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A HISTORY OF THE
GREAT WAR
BY
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
VOLUME THREE
THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN
IN FRANCE AND FLANDERS
1916
NEW YORK
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY


,


COPYRIGHT, 1918,
BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA


PREFACE
IN two previous volumes of this work a narrative
has been given of those events which occurred upon
the British Western Front during 1914, the year of
recoil, and 1915, the year of equilibrium. In this vol-
ume will be found the detailed story of 1916, the ﬁrst
of the years of attack and advance.
Time is a great toner down of superlatives, and
the episodes which seem world-shaking in our day
may, when looked upon by the placid eyes of his-
torical philosophers in days to come, ﬁt more easily
into the general scheme of human experience. None
the less it can be said without fear of ultimate con-
tradiction that nothing approaching to the Battle of
the Somme, with which this volume is mainly con-
cerned, has ever been known in military history, and
that it is exceedingly improbable that it will ever be
equalled in its length and in its severity. It may be
said to have raged with short intermissions, caused
by the breaking of the weather, from July 1 to No-
vember 14, and during this prolonged period the
picked forces of three great nations were locked in
close battle. The number of combatants from ﬁrst
to last was between two and three millions, and their
united casualties came to the appalling total of at
V


vi PREFACE
least three-quarters of a million. These are mini-
mum ﬁgures, but they will give some idea of the un-
paralleled scale of the operations.
With the increasing number and size of the units
employed the scale of the narrative becomes larger.
It is more difﬁcult to focus the battalion, while the
individual has almost dropped out of sight. Sins of
omission are many, and the chronicler can but plead
the great diﬂiculty of his task and regret that his
limited knowledge may occasionally cause dis-
appointment.
The author should explain that this volume has
had to pass through three lines of censors, suffering
heavily in the process. It has come out with the loss
of all personal names save those of casualties or of
high Generals. Some passages also have been ex-
cised. On the other hand it is the ﬁrst which has
been permitted to reveal the exact identity of the
units engaged. The missing passages and names
will be restored when the days of peace return.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE.
February 3, 1918.


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CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
JANUARY TO JULY 1916
General situation—The ﬁght for the Bluﬁ—The Mound of St. Eloi—
Fine performance of Third Division and Canadians—Feat of the
lat Shropshires—Attack on the Irish Division—Fight at Vimy
Ridge—Canadian Battle of Ypres—Death of General Mercer—
Recovery of Lost Position—Attack of Thirty-ninth Division—
Eve of the Somme . . . . . . . .
CHAPTER II
THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME
Attack of the Seventh and Eighth Corps on Gommecourt,
Serre, and Beaumont Hamel
Line of battle in the Somme sector—Great preparations-Advance of
Forty-sixth North Midland Division—Advance of Fifty-sixth
Territorials (London)—Great valour and heavy lossee—Advance
of Thirty-ﬁrst Division—Advance of Fourth Division—Advance
of Twenty-ninth Division—Complete failure of the assault
CHAPTER III
THE BATTLE OF THE Somm
Attack of the Tenth and Third Corps, July 1, 1916
Magniﬁcent conduct of the Ulster Division—Local success but general
failure—Advance of Thirty-second Division—Advance of Eighth
Division—Advance of Thirty-fourth Division—The turning-
point of the line . . . . .
FAQ]!
33
58
vii


viii CONTENTS
CHAPTER IV
THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME
The Attack of the Fifteenth and Thirteenth Corps, July 1, 1916
PAGE
The advance of the Twenty-ﬁrst Division—Of the 64th Brigade—
First permanent gains—50th Brigade at Fricourt—Advance of
Seventh Division—Capture of Mametz—Fine work by Eighteenth
Division—Capture of Montauban by the Thirtieth Division—
General Jviewqof the battle-—Its decisive importance . . 76
CHAPTER V
THE Bin-ran or THE Som
From July 2 to July 14, 1916
General situation—Capture of La Boiselle by Nineteenth Division—-
Splendid attack by 36th Brigade upon Ovillers—Siege and reduc-
tion of Ovillers—Operations at Contalmaison—Desperate ﬁght-
ing at the Quadrangle by Seventeenth Division—Capture of
Mametz Wood by Thirty-eighth Welsh Division—Capture of
Trones Wood by Eighteenth Division . . . . . 102
CHAPTER VI
Tim BA'I'I‘LE or THE 80mm
The Breaking of the Second Line. July 14, 1916
The great night advance—The Leicester Brigade at Bazentin—
Assault by Seventh Division—Success of the Third Division—
Desperate ﬁght of Ninth Division at Longueval—Operations of
First Division on ﬂank—Cavalry advance . . . . 144
CHAPTER VII
THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME
July 14 to July 31
Gradual advance of First Division—Hard ﬁghting of Thirty-third
Division at High Wood—The South Africans in Delville Wood
-——The great German counter-attack—Splendid work of 26th
Brigade—Capture ol' Delville Wood by 98th Brigade—Indecisive
ﬁghting on the Guillemont front . .4 l. . . . 159


CONTENTS
5.
CHAPTER VIII
Tan BATTLE or run Somm
The Operations of Gough’s Army upon the Northern Flank
up to September 15
PAGE
Advance, Australial—Capture of Pozieres—Fine work of Forty-eighth
Division—Relief of Australia by Canada—Steady advance of,
Gough's Army—Capture of Courcelette . . . . 188
CHAPTER IX
Tan BATTLE on THE SOMME
August 1 to September 15
Continued attempts of Thirty-third Division on High Wood—Co-
operation of First Division—Operation of Fourteenth Division
on fringe of Delville Wood—Attack by Twenty-fourth Division
on Guillemont—Capture of Guillemont by 47th and 59th Brigades
—Cepture of Ginchy by Sixteenth Irish Division . . . 205
CHAPTER X
Trm BATTLE or THE SOMME
Breaking of the Third Line, September 15
Capture of Martinpuich by Fifteenth Division—Advance of Fiftieth
Division—Capture of High Wood by Forty-seventh Division——
Splendid advance of New Zealanders—Capture of Flers by
Forty-ﬁrst Division—Advance of the Light Division—Arduous
work of the Guards and Sixth Divisions—Capture of Quadri-
lateral—Work of Fifty-sixth Division on ﬂank—Debut of the
CHAPTER XI
THE GAINING or THE THIEPVAL RIDGE
Annult 0n Thiepval by Eighteenth Division—Heavy ﬁghting—Co-
operation of Eleventh Division—Fall of Thiepval—Fall of
Schwsben Redoubt—Taking of Stuff Redoubt—Important gains
on the Ridge . . . . . 263


1: CONTENTS
CHAPTER XII
Tan BATTLE OF THE Somm
From September 15 to the Battle of the Ancre
PAGE
Capture of Eaucourt—Varying character of German resistance—Hard
trench ﬁghting along the line—Dreadful climatic conditions—
The meteorological trenches—Hazy Trench—Zenith Trench—
General observations—General von Arnim’s report . . 281
CHAPTER XIII
Tnn BA'l'I‘LE or THE ANCRE
November 13, 1916
The last effort—Failure in the north—Fine work of the Thirty-ninth,
Fifty-ﬁrst, and Sixty-third Divisions—Surrounding of German
Fort—Capture of Beaumont Hamel—Commander Freyberg—
Last operations of the season—General survey—“The unwarlike
Islanders" . . . . . . . . . . 310
INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . 333


MAPS AND PLANS
PAGE
Approximate Positions of British Line at the Battle of the Somme xiv
British Battle Line, July 1, 1916 . . . . . . 35
Quadrangle Position, July 5—11, 1916 . . . . . 119
Mametz Wood . . . . . . . . . 127
Trones Wood, Attack of 54th Brigade, July 13, 1916 . . 141
The Second German Line, Bazentins, Delville Wood, etc. . . 144
Map of Delville Wood . . . . . . . . 180
Attack on German Left Flank, September 3, 1916 . . . 223
Final Position at Capture of Martinpuich . . . . 239
Attack on Quadrilateral, September 15, 1916 . . . . 257
Plan Illustrating the Capture of Thiepval, September 26, October
5, 1916 . . . . . . . . . . 265
Stuﬁ Redoubt System, Showing Hessian, Regina, and Stuff . 277
Meteorological Trenches, September 30—November 6, 1916 . 296
Map to Illustrate the British Campaign in France and Flanders At end


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CHAPTER I
JANUARY TO JULY 1916
General situation—The ﬁght for the Bluff—The Mound of St. Eloi—
Fine performance of Third Division and Canadians—Feat of the
lst Shropshires—Attack on the Irish Division—Fight at Vimy
Ridge—Canadian Battle of Ypres—Death of General Mercer-—
Recovery of lost position—Attack of Thirty-ninth Division—
Eve of the Somme.
THE Great War had now come into its second winter
—-a winter which was marked by an absolute cessa-
tion of all serious ﬁghting upon the Western front.
Enormous armies were facing each other, but until
the German attack upon the French lines of Verdun
at the end of February, the infantry of neither side
was seriously engaged. There were many raids and
skirmishes, with sudden midnight invasions of hos-
tile trenches and rapid returns with booty or prison-
ers. Both sides indulged in such tactics upon the
British front. Ga-s attacks, too, were occasionally
attempted, some on a large scale and with consider-
able result. The condition of the troops, though it
could not fail to be trying, was not so utterly misera-
ble as during the ﬁrst cold season in the trenches.
The British had ceased to be a mere ﬁghting fringe
with nothing behind it. The troops were numerous
and eager, so that reliefs were frequent. All sorts of
devices were adopted for increasing the comfort and
conserving the health of the men. Steadily as the
winter advanced and the spring ripened into sum-
1
CnArrsa
I.

January
to July
1916.


2 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER mer, fresh divisions were passed over the narrow

January
to July
1916.
seas, and the shell-piles at the bases marked the in-
creased energy and output of the workers in the fac-
tories. The early summer found everything ready
for a renewed attempt upon the German line.
The winter of 1915-16 saw the affairs of the Allies
in a condition which could not be called satisfactory,
and which would have been intolerable had there not
been evident promise of an amendment in the near
future. The weakness of the Russians in munitions
had caused their gallant but half-armed armies to be
driven back until the whole of Poland had fallen into
the hands of the Germanic Powers, who had also re-
conquered Galicia and Bukovina. The British at-
tempt upon Gallipoli, boldly conceived and gallantly
urged, but wanting in the essential quality of sur-
prise, had failed with heavy losses and the army had
to be withdrawn. Serbia and Montenegro had both
been overrun and occupied, while the eﬂicient Bul-
garian army had ranged itself with our enemies.
The Mesopotamian Expedition had been held up by
the Turks, and the brave Townshend, with his de-
pleted division, was hemmed in at Kut, where, after
a siege of ﬁve months, he was eventually compelled,
upon April 26, to lay down his arms, together with
9000 troops, chieﬂy Indian. When one remembers
that on the top of this Germany already held Bel-
gium and a considerable slice of the north of France,
which included all the iron and coal-producing cen-
tres, it must be admitted that the Berlin Press had
some reason upon its side when it insisted that it had
already won the War upon paper. To realise that
paper, was, however, an operation which was beyond
their powers.


JANUARY TO JULY 1916 3
What could the Allies put against these formid- CHAPTER
able successes? There was the Colonial Empire of 1'
Germany. Only one colony, the largest and most 3:33;?
powerful, still remained. This was East Africa. me.
General Smuts, a worthy colleague of the noble
Botha, had undertaken its reduction, and by the
summer the end was in sight. The capture of the
colonies would then be complete. The oceans of the
world were another asset of the Allies. These also
were completely held to the absolute destruction of
all German oversea commerce. These two con-
quests, and the power of blockade which steadily
grew more stringent, were all that the Allies could
throw into the other scale, save for the small corner
of Alsace still held by the French, the southern end
of Mesopotamia, and the port of Salonica, which was
a strategic checkmate to the southern advance of the
Germans. The balance seemed all against them.
There was no discouragement, however, for all these
difﬁculties had been discounted and the Allies had al-
ways recognised that their strength lay in those re-
serves which had not yet had time to develop. The
opening of the summer campaign of 1916, with the
capture of Erzeroum, the invasion of Armenia, and
the reconquest of Bukovina, showed that the Russian
army had at last found its second wind. The French
had already done splendid work in their classical re-
sistance at Verdun, which had extended from the last
weeks of February onwards, and had cost the Ger-
mans over a quarter of a million of casualties. The
opening of the British campaign in July found the
whole army most eager to emulate‘the deeds of its
Allies, and especially to take some of the weight
from thesplendid defenders of Verdun. Their ﬁght


4 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
(realms against very heavy odds in men, munitions, and

January
to July
1916.
transport, was‘one of the greatest deeds of arms,
possibly the greatest deed of arms of the war. It
was known, however, before July that a diversion
was absolutely necessary, and although the British
had taken over a fresh stretch of trenches so as to
release French reinforcements, some more active
help was imperatively called for.
Before describing the summer campaign it is nec-
essary to glance back at the proceedings of the win-
ter and spring upon the British line, and to com-
ment upon one or two matters behind that line which
had a direct inﬂuence upon the campaign. Of the
minor operations to which allusion has already been
made, there are none between the Battle of Loos and
the middle of February 1916 which call for par-
ticular treatment. Those skirmishes and mutual
raidings which took place during that time centred
largely round the old salient at Ypres and the new
one at Loos, though the lines at Armentiéres were
also the scene of a good deal of activity. One con-
siderable attack seems to have been planned by the
Germans on the north-east of Ypres in the Christ-
mas week of 1915—an attack which was preceded by
a formidable gas attack. The British artillery was
so powerful, however, that it crushed the advance in
the trenches, where the gathered bayonets of the
stormers could be seen going down before the
scourging shrapnel like rushes before a gale. The
infantry never emerged, and the losses must have
been very heavy. This was the only considerable
attempt made by either side during the winter.
At the time of Lord French’s return another
change was made at home which had a very imme<


