Failure came at a high price. For the British army, bloody and shaken but
still intact, the Somme was a way station to equally great sacrifices in
Flanders in 1917 as the army survived as a fighting force. In the long run,
however, the losses were irreplaceable: the educated and socially prominent
volunteers who had rushed to the colors as volunteers in 1914 and 1915
were the leaders of the next generation. At the Somme they died in droves.
For the French army, the Chemin des Dames had more immediate consequences,
namely, the collapse of the French army. Nivelle had argued
correctly that the morale behind the French war effort was precarious.
French losses in the battle were modest by the measures of trench warfare:
144,000 killed and wounded. He discovered, however, that his failed offensive
began the collapse: much of the French army plunged into mutiny in
May and June.
As a result of the disaster, a new kind of French general, Philippe Petain,
now took command. He shot the leaders of the mutinies, but he won over
the rank and file of the army with an improved system of leaves, better rest
camps and food, and a policy of remaining temporarily on the defensive.
Since 1915 Petain's style of waging war had emphasized small-scale attack
and vast artillery preparation. That now became the style of all French
operations until, under the urging of Foch and Clemenceau, Petain joined
in the vast summer and fall 1918 offensive that closed out the war.
World History
