartoon depicted how the War could be won, using the Kelly Gang.


title: Second Boer War

text: The convictions and executions of two Australian lieutenants, Harry Harbord Morant, colloquially known as 'The Breaker' for his skill with horses, and Peter Handcock in 1902, and the imprisonment of a third, George Witton, had minimal impact on the Australian public at the time despite later legend. The controversial court-martial saw the three convicted of executing Boer prisoners under their authority. After the war, though, Australians joined an empire-wide campaign that saw Witton released from jail. Much later, some Australians came to see the execution of Morant and Handcock as instances of wrongfully executed Australians, as illustrated in the 1980 Australian film "Breaker Morant".


title: Second Boer War

text: It is believed that up to 50 Aboriginal Australians served in the Boer War as trackers. According to Dale Kerwin, an Indigenous research fellow at Griffith University, such is the lack of information that is available about the trackers it is even uncertain as to whether they returned to Australia at the end of the war. He has claimed that at the end of the war in 1902 when the Australian contingents returned the trackers may not have been allowed back to Australia due to the White Australia Policy.


title: Second Boer War

text: A total of around 8000 Canadians arrived in South Africa to fight for Britain. These arrived in two contingents: the first on 30 October 1899, the second on 21 January 1900. A third contongent of cavalry (Strathcona's Horse) embarked for South Africa on 16/17 March 1900. They remained until May 1902. With approximately 7,368 soldiers in a combat situation, the conflict became the largest military engagement involving Canadian soldiers from the time of Confederation until the Great War. Eventually, 270 of these soldiers died in the course of the Boer War.


title: Second Boer War

text: The Canadian public was initially divided on the decision to go to war as some citizens did not want Canada to become Britain's 'tool' for engaging in armed conflicts. Many Anglophone citizens were pro-Empire, and wanted the prime minister, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, to support the British in their conflict. On the other hand, many Francophone citizens felt threatened by the continuation of British imperialism to their national sovereignty.


title: Second Boer War

text: In the end, to appease the citizens who wanted war and to avoid angering those who oppose it, Laurier sent 1,000 volunteers under the command of Lieutenant Colonel William Otter to aid the confederation in its war to 'liberate' the peoples of the Boer controlled states in South Africa. The volunteers were provided to the British if the latter paid costs of the battalion after it arrived in South Africa.


title: Second Boer War

text: The supporters of the war claimed that it "pitted British Freedom, justice and civilization against Boer backwardness". The French Canadians' opposition to the Canadian involvement in a British 'colonial venture' eventually led to a three-day riot in various areas of Quebec.


title: Second Boer War

text: Commonwealth involvement in the Boer War can be summarised into three parts. The first part (October 1899 – December 1899) was characterised by questionable decisions and blunders from the Commonwealth leadership which affected its soldiers greatly. The soldiers of the Commonwealth were shocked at the number of Afrikaner soldiers who were willing to oppose the British. The Afrikaner troops were very willing to fight for their country, and were armed with modern weaponry and were highly mobile soldiers. This was one of the best examples of Guerrilla style warfare, which would be employed throughout the twentieth century after set piece fighting was seen as a hindrance by certain groups. The Boer soldiers would evade capture and secure provisions from their enemies therefore they were able to exist as a fighting entity for an indeterminate period of time.


title: Second Boer War

text: The end of the First part was the period in mid-December, referred to as the "Black Week". During the week of 10–17 December 1899, the British suffered three major defeats at the hands of the Boers at the battlefields of Stormberg, Magersfontein and Colenso. Afterwards, the British called upon more volunteers to take part in the war from the Commonwealth.


title: Second Boer War

text: The second part of the war (February–April 1900) was the opposite of the first. After the British reorganised and reinforced under new leadership, they began to experience success against the Boer soldiers. Commonwealth soldiers resorted to using blockhouses, farm burning and concentration camps to 'persuade' the resisting Boers into submission.


title: Second Boer War

text: The final phase of the war was the guerrilla phase in which many Boer soldiers turned to guerrilla tactics such as raiding infrastructure or communications lines. Many Canadian soldiers did not actually see combat after they had been shipped over to South Africa since many arrived around the time of the signing of the Treaty of Vereeniging on 31 May 1902.


title: Second Boer War

text: British garrisons in India contributed 18,534 British officers and men, as well as an estimated 10,000 Indian auxiliaries deployed to assist them. India also sent 7,000 horses, ponies and mules.


title: Second Boer War

text: The Natal Indian Ambulance Corps, created by Mohandas K. Gandhi and financed by the local Indian community, served at Colenso and Spion Kop.


title: Second Boer War

text: When the Second Boer War seemed imminent, New Zealand offered its support. On 28 September 1899, Prime Minister Richard Seddon asked Parliament to approve the offer to the imperial government of a contingent of mounted rifles, thus becoming the first British Colony to send troops to the Boer War. The British position in the dispute with the Transvaal was "moderate and righteous," he maintained. He stressed the "crimson tie" of Empire that bound New Zealand to the mother-country and the importance of a strong British Empire for the colony's security.


title: Second Boer War

text: By the time peace was concluded two and a half years later, 10 contingents of volunteers, totalling nearly 6,500 men from New Zealand, with 8,000 horses had fought in the conflict, along with doctors, nurses, veterinary surgeons and a small number of school teachers. Some 70 New Zealanders died from enemy action, with another 158 killed accidentally or by disease. The first New Zealander to be killed was Farrier G.R. Bradford at Jasfontein Farm on 18 December 1899. The Boer War was greeted with extraordinary enthusiasm when the war was over, and peace was greeted with patriotism and national pride. This is best shown by the fact that the Third, Fourth and Fifth contingents from New Zealand were funded by public conscription.


title: Second Boer War

text: Rhodesian military units such as the British South Africa Police, Rhodesia Regiment and Southern Rhodesian Volunteers served in the Second Boer War.


title: Second Boer War

text: During the war, the British army also included substantial contingents from South Africa itself. There were large communities of English-speaking immigrants and settlers in Natal and Cape Colony (especially around Cape Town and Grahamstown), which formed volunteer units that took the field, or local "town guards." At one stage of the war, a "Colonial Division," consisting of five light horse and infantry units under Brigadier General Edward Brabant, took part in the invasion of the Orange Free State. Part of it withstood a siege by Christiaan de Wet at Wepener on the borders of Basutoland. Another large source of volunteers was the "uitlander" community, many of whom hastily left Johannesburg in the days immediately preceding the war.


title: Second Boer War

text: Later during the war, Lord Kitchener attempted to form a Boer Police Force, as part of his efforts to pacify the occupied areas and effect a reconciliation with the Boer community. The members of this force were despised as traitors by the Boers still in the field. Those Boers who attempted to remain neutral after giving their parole to British forces were derided as ""hensoppers"" (hands-uppers) and were often coerced into giving support to the Boer guerrillas (which formed one of the reasons for the British decision to launch scorched earth campaigns throughout the countryside and detain Boers in concentration camps in order to deny anything of use to the Boer guerillas).


title: Second Boer War

text: Like the Canadian and particularly the Australian and New Zealand contingents, many of the volunteer units formed by South Africans were "light horse" or mounted infantry, well suited to the countryside and manner of warfare. Some regular British officers scorned their comparative lack of formal discipline, but the light horse units were hardier and more suited to the demands of campaigning than the overloaded British cavalry, who were still obsessed with the charge by lance or sabre. At their peak, 24,000 South Africans (including volunteers from the Empire) served in the field in various "colonial" units. Notable units (in addition to the Imperial Light Horse) were the South African Light Horse, Rimington's Guides, Kitchener's Horse and the Imperial Light Infantry.


title: Second Boer War

text: Harold Lothrop Borden – Only son of Canada's Canadian Minister of Defence and Militia, Frederick William Borden. Serving in the Royal Canadian Dragoons, he became the most famous Canadian casualty of the Second Boer War. Queen Victoria asked F. W. Borden for a photograph of his son, Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier praised his services, tributes arrived from across Canada, and in his home town Canning, Nova Scotia, there is a monument (by Hamilton MacCarthy) erected to his memory.


title: Second Boer War

text: Sam Hughes – Senior Militia officer and later a Federally elected cabinet minister. As a very patriotic individual, Hughes became involved in the Boer war as a member of Brigadier-General Herbert Settle's expedition after Hughes unsuccessfully tried to raise his own brigade of soldiers. Hughes was noted by his colleagues for having a dislike of professional soldiers and he was noted for being an exceptional leader of irregular soldiers, whom he preferred to lead in combat. However, Hughes was dismissed and was sent home in the summer of 1900 for; sending letters back home which were published outlining British command incompetence, his impatience and boastfulness and his providing surrendering enemies favourable conditions. When he arrived back in Canada, Hughes became very active politically, and he would eventually start his political career with the Conservatives. When he became a Member of Parliament (Canada) (MP), Hughes would be in the position to become the Canadian Minister of Defence and Militia in 1911, just prior the outbreak of World War I. This was a position that Hughes would be dismissed from in 1916, due once again to his impatience, among other reasons.


title: Second Boer War

text: John McCrae – Best known as the author of the World War I poem In Flanders Fields, McCrae started his active military service in the Boer War as an artillery officer. After completing several major campaigns, McCrae's artillery unit was sent home to Canada in 1901 with what would be referred to today as an 'honourable discharge'. McCrae ended up becoming a special professor in the University of Vermont for pathology and he would later serve in World War I as a Medical officer until his death from pneumonia while on active duty in 1918.


