Oh yes, plenty of mud at Ypres (several years of concentrated high explosive on boggy, poorly drained bottomland will do that) and indeed many other places and times on the Western Front - otherwise the cliche wouldn't be a cliche.
First day of the Somme however was a distinctly un-cliched WW1 battle; at least as far as weather and geography were concerned - it went off in dazzling sunshine over relatively unscathed (to start with at least), chalk downland.
Unfortunately for the 60,000-odd British casualties it was entirely cliched when it came to tactical and operational competance. On a personal note however, the thunderingly obtuse battleplan was a mildly good thing since my g/f's grandfather was in a dugout on the German side of the lines at the time.
Regards
Luke
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