JANUARY TO JULY 1916 w 5
diate bearing upon the direction of the War. Brit- CHAPTER
ain had suffered greatly from the fact that at the 1'
beginning of hostilities the distinguished oﬁicers who composed the central staff had all been called away 1916-
for service in the ﬁeld. Lord Kitchener had done
wonders in ﬁlling their place, but it was impossible
for any man, however great his abilities or energy,
to carry such a burden upon his shoulders. The
more conscientious the man the more he desires to
supervise everything himself and the more danger
there is that all the ﬁeld cannot be covered. Al-
ready the recruiting service, which had absorbed a
great deal of Lord Kitchener’s energies with most
splendid results, had been relegated to Lord Derby,
whose tact and wisdom produced fresh armies of
volunteers. Now the immediate direction of the
War and the supervision of all that pertained to the
armies in the ﬁeld was handed over to Sir William
Robertson, a man of great organising ability and
of proved energy. From this time onwards his char-
acter and judgment bulked larger and larger as one
of the factors which made for the success of the
Allies.
In January 1916 Britain gave her! last proof of
the resolution with which she was waging war. Al-
ready she had shown that no question of money
could diminish her ardour, for she was imposing di-
rect taxation upon her citizens with a vigour which
formed the only solid basis for the credit of the
Allies. Neither our foes nor our friends have shown
such absolute readiness to pay in hard present cash,
that posterity might walk with a straighter back,
and many a man was paying a good half of his in-
come to the State. But now a sacriﬁce more intimate


6 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER than that of money had to be made. It was of that

January
to July
1916.
personal liberty which is as the very breath of our
nostrils. This also was thrown with a sigh into the
common cause, and a Military Service Bill was
passed by which every citizen from 19 to 41 was
liable to be called up. It is questionable whether it
was necessary as yet as a military measure, since
the enormous number of 5,000,000 volunteers had
come forward, but as an act of justice by which the
burden should be equally distributed, and the shirker
compelled to his duty, it was possible to justify this
radical departure from the customs of our fathers
and the instincts of our race. Many who acquiesced
in its necessity did so with a heavy heart, feeling
how glorious would have been our record had it
been possible to bring forward by the stress of
duty alone the manhood of the nation. As a mat-
ter of fact, the margin left over was neither numer-
ous nor important, but the energies of the authori-
ties were now released from the incessant strain
which the recruiting service had caused.
The work of the trenches was made easier for
the British by the fact that they had at last reached
an equality with, and in many cases a superiority to,
their enemy, in the number of their guns, the quan-
tity of their munitions, and the provision of those
smaller weapons such as trench mortars and ma-
chine-guns which count for so much in this descrip-
tion of warfare. Their air supremacy which had ex-
isted for a long time was threatened during some
months by the Fokker machines of the Germans, and
by the skill with which their aviators used them,
but faster models from England soon restored the
balance. There had been a time also when the sys-


JANUARY TO JULY 1916 7
term and the telescopic sights of the German snipers CHAPTER
had given them an ascendancy. Thanks to the la- 1'
hours of various enthusiasts for the riﬂe, this matter 3:31?
was set right and there were/long stretches of the 1916.
line where no German head could for an instant be
shown above the parapet. The Canadian sector was
particularly free from any snipers save their own.
The ﬁrst serious operation of the spring of 1916
upon the British line was a determined German at—
tack upon that section which lies between the Ypres-
Comines Canal and the Ypres-Comines railway on
the extreme south of the Ypres salient; Hill 60 lies
to the north of it. In the line of trenches there was
one small artiﬁcial elevation, not more than thirty
feet above the plain. This was called the Bluﬂ’, and
was the centre of the attack. It was of very great
importance as a point of artillery observation. Dur-
ing the whole of February 13 the bombardment was
very severe, and losses were heavy along a front of
several miles, the right of which was held by the
Seventeenth Division, the centre by the Fiftieth, and
the left by the Twenty-fourth. Finally, after many
of the trenches had been reduced to dirt heaps ﬁve
mines were simultaneously sprung under the Brit-
ish front line, each of them of great power. The
explosions were instantly followed by a rush of the
German infantry. In the neighbourhood of the
Bluff, the garrison, consisting at that point of the
10th Lancashire Fusiliers, were nearly all buried or
killed. To the north lay the 10th Sherwood Forest-
ers and north of them the 8th South Staffords, whose
Colonel, though four times wounded, continued
to direct the defence. It was impossible, however,
to hold. the whole line, as the Gennans had seized.


8 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER the Bluff and were able'to enﬁlade all the trenches

January
to July
1916.
of the Sherwoods, who lost twelve ofﬁcers and sev-
eral hundred men before they would admit that their
position was untenable. The South Staﬁords being
further off were able to hold on, but the whole front
from their right to the canal south of the Bluff was
in the hands of the Germans, who had very rapidly
and skilfully consolidated it. A strong counter-
attack by the 7th Lincolns and 7th Borders, in which
the survivors of the Lancashire Fusiliers took part,
had some success, but was unable to permanently
regain the lost sector, six hundred yards of which
remained with the enemy. A lieutenant, with 40
bombers of the Lincolns, 38 of whom fell, did heroic
work.
The attack had extended to the north, where it
had fallen upon the Fiftieth Division, and to the
Twenty-fourth Division upon the left of it. Here it
was held and eventually repulsed. Of the company
of the 9th Sussex who held the extreme left of the
line, a large portion were blown up by a. mine and
forty were actually buried in the crater. Young
Lieutenant McNair, however, the ofﬁcer in charge,
showed great energy and presence of mind. He held
the Germans from the crater and with the help of
another ofﬁcer, who had rushed up some supports,
drove them back to their trenches. For this McNair
received his Victoria Cross. The 3rd Riﬂe Brigade,
a veteran regular battalion, upon the right of the
Sussex, had also put up a vigorous resistance, as had
the central Fiftieth Division, so that in spite of the
udden severity of the attack it was only at the one
point of the Bluff that the enemy had made a lodg-
ment—that point being the real centre of their effort.


10 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
I.

January
to July
1916.
ters for machine-guns, which held them for a time
but were eventually captured. The centre battalion
consisted of the 8th Royal Lancasters, who lost heav-
ily from riﬂe ﬁre but charged home with great de-
termination, ﬂooding over the old German front line
and their support trenches as well as their imme-
diate objective. The left battalion in the attack
were the 1st Gordon Highlanders, who had a most
difﬁcult task, being exposed to the heaviest'ﬁre of
all. For a moment they were hung up, andlthen
with splendid spirit threw themselves at the hostile
trenches again and carried everything before them.
They were much helped in this second attack by the
supporting battalion, the 7th Lincoln's, whose bomb-
ers rushed to the front. The 10th Welsh Fusiliers,
who were supporting on the right, also did invalua-
ble service by helping to consolidate the Bluff, while
the 9th West Ridings on the left held the British
front line and repulsed an attempt at a ﬂanking
counter-attack.
In spite of several counter-attacks and a very
severe bombardment the line now held ﬁrm, and the
Germans seem to have abandoned all future de-
signs upon this section. They had lost very heav‘
ily in the assault, and 250 men with 5 oﬂicers re-
mained in the hands of the victors. Some of the
German trench taken was found to be untenable, but
the 12th West Yorkshires of the 8th Brigade con-
nected up the new position with the old and the
salient was held. S0 ended a well-managed and most
successful little ﬁght. Great credit was due to a
certain ofﬁcer, who passed through the terrible Ger-
man barrage again and again to link up the troops
with headquarters. Extreme gallantry was shown


JANUARY TO JULY 1916 11
also by the brigade-runners, many of whom lost
their lives in the all-important work of preserving
communications.
Students of armour in the future may be inter-
ested to note that this was the ﬁrst engagement in
which British infantry reverted after a hiatus of
more than two centuries to the use of helmets. Dints
of shrapnel upon their surfaces proved in many
cases that they had been the salvation of their wear-
ers. Several observers have argued that trench
warfare implies a special trench equipment, entirely
diﬁerent from that for surface operations.
In the middle of March the pressure upon the
French at Verdun had become severe, and it was
determined to take over a fresh section of line so
as to relieve troops for the north-eastern frontier.
General Foch’s Tenth Army, which had held the
sector opposite to Souchez and Lorette, was accord-
ingly drawn out, and twelve miles were added to the
British front. From this time forward there were
four British armies, the Second (Plumer) in the
Ypres district, the First (Monro) opposite to Neuve
Chapelle, the Third (Allenby) covering the new
French sector down to Arras, the Fourth (Rawlin-
son) from Albert to the Somme.
A brisk skirmish which occurred in the south
about this period is worthy of mention—typical of
many smaller affairs the due record of which would
swell this chapter to a portentous length. In this
particular instance, a very sudden and severe night
attack was directed by the Germans against a post
held by the 8th East Surreys of the Eighteenth Divi-
sion at the points where the British and French
lines meet .just north of the Sowe. This small
CHAPTER
I.

January
to July
1916.


12 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
I.

January
to July
1916.
stronghold, known as Ducks’ Post, was at the head
of a causeway across a considerable marsh, and pos-
sessed a strategic importance out of all proportion to
its size. A violent bombardment in the darkness of
the early morning of March 20 was followed by an
infantry advance, pushed well home. It was an un-
nerving experience. “As the Huns charged,” says
one who was present, “they made the most hellish
screaming row I ever heard.” The Surrey men
under the lead of a young subaltern stood fast, and
were reinforced by two platoons. Not only did they
hold up the attack, but with the early dawn they
advanced in turn, driving the Germans back into
their trenches and capturing a number of pris-
oners. The post was strengthened and was ﬁrmly
held.
The next episode which claims attention is the
prolonged and severe ﬁghting which took place from
March 27 onwards at St. Eloi, the scene of so ﬁerce
a contest just one year before. A small salient had
been formed by the German line at this point ever
since its capture, and on this salient was the rising
known as the Mount (not to be confounded with the
Bluff), insigniﬁcant in itself since it was only twenty
or thirty feet high, but of importance in a war where
artillery observation is the very essence of all opera-
tions. It stood just east of the little village of St.
Eloi. This place was known to be very strongly
held, so the task of attacking it was handed over to
the Third Division, which had already shown at
the Bluff that they were adepts at such an attack.
After several weeks of energetic preparation, ﬁve
mines were ready with charges which were so heavy
that in one instance 30,000 pounds of ammonal were


~ JANUARY TO JULY 1916 r 13
employed. The assault was ordered for 4.15 in the 0mm
morning of March 27. It was known to be a desper- 1'
ate enterprise and was entrusted to two veteran bat-
talions of regular troops, the 4th Royal Fusiliers 1916.
and the 1st Northumberland Fusiliers. A frontal '
attack was impossible, so it was arranged that the
Royals should sweep around the left ﬂank and the
N orthumberlands the right, while the remaining bat-
talions of the 9th Brigade, the 12th West Yorks and
1st Scots Fusiliers, should be in close support in the
centre. At the appointed hour the mines were ex-
ploded with deadly effect, and in the pitch darkness
of a cloudy rainy morning the two battalions sprang
resolutely forward upon their dangerous venture.
The trenches on each ﬂank were carried and 5 ofﬁ-
cers with 193 men of the 18th Reserve J aeger fell
into our hands. As usual, however, it was the re-
tention of the captured position which was the more
difﬁcult and costly part of the operation. The
Northumberlands had won their way round on the
right, but the Fusiliers had been partially held up
on the left, so that the position was in some ways
diﬂicult and irregular. The guns of the Third Divi-
sion threw forward so ﬁne a barrage that no German
counter-attack could get forward, but all day their
ﬁre was very heavy and deadly upon the captured
trenches, and also upon the two battalions in sup-
port. On the night of the 27th the 9th Brigade was
drawn out and the 8th took over the new line, all
access to it being impossible save in the darkness, as
no communication trenches existed. The situation
was complicated by the fact that although the Brit-
ish troops had on the right won their way to the
rear of the craters, one of these still contained a Ger-


14 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
I.

January
to July
1 916.
man detachment, who held on in a most heroic fash-
ion and could not be dislodged. On March 30 the
situation was still unchanged, and the 76th Brigade
was put in to relieve the 8th. The 1st Gordons were
now in the line, very wet and weary, but declaring
that they would hold the ground at all costs. It was
clear that the British line must be extended and
that the gallant Germans in the crater must be over-
whelmed. For this purpose, upon the night of April
2, the 8th Royal Lancasters swept across the whole
debatable ground, with the result that 4 oﬂicers and
80 men surrendered at daylight to the Brigade—
Major and a few men who summoned them from the
lip of the crater. The Divisional General had him—
self gone forward to see that the captured ground
was made good. “We saw our Divisional General
mid-thigh in water and splashing down the
trenches,” says an observer. “I can tell you it put
heart into our weary men.” So ended the arduous
labours of the Third Division, who upon April 4
handed over the ground to the 2nd Canadians.
The episode of the St. Eloi craters was, however,
far from being at an end. The position was looked
upon as of great importance by the Germans, apart
from the artillery observation, for their whole aim .
was the contraction, as that of the British was the
expansion, of the space contained in the Ypres
salient. “Elbow room! More elbow room!” was
the hearts’ cry of Plumer’s Second Army. But the
enemy grudged every yard, and with great tenacity
began a series of counter-attacks which lasted with
varying fortunes for several weeks. .
Hardly had the Third Division ﬁled out of the,
trenches when the German bombers were buzzing


JANUARY TO JULY 1916 15
and stinging all down the new line, and there were
evident signs of an impending counter-attack. Upon
April 6 it broke with great violence, beginning with
a blasting storm of shells followed by a rush of in-
fantry in that darkest hour which precedes the dawn.
It was a very terrible ordeal for troops which had up
to then seen no severe service, and for the moment
they were overborne. The attack chanced to come
at the very moment when the 27th Winnipeg Regi-
ment was being relieved by the 29th Vancouvers,
which increased the losses and the confusion. The
craters were taken by the German stormers with 180
prisoners, but the trench line was still held. The
31st Alberta Battalion upon the left of the position
was involved in the ﬁght and drove back several as_
saults, while a small French Canadian machine-gun
detachment from the 22nd Regiment distinguished
itself by an heroic resistance in which it was almost
destroyed. About noon the bombardment was so
terriﬁc that the front trench was temporarily aban-
doned, the handful of survivors falling back upon
the supports. The 31st upon the left were still able
to maintain themselves, however, and after dusk
they were able to reoccupy three out of the ﬁve
craters in front of the line. From this time onwards
the battle resolved itself into a desperate struggle
between the opposing craters. During the whole
of April 7 it was carried on with heavy losses to
both parties. On one occasion a platoon of 40 Ger-
mans in close formation were shot down to a man as
they rushed forward in a gallant forlorn hope. For
three days the struggle went on, at the end of which
time four of the craters were still held by the Cana-
dians. Two medical men particularly distinguished
CHAPTER
I.