title: Second Boer War

text: Harry "Breaker" Morant – Australian soldier, bush-poet, and horse-breaker hence his nickname, who as a commanding officer is accused of participation in summary executions of Boer prisoners – under orders from Kitchener it was argued by Morant and co-accused during his court-martial, although this is still debated due to the lack of British military papers being released for examination by Australian military historians – and the killing of a German missionary who had been a witness to the shootings. Morant was found guilty along with Peter Handcock and George Witton at their court-martial, with the two former being executed and the latter's sentence commuted, and later released from British prison to return to Australia after sustained public pressure to do so. This entire affair is still extremely controversial in Australian military history, predominantly regarding Australian officers under the command of British officers being tried by the British instead of by fellow Australians, as Federation occurred during the Boer War.


title: Second Boer War

text: Winston Churchill – Best known as the prime minister of Britain during the main part of the Second World War, Churchill worked as a war correspondent for "The Morning Post". At the age of twenty-six, he was captured and held prisoner in a camp in Pretoria from which he escaped and rejoined the British army. He received a commission in the South African Light Horse (still working as a correspondent) and witnessed the capture of Ladysmith and Pretoria.


title: Second Boer War

text: Mahatma Gandhi – Best known as the leader of the independence movement in India, he lived in South Africa 1893–1915 where he worked on behalf of Indians. He volunteered in 1900 to help the British by forming teams of ambulance drivers and raising 1100 Indian volunteer medics. At Spioenkop Gandhi and his bearers had to carry wounded soldiers for miles to a field hospital because the terrain was too rough for the ambulances. General Redvers Buller mentioned the courage of the Indians in his dispatch. Gandhi and thirty-seven other Indians received the War Medal.


title: Second Boer War

text: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle– Author and creator of Sherlock Holmes. Served as a volunteer doctor in the Langman Field Hospital at Bloemfontein between March and June 1900. In his widely distributed and translated pamphlet 'The War in South Africa: Its Cause and Conduct' he justified both the reasonings behind the war and handling of the conflict itself. In response to complaints about concentration camps he pointed out that over 14,000 British soldiers had died of disease during the conflict (as opposed to 8,000 killed in combat) and at the height of epidemics he was seeing 50–60 British soldiers dying each day in a single ill-equipped and overwhelmed military hospital.


title: Second Boer War

text: James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon – Future Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. Served as a Captain in the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles and as part of the 13th battalion of the Imperial Yeomanry. He was captured in 1900 but released due to a perforated colon and served as a deputy assistant director of the Imperial Military Railways until being evacuated to the UK due to ill-health.


title: Second Boer War

text: The Victoria Cross, is the highest military medal available to soldiers of the Brirush Empire, including those fighting for in Commonwealth armies and those of former British Territories. It is awarded based on exemplary bravery and valour in the presence of danger.


title: Second Boer War

text: The Second Boer War was the harbinger of a new type of combat which would persevere throughout the twentieth century, guerrilla warfare. After the war was over, the entire British army underwent a period of reform which was focused on lessening the emphasis placed on mounted units in combat. It was determined that the traditional role of cavalry was antiquated and improperly used on the battlefield in the modern warfare of the Boer War, and that the First World War was the final proof that mounted attacks had no place in twentieth century combat. Cavalry was put to better use after the reforms in the theatres of the Middle East and World War I, and the idea of mounted infantry was useful in the times when the war was more mobile. An example was during the First World War during the Battle of Mons in which the British cavalry held the Belgian town against an initial German assault. Another was the use of mounted infantry at the Battle of Megiddo (1918) in which Allenby's force routed the enemy owing to speed and dexterity of arms.


title: Second Boer War

text: The Canadian units of the Royal Canadian Dragoons and the Royal Canadian Mounted Rifles fought in the First World War in the same role as the Boer War. However, during, and after, the Second World War the regiments swapped their horses for mechanised vehicles. It was also the beginning of types of conflict involving machine guns, shrapnel and observation balloons which were all used extensively in the First World War. To the Canadians however, attrition was the leading cause of death in the second Boer war, with disease being the cause of approximately half of the Canadian deaths.


title: Second Boer War

text: Canadians ended the war with four Victoria Crosses to its soldiers and two more Victoria Crosses were given to Canadian doctors attached to British Medical Corps units, Lieutenant H.E.M. Douglas (1899, Magersfontein) and Lieutenant W.H.S. Nickerson (1900, Wakkerstroom). Not all soldiers saw action since many landed in South Africa after the hostilities ended while others (including the 3rd Special Service Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment) performed garrison duty in Halifax, Nova Scotia so that their British counterparts could join at the front lines. Later on, contingents of Canadians served with the paramilitary South Africa Constabulary. Both sides used a scorched Earth policy to deprive the marching enemy of food. And both had to corral civilians into makeshift huts by 'concentrating' them into camps. For example, at Buffelspoort, British soldiers were held in captivity in Boer encampments after surrendering their arms, and civilians were often mixed in with service personnel because the Boers did not have the resources to do otherwise. A total of 116,000 women, children and Boer soldiers were confined to the Commonwealth concentration camps, of which at least 28,000, mainly women and children, would die. The lack of food, water, and sanitary provisions was a feature of 20th-century warfare for both civilians and armed services personnel, yet one consequence of the Boer War and investigative commissions was the implementation of The Hague Convention (1899) and Geneva Convention (1904); of which there were many further agreements thereafter.


title: Second Boer War

text: The British saw their tactics of scorched earth and concentration camps as a legitimate way of depriving the Boer guerrillas of supplies and safe havens. The Boers saw them as a British attempt to coerce the Boers into surrender, with the camp inmates – mainly families of Boer fighters – seen as deliberately kept in poor conditions to encourage high death rates. Even in 2019, the controversy around the British tactics continued to make headlines.


