This post is an attempt at education using war diaries to show on what officers did and how that affected casualties at the Battle of the Somme in 1916. This, and its follow ons, was inspired by a Twitter conversation after Friday's post. I was asked about whether other ranks were sacrificed at the Battle of the Somme by officers. It was a form of Alan Clarke's fallacy Lions led by donkeys. Here's the tweet. There are three parts to answering the questions. What did officers do in WW1 battles? What are the relative numbers of officers and other ranks in WW1 infantry battalions? (and how did this change as the battle progressed?) What do the casualties tell us? Method of Education For the first question I went back to my WW1 bookshelves. There are a few relevant tomes. I also drew on…
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