The Battle of the Somme was a five-month battle of attrition, from 1 July 1916 to November 1916. The Battle of the Somme would become symbolic of what soldiers went through during the First World War and the horrors that had to face criticism directed at the incredible amount of casualties, with over 420,000 men dead on the British side alone and 60,000 British dead on the first day of the conflict alone. This essay focuses on witnesses' observations of the battle, their responses to the battle and how they felt about the enemy and will draw on Chapman's British account of the Somme, Vain Glory and Matthaus Gerster's German account of the Somme. On both sides of the conflict there were heavy bombardments which led to the assault on the opposing trenches. The British soldiers felt as if the bombing was a symphony over which something loomed that did not just intensify and end, but was a condition of the atmosphere that was created around them. While it filled the men with awe, there was also trepidation about this and the struggles they would soon face and this gave them time to think about the details of what they were ordered to do in the coming battle. On the German side the bombing also called the men to face the enemy trenches who interpreted it as a prelude to an infantry assault on the enemy trenches. The British observation of the crossing of no man's land was characterized by a perceived terror with a heavy load effect placed on the men seeing their comrades fall before them "having come so far and being finally driven back!" . There were worries about the loss of their appendages and the death of their companions, leading to a sense not quite of courage but of a bestial desire to live and to triumph over the e...... middle of paper .. ....ng of and even a soldier asking, "Do you think there's any chance for us, Sergeant?" From the German side we could hear the moans and groans of the wounded, as well as cries for help and screams of death. Both the British and the Germans had paid a heavy price by crossing no man's land. On top of all that, the use of mechanized warfare in the Somme, such as artillery barrages, led to large numbers of deaths throughout the Somme and brought much suffering to the portion of the soldiers who were brought forward to face the enemy under constant barrages which put both the willpower of the soldiers and their bodies physically and mentally to the test (shock). The attitude both sides had towards their enemies was one of respect for their determination in the face of the enemy and of relentless courage, but both sides suffered monumental losses of men due to mechanized warfare..