January
to July
1916.


16 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER

January
to July
1916.
themselves'by their constant passage across the
open space which divided the craters from the
trench. The consolidation of the diﬂicult position
was admirably carried out by the C.R.E. of the Sec-
- 0nd Canadian Division.
The Canadians were left in comparative peace for
ten days, but on April 19 there was a renewed burst
of activity. Upon this day the Germans bombarded
heavily, and then attacked with their infantry at
four different points of the Ypres salient. At two
they were entirely repulsed. On the Ypres-Lange-
marck road on the extreme north of the Britishvposi-
tion they remained in possession of about a hundred
yards of trench. Finally, in the crater region they
won back two, including the more important one
which was on the Mount. Night after night there
Were bombing attacks in this region, by which the
Germans endeavoured to enlarge their gains. New
Brunswick and Nova Scotia were now opposed to
them and showed the same determination as the men
of the West. The sector held by the veteran First
Canadian Division was also attacked, the 13th Bat-
talion having 100 casualties and the Canadian Scots
50. Altogether this ﬁghting had been so incessant
and severe, although as a rule conﬁned to a very
small front, that on an average 1000 casualties a
week were recorded in the corps. The ﬁghting was
carried on frequently in heavy rain, and the disputed
craters became deep pools of mud in which men
fought waist deep, and where it was impossible to
keep riﬂe or machine-gun from being fouled and
clogged. Several of the smaller craters were found
to be untenable by either side, and were abandoned
to the corpses which lay in the mire.


JANUARY TO JULY 1916 17
The Germans did not long remain in possession of
the trench which they had captured upon the 19th
in the Langemarck direction. Though it was almost
unapproachable on account of the deep mud, a storm-
ing column of the 1st Shropshires waded out to it
in the dark up to their waists in slush, and turned
the enemy out with the point of the bayonet. Upon
April the 21st the line was completely re-established,
though a sapper is reported to have declared that
it was impossible to consolidate porridge. In this
brilliant affair the Shropshires lost a number of ofﬁ-
cers and men, including their gallant Colonel, Luard,
and Lieutenant J ohnstone, who was shot by a sniper
while boldly directing the consolidation from out-
side the parapet without cover of any kind. The
whole incident was an extraordinarily ﬁne feat of
arms which could only have been carried out by a
highly disciplined and determined body of men. The
mud was so deep that men were engulfed and suffo-
cated, and the main body had to throw themselves
down and distribute their weight to prevent being
sucked down into the quagmire. The riﬂes were so
covered and clogged that all shooting was out of the
question and only bombs and bayonets were avail-
able for the assault. The old 53rd never did a bet-
ter day’s work.
During the whole winter the Loos salient had
been simmering, as it had never ceased to do since
the ﬁrst tremendous convulsion which had estab-
lished it. In the early part of the year it was held
by cavalry brigades, taking turns in succession, and
during this time there was a deceptive quiet, which
was due to the fact that the Germans were busy in
running a number of mines under the position. At
CHAPTER
I.

January
to July
1916.


18 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
I.

January
to July
1 916.
the end of February the Twelfth Division took over
the north of the section, and for ten weeks they
found themselves engaged in a struggle which can
only be described as hellish. How constant and se-
vere it was may be gauged from the fact that with-
out any real action they lost 4000 men during that
period. As soon as they understood the state of af-
fairs, which was only conveyed to them by several
devastating explosions, they began to run their own
mines and to raid those of their enemy. It was a
nightmare conﬂict, half above ground, half below,
and sometimes both simultaneously, so that men may
be said to have fought in layers. The upshot of the
matter, after ten weeks of ﬁghting, was that the Brit-
ish positions were held at all points, though reduced
to an extraordinary medley of craters and ﬁssures,
which some observer has compared to a landscape in
the moon. The First Division shared with the
Twelfth the winter honours of the dangerous Loos
salient.
On April 27 a considerable surface attack de-
veloped on this part of the line, now held by the Six-
teenth Irish D1vision. Early upon that day the Ger-
mans, taking advantage of the wind, which was now
becoming almost as important in a land as it had
once been in a sea-battle, loosed a cloud of poison
upon the trenches just south of Hulluch and followed
it up by a rush of infantry which got possession of
part of the front and support lines in the old region
of the chalk-pit wood. The 49th Brigade was in the
trenches. This Brigade consisted of the 7th and 8th
Inniskillings, with the 7th and 8th Royal Irish. It
was upon the ﬁrst two battalions that the cloud of
gas descended, which seems to have been, of a par-


JANUARY TO JULY 1916
19
ticularly deadly brew, since it poisoned horses upon
the roads far to the rear. Many of the men were
stupeﬁed and few were in a condition for resistance
when the enemy rushed to the trenches. Two bat-
talions of Dublin Fusiliers, however, from the 48th
Brigade were in the adjoining trenches and were not
affected by the poison. These, together with the 8th
Inniskillings, who were in the rear of the 7th, at-
tacked the captured trench and speedily won it back.
This was the more easy as there had been a sudden
shift of wind which had blown the vile stuff back
into the faces of the German infantry. A Bavarian
letter taken some days later complained bitterly of
their losses, which were stated to have reached 1300
from poison alone. The casualties of the Irish Di-
vision were about 1500, nearly all from gas, or shell-
ﬁre. Coming as it did at the moment when the tragic
and futile rebellion in Dublin had seemed to place
the imagined interests of Ireland in front of those
of European civilisation, this success was most hap_
pily timed. The brunt of the ﬁghting was borne
equally by troops from the north and from the south
of Ireland—a happy omen, we will hope, for the
future. I
Amongst the other local engagements which
broke the monotony of trench life may be mentioned
one upon May 11 near the Hohenzollern Redoubt
where the Germans held for a short time a British
trench, taking 127 of the occupants prisoners. More
serious was the ﬁghting upon the Vimy Ridge south
of Souchez on May 15. About 7.30 on the evening
of that day the British exploded a series of mines
which, either by accident or design, were short of
the German trenches. The sector was occupied by
CHA Prsa
I.

January
to July
1916.


20 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
I.

January
to July
1916.
the Twenty-ﬁfth Division, and the infantry attack
was entrusted to the 11th Lancashire Fusiliers and
the 9th North Lancashires, both of the 74th Brigade.
They rushed forward with great dash and occupied
the newly-formed craters, where they established
themselves ﬁrmly, joining them up with each other
and cutting communications backwards so as to
make a new observation trench. _ ,
The Twenty-ﬁfth Division lay at this time with
the Forty-seventh London Division as its northern
neighbour, the one forming the left-hand unit of the
Third Army, and the other the extreme right of the
First. Upon the 19th the Londoners took over the
new position from the 74th, and found it to be an
evil inheritance, for upon May 21, when they were in
- the very act of relieving the 7 th and 75th Brigades,
which formed the front of the Twenty-ﬁfth Division,
they were driven in by a terriﬁc bombardment and
assault from the German lines. On the front of a
brigade the Germans captured not only the new
ground won but our own front line and part of our
supporting line. Old soldiers declared that the ﬁre
upon this occasion was among the most concentrated
and deadly of the wholeWar. With the new weapons
artillery is not needed at such short range, for with
aerial torpedoes the same effect can be produced as
with guns of a great calibre.
In the early morning of April 30, there was a
strong attack by the Germans at Wulverghem, which
was the village to the west of Messines, to which our
linehad been shifted after the attack of November
2, 1914. There is no doubt that all this bustling upon
the part of the Germans was partly for the purpose
of holding us to our ground while they dealt with the


JANUARY TO JULY 1916 21
French at Verdun, and partly to provoke a prema-
ture oifensive, since they well knew that some great
movement was in contemplation. As a matter of
fact, all the attacks, including the ﬁnal severe one
upon the Canadian lines, were dealt with by local
defenders and had no strategic eﬁect at all. In the
case of the Wulverghem attack it was preceded by
an emission of gas of such intensity that it produced
much sickness as far off as Bailleul, at least six miles
to the west. Horses in the distant horse lines fell
senseless under the noxious vapour. It came on
with such rapidity that about a hundred men of the
Twenty-fourth Division were overcome before they
could get on their helmets. The rest were armed
against it, and repelled the subsequent infantry at-
tacks carried out by numerous small bodies of ex-
ploring infantry, without any difﬁculty. The Whole
casualties of the Fifth Corps, whose front was at-
tacked, amounted to 400, half by gas and half by the
shells. .
In May, General Alderson, who had commanded
the Canadians with such success from the beginning,
took over new duties and gave place to General Sir
Julian Byng, the gallant commander of the Third
Cavalry Division.
Upon June 2 there began an action upon the
Canadian front at Ypres which led to severe ﬁghting
extending over several weeks, and put a very heavy
strain upon a corps the First Division of which had
done magniﬁcent work during more than a year,
whilst the other two divisions had only just eased up
after the ﬁghting of the craters. Knowing well that
the Allies were about to attack, the Germans were
exceedingly anxious to gainv some success which
CHAPTER
I.

January
to July
1916.


22 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER would compel them to disarrange their plans and to
I“ suspend that concentration of troops and guns which
3:31:11? must precede any great effort. In searching for
1916. such a success it was natural that they should revert
to the Ypres salient, which had always been the
weakest portion of the line—so weak, indeed, that
when it is seen outlined by the star shells at night, it
seems to the spectator to be almost untenable, since
the curve of the German line was such that it could
command the rear of all the British trenches. It
was a region of ruined cottages, shallow trenches
commanded by the enemy’s guns, and shell-swept
woods so shattered and scarred that they no longer
furnished any cover. These woods, Zouave Wood,
Sanctuary Wood, and others lie some hundred yards
behind the front trenches and form a rallying-point
for those who retire, and a place of assembly for
those who advance.
The Canadian front was from four to ﬁve miles
long, following the line of the trenches. The ex-
treme left lay upon the ruined village of Hooge.
This part of the line was held by the Royal Canadian
Regiment. For a mile to their right, in front of
Zouave and Sanctuary Woods, the Princess Pa-
tricia’s held the line over low-lying ground. In im-
mediate support was the 49th Regiment. These all
belonged to the 7th Canadian Brigade. This formed
the left or northern sector of the position.
In the centre was a low hill called Mount Sorel, in
which the front trenches were located. Immediately
in its rear is another elevation, somewhat higher,
and used as an observing station. This was Obser-
vatory Hill. A wood, Armagh Wood, covered the
slope of this bill. There are about two hundred


JANUARY TO JULY 1916' 23
yards of valley between Mount Sorel and Obser-
vatory Hill, with a small stream running down it.
This section of the line was essential for the British,
since in the hands of the enemy it would command
all the rest. It was garrisoned by the 8th Brigade,
consisting of Canadian Mounted Riﬂes.
The right of the Canadian line, including St. Eloi
upon the extreme limit of their sector, was held by
troops of the Second Canadian Division. This part
of the line was not involved in the coming attack.
It broke upon the centre and the left, the Mount
Sorel and the Hooge positions. - '
The whole operation was very much more import-
ant than was appreciated by the British public at
the time, and formed a notable example of antici-
patory tactics upon the part of the German General
Staﬂ’. Just as they had delayed the advance upon
the west by their furious assault upon Verdun on
the east, so they now calculated that by a ﬁerce at-
tack upon the north of the British line they might
disperse the gathering storm which was visibly bank-
ing up in the Somme Valley. It was a bold move,
boldly carried out, and within appreciable distance
of success.
Their ﬁrst care was to collect and concentrate a
great number of guns and mine-throwers. on the
sector to be attacked. This concentration occurred
at the very moment when our own heavy artillery
was in a transition stage, some of it going south to
the Somme. Hardly a gun had sounded all morning.
Then in an instant with a crash and a roar several
mines were sprung under the trenches, and a terriﬁc
avalanche of shells came smashing down among the
astounded men. It is doubtful if a more hellish
CHAPTER
I.

January
to July
1916.


24 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
(7mm
I.

