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Somme Battlefields Tours › Somme Battlefields Facts: The Battle of 1916 in Official FiguresUpdated 2026-09-25

Somme Battlefields Facts: The Battle of 1916 in Official Figures

Hours, prices and access verified by the Somme Battlefields Tours team — last checked 2026-09-25.

Lochnagar Crater from the air, a ring of trees round the pit amid green fields

The short answer. The Battle of the Somme ran from 1 July to 18 November 1916. Its first day cost the British Army 57,470 casualties, 19,240 of them killed. The Thiepval Memorial names more than 72,000 men with no known grave, and the Lochnagar mine left a crater 100.5 metres across. Every figure below comes from the body that keeps the record, so you can quote it at the memorial itself.

The figures you will hear on the ground

Guides quote numbers all day. These are the ones that hold up, with the body that publishes each.

FigureWhat it countsSource
1 July-18 November 1916The Battle of the SommeIWM
57,470British casualties on 1 July 1916, 19,240 killedIWM
1.5 millionShells fired in the week before the attackIWM
7:28 amThe Lochnagar mine, two minutes before zero hourLochnagar Crater
72,000+Names on the Thiepval MemorialCWGC
820Names at the Beaumont-Hamel caribouVeterans Affairs Canada
6,900Australians killed at Pozières in almost six weeksSir John Monash Centre
18,000+Australians still missing in France and BelgiumDVA

The battle

  • It was fought where two armies met. The Somme was chosen because it was where the French and British lines joined. The German attack at Verdun in February 1916 then pushed Britain into the lead role.
  • It was the volunteers' first big battle. Kitchener's New Armies, including the Pals battalions of friends and workmates, took the leading part for the first time.
  • The guns failed to cut the wire. Over 1.5 million shells were fired in the week before the attack. About two-thirds were shrapnel, and as many as 30% may not have exploded.
  • The attack was delayed. It was set for 29 June and postponed 48 hours for bad weather, with no extra shells to fill the gap.
  • The first day was the worst in British military history. The infantry went over at 7:30 am on 1 July. By nightfall there were 57,470 British casualties, 19,240 of them dead.
  • Not every attack failed on 1 July. In the south the 18th and 30th Divisions took all their objectives and the 7th Division captured Mametz. At Thiepval the 36th (Ulster) Division seized the Schwaben Redoubt, then had to withdraw.
  • Thiepval took three months. It fell in the attack that began on 26 September, and the fighting for the Schwaben Redoubt did not end until 14 October.
  • Beaumont-Hamel fell at the very end. The 51st (Highland) Division took it in the last act of the battle, on the Ancre, between 13 and 19 November.
  • Tanks went into battle here for the first time. On 15 September 1916, 49 were available and only 36 reached their start lines.
  • The gain was small. By November the British had taken a strip about 10 km deep and 32 km wide. Over a million men on both sides became casualties.

How those months unfolded on the ground you will walk is on the history of the Somme battlefields.

The mine at Lochnagar

When you stand on the rim at La Boisselle, you are looking at the largest mine crater the war left on the Western Front. The 179th Tunnelling Company packed 27 tonnes of ammonal in two charges, 16 metres down, at the end of a 314-metre tunnel. It went up at 7:28 am on 1 July 1916. The crater is 100.5 metres across and 21 metres deep.

It is privately owned. Richard Dunning has owned it since 1978, and a charity, the Lochnagar Crater Foundation, now maintains it. About 200,000 people visit each year, and a ceremony has been held at 7:28 am every 1 July since 1979.

Did you know? The Thiepval Memorial was due to be unveiled on 16 May 1932. The ceremony was put back after the death of the French President, Paul Doumer, and the Prince of Wales unveiled it on 1 August 1932.

The memorials

  • Thiepval names the missing, not the dead. Its 72,000-plus names are men of the United Kingdom and South African forces with no known grave. Over 90% of them died between July and November 1916.
  • It is a French memorial too. It also serves as an Anglo-French battle memorial, with French and Commonwealth graves in equal numbers at its foot.
  • The caribou was not only for soldiers. Its 820 names are 591 men of the Newfoundland Regiment, 114 naval reservists and 115 merchant seamen.
  • The caribou weighs about 770 kg. Basil Gotto sculpted it, and Haig unveiled the memorial park on 7 June 1925.
  • The first memorial came early. The Ulster Tower was dedicated on 19 November 1921, the first official memorial on the Western Front.

The Australians, 1916 and 1918

If you are Australian, these are the figures that bring you here. About 295,000 Australians served on the Western Front, and about 46,000 were killed. More than 18,000 are still missing in France and Belgium. The Sir John Monash Centre at Villers-Bretonneux tells their story through the soldiers' own accounts.

  • Pozières, from 23 July 1916: almost 23,000 Australian casualties in almost six weeks, 6,900 of them killed. Charles Bean wrote that it was "more deeply sown with Australian sacrifice than any other place on earth".
  • Villers-Bretonneux, April 1918: the Germans took the town on 24 April, and the 13th and 15th Australian Brigades took it back the next day.
  • Bertangles, August 1918: Monash planned Le Hamel and Amiens at the château there, and King George V knighted him there on 12 August 1918.
  • Mont Saint-Quentin, 31 August to 3 September 1918: the 2nd Australian Division's battle, remembered at its memorial in Péronne every 2 September.

You can stand on each of those places in one day: the private Australian day from Amiens covers Pozières, Le Hamel and Villers-Bretonneux, and the small-group day from Paris adds the 1 July sites. The dates the anniversaries fall on are on what's on at the Somme battlefields, and each site's hours and fees are on things to do on the Somme battlefields.

Figures you will read elsewhere, and should not

Tour listings often print their own crater sizes and counts of the missing. They rarely agree with each other or with the bodies above. When you want a figure for a eulogy, a school project or a family history, use the IWM, the CWGC, Veterans Affairs Canada or DVA, and check the date on the page. Our guide to finding a relative's grave shows where to start.

Where these facts come from

Every hour, fee and date here comes from the body that runs the site. Hours move with the season, so check yours before you travel.

Days that follow the Australians

Next: Walk the ground in order with the Somme memorials stop by stop. Every fare, from Paris and from the battlefield towns, sits side by side on Somme Battlefields Tours.