title: Second Boer War

text: The Australian National Boer War Memorial Committee organises events to mark the war on 31 May each year. In Canberra, a commemorative service is usually held at the Saint John the Baptist Anglican Church in Reid. Floral tributes are laid for the dead.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: The Battle of the Somme (French: Bataille de la Somme), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place between 1 July and 18 November 1916 on both sides of the upper reaches of the Somme, a river in France. The battle was intended to hasten a victory for the Allies. More than three million men fought in the battle of whom one million were wounded or killed, making it one of the deadliest battles in human history.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: The French and British had committed themselves to an offensive on the Somme during the Chantilly Conference in December 1915. The Allies agreed upon a strategy of combined offensives against the Central Powers in 1916 by the French, Russian, British and Italian armies, with the Somme offensive as the Franco-British contribution. Initial plans called for the French army to undertake the main part of the Somme offensive, supported on the northern flank by the Fourth Army of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). When the Imperial German Army began the Battle of Verdun on the Meuse on 21 February 1916, French commanders diverted many of the divisions intended for the Somme and the "supporting" attack by the British became the principal effort. The British troops on the Somme comprised a mixture of the remains of the pre-war army, the Territorial Force and Kitchener's Army, a force of wartime volunteers.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: On the first day on the Somme (1 July) the German 2nd Army suffered a serious defeat opposite the French Sixth Army, from Foucaucourt-en-Santerre south of the Somme to Maricourt on the north bank and by the Fourth Army from Maricourt to the vicinity of the Albert–Bapaume road. The 57,470 casualties suffered by the British, including 19,240 killed, were the worst in the history of the British Army. Most of the British casualties were suffered on the front between the Albert–Bapaume road and Gommecourt to the north, which was the area where the principal German defensive effort () was made. The battle became notable for the importance of air power and the first use of the tank in September but these were a product of new technology and exceedingly unreliable.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: At the end of the battle, British and French forces had penetrated into German-occupied territory along the majority of the front, their largest territorial gain since the First Battle of the Marne in 1914. The operational objectives of the Anglo-French armies were unfulfilled, as they failed to capture Péronne and Bapaume, where the German armies maintained their positions over the winter. British attacks in the Ancre valley resumed in January 1917 and forced the Germans into local withdrawals to reserve lines in February before the strategic retreat by about in Operation Alberich to the (Hindenburg Line) in March 1917. Debate continues over the necessity, significance and effect of the battle.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: Allied war strategy for 1916 was decided at the Chantilly Conference from . Simultaneous offensives on the Eastern Front by the Russian army, on the Italian Front by the Italian army and on the Western Front by the Franco-British armies were to be carried out to deny time for the Central Powers to move troops between fronts during lulls. In December 1915, General Sir Douglas Haig replaced Field Marshal Sir John French as Commander-in-Chief of the BEF. Haig favoured a British offensive in Flanders, close to BEF supply routes, to drive the Germans from the Belgian coast and end the U-boat threat from Belgian waters. Haig was not formally subordinate to Marshal Joseph Joffre but the British played a lesser role on the Western Front and complied with French strategy.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: In January 1916, Joffre had agreed to the BEF making its main effort in Flanders but in February 1916 it was decided to mount a combined offensive where the French and British armies met, astride the Somme River in Picardy before the British offensive in Flanders. A week later the Germans began the Battle of Verdun against the French army. The costly defence of Verdun forced the army to divert divisions intended for the Somme offensive, eventually reducing the French contribution to in the Sixth Army, against divisions. By 31 May, the ambitious Franco-British plan for a decisive victory, had been reduced to a limited offensive to relieve pressure on the French at Verdun and inflict attrition on the German armies in the west.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: The Chief of the German General Staff, Erich von Falkenhayn, intended to end the war by splitting the Anglo-French Entente in 1916, before its material superiority became unbeatable. Falkenhayn planned to defeat the large number of reserves which the Entente could move into the path of a breakthrough, by threatening a sensitive point close to the existing front line and provoking the French into counter-attacking German positions. Falkenhayn chose to attack towards Verdun to take the Meuse heights and make Verdun untenable. The French would have to conduct a counter-offensive on ground dominated by the German army and ringed with masses of heavy artillery, leading to huge losses and bringing the French army close to collapse. The British would mount a hasty relief offensive and suffer similar losses. Falkenhayn expected the relief offensive to fall south of Arras against the 6th Army and be destroyed. (Despite the certainty by mid-June of an Anglo-French attack on the Somme against the 2nd Army, Falkenhayn sent only four divisions, keeping eight in the western strategic reserve. No divisions were taken from the Sixth Army, despite it holding a shorter line with divisions and three of the divisions in OHL reserve behind the 6th Army. The maintenance of the strength of the 6th Army, at the expense of the 2nd Army on the Somme, indicated that Falkenhayn intended the counter-offensive against the British to be made north of the Somme front, once the British offensive had been shattered.) If such Franco-British defeats were not enough, Germany would attack the remnants of both armies and end the western alliance for good. The unexpected length of the Verdun offensive, and the need to replace many drained units at Verdun, depleted the German strategic reserve placed behind the 6th Army, which held the Western Front from Hannescamps, south-west of Arras to St Eloi, south of Ypres and reduced the German counter-offensive strategy north of the Somme to one of passive and unyielding defence.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: The Battle of Verdun ( December 1916) began a week after Joffre and Haig agreed to mount an offensive on the Somme. The German offensive at Verdun was intended to threaten the capture of the city and induce the French to fight an attrition battle, in which German advantages of terrain and firepower would cause the French disproportionate casualties. The battle changed the nature of the offensive on the Somme, as French divisions were diverted to Verdun, and the main effort by the French diminished to a supporting attack for the British. German overestimation of the cost of Verdun to the French contributed to the concentration of German infantry and guns on the north bank of the Somme. By May, Joffre and Haig had changed their expectations of an offensive on the Somme, from a decisive battle to a hope that it would relieve Verdun and keep German divisions in France, which would assist the Russian armies conducting the Brusilov Offensive. The German offensive at Verdun was suspended in July, and troops, guns, and ammunition were transferred to Picardy, leading to a similar transfer of the French Tenth Army to the Somme front. Later in the year, the Franco-British were able to attack on the Somme and at Verdun sequentially and the French recovered much of the ground lost on the east bank of the Meuse in October and December.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: The Brusilov offensive () on the Eastern Front absorbed the extra forces that had been requested on 2 June by Fritz von Below, commanding the German Second Army, for a spoiling attack on the Somme. On 4 June, Russian armies attacked on a front, from the Romanian frontier to Pinsk and eventually advanced , reaching the foothills of the Carpathian mountains, against German and Austro-Hungarian troops of and . During the offensive the Russians inflicted including . Three divisions were ordered from France to the Eastern Front on 9 June and the spoiling attack on the Somme was abandoned. Only four more divisions were sent to the Somme front before the Anglo-French offensive began, bringing the total to divisions. Falkenhayn, and then Hindenburg and Ludendorff, were forced to send divisions to Russia throughout the summer to prevent a collapse of the Austro-Hungarian army and then to conduct a counter-offensive against Romania, which declared war against the Central Powers on 27 August. In July there were divisions on the Western Front and in Russia and in November there were in the west and in the east.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: The original British Expeditionary Force (BEF) of 6 divisions and the Cavalry Division, had lost most of the British pre-war regulars in the battles of 1914 and 1915. The bulk of the army was made up of volunteers of the Territorial Force and Kitchener's Army, which had begun forming in August 1914. Rapid expansion created many vacancies for senior commands and specialist functions, which led to many appointments of retired officers and inexperienced newcomers. In 1914, Douglas Haig had been a lieutenant-general in command of I Corps and was promoted to command the First Army in early 1915 and then the BEF in December, which eventually comprised five armies with sixty divisions. The swift increase in the size of the army reduced the average level of experience within it and created an acute equipment shortage. Many officers resorted to directive command to avoid delegating to novice subordinates, although divisional commanders were given great latitude in training and planning for the attack of 1 July, since the heterogeneous nature of the 1916 army made it impossible for corps and army commanders to know the capacity of each division.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: Despite considerable debate among German staff officers, Erich von Falkenhayn continued the policy of unyielding defence in 1916. Falkenhayn implied after the war that the psychology of German soldiers, shortage of manpower and lack of reserves made the policy inescapable, as the troops necessary to seal off breakthroughs did not exist. High losses incurred in holding ground by a policy of no retreat were preferable to higher losses, voluntary withdrawals and the effect of a belief that soldiers had discretion to avoid battle. When a more flexible policy was substituted later, decisions about withdrawal were still reserved to army commanders. On the Somme front, Falkenhayn's construction plan of January 1915 had been completed. Barbed wire obstacles had been enlarged from one belt wide to two, wide and about apart. Double and triple thickness wire was used and laid high. The front line had been increased from one trench line to a position of three lines apart, the first trench () occupied by sentry groups, the second () for the bulk of the front-trench garrison and the third trench for local reserves. The trenches were traversed and had sentry-posts in concrete recesses built into the parapet. Dugouts had been deepened from to , apart and large enough for . An intermediate line of strongpoints (the ) about behind the front line was also built. Communication trenches ran back to the reserve line, renamed the second position, which was as well-built and wired as the first position. The second position was beyond the range of Allied field artillery, to force an attacker to stop and move field artillery forward before assaulting the position.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: French losses at Verdun reduced the contribution available for the offensive on the Somme and increased the urgency for the commencement of operations on the Somme. The principal role in the offensive devolved to the British and on 16 June, Haig defined the objectives of the offensive as the relief of pressure on the French at Verdun and the infliction of losses on the Germans. After a five-day artillery bombardment, the British Fourth Army was to capture of the German first line, from Montauban to Serre and the Third Army was to mount a diversion at Gommecourt. In a second phase, the Fourth Army was to take the German second position, from Pozières to the Ancre and then the second position south of the Albert–Bapaume Road, ready for an attack on the German third position south of the road towards Flers, when the Reserve Army which included three cavalry divisions, would exploit the success to advance east and then north towards Arras. The French Sixth Army, with one corps on the north bank from Maricourt to the Somme and two corps on the south bank southwards to Foucaucourt, would make a subsidiary attack to guard the right flank of the main attack being made by the British.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: Research in German archives revealed in 2016 that the date and location of the British offensive had been betrayed to German interrogators by two politically disgruntled soldiers several weeks in advance. The German military accordingly undertook significant defensive preparatory work on the British section of the Somme offensive.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: After the Autumn Battles () of 1915, a third defensive position another back from the was begun in February 1916 and was almost complete on the Somme front when the battle began. German artillery was organised in a series of (barrage sectors); each officer was expected to know the batteries covering his section of the front line and the batteries ready to engage fleeting targets. A telephone system was built, with lines buried deep for behind the front line, to connect the front line to the artillery. The Somme defences had two inherent weaknesses that the rebuilding had not remedied. The front trenches were on a forward slope, lined by white chalk from the subsoil and easily seen by ground observers. The defences were crowded towards the front trench with a regiment having two battalions near the front-trench system and the reserve battalion divided between the and the second position, all within of no man's land and most troops within of the front line, accommodated in the new deep dugouts. The concentration of troops at the front line on a forward slope guaranteed that it would face the bulk of an artillery bombardment, directed by ground observers on clearly marked lines.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: The Battle of Albert was the first two weeks of Anglo-French offensive operations in the Battle of the Somme. The Allied preparatory artillery bombardment began on 24 June and the Anglo-French infantry attacked on 1 July, on the south bank from Foucaucourt to the Somme and from the Somme north to Gommecourt, beyond Serre. The French Sixth Army and the right wing of the British Fourth Army inflicted a considerable defeat on the German Second Army, but from the Albert–Bapaume road to Gommecourt the British attack was a disaster where most of the casualties were incurred. Against Joffre's wishes, Haig abandoned the offensive north of the road, to reinforce the success in the south, where the Anglo-French forces pressed forward towards the German second line, preparatory to a general attack on 14 July. Following such was a reviewal noting that the British companies present moved at full-kit due to the overconfidence of general field NCO's to the German Location after witnessing such a bombardment upon their location.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: The Battle of the Somme lasted beginning with the opening day of the Battle of Albert. The attack was made by five divisions of the French Sixth Army on the east side of the Somme, eleven British divisions of the Fourth Army north of the Somme to Serre and two divisions of the Third Army opposite Gommecourt, against the German Second Army of General Fritz von Below. The German defence south of the Albert–Bapaume road mostly collapsed and the French had "complete success" on both banks of the Somme, as did the British from the army boundary at Maricourt to the Albert–Bapaume road. On the south bank the German defence was made incapable of resisting another attack and a substantial retreat began; on the north bank the abandonment of Fricourt was ordered. The defenders on the commanding ground north of the road inflicted a huge defeat on the British infantry, who took an unprecedented number of casualties. Several truces were negotiated to recover wounded from no man's land north of the road. The Fourth Army took , of which were killed. The French Sixth Army had , and the German 2nd Army had .