January
to July
1910.
storm of projectiles of every sort had ever up to
that time been concentrated upon so limited a front.
There was death from the mines below, death from
the shells above, chaos and destruction all around.
The men were dazed and the trenches both in front
and those of communication were torn to pieces and
left as heaps of rubble.
One great mine destroyed the loop of line held by-
the Princess Patricia’s and buried a company in the
ruins. A second exploded at Mount Sorel and did
great damage. At the ﬁrst outburst Generals Mer-
cer and Williams had been hurried into a small tun—
nel out of the front line, but the mine explosion
obliterated the mouth of the tunnel and they were
only extricated with diﬁiculty. General Mercer was
last seen encouraging the men, but he had disap-
peared after the action and his fate was unknown to
friend or foe until ten days later his body was found
with both legs broken in one of the side trenches.
He died as he had lived, a very gallant soldier. For
four hours the men cowered down in what was left
of the trenches, awaiting the inevitable infantry
attack which would come from the German lines
ﬁfty yards away. When at last it came it met with
little resistance, for there were few to resist. Those
few were beaten down by the rush of the Wurtem-
bergers who formed the attacking division. They
carried the British line for a length of nearly a mile,
from Mount Sorel to the south of Hooge, and they
captured about 500 men, a large proportion of whom
were wounded. General Williams, Colonel Usher,
and twelve other oﬂicers were taken.
When the German stormers saw the havoc in the
trenches they may well have thought that they had


JANUARY TO_ JULY 1916 25
only to push forward to pierce the line and close
their hands at last upon the coveted Ypres. If any
such expectation was theirs, they must have been
new troops who had no knowledge of the dour tenac-
ity of the Canadians. The men who ﬁrst faced poi-
son gas without masks were not so lightly driven.
The German attack was brought to a standstill by
the withering riﬂe-ﬁre from the woods, and though
the assailants were still able to hold the ground oc-
cupied they were unable to increase their gains,
while in spite of a terriﬁc barrage of shrapnel fresh
Canadian battalions, the 14th and 15th from the 3rd
Canadian Brigade, were coming up from the rear to
help their exhausted companions.
The evening of June 2 was spent in confused
skirmishing, the advanced patrols of the Germans
getting into the woods and being held up by the
Canadian infantry moving up to the front. Some
German patrols are said to have got as far as Zille-
beke village, three-quarters of a mile in advance of
their old line. By the morning of June 3 these in-
truders had been pushed back, but a counter-attack
before dawn by the 9th Brigade was held up by artil-
lery ﬁre, Colonel Hay of the 52nd (New Ontario)
Regiment and many ofﬁcers and men being put out
of action. The British guns were now hard at work,
and the Wurtembergers in the captured trenches
were enduring something of what the Canadians had
undergone the day before. About 7 o’clock the 2nd
and 3rd Canadian Brigades, veterans of Ypres, be-
gan to advance, making their way through the woods
and over the bodies of the German skirmishers.
When the advance got in touch with the captured
trenches it was held up, for the Wurtembergers
CHAP'rm
L

January
to July
1916.


26 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
I.

January
to July
1 916.
stood to it like men, and were well supported by
their gunners. On the right the 7 th and 10th Cana-
dians got Well forward, but had not enough weight
for a serious attack. It became clear that a prema-
' ture counter-attack might lead to increased losses
and that the true method was to possess one’s soul
in patience until the preparation could be made for
a decisive operation. The impatience and ardour of
the men were very great, and their courage had a.
ﬁne edge put upon it by a churlish German ofﬁcial
communique, adding one more disgrace to their mili-
tary annals, which asserted that more Canadian pris-
oners had not been taken because they had ﬂed so
fast. Canadians could smile at the insult, but it was
the sort of smile that is more menacing than a frown.
The infantry waited grimly while some of the miss-
ing guns were recalled into their position. Up to
this time the losses had been about 80 ofﬁcers and
2000 .men.
The weather was vile, with incessant rain which
turned the ﬁelds into bogs and the trenches into ca-
nals. For a few days things were at a standstill, for
the clouds prevented aeroplane reconnaissance and
the registration of the guns. The Corps lay in front
of its lost trenches like a wounded bear, looking
across with red eyes at its stolen cub. The Germans
had taken advantage of the lull to extend their line,
and on June 6 they had occupied the ruins of Hooge,
which were impossible to hold after all the trenches
to the south had been lost. In their new line the Ger-
mans awaited the attack which they afterwards ad-
mitted that they knew to be inevitable. The British
gunﬁre was so severe that it was very difﬁcult for
them to improve their new position.


JANUARY TO JULY 1916 27
On the 13th the weather had moderated-and all
was ready for the counter-attack. It was carried
out at two in the morning by two composite brigades.
The 3rd (Toronto) and 7th Battalions led upon the
right, while the 13th (Royal Highlanders) and 16th
(Canadian Scots) were in the van of the left, with
their pipers skirling in front of them. Machine-
guns supported the whole advance. The right ﬂank
of the advance, being exposed to the German ma-
chine-guns, was shrouded by the smoke of 200 bombs.
The night was a very dark one and the Canadian
Scots had taken advantage of it to get beyond the
front line, and, as it proved, inside the German bar-
rage zone, so that heavy as it was it did them no
scathe. The new German line was carried with a
magniﬁcent rush, and a second heave lifted the wave
of stormers into the old British trenches—or the
place where they had been. Nine machine-guns and
150 prisoners from the 119th, 120th, 125th, and 127th
Wurtemberg Regiments were captured. To their
great joy the Canadians discovered that such muni~
tions as they had abandoned upon June 2 were still
in the trenches and reverted into their hands. It is
pleasant to add that evidence was found that the
Wurtembergers had behaved with humanity towards
the wounded. From this time onwards the whole Ca-
nadian area from close to Hooge (the village still re-
mained with the enemy) across the front of the
woods, over Mount Sorel, and on to Hill 60, was con-
solidated and maintained. Save the heavy recipro-
cal losses neither side had anything to show for all
their desperate ﬁghting, save that the ruins of Hooge
Were now German. The Canadian losses in the total
operations came to about 7000 men—a ﬁgure which
Curran
I.

January
to July
1916.


28 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
(1mm:
I.

January
to July
1916.
is eloquent as to the severity of the ﬁghting. They
emerged from the ordeal with their military reputa-
tion more ﬁrmly established than ever. Ypres will
surely be a place of pilgrimage for Canadians in
days to come, for the ground upon the north of the
city and also upon the south-east is imperishably as-
sociated with the martial traditions of their country.
The battle just described is the most severe action
between the epic of Loos upon the one side, and that
tremendous episode in the south, upon the edge of
which we are now standing.
There is one other happening of note which may
in truth be taken as an overture of that gigantic per-
formance. This was the action of the Seventeenth
Corps upon June 30, the eve of the Somme battle, in
which the Thirty-ninth Division, supported by guns
from the Thirty-ﬁfth and Fifty-ﬁrst Divisions upon
each side of it, attacked the German trenches near
Richebourg at a spot known as the Boar’s Head.
The attack was so limited in the troops employed
and so local in area that it can only be regarded
as a feint to take the German attention from the spot
where the real danger was brewing.
After an artillery preparation of considerable in-
tensity, the infantry assault was delivered by the
12th and 13th Royal Sussex of the 116th Brigade.
The scheme was lthat they should advance in three
waves and win their way to the enemy support line,
which they were to convert into the British front
line, while the divisional pioneer battalion, the 13th
Gloster, was to join it up to the existing system by
new communication trenches. For some reason,
however, a period of eleven hours seems to have
elapsed between the ﬁrst bombardment and the ac-


JANUARY TO JULY 1916 29
tual attack. The latter was delivered at three in
the morning after a fresh bombardment of only ten
minutes. So ready were the Germans that an ob-
server has remarked that had a string been tied from
the British batteries to the German the opening
could not have been more simultaneous, and they
had brought together a great weight of metal. Every
kind of high explosive, shrapnel, and trench mor-
tar bombs rained on the front and support line, the
communication trenches and No Man’s Land, in ad-
dition to a most hellish ﬁre of machine-guns. The
infantry none the less advanced with magniﬁcent
ardour, though with heavy losses. On occupying
the German front line trenches there was ample
evidence that the guns had done their work well, for
the occupants were lying in heaps. The survivors
threw bombs to the last moment, and then cried,
“Kamerad!” Few of them were taken back. Two
successive lines were captured, but the losses were
too heavy to allow them to be held, and the troops
had eventually under heavy shell-ﬁre to fall back on
their own front lines. Only three oﬂicers came back
unhurt out of the two battalions, and the losses of
rank and ﬁle came to a full two-thirds of the number
engaged. “The men were magniﬁcent,’.’ says one
who led them, but they learned the lesson which was
awaiting so many of their comrades in the south,
that all human bravery cannot overcome conditions
which are essentially impossible. A heavy German
bombardment continued for some time, ﬂattening out
the trenches and inﬂicting losses, not only upon the
39th but upon the 51st Highland Territorial Division.
This show of heavy artillery may be taken as the
most pleasant feature in the whole episode, since it
CHAPTER
I.

January
to July
1916.


30 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
I.

January
to July
1916.
shows that its object was attained at least to the
very important extent of holding up the German
guns. Those heavy batteries upon the Somme might
well have modiﬁed our successes of the morrow.
vA second attack made with the same object of dis-
tracting the attention of the Germans and holding
up their guns was made at an earlier date at a point
called the triangle opposite to the Double Crassier
near Loos. This attack was started at 9.10 upon the
evening of June 10, and was carried out in a most
valiant fashion by the 2nd Riﬂes and part of the 2nd
Royal Sussex, both of the 2nd Brigade. There can
be no greater trial for troops, and no greater sacri-
ﬁce can be demanded of a soldier, than to risk and
probably lose his life in an attempt which can ob-
viously have no permanent result, and is merely in-
tended to ease pressure elsewhere. The gallant
stormers reached and in several places carried the
enemy’s line, but no lasting occupation could be ef-
fected, and they had eventually to return to their
own line. The Riﬂemen, who were the chief suffer-
ers, lost 11 ofﬁcers and 200 men.
A word should be said as to the raids along the
line of the German trenches by which it was hoped to
distract their attention from the point of attack, and
also to obtain precise information as to the disposi-
tion of their units. It is difﬁcult to say whether the
British were the gainers or the losers on balance in
these raids, for some were successful, while some
were repelled. Among a great number of gallant
attempts, the details of which hardly come within
the scale of this chronicle, the most successful per-
haps were two made by the 9th Highland Light In-
fantry and by the 2nd Welsh Fusiliers, both of the


JANUARY TO JULY 1916
31
Thirty-third Division. In both of these cases very
extensive damage was done and numerous prisoners
were taken. When one reads the intimate accounts
of these affairs, the stealthy approaches, the black-
ened faces, the clubs and revolvers which formed the
weapons, the ox-goads for urging Germans out of
dug-outs, the dark lanterns and the knuckle-dusters
-—one feels that the age of adventure is not yet past
and that the spirit of romance was not entirely bur-
ied in the trenches of modern war. There were 70
such raids in the week which preceded the great at-
tack.
Before plunging into the huge task of following
and describing the various phases of the mighty
Battle of the Somme a word must be said upon the
naval history of the period which can all be summed
up in-the Battle of Jutland, since the situation after
that battle was exactly as it had always been before
it. This fact in itself shows upon which side the vic-
tory lay, since the whole object of the movements of
the German Fleet was to produce a relaxation in
these conditions. Through the modesty of the Brit-
ish bulletins, which was pushed somewhat to excess,
the position for some days was that the British, who
had won everything, claimed nothing, while the Ger-
mans, who had won nothing, claimed everything. It
is true that a number of our ships were sunk and of
our sailors drowned, including Hood and Arbuthnot,
two of the ablest of our younger admirals. Even by
the German accounts, however, their own losses in
proportion to their total strength were equally
heavy, and we have every reason to doubt their ac-
counts since they not only do not correspond with re-
liable observations upon our side, but because their
CHAPTER
1.

January
to July
1916.


32 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
Cmrrrs
I.

January
to July
1918.
second oﬂicial account was compelled to admit that
their ﬁrst one had been false. The whole affair may
be summed up by saying that after making an excel-
lent ﬁght they were saved from total destruction by
the haze of evening, and ﬂed back in broken array to
their ports, leaving the North Sea now as always in
British keeping. At the same time it cannot be de-
nied that here as at Coronel and the Falklands the
German ships were well fought, the gunnery was
good, and the handling of the ﬂeet, both during the
battle and especially under the diﬂicult circumstances
of the ﬂight in the darkness to avoid a superior ﬂeet
between themselves and home, was of a high order.
It was a good clean ﬁght, and in the general disgust
at the ﬂatulent claims of the Kaiser and his press the
actual merit of the German performance did not per-
haps receive all the appreciation which it deserved.


CHAPTER II
THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME
Attack of the Seventh and Eighth Corps on Gomme-
court, Serre, and Beaumont Hamel
Line of battle in the Somme sector—Great preparations-Advance of
Forty-sixth North Midland Division—Advance of Fifty-sixth
Territorials (London)——Great valour and heavy losses—Advance
of Thirty-ﬁrst Division—Advance of Fourth Division—Advance
of Twenty-ninth Division—Complete failure of the assault.
THE continued German pressure at Verdun which
had reached a high point in June called insistently
for an immediate allied attack at the western end of
the line. With a ﬁne spirit of comradeship General
Haig had placed himself and his armies at the abso-
lute disposal of General J oifre, and was prepared to
march them to Verdun, or anywhere else where he
could best render assistance. The solid J offre,
strong and deliberate, was not disposed to allow the
western offensive to be either weakened or launched
prematurely on account of German attacks at the
eastern frontier. He believed that Verdun could for
the time look after herself, and the result showed the
clearness of his vision. Meanwhile, he amassed a.
considerable French army, containing many of his
best active troops, on either side of the Somme. Gen-
eral Foch was in command. They formed the right
wing of the great allied force about to make a big
CHAPTER
II.
The
Battle
of the
Somme.
33


IIE'.
uqﬁ - mung)
144:?)
we

villers
laBoiselle :3?
ll BOISSILLZ.
Contalmlson. ‘3'
Mou'rhua'm ‘
Hardico‘urt.


