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On This Day

1477: The earliest dated printed book produced in England is published by Westminster printer William Caxton.
1916: The Battle of the Somme ends after more than four months of fighting and 60,000 Allied soldiers killed.
1978: A mass suicide of a religious cult led by American Jim Jones leaves 914 dead in Guyana, South America.

Artillery

Artillery was the key battle-winning weapon on the Western Front. The bombardment which preceded the infantry attack on 1 July 1916 shocked both British and Germans in its scale.

In reality, the British guns were trying to bombard too large an area, often with poorly directed fire, using inadequate shells. In terms of the proportion of guns firing to the size of the target, the preliminary bombardment for the Somme was weaker than that at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle the year before.

Probably the most important learning experience undergone on the Somme related to artillery. Even during the battle, some commanders learned the importance of concentrating artillery fire. Comparing the attack of 14-15 July 1916 to that of a fortnight before, we find two thirds of the guns firing at one eighteenth the length of trench. By the end of the battle, it was more widely accepted that German artillery batteries were themselves a prime target which had to be dealt with before and during an attack.

The Somme saw the one of the first uses of the ‘creeping barrage’, a wall of exploding shells which moved forward slowly over enemy trenches with infantry following close behind. It ensured the Germans stayed under cover until the British soldiers were upon them.

In the early days of the Somme, these barrages sometimes moved too fast for the troops behind them, allowing the Germans to emerge from their bunkers and man their defences before the British arrived. But over the next two years the barrages would become increasingly sophisticated, incorporating different weapons and multiple variations in timing.

In the period after the Somme, British artillery became increasingly adept at using a variety of methods to bring their guns into action quickly, accurately and decisively. These included dispensing with the practice of firing ‘ranging shots’ which gave the Germans prior warning of an attack, in favour of ‘pre-registration’ of artillery using a grid map system.

Heavier guns - like this 12-inch howitzer - and innovations in the shells designed for them allowed British artillery to perform a wide range of tasks, from destroying barbed wire to knocking out enemy guns.
Infantry fire support

Although large scale infantry manoeuvres were not possible on the Western Front, at the very lowest level of combat there were sometimes opportunities to outflank opponents in fixed positions. But junior infantry leaders found it difficult to exploit these opportunities when the only firepower available to them consisted of newly-trained soldiers armed with bolt-action rifles.

Before, during and after the Somme, British infantry were re-equipped with light machine guns and rifle grenades, as well as being able to call upon their usual pre-war weapons. As a result, while infantry battalions became steadily smaller throughout the war, the quantity of firepower they could produce became steadily larger.

In the winter of 1916-1917, as a direct result of experience on the Somme, the infantry were formally reorganised to make the ‘platoon’ (40 men) the key tactical unit, rather than the larger ‘company’ (150 men). Platoon commanders were given control of these new infantry weapons, so that they had available both automatic fire (machine gun) and indirect fire (such as trench mortars).

Compared to their predecessors, junior commanders - subalterns and non-commissioned officers (NCOs) - were expected by 1917 to exercise far greater control and initiative over the battle at a local level.

A new system of standard formations and drills, combining fire and movement, was promulgated throughout the army to make use of this devolution of weapons and responsibility. When combined with accurate artillery fire in sufficient quantity, these changes made it possible for British infantry in 1917 to regularly break into strongly defended positions.
 
Caxton was the first English printer and a translator and importer of books into England.

Caxton was born in around 1422 in Kent. He went to London at the age of 16 to become an apprentice to a merchant, later moving to Bruges, the centre of the wool trade, where he became a successful and important member of the merchant community. From 1462 to 1470 he served as governor of the 'English Nation of Merchant Adventurers', which allowed him to represent his fellow merchants, as well as act as a diplomat for the king.

Caxton affiliated himself with the household of Margaret, the duchess of Burgundy, sister of the English king Edward IV. She became one of his most important patrons and encouraged him with his translation of 'The Recuyell of the Histories of Troye' from French to English. In the early 1470s Caxton spent time in Cologne learning the art of printing. He returned to Bruges in 1472 where he and Colard Mansion, a Flemish calligrapher, set up a press. Caxton's own translation of 'The Recuyell of the Histories of Troye' was the first book printed in the English language.

In 1476 Caxton returned to London and established a press at Westminster, the first printing press in England. Amongst the books he printed were Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales', Gower's 'Confession Amantis' and Malory's 'Le Morte d'Arthur'. He printed more than 100 books in his lifetime, books which were known for their craftsmanship and careful editing. He was also the translator of many of the books he published, using his knowledge of French, Latin and Dutch. He died in 1492.
 
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