title: Battle of the Somme

text: The Fourth Army attacked the German second defensive position from the Somme past Guillemont and Ginchy, north-west along the crest of the ridge to Pozières on the Albert–Bapaume road. The objectives of the attack were the villages of Bazentin le Petit, Bazentin le Grand and Longueval which was adjacent to Delville Wood, with High Wood on the ridge beyond. The attack was made by four divisions on a front of at after a five-minute hurricane artillery bombardment. Field artillery fired a creeping barrage and the attacking waves pushed up close behind it in no man's land, leaving them only a short distance to cross when the barrage lifted from the German front trench. Most of the objective was captured and the German defence south of the Albert–Bapaume road put under great strain but the attack was not followed up due to British communication failures, casualties and disorganisation.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: The Battle of Fromelles was a subsidiary attack to support the Fourth Army on the Somme to the south, to exploit any weakening of the German defences opposite. Preparations for the attack were rushed, the troops involved lacked experience in trench warfare and the power of the German defence was "gravely" underestimated, the attackers being . On 19 July, von Falkenhayn had judged the British attack to be the anticipated offensive against the 6th Army. Next day, Falkenhayn ordered the Guard Reserve Corps to be withdrawn to reinforce the Somme front. The Battle of Fromelles had inflicted some losses on the German defenders but gained no ground and deflected few German troops bound for the Somme. The attack was the debut of the Australian Imperial Force on the Western Front and, according to McMullin, "the worst 24 hours in Australia's entire history". Of , were incurred by the 5th Australian Division; German losses were prisoner.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: The Battle of Delville Wood was an operation to secure the British right flank, while the centre advanced to capture the higher-lying areas of High Wood and Pozières. After the Battle of Albert the offensive had evolved to the capture of fortified villages, woods, and other terrain that offered observation for artillery fire, jumping-off points for more attacks, and other tactical advantages. The mutually costly fighting at Delville Wood eventually secured the British right flank and marked the Western Front debut of the South African 1st Infantry Brigade (incorporating a Southern Rhodesian contingent), which held the wood from 15 to 20 July. When relieved, the brigade had lost , similar to the casualties of many brigades on 1 July.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: The Battle of Pozières began with the capture of the village by the 1st Australian Division (Australian Imperial Force) of the Reserve Army, the only British success in the Allied fiasco of when a general attack combined with the French further south, degenerated into a series of separate attacks due to communication failures, supply failures and poor weather. German bombardments and counter-attacks began on 23 July and continued until 7 August. The fighting ended with the Reserve Army taking the plateau north and east of the village, overlooking the fortified village of Thiepval from the rear.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: The Battle of Guillemont was an attack on the village which was captured by the Fourth Army on the first day. Guillemont was on the right flank of the British sector, near the boundary with the French Sixth Army. German defences ringed the British salient at Delville Wood to the north and had observation over the French Sixth Army area to the south towards the Somme river. The German defence in the area was based on the second line and numerous fortified villages and farms north from Maurepas at Combles, Guillemont, Falfemont Farm, Delville Wood and High Wood, which were mutually supporting. The battle for Guillemont was considered by some observers to be the supreme effort of the German army during the battle. Numerous meetings were held by Joffre, Haig, Foch, General Sir Henry Rawlinson (commander of the British Fourth Army) and Fayolle to co-ordinate joint attacks by the four armies, all of which broke down. A pause in Anglo-French attacks at the end of August, coincided with the largest counter-attack by the German army in the Battle of the Somme.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: In the Battle of Ginchy the 16th Division captured the German-held village. Ginchy was north-east of Guillemont, at the junction of six roads on a rise overlooking Combles, to the south-east. After the end of the Battle of Guillemont, British troops were required to advance to positions which would give observation over the German third position, ready for a general attack in mid-September. British attacks from Leuze Wood northwards to Ginchy had begun on 3 September, when the 7th Division captured the village and was then forced out by a German counter-attack. The capture of Ginchy and the success of the French Sixth Army on 12 September, in its biggest attack of the battle of the Somme, enabled both armies to make much bigger attacks, sequenced with the Tenth and Reserve armies, which captured much more ground and inflicted casualties on the German defenders during the month.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: The Battle of Flers–Courcelette was the third and final general offensive mounted by the British Army, which attacked an intermediate line and the German third line to take Morval, Lesboeufs and Gueudecourt, which was combined with a French attack on Frégicourt and Rancourt to encircle Combles and a supporting attack on the south bank of the Somme. The strategic objective of a breakthrough was not achieved but the tactical gains were considerable, the front line being advanced by and many casualties were inflicted on the German defenders. The battle was the debut of the Canadian Corps, the New Zealand Division and tanks of the Heavy Branch of the Machine Gun Corps on the Somme.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: The Battle of Morval was an attack by the Fourth Army on Morval, Gueudecourt and Lesboeufs held by the German 1st Army, which had been the final objectives of the Battle of Flers–Courcelette (15–22 September). The attack was postponed to combine with attacks by the French Sixth Army on Combles, south of Morval and because of rain. The combined attack was also intended to deprive the German defenders further west, near Thiepval of reinforcements, before an attack by the Reserve Army, due on 26 September. Combles, Morval, Lesboeufs and Gueudecourt were captured and a small number of tanks joined in the battle later in the afternoon. Many casualties were inflicted on the Germans but the French made slower progress. The Fourth Army advance on 25 September was its deepest since 14 July and left the Germans in severe difficulties, particularly in a salient near Combles. The Reserve Army attack began on 26 September in the Battle of Thiepval Ridge.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: The Battle of Thiepval Ridge was the first large offensive mounted by the Reserve Army of Lieutenant General Hubert Gough and was intended to benefit from the Fourth Army attack at Morval by starting afterwards. Thiepval Ridge was well fortified and the German defenders fought with great determination, while the British co-ordination of infantry and artillery declined after the first day, due to confused fighting in the maze of trenches, dug-outs and shell-craters. The final British objectives were not reached until the Battle of the Ancre Heights (1 October – 11 November). Organisational difficulties and deteriorating weather frustrated Joffre's intention to proceed by vigorous co-ordinated attacks by the Anglo-French armies, which became disjointed and declined in effectiveness during late September, at the same time as a revival occurred in the German defence. The British experimented with new techniques in gas warfare, machine-gun bombardment and tank–infantry co-operation, as the Germans struggled to withstand the preponderance of men and material fielded by the Anglo-French, despite reorganisation and substantial reinforcements of troops, artillery and aircraft from Verdun. September became the worst month for casualties for the Germans.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: The Battle of Le Transloy began in good weather and Le Sars was captured on 7 October. Pauses were made from due to rain and to allow time for a methodical bombardment, when it became clear that the German defence had recovered from earlier defeats. Haig consulted with the army commanders and on reduced the scope of operations by cancelling the Third Army plans and reducing the Reserve Army and Fourth Army attacks to limited operations, in co-operation with the French Sixth Army. Another pause followed before operations resumed on 23 October on the northern flank of the Fourth Army, with a delay during more bad weather on the right flank of the Fourth Army and on the French Sixth Army front, until 5 November. Next day, the Fourth Army ceased offensive operations, except for small attacks intended to improve positions and divert German attention from attacks being made by the Reserve/Fifth Army. Larger operations resumed in January 1917.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: The Battle of the Ancre Heights was fought after Haig made plans for the Third Army to take the area east of Gommecourt, the Reserve Army to attack north from Thiepval Ridge and east from Beaumont Hamel–Hébuterne and for the Fourth Army to reach the Péronne–Bapaume road around Le Transloy and Beaulencourt–Thilloy–Loupart Wood, north of the Albert–Bapaume road. The Reserve Army attacked to complete the capture of Regina Trench/Stuff Trench, north of Courcelette to the west end of Bazentin Ridge around and Stuff Redoubts, during which bad weather caused great hardship and delay. The Marine Brigade from Flanders and fresh German divisions brought from quiet fronts counter-attacked frequently and the British objectives were not secured until 11 November.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: The Battle of the Ancre was the last big British operation of the year. The Fifth (formerly Reserve) Army attacked into the Ancre valley to exploit German exhaustion after the Battle of the Ancre Heights and gain ground ready for a resumption of the offensive in 1917. Political calculation, concern for Allied morale and Joffre's pressure for a continuation of attacks in France, to prevent German troop transfers to Russia and Italy also influenced Haig. The battle began with another mine being detonated beneath Hawthorn Ridge Redoubt. The attack on Serre failed, although a brigade of the 31st Division, which had attacked in the disaster of 1 July, took its objectives before being withdrawn later. South of Serre, Beaumont Hamel and Beaucourt-sur-l'Ancre were captured. South of the Ancre, St. Pierre Division was captured, the outskirts of Grandcourt reached and the Canadian 4th Division captured Regina Trench north of Courcelette, then took Desire Support Trench on 18 November. Until January 1917 a lull set in, as both sides concentrated on enduring the weather.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: After the Battle of the Ancre (13–18 November 1916), British attacks on the Somme front were stopped by the weather and military operations by both sides were mostly restricted to survival in the rain, snow, fog, mud fields, waterlogged trenches and shell-holes. As preparations for the offensive at Arras continued, the British attempted to keep German attention on the Somme front. British operations on the Ancre from , forced the Germans back on a front, ahead of the schedule of the Alberich Bewegung ( Manoeuvre/Operation Alberich) and eventually took . On the Germans fell back another on a front. The Germans then withdrew from much of the to the on 11 March, forestalling a British attack, which was not noticed by the British until dark on 12 March; the main German withdrawal from the Noyon salient to the Hindenburg Line (Operation Alberich) commenced on schedule on 16 March.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: General Erich von Falkenhayn, the German Chief of the General Staff, was sacked and replaced by Hindenburg and Ludendorff at the end of August 1916. At a conference at Cambrai on 5 September, a decision was taken to build a new defensive line well behind the Somme front. The was to be built from Arras to St. Quentin, La Fère and Condé, with another new line between Verdun and Pont-à-Mousson. These lines were intended to limit any Allied breakthrough and to allow the German army to withdraw if attacked; work began on the (Hindenburg Line) at the end of September. Withdrawing to the new line was not an easy decision and the German high command struggled over it during the winter of 1916–1917. Some members wanted to take a shorter step back to a line between Arras and Sailly, while the 1st and 2nd army commanders wanted to stay on the Somme. "Generalleutnant" von Fuchs on 20 January 1917 said that,