36 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
OEIAIPm three divisions, or about 30,000 infantry, to the num-
' bers quoted above.
$2310 It had taken months to get the troops into position,
01m to accumulate the guns, and to make the enormous
8mm“ preparations which such a battle must entail. How
gigantic and how minute these are can only be appre-
ciated by those who are acquainted with the work of
the staffs. As to the Chief Staﬁ of all, if a civilian
may express an opinion upon so technical a matter,
no praise seems to be too high for General Kiggell
and the others under the immediate direction of Sir
Douglas Haig, who had successively shown himself
to be a great Corps General, a great Army leader,
and now a great General-in-Chief. The preparations
were enormous and meticulous, yet everything ran
like a well-oiled piston-rod. Every operation of the
attack was practised on similar ground behind the
lines. New railheads were made, huge sidings con-
structed, and great dumps accumulated. The corps
and divisional staffs were also excellent, but above
all it was upon those hard-worked and usually over-
looked men, the sappers, that the strain fell. As-
sembly trenches had to be dug, double communica-
tion trenches had to be placed in parallel lines, one
taking the up-traﬂ‘ic and one the down, water sup-
plies, bomb shelters, staff dug-outs, poison-gas ar-
rangements, tunnels and mines—there was no end to
the work of the sappers. The gunners behind 1a-
boured night after night in hauling up and conceal-
ing their pieces, while day after day they deliberately
and carefully registered upon their marks. The
question of ammunition supply had assumed incredi-
ble proportions. For the needs of one single corps
forty-six miles of motor-lorries were engaged in


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 37
bringing up the shells. However, by the end of June
all was in place and ready. The bombardment be-
gan about June 23, and was at once answered by a
German one of lesser intensity. The fact that the at-
tack was imminent was everywhere known, for it
was absolutely impossible to make such preparations
and concentrations in a secret fashion. “Come on,
we are ready for you,” was hoisted upon placards
on several of the German trenches. The result was
to show that they spoke no more than the truth.
There were limits, however, to the German appre-
ciation of the plans of the Allies. They were appar-
ently convinced that the attack would come some-
what farther to the north, and their plans, which
covered more than half of the ground on which the
attack actually did occur, had made that region im-
pregnable, as we were to learn to our cost. Their
heaviest guns and their best troops were there. They
had made a far less elaborate preparation, however,
at the front, which corresponded with the southern
end of the British line, and also on that which faced
the French. The reasons for this may be surmised.
The British front at that point is very badly supplied
with roads (or was before the matter was taken in
hand), and the Germans may well have thought that
no advance upon a great scale was possible. So far
as the French were concerned they had probably
over-estimated the pre-occupation of Verdun and
had not given our Allies credit for the immense re-
serve vitality which they were to show. The French
front to the south of the Somme was also faced by a
great bend of the river which must impede any ad-
vance. Then again it is wooded, broken country
down there, and gives good concealment for masking
CHAPTER
II.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


38 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
II.

The
Battle
of the
Somme;
an operation. These were probably the reasons
which induced the Germans to make a miscalculation
which proved to be an exceedingly serious one, con-
verting what might have been a German victory into
a great, though costly, success for the Allies, a pre-
lude to most vital results in the future.
It is, as already stated, difﬁcult to effect a surprise
upon the large scale in modern warfare. There are
still, however, certain departments in which with
energy and ingenuity effects may be produced as un-
foreseen as they are disconcerting. The Air Service
of the Allies, about which a book which would be one
long epic of heroism could be written, had been
growing stronger, and had dominated the situation
during the last few weeks, but it had not shown its
full strength nor its intentions until the evening be-
fore the bombardment. Then it disclosed both in
most dramatic fashion. Either side had lines of
stationary airships from which shell-ﬁre is observed.
To the stranger approaching the lines they are the
ﬁrst intimation that he is in the danger area, and he
sees them in a double row, extending in a gradually
dwindling vista, to either horizon. Now by a single
raid and in a single night, every observation airship
of the Germans was brought in ﬂames to the earth.
It was a splendid coup, splendidly carried out.
Where the setting sun had shone on a long German
array the dawn showed an empty Eastern sky. From
that day for many a month the Allies had command
of the air with all that it means to modern artillery._
It was a good omen for the coming ﬁght, and a sign
of the great eﬁiciency to which the British Air Serv-
ice under General Trenchard had attained. The va-
rious types for scouting, for artillery work, for raid-


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 39
ing, and for ﬁghting were all very highly developed
and splendidly handled by as gallant and chivalrous
a band of heroic youths as Britain has ever enrolled
among her guardians. The New F.E. machine and
the de Haviland Biplane ﬁghting machine were at
this time equal to anything the Germans had in the
air.
The attack had been planned for June 28, but the
weather was so tempestuous that it was put off until
it should moderate, a change which was a great
strain upon every one concerned. July 1 broke calm
and warm with a gentle south-western breeze. The
day had come. All morning from early dawn there
was intense ﬁre, intensely answered, with smoke bar-
rages thrown during the last half-hour to such points
as could with advantage be screened. At 7.30 the
guns lifted, the whistles blew, and the eager infantry
were over the parapets. The great Battle of the
Somme, the ﬁerce crisis of Armageddon, had come.
In following the fate of the various British forces
during this eventful and most bloody day we will be-
gin at the northern end of the line, where the Seventh
Corps (Snow) faced the salient of Gommecourt.
This corps consisted of the Thirty-seventh, Forty-
sixth, and Fifty-sixth Divisions. The former was
not engaged and lay to the north. The others were
told 01f to attack the bulge on the German line, they
Forty-sixth upon the north, and the Fifty-sixth upon
the south, with the village of Gommecourt as their
immediate objective. Both were well-tried and fa-
mous territorial units, the Forty-sixth North Mid—
land being the division which carried the Hohenzol-
lern Redoubt upon Octdber 13, 1915, while the Fifty-
sixth was made up of the old London territorial bat-
Gnar'raa
II.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


40 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
II.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
talions, which had seen so much ﬁghting in earlier
days while scattered among the regular brigades.
Taking our description of the battle always from
the north end of the line we shall begin with the at-
tack of the Forty-sixth Division.
The assault was carried out by two brigades, each
upon a two-battalion front. Of these the 137th Bri- ,
gade of Staiford men were upon the right, while the
139th Brigade of Sherwood Foresters were on the
left, each accompanied by a unit of sappers. The
138th Brigade, less one battalion, which was at-
tached to the 137th, was in reserve. The attack was
covered so far as possible with smoke, which was
turned on ﬁve minutes before the hour. The gen_
eral instructions to both brigades were that after
crossing No Man’s Land and taking the ﬁrst German
line they should bomb their way up the communica-
tion trenches, and so force a passage into Gomme-
court Wood. Each brigade was to advance in four
waves at ﬁfty yards interval, with six feet between
each man. Warned by our past experience of the
wastage of precious material, not more than 20 ofﬁ—
cers of each battalion were sent forward with the at-
tack, and a proportional number of N.C.O.’s were
also withheld. The average equipment of the storm-
ers, here and elsewhere, consisted of steel helmet,
haversack, water-bottle, rations for two days, two
gas helmets, tear-goggles, 220 cartridges, two bombs,
two sandbags, entrenching tool, wire-cutters, ﬁeld
dressings, and signal-ﬂare. With this weight upon
them, and with trenches which were half full of wa-
ter, and the ground between a morass of sticky mud,
some idea can be formed of the strain upon their;-
fantry.


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 41
Both the attacking brigades got away with splen- CHAPTER
did steadiness upon the tick of time. In the case of ‘ H'
the 137th Brigade the 6th South Staffords and 6th gale
North Staffords were in the van, the former being of the
on the right ﬂank where it joined up with the left of s°mm°'
the Fifty-sixth Division. The South Staﬂ’ords came
into a fatal blast of machine-gun ﬁre as they dashed
forward, and their track was marked by a thick litter
of dead and wounded. None the less, they poured
into the trenches opposite to them but found them
strongly held by infantry of the Fifty-second Ger?
man Division. There was some ﬁerce bludgeon work
in the trenches, but the losses in crossing had been
too heavy and the survivors were unable to make
good. The trench was held by the Germans and the
assault repulsed. The North Staffords had also won
their way into the front trenches, but in their case
also they had lost so heavily that they were unable to
clear the trench, which was well and stoutly de-
fended. At the instant of attack, here as elsewhere,
the Germans had put so terriﬁc a barrage between
the lines that it was impossible for the supports to
get up and no fresh momentum could be added to the
failing attack. _ '
The fate of the right attack had been bad, but
that of the left was even worse, for at this point we
had experience of a German procedure which was
tried at several places along the line with most
deadly effect, and accounted for some of our very
high losses. This device was to stuff their front line
dug-outs with machine-guns and men, who would
emerge when the wave of stormers had passed, at-
tacking them from the rear, conﬁdent that their own
rear was safe on account of the terriﬁc barrage be-


42 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER tween the lines. In this case the stormers were com-
H' pletely trapped. The 5th and 7th Sherwood Forest-
gi‘fﬂe ers dashed through the open ground, carried the
cube trenches and pushed forward on their ﬁery career.
smme' Instantly the barrage fell, the concealed infantry
rose behind them, and their fate was sealed. With
grand valour the leading four waves stormed their
way up the communication trenches and beat down
all opposition until their own dwindling numbers and
the failure of their bombs left them helpless among
their enemies. Thus perished the ﬁrst companies of
two ﬁne battalions, and few survivors of them ever
won their way back to the British lines. Brave at-
tempts were made during the day to get across to
their aid, but all were beaten down by the terrible
barrage. In the evening the 5th Lincolns made .a
most gallant ﬁnal effort to reach their lost comrades,
and got across to the German front line which they
found to be strongly held. So ended a tragic epi-
sode. The cause which produced it was, as will be
seen, common to the whole northern end of the line,
and depended upon factors which neither ofﬁcers nor
men could control, the chief of which were that the
work of our artillery, both in getting at the trench
garrisons and in its counter-battery effects had been
far less deadly than we had expected. The losses of
the division came to about 2700 men.
The attack upon the southern side of the Gomme-
court peninsula, though urged with the utmost devo-
tion and corresponding losses, had no more success
than that inthe north. There is no doubt that the
unfortunate repulse of the 137th Brigade upon their
left, occurring as it did while the Fifty-sixth Divi-
sion was still advancing, enabled the Germans to


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 43
concentrate their guns and reserves upon the Lon-
doners, but knowing what we know, it can hardly
be imagined that under any circumstances, with fail—
ure upon either side of them, the division could have
held the captured ground. The preparations for the
attack had been made with great energy, and for
two successive nights as many as 3000 men were out
digging between the lines, which was done with such
disciplined silence that there were not more than 50
casualties all told. The 167th Brigade was left in
reserve, having already suffered heavily while hold-
ing the water-logged trenches during the constant
shell-fall of the last week. The 7th Middlesex alone
had lost 12 ofﬁcers and 300 men from this cause—a
proportion which may give some idea of what the
heavy British bombardment may have meant to the
Germans. The advance was, therefore, upon a two-
brigade front, the 168th being on the right and the
169th upon the left. The London Scottish and the
12th London Rangers were the leading battalions of
the 168th, while the Westminsters and Victorias led
the 169th with the 4th London, 13th Kensingtons,
2nd London and London Riﬂe Brigade in support.
The advance was made with all the ﬁery dash with
which the Cockney soldiers have been associated.
The ﬁrst, second, and third German lines of trench
were successively carried, and it was not until they,
or those of them who were left, had reached the
fourth line that they were held. It was powerfully
manned, bravely defended, and well-provided with
bombs—a terrible obstacle for a scattered line of
weary and often wounded men. The struggle was a
heroic one. Even now had their rear been clear, or
had there been a shadow of support these determined
CHAPTER
II.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


44 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
0851“ men would have burst the only barrier which held
' them from Gommecourt. But the steel curtain of
‘ grim the barrage had closed down behind them, and every
$73158 overrun trench was sending out its lurking occupants
' to ﬁre into their defenceless backs. Bombs, too, are
essential in such a combat, and bombs must ever be
renewed, since few can be carried at a time. For
long hours the struggle went on, but it was the piti-
ful attempt of heroic men to postpone that retreat
which was inevitable. Few of the advanced line ever
got back. The 3rd London, particularly, sent for-
ward several hundred men with bombs, but hardly
any got across. Sixty London Scots started on the
same terrible errand. In the late afternoon the re-
mains of the two brigades were back in the British
front line, having done all, and more than all, that
brave soldiers could be expected to do. The losses
were very heavy. Never has the manhood of Lon-
don in one single day sustained so grievous a loss.
It is such hours which test the very soul of the sol-
dier. War is not all careless slang and jokes and
cigarettes, though such superﬁcial sides of it may
amuse the public and catch the eye of the descrip-
tive writer. It is the most desperately earnest thing
to which man ever sets his hand or his mind. Many
a hot oath and many a frenzied prayer go up from
the battle line. Strong men are shaken to the soul
with the hysteria of weaklings, and balanced brains
are dulled into vacancy or worse by the dreadful
sustained shock of it. The more honour then to
those who, broken and wearied, still hold fast in the
face of all that human ﬂesh abhors, bracing their
spirits by a sense of soldierly duty and personal hon-


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 45
our which is strong enough to prevail over death
itself.
It is pleasing to be able to record an instance of
good feeling upon the part of the enemy. Some re-
mains of the old German spirit would now and again,
though with sad rarity, shake itself free from the
acrid and poisonous Prussian taint. On this occa-
sion a German prisoner was sent back from our lines
after nightfall with a note to the ofﬁcer in command
asking for details as to the fate of the British miss-
ing. An answer was found tied on to the barbed wire
in the morning which gave the desired information.
It is fair to state also that the wounded taken by the
enemy appear to have met with good treatment.
So much for the gallant and tragic attack. of the
Seventh Corps. General Snow, addressing his men
after the battle, pointed out that their losses and
their eﬁorts had not been all in vain. “I can assure
you,” he said, “that by your determined attack you
managed to keep large forces of the enemy at your
front, thereby materially assisting in the operations
which were proceeding farther south with such
marked success.” No doubt the claim is a just one,
and even while we mourn over the fate of four grand
Army corps upon the left wing of the Allied Army,
we may feel that they sacriﬁced themselves in order
to assure the advance of those corps of their com-
rades to the south who had proﬁted by the accumula-
tion of guns and men to the north of them in order to
burst their way through the German line. It is pos-
sible that here as on some other occasions the bitter
hatred which the Germans had for the British, nur-
tured as it was by every lie which could appeal to
their passions, had distorted their vision and twisted
CHAPTER
II.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


