Somme (department)

Somme (French pronunciation: [sɔm] ; Picard: Sonme) is a department of France, located in the north of the country and named after the Somme river. It is part of the Hauts-de-France region. It is bordered by Pas-de-Calais and Nord to the north, Aisne to the east, Oise to the south and Seine-Maritime to the southwest. To the northwest, its coastline faces the English Channel and it shares maritime borders with Kent and East Sussex in the United Kingdom. It had a population of 570,559 in 2019.

Somme
Department of France
Prefecture building of the Somme department, in Amiens
Flag Coat of arms
Location of Somme in France
Coordinates: 49°53′N 02°25′E
Country	France
Region	Hauts-de-France
Prefecture	Amiens
Subprefectures	Abbeville Montdidier Péronne
Government
• President of the Departmental Council	Stéphane Haussoulier
Area 1
• Total	6,170 km2 (2,380 sq mi)
Population  (2021)
• Total	566,252
• Rank	44th
• Density	92/km2 (240/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC 1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC 2 (CEST)
ISO 3166 code	FR-80
Department number	80
Arrondissements	4
Cantons	23
Communes	772
^1 French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km2

The north central area of the Somme was the site of a series of battles during World War I, including the particularly significant Battle of the Somme in 1916. As a result of this and other battles fought in the area, the department is home to many military cemeteries and several major monuments commemorating the many soldiers from various countries who died on its battlefields. The 1346 Battle of Crécy, a major English victory early in the Hundred Years' War, also took place in this department.

History

The toponymy of Somme is speculated to come from a Gaulish term, Sumena.

Geography

The Somme department is in the current region of Hauts-de-France and is surrounded by the departments of Pas-de-Calais, Nord, Aisne, Oise and Seine-Maritime. In the northwest, it has a coast on the English Channel. The main rivers are the Somme and its tributaries (Avre, Ancre and Noye, the Authie) as well as the Bresle.

Principal towns

The most populous commune is Amiens, the prefecture. As of 2019, there are 9 communes with more than 5,000 inhabitants:

Commune	Population (2019)
Amiens	134,706
Abbeville	22,980
Albert	9,779
Péronne	7,577
Corbie	6,292
Montdidier	6,113
Doullens	5,890
Longueau	5,765
Roye	5,693

Battles of the Somme

Main article: Battle of the Somme

At the beginning of the First World War, during the Race to the Sea of September and November 1914, the Somme became the site of the Battle of Albert. The battle was a five-day engagement between 25 and 29 September, with the French Tenth Army attacking at Albert and pushing toward Bapaume, and the German Sixth Army counter-attacking back towards Albert. The line settled around the town of Thiepval and remained there until July 1916, when the Battle of the Somme was fought on and around the same ground.

The Battle of the Somme was one of the most costly battles of World War I, by the number of troop casualties, as Allied forces attempted to break through the German lines along a 40 kilometres (25 mi) front north and south of the River Somme. The Allies had originally intended the Somme to be the site of one of several simultaneous major offensives by Allied powers against the Central Powers in 1916. However, before these offensives could begin, the Germans attacked first, engaging the Allies at the Battle of Verdun. As this battle dragged on, the purpose of the Somme campaign (which was still in the planning stage) shifted from striking a decisive blow against Germany to drawing German forces away from Verdun and relieving the Allied forces there. By its end, the losses on the Somme had exceeded those at Verdun.

While Verdun would bite deep in the national consciousness of France for generations, the Somme would have the same effect on generations of Britons. The battle is best remembered for its first day, 1 July 1916, on which the British suffered 57,420 casualties, including 19,240 dead—the bloodiest day in the history of the British Army to this day. As terrible as the battle was for the British Empire troops who suffered there, it naturally affected the other nationalities as well. By the end of the battle, the British had learned many lessons in modern warfare, while the Germans had suffered irreplaceable losses. British historian Sir James Edmonds stated, "It is not too much to claim that the foundations of the final victory on the Western Front were laid by the Somme offensive of 1916".

For the first time, the home front in Britain was exposed to the horrors of modern war with the release of the propaganda film The Battle of the Somme, which used actual footage from the first days of the battle.

The Somme experienced war twice more in the First and Second Battles of the Somme of 1918.

Demographics

Population development since 1801:

Historical population

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1801 459,453 —     1806 494,642 1.49% 1821 508,710 0.19% 1831 543,924 0.67% 1841 559,680 0.29% 1851 570,641 0.19% 1861 572,646 0.04% 1872 557,015 −0.25% 1881 550,837 −0.12% 1891 546,495 −0.08% 1901 537,848 −0.16% 1911 520,161 −0.33% 1921 452,624 −1.38%	Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1931 466,626 0.31% 1936 467,479 0.04% 1946 441,368 −0.57% 1954 464,153 0.63% 1962 488,225 0.63% 1968 512,113 0.80% 1975 538,462 0.72% 1982 544,570 0.16% 1990 547,825 0.07% 1999 555,551 0.16% 2006 564,319 0.22% 2011 571,211 0.24% 2016 572,744 0.05%
Sources:

Politics

The president of the departmental council is Stéphane Haussoulier, elected in July 2021.

Presidential elections 2nd round

Election		Winning Candidate	Party	%	2nd Place Candidate	Party	%
	2022	Emmanuel Macron	LREM	45.37	Marine Le Pen	RN	54.63
	2017	Emmanuel Macron	LREM	54.22	Marine Le Pen	FN	45.78
	2012	François Hollande	PS	54.41	Nicolas Sarkozy	UMP	45.59
	2007	Nicolas Sarkozy	UMP	50.46	Ségolène Royal	PS	49.54
	2002	Jacques Chirac	RPR	78.26	Jean-Marie Le Pen	FN	21.74

Current National Assembly representatives

Constituency		Member	Party
	Somme's 1st constituency	François Ruffin	La France Insoumise
	Somme's 2nd constituency	Barbara Pompili	La République En Marche!
	Somme's 3rd constituency	Emmanuel Maquet	The Republicans
	Somme's 4th constituency	Jean-Claude Leclabart	La République En Marche!
	Somme's 5th constituency	Stéphane Demilly	Union of Democrats and Independents

Tourism

Image gallery

• 
  Seal in the bay of Somme
• 
  View of Mers-les-Bains
• 
  Amiens
• 
  Château de Rambures
• 
  Chapel in Saint-Valery-sur-Somme

See also

• Cantons of the Somme department
• Communes of the Somme department
• Arrondissements of the Somme department

External links

• (in French) Prefecture of Somme website
• (in French) Departmental council's website
• (in English) Photos from Somme
• GPS-Teamproject "Verdun - Somme - 1916"