title: Battle of the Somme

text: and that half measures were futile, retreating to the was unavoidable. After the loss of a considerable amount of ground around the Ancre valley to the British Fifth Army in February 1917, the German armies on the Somme were ordered on 14 February, to withdraw to reserve lines closer to Bapaume. A further retirement to the Hindenburg Line () in Operation Alberich began on 16 March 1917, despite the new line being unfinished and poorly sited in some places.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: Defensive positions held by the German army on the Somme after November 1916 were in poor condition; the garrisons were exhausted and censors of correspondence reported tiredness and low morale in front-line soldiers. The situation left the German command doubtful that the army could withstand a resumption of the battle. The German defence of the Ancre began to collapse under British attacks, which on 28 January 1917 caused Rupprecht to urge that the retirement to the (Hindenburg Line) begin. Ludendorff rejected the proposal the next day, but British attacks on the First Army – particularly the action of Miraumont (also known as the Battle of Boom Ravine, 17–18 February) – caused Rupprecht on the night of 22 February to order a preliminary withdrawal of c. to the (R. I Position). On 24 February the Germans withdrew, protected by rear guards, over roads in relatively good condition, which were then destroyed. The German withdrawal was helped by a thaw, which turned roads behind the British front into bogs and by disruption, to the railways, which supplied the Somme front. On the night of 12 March, the Germans withdrew from the between Bapaume and Achiet le Petit and the British reached the (R. II Position) on 13 March. The withdrawal took place from with a retirement of about , giving up more French territory than that gained by the Allies from September 1914 until the beginning of the operation.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: At the start of 1916, most of the British Army was an inexperienced and patchily trained mass of volunteers. The Somme was a great test for Kitchener's Army, created by Kitchener's call for recruits at the start of the war. The British volunteers were often the fittest, most enthusiastic and best-educated citizens but were inexperienced and it has been claimed that their loss was of lesser military significance than the losses of the remaining peacetime-trained officers and men of the Imperial German Army. British casualties on the first day were the worst in the history of the British Army, with whom were killed.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: British survivors of the battle had gained experience and the BEF learned how to conduct the mass industrial warfare which the continental armies had been fighting since 1914. The European powers had begun the war with trained armies of regulars and reservists, which were wasting assets. Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria wrote, "What remained of the old first-class peace-trained German infantry had been expended on the battlefield". A war of attrition was a logical strategy for Britain against Germany, which was also at war with France and Russia. A school of thought holds that the Battle of the Somme placed unprecedented strain on the German army and that after the battle it was unable to replace casualties like-for-like, which reduced it to a militia. Philpott argues that the German army was exhausted by the end of 1916, with loss of morale and the cumulative effects of attrition and frequent defeats causing it to collapse in 1918, a process which began on the Somme, echoing Churchill's argument that the German soldiery was never the same again.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: The destruction of German units in battle was made worse by lack of rest. British and French aircraft and long-range guns reached well behind the front line, where trench-digging and other work meant that troops returned to the line exhausted. Despite the strategic predicament of the German army, it survived the battle, withstood the pressure of the Brusilov Offensive and conquered almost all of Romania. In 1917, the German army in the west survived the large British and French offensives of the Nivelle Offensive and the Third Battle of Ypres, though at great cost.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: The British and French had advanced about on the Somme, on a front of at a cost of to British and about casualties, against to or perhaps German casualties. Until the 1930s the dominant view of the battle in English-language writing was that the battle was a hard-fought victory against a brave, experienced and well-led opponent. Winston Churchill had objected to the way the battle was being fought in August 1916, and Prime Minister David Lloyd George criticised attrition warfare frequently and condemned the battle in his post-war memoirs. In the 1930s a new orthodoxy of "mud, blood and futility" emerged and gained more emphasis in the 1960s when the 50th anniversaries of the Great War battles were commemorated.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: Until 1916, transport arrangements for the BEF were based on an assumption that the war of movement would soon resume and make it pointless to build infrastructure, since it would be left behind. The British relied on motor transport from railheads which was insufficient where large masses of men and guns were concentrated. When the Fourth Army advance resumed in August, the wisdom of not building light railways which would be left behind was argued by some, in favour of building standard gauge lines. Experience of crossing the beaten zone showed that such lines or metalled roads could not be built quickly enough to sustain an advance, and that pausing while communications caught up allowed the defenders to recover. On the Somme the daily carry during attacks on a front was and a few wood roads and rail lines were inadequate for the number of lorries and roads. A comprehensive system of transport was needed, which required a much greater diversion of personnel and equipment than had been expected.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: The Battle of the Somme was one of the costliest battles of World War I. The original Allied estimate of casualties on the Somme, made at the Chantilly Conference on 15 November 1916, was that the Germans suffered 630,000 casualties, exceeding the 485,000 suffered by the British and French. As one German officer wrote,


title: Battle of the Somme

text: However, Churchill wrote that Allied casualties had exceeded German losses. In "The World Crisis" (first published in the early 1920s, reprinted in 1938), he quoted the German "Reichsarchiv" data, showing that on the Western Front between February and June 1916, the Germans had suffered against the French and July and the end of the year (Appendix J); he wrote that the Germans suffered at Verdun and that around one eighth of their casualties were suffered on "quiet" sectors. According to the tables, between July and October 1916, German forces on the Western Front suffered by the French and by the British; German forces inflicted on the Entente.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: In 1931, Hermann Wendt published a comparison of German and British–French casualties which showed an average of 30 per cent more Allied casualties than German losses on the Somme. In the first 1916 volume of the British Official History (1932), J. E. Edmonds wrote that comparisons of casualties were inexact, because of different methods of calculation by the belligerents but that British casualties were total British casualties in France in the period of French Somme casualties were German casualties were to which should be added for woundings, which would have been counted as casualties using British criteria; Anglo-French casualties on the Somme were over German casualties were In the second 1916 volume of the British Official History (1938), Wilfrid Miles wrote that German casualties were and Anglo-French casualties were just under "fresh data" from the French and German official accounts.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: The addition by Edmonds of to German figures, supposedly to make them comparable to British criteria, was criticised as "spurious" by M. J. Williams in 1964. McRandle and Quirk in 2006 cast doubt on the Edmonds calculations but counted casualties on the Western Front from July to December against Churchill, concluding that there had been fewer German losses than Anglo-French casualties but that the ability of the German army to inflict disproportionate losses had been eroded by attrition. Sheffield wrote that the calculation by Edmonds of Anglo-French casualties was correct but the one for German casualties was "discredited", quoting the official German figure of


title: Battle of the Somme

text: Doughty wrote that French losses on the Somme were "surprisingly high" at of the at Verdun. Prior and Wilson used Churchill's research and wrote that the British suffered from 1 July to mid-November ( day) in inflicting casualties and offer no figures for French casualties or the losses they inflicted on the Germans. Sheldon wrote that the British lost "over Harris wrote that British losses were casualties were over and German losses were to the "best" German sources. Sheffield wrote that the losses were "appalling", with casualties, and "perhaps" casualties.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: In a commentary on the debate about Somme casualties, Philpott used Miles's figures of casualties and the French official figures of Army losses and Army casualties. Philpott described German losses as "disputed", with estimates ranging from The high Allied casualties of July 1916 are not representative of the way attrition turned in the Allies' favour in September, although this was not sustained as the weather deteriorated. Philpott quoted Robin Prior (in "Churchill's World Crisis As History" [1983]) that the "blood test" is a crude measure compared to manpower reserves, industrial capacity, farm productivity and financial resources and that intangible factors were more influential on the course of the war, which the Allies won despite "losing" the purely quantitative test.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: In the United Kingdom and Newfoundland, the Battle of the Somme became the central memory of World War I. The Royal British Legion with the British Embassy in Paris and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, commemorate the battle on 1 July each year, at the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme. For their efforts on the first day of the battle, The 1st Newfoundland Regiment was given the name "The Royal Newfoundland Regiment" by George V on 28 November 1917. The first day of the Battle of the Somme is commemorated in Newfoundland, remembering the "Best of the Best" at 11am on the Sunday nearest to 1 July. The Somme is remembered in Northern Ireland due to the participation of the 36th (Ulster) Division and commemorated by veterans' groups and by unionist/Protestant groups such as the Orange Order. The British Legion and others commemorate the battle on 1 July.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: On 1 July 2016, at 7:28 am British Summer Time, the UK observed a two minute silence to mark the start of the battle which began 100 years earlier. A special ceremony was broadcast on BBC1 and all BBC radio stations participated in the silence. At the start of the silence, the King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery fired a gun every four seconds for one hundred seconds and a whistle was blown to end it. Just like a Remembrance Sunday silence, a bugler played The Last Post after the silence. The silence was announced during a speech by the prime minister David Cameron who said, "There will be a national two-minute silence on Friday morning. I will be attending a service at the Thiepval Memorial near the battlefield, and it's right that the whole country pauses to remember the sacrifices of all those who fought and lost their lives in that conflict." On 1 July 2016, a ceremony was held in Heaton Park in north Manchester in England. Heaton Park was the site of a large army training camp during the war.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: Across Britain on 1 July 2016, 1400 actors dressed in replica World War I-period British Army uniforms walked about in streets and public open areas, from 7am to 7pm. Each took on temporarily the identity of a British soldier who died on the first day of the Somme, and handed out information cards about that soldier. They did not talk, except for occasionally singing ""We're here because we're here"" to the tune of "Auld Lang Syne". This event was called "Ghost Soldiers".