46 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER.
II.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
their counsels to an extent which proved to be their
mm.
The Eighth Corps, a magniﬁcent body of troops,
was under the command of General Sir Aylmer
Hunter-Weston. It consisted of the Forty-eighth
South Midland Territorial Division, the Fourth
Regular Division, the Twenty-ninth Regular Divi-
sion, and the Thirty-ﬁrst Division of the New Army.
Their front extended from Hébuterne in the north,
where they joined on to the Fifty-sixth Division,
down to a point just north of the Ancre, and it faced
the very strong German positions of Serre in the
north, and of Beaumont Hamel in the centre. The
latter was an exceptionally difﬁcult place, for it con-
tained enormous quarries and excavations in which
masses of Germans could remain concealed, almost
immune to shell-ﬁre and ready to sally out when
needed. In spite of the terriﬁc bombardment the ac-
tual damage done to the enemy was not excessive,
and neither his numbers, his moral, nor his guns
had been seriously diminished.
The order of battle was as follows: the Forty-
eighth Division was in reserve, save for the 143rd
Warwick Brigade. Of this brigade two battalions,
the 5th and ~6th Warwicks, were placed on a defen-
sive line with orders to hold the trenches for about a
mile south of Hébuterne. The 7th and 8th Warwicks
were attached to the Fourth Division for the assault.
Immediately south of the defensive line held by
the two Warwick battalions was the Thirty-ﬁrst Di-
vision, having Serre for its objective. South of this,
and opposite to Beaumont Hamel, was the Fourth,
and south of this again was the Twenty-ninth Divi-
sion, which had returned from the magniﬁcent fail—


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 47
ure of the Dardanelles, bearing with it a high repu-
tation for efficiency and valour. Incorporated with
it was a regiment of Newfoundlanders, men re-
cruited from among the ﬁshers and farmers of that
northern land, the oldest colony of Britain. Such
was the force, comprising nearly 50,000 excellent in-
fantry, who set forth upon the formidable adventure
of forcing the lines of Beaumont Hamel. They were
destined to show the absolute impossibility of such a
task in the face of a steadfast unshaken enemy, sup-
ported by a tremendous artillery, but their story is a
most glorious one and many a great British victory
contains no such record of tenacity and military
virtue.
At quarter past ﬁve the assaulting lines were in
the assembly trenches, and shortly afterwards the
smoke and artillery barrages were released. At 7.20
an enormous mine, which had been run under Haw-
thorn Redoubt in front of the Fourth Division, was
exploded, and a monstrous column of débris, with
the accompanying shock of an earthquake, warned
friend and foe that the hour of doom, the crisis of
such mighty preparations, was at hand. At 7.30 the
whistles blew, and the men, springing with eager
alacrity over the parapet, advanced in successive
lines of assault against the German trenches.
Before giving in detail the circumstances which
determined the result in each division, it may be well
to avoid wearisome iteration by giving certain facts
which are common to each. In every case the troops
advanced in an extended formation of companies in
successive waves. In nearly every case the German
front line was seized and penetrated, in no case was
there any hesitation or disorder among the advanc-
CHAPTER
II.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


48 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
II.

The
Battle
ofthe
Somme.
ing troops, but the highest possible degree of disci-
pline and courage was shown by regulars, territori-
als, and men of the New Army, nor could it be said
that there was any difference between them. In each
case also the Germans met the assault with deter-
mined valour; in each case the successive lines of
trenches were more strongly held, and the assailants
were attacked from the rear by those who emerged
from the dug-outs behind them, and above all in each
case a most murderous artillery ﬁre was opened
from a semicircle all round the German position,
but especially from one huge accumulation of heavy
guns, said to number a hundred batteries, stationed
on the high ground near Bucquoy and commanding
the British position. These guns formed successive
lines of barrage with shrapnel and high explosives,
one of them about 200 yards behind the British line,
to cut off the supports; another 50 yards behind; an-
other 50 yards in front; and a fourth of shrapnel
which was under observed control, and followed the
troops in their movements. The advanced lines'of
assault were able in most cases to get through before
these barrages were eﬁectively established, but they
made it difﬁcult, deadly, and often impossible, for the
lines which followed.
None the less it is the opinion of skilled observers
that the shell-ﬁre alone, however heavy, could not
have taken the edge from the inexorable insistence
of the British attack. It is to the skill and to the
personal gallantry of the German machine-gunners
that the result is to be traced. The bombardment
of the German line had been so severe that it was
hoped that most of the machine-guns had been rooted
out. So indeed they had, but they had been with-


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 49
drawn to the safety of excavations in the immediate
rear. Suspecting this, the British artillery sprayed
the ground behind the trenches with showers of
shrapnel to prevent their being brought forward
again. This barrage was not suﬂicient to subdue the
gunners, who dashed forward and established their
pieces at the moment of the assault upon the va-
rious parapets and points of vantage, from which,
regardless of. their own losses, they poured a wither-
ing ﬁre upon the infantry in the open. These brave
Wurtembergers were seen, with riﬂemen at their
side, exposed waist-deep and dropping fast, but
mowing the open slope as with a scythe of steel. “I
cannot,” said a general oﬂicer, who surveyed the
whole scene, “ adequately express my admiration for
the Britishwho advanced, or for the Germans who
stood up under such a heavy barrage to oppose
them.” It was indeed that contest between the
chosen children of Odin in which Professor Cramb
has declared that the high gods of virility might
well rejoice.
We will now turn to the left of the line and carry
0n the detailed description of the general assault
from that of the 56th Territorials in the north, who
were linked up by the defensive line of the Warwicks.
The Thirty-ﬁrst Division was on the left of the
Eighth Corps. Of this division, two brigades, the
93rd and the 94th, were in the line, with the 92nd
in reserve. The 93rd, which consisted of the 15th,
16th, 18th West Yorks, and the 18th Durhams, was
on the right, the 94th, including the 11th East Lan-
cashires, and the 12th, 13th, and 14th York and Lan-
casters, were on>the left. The advance was made
upon a front of two companies, each company on a
CHAPTER
II.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


50 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
II.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
front of two platoons, the men extended to three
paces interval. On- the left the leading battalions
were the 11th East Lancashires and 12th York and
Lancasters, the latter on the extreme left ﬂank of
the whole division. That this position with its ex—
posed ﬂank was the place of honour and of danger,
may be best indicated by the fact that the Colonel
and six orderlies were the only men who could be
collected of this heroic Shefﬁeld battalion upon the
next morning. On the right, the leading troops were
the 15th and 16th West Yorks. These grand N orth-
countrymen swept across No Man’s Land, dressed
as if on parade, followed in succession by there»
maining battalions, two of which, the 13th and 14th
York and Lancasters, were the special town units of
Barnsley and Leeds. “I have never seen and could
not have imagined such a magniﬁcent display of
gallantry, discipline, and determination,” said the
observer who has been already quoted. The men
fell in lines, but the survivors with backs bent, heads
bowed, and riﬂes at the port, neither quickened nor
slackened their advance, but went forward as though
it was rain and not lead which lashed them. Here
and elsewhere the German machine-gunners not only
lined the parapet, but actually rushed forward into
the open, partly to get a ﬂank ﬁre, and partly to
come in front of the British barrage. Before the
blasts of bullets the lines melted away, and the ever-
decreasing waves only reached the parapet here and
there, lapping over the spot where the German front
lines had been, and sinking for ever upon the further
side. About a hundred gallant men of the East Lan-
cashires, favoured perhaps by some curve in the
ground, got past more than one line of trenches, and


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 51
a few desperate individuals even burst their way as
far as Serre, giving a false impression that the vil-
lage was in our hands. But the losses had been so
heavy that the weight and momentum had gone out
of the attack, while the density of the resistance
thickened with every yard of advance. By the
middle of the afternoon the survivors of the two at-
tacking brigades were back in their own front line
trenches, having lost the greater part of their effec-
tives. The 15th West Yorks had lost heavily in ofﬁ-
cers, and the 16th and 18th were little better oﬁ.
The 18th Durhams suffered less, being partly in re-
serve. Of the 94th Brigade the two splendid leading
battalions, the 11th East Lancashires and 12th York
and Lancaster, had very many killed Within the
enemy line. The heaviest loss in any single unit was
in the 11th East Lancashires. The strength of the po-
sition is indicated by the fact that when attacked by
two divisions in November, with a very powerful
backing of artillery, it was still able to hold its own.
The experiences of all the troops engaged upon
the left of the British attack were so similar and
their gallantry was so uniform, that any variety in
description depends rather upon the units engaged
than upon what befell them. Thus in passing from
the Thirty-ﬁrst Division to the Fourth upon their
right, the general sequence of cause and eﬁect is still
the same. In this instance the infantry who rushed,
or rather strode, to the assault were, counting from
the right, the 1st East Lancs, the 1st Riﬂe Brigade,
and the 8th Warwicks, who were immediately fol-
lowed by the 1st Hants, the 1st Somersets, and the
6th Warwicks, advancing with three companies in
front and one in support. The objective here as else-
CHAPTER
II.

The
. Battle
of the
Somme.


52 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
II.

The
Battle
otthe
Somme.
where upon the left was the capture of the Serre-
Grandcourt Ridge, with the further design of
furnishing a defensive ﬂank for the operations lower
down. The troops enumerated belonged to the 11th
Brigade, led by the gallant Prowse, who fell hit by a
shell early in the assault, calling after his troops that
they should remember that they were the Stonewall
Brigade. The attack was pressed with incredible
resolution, and met with severe losses. Again the
front line was carried and again the thin fringe of
survivors had no weight to drive the assault for-
ward, whilst they had no cover to shelter them in the
ruined lines which they had taken. The Somerset
men had the honour of reaching the farthest point
attained by the division. “If anything wants shift-
ing the Somersets will do it.” So said their General
before the action. But both their ﬂanks were in the
air, and their position was an impossible one, while
the right of the attack north of Beaumont Hamel
had been entirely held up. Two units of the 10th
Brigade advanced about 9 o’clock on the right, and
two of the 12th on the left. These were in their or-
der, the 2nd Dublins, 2nd Seaforths, 2nd Essex, and
1st King’s Own Lancasters. All went forward with
a will, but some could not get beyond their own front
trenches, and few got over the German line. All the
weight of their blood so lavishly and cheerfully
given could not tilt the scale towards victory. Slowly
the survivors of the Somersets and Riﬂe Brigade
were beaten back with clouds of bombers at their
heels. The 8th Warwicks, who, With some of the 6th
Warwicks, had got as far forward as any of the sup-
porting line, could not turn the tide. Late in the
afternoon the assault had deﬁnitely failed, and the


THE BATTLEVOF THE SOMME 53
remainder were back in their own front trenches,
which had now to be organised against the very pos-
sible counter-attack. Only two battalions of the di-
vision remained intact, and the losses included
General Prowse, Colonel the Hon. C. W. Palk of the
Hampshires, Colonel Thicknesse of the Somersets,
Colonel Wood of the Riﬂe Brigade, and Colonel
Franklin of the 6th Warwicks, all killed; while
Colonels Innes of the 8th Warwicks, Hopkinson of
the Seaforths, and Green of the East Lancashires
were wounded. For a long time a portion of the
enemy’s trench was held by mixed units, but it was
of no value when detached from the rest and was
abandoned in the evening. From the afternoon on-
wards no possible course save defence was open to
General Lambton. There was considerable anxiety
about one company of Irish Fusiliers who were in a
detached portion of the German trench, but they suc-
ceeded in getting back next morning, bringing with
them not only their wounded but some prisoners.
Immediately to the right of the Fourth Division
was the Twenty-ninth Division1 from Gallipoli,
which rivalled in its constancy and exceeded in its
losses its comrades upon the left. The 86th Brigade
and the 87th formed the ﬁrst line, with the 88th in
support.
The van of the attack upon the right of the divi-
sion was formed by the 1st Inniskilling Fusiliers and
1Since the constituents of this famous regular Division have not
been given in full (as has been done with their comrades in preceding
volumes) they are here enumerated as they were on July 1, 1916:
86th Brigade.—~2nd Royal Fusiliers, 1st Lancashire Fusiliers, 1st
Dublin Fusiliers, 16th Middlesex.
87th Brigade.——1st Inniskilling Fusiliers, 1st South Wales Bor-
derers, 1st Scottish Borderers, 1st Border Regiment.
88th Brigade.—_lst Essex, 2nd Hants, 4th Worcesters, Newfound-
land Regiment.
CHAPTER
II.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


54 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
11.

