Experiencing Warfare Now and Then Somme vs Ia Drang
Approximately 600,000 Allied force casualties were sustained at the battle of the Somme during WWI in 1916. ... Conversely at the battle of Ia Drang Valley in 1965, the first major military battle of Vietnam War, the Americans suffered the loss of 235 men and the Vietnamese lost an estimated 2,000 men (Death). In either case the loss of life is horrific but when placed side by side the amount of life lost at the battle of Somme greatly outweighs the latter. ... The battle of the Somme was fought from the trenches and on open ground. ... Ia Drang was fought in a jungle which provided lots of cover, masked enemy movements and presented many opportunities for ambush. ... By looking at these two battles one can conclude that the experience of warfare from pre 1945 to post 1945 has changed as shown by an examination of the weaponry, tactics and logistics in each battle. ... The artillery was very inaccurate and only effective in large barrages and even then they weren’t always effective as displayed in the battle of the Somme. ... ” Enemy batteries and defenses at the battle of the Somme were still intact upon the end of the barrage as the infantry found out when they began to race across “No Man’s Land” to complete their objectives. ... This was quite possibly the most deadly weapon of the Somme battle because the battle was fought in open field the machine gunner had plain view of all targets and given the fact that many “nests” were in place by the Germans the rain of lead that was put fourth by them did not give any man a chance to cross the land (Keegan 234). Contrary to this, during the battle of Ia Drang, artillery was called upon to relieve ground forces that were under heavy enemy fire and they could do it quickly. ... ” (Moore 187) Also in contrast to the battle of the Somme was the fact that every member one both sides were equipped with automatic weapons, but the battle was fought in dense rain forest which was not easy to move through or see through (Moore 43). This limited the mass lethality of the machine gun which it had during the battle of the Somme. ... At the Somme the soldiers did not have the precision fire power that the soldiers of Ia Drang had. Instead the battle was infantry vs. machine gunners and once they got passed them then it was infantry vs. ... Where as at Ia Drang the fight was artillery vs. infantry and infantry vs. ... The troops were in such close proximity the order to “Fix Bayonets” was given on the final day at the battle of Ia Drang (Moore 122-128).