title: Battle of the Somme

text: The Battle of the Somme has been called the beginning of modern all-arms warfare, during which Kitchener's Army learned to fight the mass-industrial war in which the continental armies had been engaged for two years. This view sees the British contribution to the battle as part of a coalition war and part of a process, which took the strategic initiative from the German Army and caused it irreparable damage, leading to its collapse in late 1918.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: Haig and General Rawlinson have been criticised ever since 1916 for the human cost of the battle and for failing to achieve their territorial objectives. On 1 August 1916, Winston Churchill, then out of office, criticised the British Army's conduct of the offensive to the British Cabinet, claiming that though the battle had forced the Germans to end their offensive at Verdun, attrition was damaging the British armies more than the German armies. Though Churchill was unable to suggest an alternative, a critical view of the British on the Somme has been influential in English-language writing ever since. In 2016, historian Peter Barton argued in a series of three television programmes that the Battle of the Somme should be regarded as a German defensive victory.


title: Battle of the Somme

text: John Terraine, Gary Sheffield, Christopher Duffy, Roger Chickering, Holger Herwig, William Philpott et al. wrote that there was no strategic alternative for the British in 1916 and that an understandable horror at British losses is insular, given the millions of casualties borne by the French and Russian armies since 1914. This school of thought sets the battle in a context of a general Allied offensive in 1916 and notes that German and French writing on the battle puts it in a continental perspective. Little German and French writing on this topic has been translated, leaving much of their historical perspective and detail of German and French military operations inaccessible to the English-speaking world.


title: Chad Michael Murray

text: Chad Michael Murray (born August 24, 1981) is an American actor and writer. He is best known for playing Lucas Scott in The WB/CW drama series "One Tree Hill" (2003–09, 2012), a recurring role as Tristin DuGray on The WB/CW series "Gilmore Girls" (2000–01), and Charlie Todd in the fifth season of The WB series "Dawson's Creek" (2001–02). He had supporting roles in the films "Freaky Friday" (2003), "A Cinderella Story" (2004), "House of Wax" (2005), and "Fruitvale Station" (2013). Murray appeared in a supporting role in the Marvel/ABC series "Agent Carter" (2015–16), and had a recurring role as Edgar Evernever in "Riverdale" (2019).


title: Chad Michael Murray

text: He has written two novels, "Everlast" (2011) and "American Drifter" (2017); the latter was co-authored with the novelist Heather Graham.


title: Chad Michael Murray

text: Murray was born in Buffalo, New York, to Rex Murray, an air traffic controller. His mother left the family when Murray was 10 years old. He has three brothers, one sister, one half-brother, one step-sister, and one step-brother. He is of Scottish, English, German, Swiss-German, and Polish descent.


title: Chad Michael Murray

text: Murray attended Clarence High School in Clarence, New York. He became a fan of literature and played football. In his late teens, he broke his nose. This led to reports during his career that he had received a nose job. Murray clarified in a 2004 interview, "I got jumped in a Burger King when I was 18 and had my nose put on the other side of my face. It was three guys – what the hell was I supposed to do? The doctors didn't even bother running X-rays. They just reset it. But it wasn't a nose job – I hate the fact that people say it was a nose job!"


title: Chad Michael Murray

text: Murray won a scholarship to attend a modeling convention in Orlando, Florida, where he met an agent who encouraged him to go to Los Angeles for a week and see what happens. He subsequently got a manager and moved to Hollywood in 1999. He started modeling for such brands as Skechers, Tommy Hilfiger and Gucci.


title: Chad Michael Murray

text: Then he was cast in the role of rich kid Tristin DuGray in "Gilmore Girls"; he was a recurring character in the first season of the series and appeared in one episode of the second season. He appeared in several guest starring television roles, including an episode of "Undressed" and an episode of "". Murray portrayed the character Charlie Todd on the fifth season of the successful television series "Dawson's Creek" in 2001.


title: Chad Michael Murray

text: In 2003, Murray appeared in the television film "Aftermath: A Long Way Home". He then appeared in the Walt Disney Pictures feature film, "Freaky Friday" alongside Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis. The film was a major box office success, earning a total of $110,222,438 in the United States alone. Critics were mostly positive in their reviews of the film, and the film garnered a "B" grade on Yahoo! Movies and an 88% "Certified Fresh" approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Murray also appeared in the television film "The Lone Ranger" where he portrayed the role of Luke Hartman.


title: Chad Michael Murray

text: Later in the year of 2003, Murray won the main role of Lucas Scott in the successful WB television series "One Tree Hill". The series quickly became the channel's biggest hit with over 4.50 million viewers on the first season's finale. The series was The WB's most successful and top rated television program when it first aired in 2003 and continued receiving top ratings for The CW. The series also earned Murray numerous awards, including two Teen Choice Awards, and spawned a book series. After Murray gained mainstream fame and media exposure, he also became a spokesperson for several high-profile deals. He and his "One Tree Hill" co-stars were the official endorsers for MasterCard and K-Mart. They endorsed Cingular Wireless and the Chevy Cobalt.


title: Chad Michael Murray

text: Following Murray's starring role on "One Tree Hill", he appeared on the cover of several mainstream magazines such as "Rolling Stone" and "People". That same year, he was voted as one of "TV's Sexiest Guys" in "People" magazine. In 2004, Murray starred in the romantic comedy "A Cinderella Story" with Hilary Duff. Though the reviews were mostly negative, the film went on to become a moderate box office success, earning $70.1 million worldwide. The film led to 2005 Teen Choice Awards wins in several categories. Later that year, Murray appeared on the cover of "Teen People" magazine.


title: Chad Michael Murray

text: In 2005, Murray starred in "House of Wax". The film grossed $12 million in its first day. Though most film critics gave the film negative reviews, "House of Wax" earned over $70 million worldwide. The film led to Murray receiving the 2005 Teen Choice Awards win category for "Choice Movie Actor: Action/Adventure/Thriller". He featured briefly in the Iraq War drama "Home of the Brave" alongside Samuel L. Jackson and Jessica Biel in 2006. In May 2009, The CW announced Murray would not be returning to "One Tree Hill" for its seventh season. A video of Murray was recorded in which he was telling fans that they did not want him back because they wanted to save money. However, Mark Schwann said in an interview that he had been offered "great things" to return to the show.


title: Chad Michael Murray

text: In 2010, Murray played Alicia Keys's love interest in her music video for "Un-Thinkable (I'm Ready)". Then he played Ethan McAllister in Lifetime's TV movie "Lies in Plain Sight". Murray also co-starred in "Christmas Cupid" with Ashley Benson and Christina Milian. The film is an ABC Family Original Movie and is "about a comatose girl who visits her Christmas past, present, and future".


title: Chad Michael Murray

text: In 2011, The CW announced he would return for a guest appearance as Lucas Scott in the final season of "One Tree Hill". The episode aired on February 22, 2012.


title: Chad Michael Murray

text: In 2013, Murray appeared in "Fruitvale Station", a film chronicling the last day of Oscar Grant, who was killed by a police officer at a BART station. The film won two major awards at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.


title: Chad Michael Murray

text: In August 2014, he was cast in a featured role as Agent Jack Thompson for Marvel's television series "Agent Carter", and has returned for the second season.


title: Chad Michael Murray

text: On February 8, 2019, it was announced that Murray was cast in a recurring role as Edgar Evernever in The CW drama "Riverdale". He appeared opposite Torrey DeVitto in Hallmark's Christmas film "Five Cards for Christmas" (2019). The film revolves around Jessica (DeVitto), who sends Christmas cards to five people who have impacted her life and Murray will appear as the son of a recipient of one of Jessica's letters. In 2021, he played Steve in hotel booking website Hotels.com's commercial.


title: Chad Michael Murray

text: Murray released a novel in September 2011 titled "Everlast". In 2017, he published "American Drifter: An Exhilarating Tale of Love and Murder", which he co-authored with the novelist Heather Graham. The romantic thriller was inspired by a dream.


title: Chad Michael Murray

text: Murray became engaged to his "One Tree Hill" co-star Sophia Bush in May 2004, and they married on April 16, 2005, in Santa Monica, California. They announced their separation in September 2005. In February 2006, Bush filed papers for an annulment, citing fraud. Bush's petition was denied, and she and Murray were instead granted a divorce in December 2006.


title: Chad Michael Murray

text: Following his separation from Bush, Murray began dating Kenzie Dalton, whom he met in 2005 when Dalton, a first runner-up in the 2005 Miss North Carolina Teen USA pageant, was an extra on "One Tree Hill". They became engaged in April 2006, but in August 2013, they called off their seven-year engagement.


title: Chad Michael Murray

text: In 2014, Murray began dating his "Chosen" co-star Sarah Roemer. In January 2015, it was announced that he and Roemer had married, and were expecting their first child. They have a son, born in 2015, and a daughter, born 2017.


title: The Resident (TV series)

text: The Resident is an American medical drama television series that premiered on January 21, 2018, on Fox as a mid-season replacement during the 2017–18 television season. Based on the book "Unaccountable" by Marty Makary, the series focuses on the lives and duties of staff members at Chastain Park Memorial Hospital, while delving into the bureaucratic practices of the hospital industry.


title: The Resident (TV series)

text: Created by Amy Holden Jones, Hayley Schore, and Roshan Sethi, the series was purchased by Fox from Showtime in 2017. In May 2017, Fox ordered the project to series, with a 14-episode season order. The series premiere was a lead-out to the Vikings-Eagles NFC Championship Game. In May 2021, the series was renewed for a fifth season, which premiered on September 21, 2021. In May 2022, the series was renewed for a sixth season, which premiered on September 20, 2022.