The
Battle
otthe
Somme.
the Welsh Borderers, while the van upon the left was
formed by the 2nd Royal Fusiliers and the 1st Lan-
cashire Fusiliers. The other battalions of the bri—
gades formed the supporting line, and two battalions
of the 88th Brigade, the Essex and the Newfound-
landers, were also drawn into the ﬁght, so that, as in
the Fourth Division, only two battalions remained
intact at the close, the nucleus upon which in each
case a new division had to be formed.
Upon the explosion of the great mine already
mentioned two platoons of the 2nd Royal Fusiliers
with machine-guns and Stokes mortars rushed for-
ward to seize the crater. They got the near lip, but
the enemy were already in possession of the far side,
and no further advance could be made. At this point,
and indeed at nearly all points down the line, the
wire was found to have been very thoroughly cut by
the artillery ﬁre, but for some reason our own wire
had not been cut to the same extent and was a seri-
ous obstacle to our own advance.
Parties of the leading regiments were speedily up
to the German front-line trench, but their advance
beyond it was delayed by the fact that the dug-outs
were found to be full of lurking soldiers who had
intended no doubt to rush out and attack the storm-
ers in the rear, as in the case of the Forty-sixth and
Fifty-sixth Divisions in the north, but who were dis-
covered in time and had to ﬁght for their lives.
These men were cleared out upon the right, and the
advance then made some progress, but on the left by
9 o’clock the 86th Brigade had been completely held
up by a murderous machine-gun ﬁre in front of Beau-
mont Hamel, a position which, as already explained,
presented peculiar difﬁculties. The Essex and New-


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 55
foundland men of the 88th Brigade were ordered for-
ward and charged with such splendid resolution that
the advance was carried forward again, and the
whole situation changed for the better. By 10.15 the
casualties had become so great, however, through the
ﬁre of ﬂanking machine-guns, that it was clear that
the attack could not possibly reach its objective.
The huge crater left by the explosion of the Beau-
mont Hamel mine was held for hours as a redoubt,
but it also was enﬁladed by ﬁre and became unten-
able. By half-past ten the action had resolved itself
into a bombardment of the German front line once
more, and the assault had deﬁnitely failed. There
was an attempt to renew it, but when it was found
that the 86th Brigade and the 87th Brigade were
equally reduced in numbers, it was recognised that
only a defensive line could be held. It is true that
the Divisional General had the Worcesters and the
Hants still in hand, and was prepared to attack with
them, but a further loss might have imperilled the
Divisional line, so no advance was allowed.
All the troops of the Twenty-ninth Division had
lived up to their fame, but a special word should be
said of the Newfoundlanders who, in their ﬁrst ac-
tion, kept pace with the veterans beside them. This
battalion of ﬁshermen, lumbermen, and farmers
proved once more the grand stuff which is bred over
the sea—the stuff which Bernhardi dismissed in a
contemptuous paragraph. “They attacked regard-
less of loss, moving forward in extended order, wave
behind wave. It was a. magniﬁcent exhibition of dis-
ciplined courage.” Well might General Hunter-
Weston say next day after visiting the survivors:
I“To hear men cheering as they did, after undergo-t
CHAPTER
II.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


56 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916‘
CHAPTER
II.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
ing such an experience, and in the midst of such mud
and rain, made one proud to have the command of
such a battalion.” The losses of the Newfoundland-
ers were severe. Losses are always the index of the
sorrow elsewhere, but when they fall so heavily upon
a small community, where every man plays a vital
part and knows his neighbour, they are particularly
distressing. From Cape Race to the coast of Labra—
dor there was pride and mourning over that day.
The total losses of the division were heavy, and in-
cluded Colonels Pierce and Ellis of the Inniskillings
and Borderers.
It must have been with a heavy heart that General
Hunter-Weston realised, with the approach of night,
that each 'of his divisions had met with such losses
that the renewal of the attack was impossible. He,
his Divisional Commanders, his ofﬁcers and his men
had done both in their dispositions and in their sub-
sequent actions everything which wise leaders and
brave soldiers could possibly accomplish. If a crit-
icism could be advanced it would be that the attack
was urged with such determined valour that it would
not take No until long after No was the inevitable
answer. But grim persistence has won many a ﬁght,
and no leader who is worthy to lead can ever have
an excess of it. They were up against the impossi-
ble, as were their companions to right and left. It is
easy to recognise it now, but it could not be proved
until it had been tested to the uttermost. Could
other tactics, other equipment, other methods of
guarding the soldiers, have brought them across the
fatal open levels? It may be so and can again only
be tried by testing. But this at least was proved for
all time, that giVen clear ground, unshaken troops,


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 57
prepared positions, and ample artillery, no human
ﬁre and no human hardihood can ever hope to break
such a defensive line. It should be added that here
as elsewhere the British artillery, though less
numerous than it became at a later date, was admira-
ble both in its heavy and in its lighter pieces. Ob-
servers have recorded that under its hammer blows
the German trenches kept momentarily changing
their shape, while the barrage was as thick and accu-
rate and the lifting as well-timed as could have been
wished. There was no slackness anywhere, either in
preparation or in performance, and nothing but the
absolute impossibility of the task under existing con-
ditions stood in the way of success.
CHAPTER
II.
The
Battle
of the
Somme.


CHAPTER
]II.
The
Battle
of the
Somme.
CHAPTER III
THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME
Attack of the Tenth and Third Corps, July 1, 1916
Magniﬁcent conduct of the Ulster Division—Local success but general
failure—Advance of Thirty-second Division—Advance of Eighth
Division—Advance of Thirty-fourth Division—The turning-
point of the line. _
MORLAND’S Tenth Corps consisted of the Thirty-
sixth, Forty-ninth, and Thirty-second Divisions. It
lay between Hunter-Weston’s Eighth Corps upon
the left, and Pulteney’s Third Corps upon the right.
It covered a front from a mile north of Hamel to a
mile north of Ovillers. At its northern end it was
cut by the river Ancre, a sluggish canalised stream,
running between two artiﬁcial dykes which the Ger-
mans periodically cut by their artillery ﬁre and the
British mended as best they might. This sector of
attack, together with the one farther south which
faced the Third Corps, presented peculiar difﬁculties
to the assailants, as the ground sloped upward to the
strong village of Thiepval with the ridge behind it,
from which German guns could sweep the whole long
glacis of approach. Nowhere were there more gal-
lant efforts for a decision and nowhere was it more
hopeless.
The division to the north of the Tenth Corps was
the Thirty-sixth Ulster Division. This division was
58


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 59
composed of magniﬁcent material, for the blend of
Scot and Oelt to be found in the north of Ireland
produces a soldier who combines the ﬁre of the one
with the solidity 0f the other. These qualities have
been brought to a ﬁner temper by the atmosphere of
opposition in which they'have lived, and the diﬂicult
economical circumstances which they have overcome
in so remarkable a way. Long ago in unhappy civil
strife they had shown their martial qualities and
now upon a nobler and wider stage they were des-
tined to conﬁrm them. It might well seem invidious
to give the palm to any one of the bands of heroes
who shed their blood like water on the slopes of Pic-
ardy, but at least, all soldiers would agree that
among them all there was not one which could at its
highest claim more than equality of achievement
that day with the men of Ulster.
The objective of this division was the German po-
sition from Beaucourt-sur-Ancre on the north, to the
northern edge of Thiepval. When the signal was
given the two leading brigades, the 108th and the
107th, came away at a deliberate pace which quick-
ened into the rush of a released torrent, and went
roaring over the German trenches. “They were
like bloodhounds off the leash.” Like every one else
they were horribly scourged by shrapnel and ma-
chine-ﬁre as they rushed across, but whether it was
that some curve in the ground favoured part of their
line, or whatever the cause, they suffered less than
the other divisions, and struck on to the German
front line with their full shattering momentum, go-
ing through it as though it were paper. The 108th
Brigade, consisting of the 9th Irish Fusiliers and the
11th, 12th, and 13th Irish Riﬂes, was on the left,
CHAPTER
III.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


60 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
III.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
Two of these, the Fusiliers and one of the Irish Riﬂe
battalions, were on the north side of the Ancre, and
were acting rather with the Twenty-ninth Division
upon their left than with their own comrades on the
right. This detachment fought all day side by side
with the regulars, made their way at one time right
up to Beaucourt Station, and had ﬁnally to retire to
their own trenches together with the rest of the line
north of the Ancre. Next morning the survivors
crossed the Ancre, and from then onwards the
Eighth Corps extended so as to take over this
ground.
South of the Ancre the two remaining battalions
of the 108th Brigade, and the whole of the 107th
Brigade, consisting of the 8th, 9th, 10th, and 15th
Irish Riﬂes, advanced upon a front of 3000 yards.
The men had lost very heavily in the assembly
trenches, and two companies of the 10th Irish Riﬂes
had dwindled to two platoons before ever they got
clear of the shattered wood in which they gathered.
None the less, the ﬁre and fury of their onset were
terriﬁc and sustained. “The place was covered with
smoke and the explosion of heavy shells,” says one
who saw the scene from a front observation post.
“I felt that no attack was possible, when suddenly
out of the clouds I saw men advancing as if on pa-
rade, quite slowly. It seemed impossible, and yet
they went on, stormed at on the left by high explo-
sive and shrapnel, and on the right by enﬁlade ma-
chine-gun ﬁre. Suddenly they charged, and when I
could next see through the clouds on the slope (less
than a mile away) I saw that they had taken the
front trench, and in another minute the trench be-
hind was taken, as our fellows shouting, ‘No sur-


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 61
render!’ got through—God knows how! As they ad-
vanced the ﬁre of the guns became more and more
enﬁlade, but nothing could stop their steady prog-
ress.”
The long line of Irish Riﬂemen had rolled over
every obstacle, and although their dead and wounded
lay thick behind them they still stormed forwards
with the same fury with which they started. Bunch-
ing up into platoons in artillery formation they
pushed on and carried the third line. Ahead of
them, across a considerable interval, was a fourth
line, with a large redoubt upon the ﬂank. They
steadied themselves for a few minutes, and then
dashing onwards once again they captured both the
fourth line and the redoubt. So far forward were
they now that they had reached regions north of
Thiepval which were never trodden by a British foot
again until three months of constant ﬁghting had
cleared a way to them. It was the great Schwaben
Redoubt which was now before them. The reserve
brigade, the 109th, consisting of the 9th, 10th, and
11th Inniskilling Fusiliers, with the 14th Irish Riﬂes,
had dashed forward at 10.40, leaving only the pio-
neer battalion, the 16th Irish Riﬂes, to guard the
trenches. With the additional weight of the survi-
vors of this reinforcing line the fringe of stormers,
for they were now a fringe and nothing more, again
rushed forward and threw themselves into the
Schwaben trenches. This was their limit, and for
most of them their grave. They had no further sup-
ports, no ammunition could reach them, and they
were embedded in the depths of the German line at a.
point far deeper than any unit upon the left of the
line had attained. The village of Thiepval com-
Clam
III.
The
Battle
of the
Somme.


62 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
III.
The
Battle
of the
Somme.
manded them from their right rear. Some remained
in little groups, huddling in some coign of vantage,
and ﬁghting to the last cartridge, absolutely refusing
to take one step to the rear. To the Germans they
were as dangerous as so many cornered wolves.
Others fell back in orderly fashion, but not an inch
farther than was needful, for they held on all day to
the frontage taken by them. The ﬁrst two lines were
kept in their ﬁerce grip till nightfall of the next day,
when they handed them over to the relieving di-
vision.
In this splendid deed of arms the Thirty-sixth
Division left half its number upon the battle-ﬁeld.
The instances of gallantry were innumerable, and
so equally distributed that their General, when asked
to name a special battalion, could only answer that
the whole twelve had done equally well. Had the
divisions to right and left been able to get as far, the
whole gain would have been permanent. As it was,
540 prisoners were brought in, and few were lost
save the wounded, chief of whom was Colonel Craig,
who directed the movements of his men long after he
was unable to direct his own. Colonel Bernard of
the 10th Riﬂes, Captain Davidson, who worked his
machine-gun after his leg was shattered, Captain
Gaﬂikin, who died while leading his company with an
orange handkerchief waving in his hand, are but a
few of the outstanding names. The pressure upon
the different brigades is indicated by the losses in
ofﬁcers of the 107th, the 108th, and the 109th.
A very detailed account would be necessary to
bring home to the reader the full gallantry of this
deed of arms. Experienced soldiers who saw it were
moved to the limit of human speech. “I wish I had


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 63
been born an Ulsterman,” cried one of them. “But-
I am proud to have been associated with these won-
derful men.” To have penetrated all alone for two
miles into the German line, and to withdraw from
such a salient in military order, holding fast to all
that could be retained, was indeed a great feat for
any troop-s to have performed. The requiem for
their fallen was best expressed by one of the survi-
vors, who wrote that “they died for the cause of Lib-
erty, Honour, and Freedom, for the Old Flag, the
emblem of Britain, died for Ireland, died for U1-
sterl”
The Thirty-second Division was on the immediate
right of the men of Ulster. Their advance was car-
ried out with the 96th Brigade on the left, the 97th
upon the right, and the 14th in support. The reader
may be warned that from this time onwards he will
often ﬁnd, as in this case, that old brigades have
been added to new formations, so that the former
simplicity of numbering is often disturbed. The
storming lines went forward in each case with two
battalions abreast in front and two in succession in
support. The front line of attack taken from the
north, or left, consisted of the 15th Lancashire Fusi-
liers, 16th Northumberland Fusiliers, and the 16th
and 17th Highland Light Infantry. Of these four
battalions the 16th Northumberland Fusiliers came
under very heavy ﬁre, and were 'unable to press their
attack home. On the right the Highlanders had
crawled up to within a hundred yards of the Leipzig
salient and were into it with a rush the moment that
the barrage lifted. The 15th Lancashire Fusiliers
upon the left made a particularly brilliant advance.
The right company was held up in front of Thiepval
CHAPTER
III.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


64 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
08m village, but the left company swept on with the Thir-

The
Battle
otthe
Somme.
ty-sixth Division, keeping pace with their magniﬁ-
cent advance. It appears to have reached the east
end of Thiepval, but there it was buried deeply in
the enemy’s position and was never heard of again.
The supporting battalions of the 96th Brigade, the
16th Lancashire Fusiliers, and the 2nd Inniskilling
Fusiliers, tried hard to regain touch with their lost
comrades, but in vain. These various gallant bodies
who, at diﬁerent points of our line, pushed forward
into impossible positions, were no doubt for the
greater part killed or wounded, but from among
them came the 850 prisoners whom the Germans
claimed to have taken on the northern part of the
line on that day. The left of the divisional line was
so weakened by these losses that they were com-
pelled to withdraw to their own front trenches.
On the right, however, the Highlanders were able
to hold on to a part of the Leipzig salient. The
losses, however, upon this ﬂank had been very heavy,
not only in the front wave, but among the 1st Dor-
sets and the 11th Borders as they came out from a
wood in support. Coming under a concentrated ﬁre
of machine-guns, these two battalions suffered heav-
ily. Colonel Machell, gallantly leading his Borders,
was shot dead, his adjutant, Lieutenant Gordon, was
badly wounded as he stooped over his body, Major
Diggle was wounded, and the greater part of the
ofﬁcers were on the ground. Colonel Machell, it may
be remarked, was a high civil official of the Egyp-
tian Government, Under-secretary for the Interior,
whose patriotism had led him to join the New
Armies and thus to meet his death upon the ﬁeld of
battle. The lst Dorsets lost nearly as heavily as the


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 65
men of the Border; their leader, Major Shute, was
disabled, and their ranks thrown into temporary con-
fusion. They were splendidly rallied, however, by
the adjutant, who led them on and succeeded with
the survivors in reaching the Leipzig Redoubt.
Colonel Laidlaw, of the 16th Highland Light Infan-
try, had also been wounded, the third commanding
ofﬁcer killed or injured on this wing of the attack.
There had been no ﬁinching anywhere, and the
military virtue shown had been of the highest possi-
ble quality; but the losses from the machine-guns
and from the barrage were so heavy that they deé
prived the attack of the weight and momentum nec-
essary to win their way through the enemy’s posi-
tion. Under the desperate circumstances, it might
well be considered a remarkable result that a stretch
of the Leipzig Redoubt should be won and perma-
nently held by the Highlanders, especially by the
17th Highland Light Infantry. The sappers had pre-
pared a Russian sap running up to the enemy line,
and this was invaluable as a communication trench.
On the 2nd and 3rd the enemy endeavoured to turn
out the intruders, but the 2nd Manchesters and 15th
Highland Light Infantry not only held their ground,
but enlarged it. On the night of the 3rd the division
was relieved by the Twenty-ﬁfth Division and with-
drew to reﬁt after its tragic but splendid exertions.
Out of the novel conditions of what may be called
Bloch warfare certain rules and axioms are slowly
evolving. That it is impossible without artiﬁcial
protection to attack over the open against an un—
shaken enemy provided with machine-guns is the
most certain. But there is another which might be
formulated thus: If there are sharp salients in the
CHAPTEI.
IIL
The
Battle
otthe
Somme.


