Kinberg, Nicholas Michael Chakmakian AP European History 29 May 2015 Chapter 14 Outline WW1 Battle of Somme began 6/24/1916, Brit artillery barrage against German trenches along 25-mi.front; Brits fired 1.5m rounds over 7 days Mixing gas with explosions, gunners pulverized landscape/poisoned atmosphere German def?ers. Huddled in masks; guns went silent, 10k?s of Brits rose out of trenches, bearing 60 lbs. of equipment, made way into NoMan?s Land Were told wire-cutting explosives would destroy barbed wire between trenches, leaving them free to charge across before Germans could recover Found barbed wire intact; caught when German machine-gunners def?d.