title: The Resident (TV series)

text: On August 5, 2016, it was announced that Showtime was developing a new original series, known as "The City", pitched by executive producer Antoine Fuqua. The series was described at the time as


title: The Resident (TV series)

text: It was also announced that renowned medical expert Amy Holden Jones would produce the series and co-write the pilot episode along with Hayley Schore and Roshan Sethi. The series, however, was never produced and on January 20, 2017, it was reported that Fox purchased the series from Showtime and ordered a pilot episode under the name "The Resident". On May 10, 2017, the series received a season order of 14 episodes. The series premiered on January 21, 2018. Phillip Noyce, an executive producer for the series, directed the first two episodes of the season after signing a multi-year deal with 20th Century Fox Television. The first season officially concluded on May 14, 2018.


title: The Resident (TV series)

text: On May 7, 2018, Fox renewed the series for a 13-episode second season and pre-production began on June 8, 2018. The second season premiered on September 24, 2018. On October 10, 2018, it was reported that Fox had ordered an additional nine episodes for the second season, bringing the total episode count to 22. On March 13, 2019, however, series co-creator Amy Holden Jones stated on her Twitter and Instagram accounts that there were 23 episodes in season 2.


title: The Resident (TV series)

text: On March 25, 2019, Fox renewed the series for a third season, which premiered on September 24, 2019. The season was originally planned to have 23 episodes, but COVID-related production shutdowns resulted in three episodes remaining unfilmed. As a result, episode 20 served as a make-shift third season finale.


title: The Resident (TV series)

text: On May 19, 2020, Fox renewed series for a fourth season, which premiered on January 12, 2021. On May 17, 2021, Fox renewed series for a fifth season, which premiered on September 21, 2021. On May 16, 2022, Fox renewed series for a sixth season which premiered on September 20, 2022.


title: The Resident (TV series)

text: On February 21, 2017, Manish Dayal and Bruce Greenwood were the first to be cast in the series for the roles of Devon Pravesh and Soloman Bell, respectively. Greenwood's character name was later changed to Randolph Bell. Matt Czuchry, Emily VanCamp, Shaunette Renée Wilson and Melina Kanakaredes were later announced to be starring in the series as well. Moran Atias was also cast for the role of Renta Thorpe, CEO at Chastain Park, which was originally portrayed by Valerie Cruz in the pilot. However, when Merrin Dungey joined the cast, the producers saw Atias as a better fit for the role of the hospital's head of marketing. Dungey replaced her as the CEO and the character's name was changed to Claire Thorpe.


title: The Resident (TV series)

text: As the season developed, it was announced that Violett Beane was set to recur, and on April 30, 2018, Malcolm-Jamal Warner was reported to have a major recurring role in the final three episodes of the season.


title: The Resident (TV series)

text: On June 18, 2018, it was announced that Warner and other recurring cast member, Glenn Morshower would be promoted to series regulars for the second season. The following day, it was announced that Moran Atias, Merrin Dungey and Melina Kanakaredes would not be returning, and that Jane Leeves would also be joining the cast as a regular for the second season on a one-year contract.


title: The Resident (TV series)

text: On July 16, 2018, it was announced that Jenna Dewan is set to recur on season 2. It was later announced on August 27 that Daniella Alonso had also been cast in a recurring role for the second season. On October 15, 2020, Conrad Ricamora was cast in a recurring role for the fourth season. On December 18, 2020, Jessica Lucas joined the cast as a new series regular for the fourth season.


title: The Resident (TV series)

text: On April 21, 2021, it was announced that original cast member Shaunette Renée Wilson would be written out of the series towards the end of the fourth season, after her deciding to exit the series to explore new ventures. She was followed by Emily VanCamp, whose character was written out of the series in the third episode of the fifth season.


title: The Resident (TV series)

text: On June 4, 2021, Anuja Joshi was promoted to a series regular for the fifth season. On August 24, 2021, Stephen Wallem joined the cast in a recurring role for the fifth season. On September 15, 2021, Miles Fowler joined the cast as a new series regular for the fifth season, followed by Kaley Ronayne on October 19, 2021. On April 6, 2022, it was reported that Fowler exited the series after less than one season as a series regular. On July 11, 2022, it was announced that Andrew McCarthy was promoted to series regular for the sixth season, followed by Ronayne on July 14, 2022.


title: The Resident (TV series)

text: Primary photography for the series takes place in and around Atlanta, Georgia. Exterior and some interior shots of the High Museum of Art in midtown-Atlanta were used as the backdrop for the fictional Chastain Park Memorial Hospital. Some filming also took place in Conyers, Georgia, on a production set previously used for Fox's "Sleepy Hollow". Filming for the first production block took place between March 20 and April 5, 2017. Filming on the second season began in July 2018. On March 14, 2020, production on the third season was suspended upon the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: The Resident (TV series)

text: In the United States, new episodes are broadcast by Fox. Internationally, the series airs on Seven Network then later on Disney + in Australia, City (season 1) and CTV (season 2–present) in Canada, on Universal TV (season 1 and 2), Sky Witness (season 3) and Disney+ (season 4-present) in the United Kingdom and Ireland and on Star World in the Indian Subcontinent. In Latin America, the series is broadcast by Fox's Latin America counterpart. Episodes can be watched next day on the network's website. Hulu owns the SVOD rights to the series, and individual episodes, or the season as a whole, are available for purchase on Amazon and iTunes. The first season DVD set was made available for pre-order in June 2018 through Amazon and was released on October 2, 2018.


title: The Resident (TV series)

text: The review aggregator website, Rotten Tomatoes, reported an approval rating of 59% based on 22 reviews, with an average rating of 6.11/10. On Metacritic, the show has a weighted average score of 54 out of 100, based on reviews from 12 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: The Resident (TV series)

text: USA Today rated the series 1/2 out of 4 stars stating "It's a shame, because it's a waste of the talents of Czuchry and VanCamp (Revenge), two usually appealing TV veterans" and ""The Resident" can't save itself". Meanwhile, TVLine rated the series a B+ and said: ""The Resident" takes a hard look at the thorny ethical issues surrounding today's health-care providers." The first season was also often compared to ABC's medical drama, "The Good Doctor". The series was unpopular with some in the medical profession, with various sources calling it grossly unrealistic.


title: Anders Behring Breivik

text: Fjotolf Hansen (born 13 February 1979), better known by his birth name Anders Behring Breivik () and by his pseudonym Andrew Berwick, is a Norwegian far-right domestic terrorist, known for committing the 2011 Norway attacks on 22 July 2011. On that day, he killed eight people by detonating a van bomb at Regjeringskvartalet in Oslo, then killed 69 participants of a Workers' Youth League (AUF) summer camp in a mass shooting on the island of Utøya.


title: Anders Behring Breivik

text: Breivik's trial was held in 2012. After being found psychologically competent to stand trial, in July 2012, he was found guilty of mass murder, causing a fatal explosion, and terrorism. Breivik was sentenced to the maximum civilian criminal penalty in Norway, which is 21 years imprisonment in addition to preventive detention, which is the possibility of one or more extensions for as long as he is deemed a danger to society. Breivik must serve at least ten years imprisonment. Breivik announced that he did not recognize the legitimacy of the court and therefore did not accept its decision—he decided not to appeal, saying this would legitimize the authority of the Oslo District Court.


title: Anders Behring Breivik

text: At the age of 16, he was arrested for spraying graffiti on walls. He was not chosen for conscription into the Norwegian Armed Forces. At the age of 20, he joined the anti-immigration Progress Party, and chaired the local Vest Oslo branch of the party's youth organization in 2002. He joined a gun club in 2005. He left the Progress Party in 2006. A company he founded was later declared bankrupt. He had no declared income in 2009 and his assets were 390,000 kroner (equivalent to $72,063), according to Norwegian tax authority figures. He financed the terror attacks with a total of €130,000; nine credit cards gave him access to credit.


title: Anders Behring Breivik

text: On the day of the attacks, Breivik emailed a compendium of texts entitled , describing his militant ideology. In them, he stated his opposition to Islam and blamed feminism for a European "cultural suicide." The text called for the deportation of all Muslims from Europe and Breivik wrote that his main motive for the attacks was to publicize his manifesto.


title: Anders Behring Breivik

text: Two teams of court-appointed forensic psychiatrists examined Breivik before his trial. The first team diagnosed Breivik with paranoid schizophrenia, but after this initial finding was criticized, a second evaluation concluded that he was not psychotic during the attacks but did have narcissistic personality disorder and antisocial personality disorder.


title: Anders Behring Breivik

text: In 2016, Breivik sued the Norwegian Correctional Service, claiming that his solitary confinement violated his human rights. The justice system concluded that his rights had not been violated, despite a lower court ruling in 2016. In 2017 Breivik filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights, which dismissed his case in 2018.


title: Anders Behring Breivik

text: In January 2022, due to the fact that under Norwegian law Breivik was eligible to be paroled after he had served ten years of his twenty-one year sentence, he stood trial to determine whether the District Attorney's initial decision to refuse parole would be reversed or upheld. He lost, with the court refusing his request for parole. The verdict is being appealed, and Breivik and his lawyer are working on a lawsuit regarding the conditions of his imprisonment, and violations of the European Convention on Human Rights.


title: Anders Behring Breivik

text: Since his imprisonment, Breivik has identified himself as a fascist and a Nazi, who practices Odinism.


title: Anders Behring Breivik

text: His family name is Breivik, while Behring, his mother's maiden name, is his middle name and not part of the family name. His family name comes from "Breivika" in Hadsel, and literally means "broad vik" or "broad bay." In 2017, it was reported he had changed his legal name to Fjotolf Hansen.


title: Anders Behring Breivik

text: Breivik was born in Oslo on 13 February 1979, the son of Wenche Behring (1946–2013 cancer), a nurse, and Jens David Breivik (born 1935), a civil economist, who worked as a diplomat for the Norwegian Embassy in London and later in Paris.


title: Anders Behring Breivik

text: During her pregnancy, Anders Breivik's mother developed a disdain for her son. She claimed that he was a "nasty child" and that he was "kicking her on purpose". She had wanted to abort him but by the time she returned to Norway from the UK, she had passed the three-month threshold for an abortion. Psychologists reports later stated that she thought that Breivik was a "fundamentally nasty and evil child and determined to destroy her." She stopped breastfeeding her son early on because he was "sucking the life out of her." He spent the first year of his life in London until his parents divorced when he was a year old.


title: Anders Behring Breivik

text: When Breivik was four, living in Oslo's Frogner district (now in Frogner borough), two reports were filed expressing concern about his mental health. A psychologist in one of the reports made a note of the boy's peculiar smile, suggesting it was not anchored in his emotions but was rather a deliberate response to his environment. In another report by psychologists from Norway's centre for child and youth psychiatry (SSBU), concerns were raised about how he was treated by his mother: "She 'sexualised' the young Breivik, hit him, and frequently told him that she wished that he were dead." In the report, Wenche Behring is described as "a woman with an extremely difficult upbringing, borderline personality disorder and an all-encompassing if only partially visible depression" who "projects her primitive aggressive and sexual fantasies onto him [Breivik]". Psychiatrists recommended he be removed from his mother and placed into foster care when he was 4 years old, as she was heavily emotionally and psychologically abusive towards him. Breivik's mother fled her abusive home at age 17 and soon after that became a teenage mother. In her thirties, she was married to Jens Breivik when Anders was born.


title: Anders Behring Breivik

text: In 1983 and 1984, at the clinic, National Centre for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry ("SSBU"), one psychologist and one psychiatrist wanted Breivik forcibly removed from his mother; the clinic had placed a care order for the boy but this was not carried out by the Child Welfare Service.


title: Anders Behring Breivik

text: Breivik's mother moved back to Oslo, where she borrowed Jens Breivik's apartment in the Frogner district (now in Frogner borough). The neighbors claimed that there were noises of fights and that the mother left her children completely alone for extended periods of time, while she was working as a nurse. In 1981, Breivik's mother applied for welfare benefits, specifically monetary payment or financial aid; in 1982, she applied for respite care for her son. She says that she was overwhelmed with the boy and unable to care for him. She described him to be "clingy and demanding." Breivik was then placed, in cooperation with the Child Welfare Service, with a young couple. This couple later told police that the mother, when bringing two-year-old Breivik to the house, had asked that he be allowed to touch the man's penis because he had no one to compare himself to in terms of appearance; "He only saw [or was used to seeing girls' vaginas—] "jentetisser"", the mother told the couple, according to the couple's undated statement to police.


title: Anders Behring Breivik

text: In February 1983, on the advice of her neighbors, Breivik's mother sought help from the National Centre for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry; the mother and Breivik were outpatients, and they stayed there at daytime - for about one month. The conclusion of the stay from the psychiatrists was that Breivik should be placed in the foster care system and had to be removed from his mother for him to develop normally. The justification for this was several observations. Breivik had little emotional engagement. He did not show joy. He did not cry when he was hurt. He made no attempts to play with other children. He was also extremely clean and became anxious when his toys were not in order. Psychologists believed that he had become this way because of the negative reactions his mother displayed to any emotion he showed. They thought that she had punished him and reacted extremely negatively to him displaying emotions that had led him to become devoid of any visible emotions. His mother had also claimed that he was unclean and that she constantly had to care for him and run after him. Psychologists believed that Breivik had become this clean because of fear of punishment from his mother. He did not show the normal level of uncleanliness of a four-year-old. Breivik seemed extremely careful and controlled. He had no repertoire on how to express emotions normally. During long phases of emotional voidness, he would rarely erupt and display extreme uncontrolled emotions.


title: Anders Behring Breivik

text: Reports of the staff said that his mother had told Breivik while she knew that she was being observed by health personnel that she "wished that he was dead". At the same time she bound him emotionally to her, alternating between great affection and extreme cruelty from one moment to the next. This was an unacceptable situation for a four-year-old to be in, according to the psychiatrists. The report from 1983 stated "Anders is a victim of his mother's projections of paranoid-aggressive and sexual fears toward men in general", and "she projects onto him her own primitive, aggressive and sexual fantasies; all the qualities in men that she regards as dangerous and aggressive." Breivik reacted very negatively to his mother. He alternated between clinginess, petty aggression and extreme childishness.


title: Anders Behring Breivik

text: The final conclusion of the observation was that "The family is in dire need of help. Anders should be removed from the family and given a better standard of care; the mother is provoked by him and remains in an ambivalent position which prevents him from developing on his own terms. Anders has become an anxious, passive child that averts making contact. He displays a manic defense mechanism of restless activity and a feigned, deflecting smile. Considering the profoundly pathological relationship between Anders and his mother it is crucial to make an early effort to ward off a severely skewed development in the boy."


title: Anders Behring Breivik

text: However, Child Welfare Services did not follow this recommendation. Instead, he was placed in respite care only during the weekends. SSBU hoped that eventually he would be placed into foster care.


title: Anders Behring Breivik

text: However when Breivik's father, Jens Breivik, learned of the situation he filed for custody. Although Breivik's mother had agreed to have him put in respite care, after Jens had filed for custody she demanded that Breivik be put back into full custody with her. Both the mother and father involved lawyers. Eventually, the case was dropped because the Welfare Services thought that they would not be able to provide enough evidence in court to warrant the placement of Breivik in foster care. One of the main reasons for this was the testimony of staff from the Vigelandsparken nursery, which Breivik had been attending since 1981. They described him as a happy child and claimed that nothing was wrong or had been wrong with him all along. During all of this the SSBU maintained their stances and said "urgent action is crucially needed to prevent a severely skewed development in the boy". The SSBU wrote Child Welfare Services a letter claiming that an order should be placed to have Breivik removed by force. In 1984, a hearing in front of Barnevernsnemnda (the municipal child welfare committee) took place on whether Breivik's mother should lose custody of him. Child Welfare Service lost the case; the agency was represented by a social worker with no experience of representing a case in front of the committee. It was ruled that the family should be supervised. However, after only three visits the supervision was discontinued. Breivik was never again put into respite care or foster care.


title: Anders Behring Breivik

text: Breivik attended Smestad Grammar School, Ris Junior High, Hartvig Nissens Upper Secondary School and Oslo Commerce School (1995–98). A former classmate recalled Breivik was an intelligent student, physically stronger than others of the same age, who often took care of people who were bullied.


title: Anders Behring Breivik

text: Breivik lived with his mother and his elder half-sister in the West End of Oslo, regularly visiting his father and stepmother in France, until they divorced when he was 12. His mother remarried, to an officer in the Norwegian Army. Breivik chose to be confirmed into the Lutheran Church of Norway at the age of 15.


title: Anders Behring Breivik

text: In his adolescence, Breivik's behaviour was described as rebellious. In his early teen years, he was a prolific graffiti artist and part of the hip hop community in Oslo West. He took his graffiti much more seriously than his associates did and was caught by the police on several occasions; child welfare services were notified once and he was fined on two occasions. According to Breivik's mother, after he was caught and fined for spraying graffiti on walls in 1995, at the age of 15, his father ceased contact with him. It was reported they had not been in contact since then. According to Breivik's father, however, it was his son who broke off contact, claiming "I was always willing to see [Anders]," despite his destructive activities. At this age, he also broke off contact with the hip hop community after he fell out with his best friend.


title: Anders Behring Breivik

text: From adolescence, Breivik spent his spare time on weight training, and started to use anabolic steroids. He cared a lot about his own looks and about appearing big and strong. Breivik has criticised his parents for supporting the policies of the Norwegian Labour Party and his mother for being, in his opinion, a moderate feminist.


title: Anders Behring Breivik

text: Breivik was exempt from conscription to military service in the Norwegian Army and had no military training. The Norwegian Defence Security Department, which conducts the vetting process, say he was deemed "unfit for service" at the mandatory conscript assessment.


title: Anders Behring Breivik

text: After the age of 21, Breivik worked in the customer service department of an unnamed company, working with "people from all countries" and being "kind to everyone". A former co-worker described him as an "exceptional colleague", while a close friend of his said he usually had a big ego.


title: Anders Behring Breivik

text: Breivik visited Belarus as a tourist in 2005. Norwegian prosecuting authorities claim that Breivik went to Belarus to meet a woman he had met on a dating website. The same woman later visited him in Oslo.


title: Anders Behring Breivik

text: According to friends, Breivik had cosmetic surgery on his chin, nose and forehead while in his early twenties, and was pleased with the result.


title: Anders Behring Breivik

text: Breivik claimed he started a nine-year plan in 2002 (at the age of 23) to finance the 2011 attacks, forming his own computer programming business while working at a customer service company. He claimed his company grew to six employees and "several offshore bank accounts", and that he had made his first million kroner at the age of 24. He wrote in his manifesto that he lost 2 million kroner on stock speculation, but still had about 2 million kroner to finance the attack. The company was later declared bankrupt and Breivik was reported for several breaches of the law. He then moved back to his mother's home in order to save money. The first set of psychiatrists who evaluated him said in their report his mental health deteriorated at this stage and he entered a state of withdrawal and isolation. His declared assets in 2007 were about (), according to Norwegian tax authority figures. He claims that by 2008 he had about () and nine credit cards giving him access to €26,000 in credit.