66 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
III.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
enemy line, either these salients must be taken ﬁrst,
or the attack must be made out of range of them,
otherwise their guns must ﬂank the whole advance.
Very many examples might be quoted where the dis-
regard of this axiom has brought disaster to either _
side. A conspicuous case would be that of the Third
Corps now to be described, where the sinister salient
of Thiepval protruded to the north, and a smaller
but very efﬁcient one to the south, so that the whole
advance was conducted under the ﬁre of two lines of
guns which raked it from end to end. In addition
the opposing infantry included a division of the
Prussian Guard. In the whole long position there
would appear to be no sector where there was less
prospect for success, and yet there was no sector
where it was more essential to hold the enemy fast,
since victory might await us to the immediate south.
The Third Corps, under General Pulteney, occu-
pied the front immediately to the east of Albert.
This large town was almost exactly in the centre of
its rear, and the important road from Albert to Ba-
paume bisected the British position. Ovillers to the
north, within the German lines, and Bécourt to the
south, in the British, marked roughly the two ends
of the sector. It was a comparatively narrow stretch,
so that only two divisions were in the ﬁring line, and
one in reserve. These were respectively the Eighth
Regular Division to the north, the Thirty-fourth of
the New Army to the south, and the Nineteenth, also
of the New Army, in support.
Had the Thirty-second Division succeeded in hold-
ing its grip upon Thiepval upon the north, there
might have been some chance of success, but as it
was, the machine-guns from that quarter shaved the


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 67
whole of No Man’s Land as a mower may shave a
lawn, and after the ﬁrst rush, which carried the
brave fellows of the Eighth Division over the
trenches, it proved to be absolutely impossible to
send them either supports or supplies. The main
body of this magniﬁcent division disappeared into
the smoke and haze of the battle, and their com-
rades in the trenches waited with aching hearts,
their eyes ﬁxed upon their front where the roar of
battle rose from the other side of the pelting sleet of
bullets. All day they waited, dashing out occasion-
ally and being beaten back with ever-dwindling num-
bers. After dusk, they searched the shell-holes and
brought in some 400 wounded. A few bewildered
men came staggering in during the night, half-
delirious with fatigue and strain, and unable them-
selves to say how they had got back across the
enemy’s front line from the depths to which they had
penetrated.
This tragic but heroic attack in which the whole
force who went forward fought literally to the death,
was carried out in the following order:
On the right was the 23rd Brigade; in the centre
the 25th; and on the left the 70th. The 23rd and 25th
were the old hard-working units of Neuve 'Chapelle
and many another‘fray. The 70th was a particularly
ﬁne brigade of the New Army. This division had up
to the last moment been without a pioneer battalion,
but the infantry had dug themselves particularly
good assembly and communication trenches, which
helped them much upon the day of battle. They had
also, under the direction of the Commander of Divi-
sional sappers, run two covered ways up to the ene-
my ’s trenches which might have been a vital factor
CHAPTER
III.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


68 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
Gﬂikﬁ'ru in the day’s work, had it not been that the stormers
' pushed on, leaving it to others to secure their gains.
grim The result was that the advancing infantry passed
of the rather than occupied the front trenches, the barrage
8mm" cut off supports, the enemy emerged from their dug-
outs, and the line still remained under their control,
forbidding the use or even the disclosure of the cov-
ered ways, since men could not emerge in single ﬁle
in an enemy trench.
Following the plan of describing operations al-
ways from the north, we will ﬁrst picture from such
reliable material as is available the attack of the
70th Brigade, which contained some of the ﬁnest
N orth-country stuff that ever fought the battles of
the country. This brigade was separated on the
north by a clear space of about 300 yards from the
Highland Light Infantry of the 97th Brigade, who
formed the extreme right of the Thirty-second Divi-
sion. The 8th York and Lancaster was the ﬂank
battalion, with the 8th Yorkshire Light Infantry
upon its right. The 9th York and Lancaster were
behind their comrades, and the 11th Sherwood For-
esters behind the Light Infantry.
As it is impossible to give with any fulness the
story of any one regiment, and as each may be taken
as typical of the others, we may follow the front
ﬂank battalion on its advance. This, the 8th York
and Lancaster, consisted almost entirely of miners, a
class of men who have furnished grand military ma-
terial to the New Armies. This unit came chieﬂy
from the Rotherham district. The frontage of the
battalion was 750 yards.
As the hour of attack approached, the enemy’s
counter-bombardment became so violent that there


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 69
was the utmost difficulty in getting the men into the
front-line trenches. Many were killed and even
buried before the advance had begun. When the
whistles blew the stormers went forward in four
waves with 50 yards between, the supporting battal-
ions following instantly. The machine-guns were
sweeping the ground and about 350 yards had to be
covered between the lines. Ofﬁcers and men went
down in heaps under the enﬁlade ﬁre from four lines
of guns, one behind the other, in the Thiepval dis-
trict. The approach was over a billiard-table glacis
with no cover of any kind. The ranks kept formation
and trudged steadily forward, throwing themselves
headlong into the front German trenches. There they
steadied themselves for a few minutes, and then ad-
vancing once more sprang down into the second Ger-
man line which was strongly held. Colonel Maddison
had been shot down early in the attack. Captain
Dawson, the adjutant, had been wounded, but stag-
gered on with the men until he was killed at the sec- ‘
0nd line of trenches. “Come on, boys! let’s get at
’em and clear ’em out!” were his last words. On
this second line the battalion, together with its sup-
port, beat itself to pieces. A few survivors unable
to get back were taken prisoners, and a German re-
port has stated that they were very proud and
deﬁant when marched away. At night a number of
wounded were carried in along the whole divisional
front from No Man’s Land, but many lives were lost
in the gallant work, and many of the wounded also
lost their lives in trying to crawl back, for the Ger-
mans turned their machine-guns during the daytime
upon everything that moved in front of their lines.
To show how uniform was the experience, one may
CHAPTER
III.
The
Battle
of the
Somme.


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 71
have been narrated. The 2nd Lincolns and 2nd Berk-
shires were the leading battalions, and their devo-
tion in attempting the impossible was as great as
that of their comrades to right and left.
Both regiments suffered heavily, and it is prob-
able that the Berkshires went deeper than any other.
The 1st Irish Riﬂes had occupied the trenches for
six days in dreadful weather and had suffered heav-
ily from the retaliatory bombardment of the Ger-
mans. They were therefore held in reserve, but
none the less made repeated efforts and with great
loss to cross the barrage and help their comrades,
for which they afterwards received a special mes-
sage of thanks from the Divisional Commander.
Up to this point the writer has been faced by the
painful and monotonous task of one long record of
failure from Gommecourt in the north to La Boiselle
in the south. It cannot be doubted that we had over-
estimated the effects of our bombardment, and that
the German guns were intact to a degree which was.
unexpected. Our one consolation must be that the
German reserves were held in their position, and
that improved prospects were assured for the re-
mainder of the British line and for the whole of the
French line. Had the front of the battle covered
only the region which has been treated up to now,
the episode would have been a tragic one in British
military history. Thousands of men had fallen, nor
could it be truthfully said that anything of perma-
nence had been achieved. Next day the remains of
the Eighth Division were withdrawn, the 70th Bri-
gade was restored to the Twenty-third Division, to
which it'rightfully belonged, and the Twelfth Divi-
sion came forward to ﬁll the gap in the line, helped
CHAPTER
III.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


72 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
III.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
by the gunners and sappers of the Eighth, who re-
mained at their posts until July 4.
On the right of the Eighth Division was the
Thirty-fourth, a unit which consisted of one mixed
English and Scotch Brigade; while the other two
were raised respectively from the Tyneside Irish
and from the Tyneside Scots, hardy and martial ma-
terial from the coalpits and foundries of the North.
They attacked upon the front between the Albert-
Bapaume Road on the north and the village of Bé-
court on the south. The idea was to storm La
Boiselle village, and to push the attack home both
north and south of it upon Contalmaison, which lay
behind it. Immediately before the assault two great
mines were blown, one of which, containing the un-
precedented amount of 60,000 lbs. of gun-cotton,
threw hundreds of tons of chalk into the air. Within
a few minutes of the explosion the Thirty-fourth
Division were out of their trenches and advancing
in perfect order upon the German trenches. The
101st Brigade, consisting of the 15th and 16th Royal
Scots, the 10th Lincolns, and 11th Suffolks, were on
the right, the Tyneside Scots upon the left, and the
Tyneside Irish in support behind the right brigade.
In the immediate rear lay the Nineteenth Division
with instructions to hold and consolidate the ground
gained.
In no part of the line was the advance more gal-
lant, and it marks the point at which unalloyed fail—
ure began ﬁrst to change to partial success, ripening
into complete victory in the southern section. Some
slight cover seems to haVe helped the troops for the
ﬁrst few hundred yards, and it would appear also
that though the small-arm ﬁre was very severe, the


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 73
actual shell-ﬁre was not so heavy as that which de-
vastated the divisions in the north. None the less,
the obstacles were sufﬁcient to test to the highest any
troops in the world, and they were gloriously sur-
mounted by men, none of whomhad been in action
before. “I, their commander,” wrote the Divisional
Genera , “will never forget their advance through
the German curtain of ﬁre. It was simply wonder-
ful, and they behaved like veterans.” The scream
of the war-pipes, playing “The Campbells are com-
ing,” warmed the blood of the soldiers. Upon the
left, the Tyneside Scots penetrated two lines of
trenches and found themselves to the north of the
village of La Boiselle, where further progress was
made impossible by a murderous ﬁre from front and
ﬂank. Of the four battalions of the 101st Brigade,
the two English units were nearly opposite the vil~
lage, and though they advanced with great resolu-
tion, they were unable to get a permanent lodgment.
The two Royal Scots battalions upon the ﬂank got
splendidly forward, and some of them made their
way deeper into the German line than any organised
body of troops, save only the Ulster men, had suc-
ceeded in doing, getting even as far as the outskirts
of Contalmaison. The valiant leader of the ad-
vanced party of the 15th Royal Scots was wounded,
but continued to encourage his men and to try to
consolidate his desperate position, which was nearly
a mile within the German lines. He was again se-
verely wounded, and Lieutenant Hole was killed,
upon which the only remaining oﬁicer fell back to a
point some hundreds of yards westward, called
Round Wood or Round Alley. Here the Scots stuck
fast, and nothing could budge them. Germans were
CHAPTER
III.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


74 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
III.
The
Battle
of the
Somme.

in front of them, were in La Boiselle upon their left
rear, and were behind them in the trenches, which
led from the village. By all the laws of war, the de-
tachment was destroyed; but in practice the Ger-
mans found that they could not achieve it. A small
reinforcement of 27th Northumberland Fusiliers
(from the 103rd Brigade), under an experienced sol-
dier, had joined them, and their situation was less
forlorn because they were in slight touch with the
skirts of the 64th Brigade of the Twenty-ﬁrst Divi-
sion, who had also, as will presently be shown, won
a very forward position. By means of this division
communication was restored with the isolated de-
tachment, and the Colonel of the 16th Royal Scots,
a very well-known volunteer officer of Edinburgh,
succeeded in reaching his men. His advent gave
them fresh spirit, and under his leadership they pro-
ceeded next morning not only to hold the position,
but to enlarge it considerably, sending bombers
down every sap and endeavouring to give the im-
pression of great numbers. Two companies of the
East Lancashire Regiment from the Nineteenth Di-
vision made their way forward, and joined with ef-
fect in these attacks. This small body of men held
their own until the afternoon of July 3, when the
advance of the Nineteenth Division upon La Boiselle
enabled them to be relieved. It was time, for the
water was exhausted and munitions were running
low. It was a glad moment when, with their numer—
ous German captives, they joined up with their
cheering comrades. It should be said that in this
ﬁne feat of arms a small party of the 11th Suffolks
played a valiant part. General Pulteney issued a
special order thanking these troops for their stout


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 75
defence, and the matter was in truth of wider im-
portance than any local issue, for it had the effect of
screening the left ﬂank of the Twenty-ﬁrst Division,
enabling them to make good their hold upon Cruciﬁx
Trench and the Sunken Road, as will now be told.
Before leaving the Thirty-fourth Division it
should be said that although La Boiselle remained
untaken, the Tyneside Scots and Irish carried a
number of trenches and returned with many prison-
ers. It has been the universal experience of our sol-
diers that the Germans, though excellent with their
guns, and very handy with their bombs, are wanting
in that spice of devilry called for in bayonet work—-
a quality which their ally the Turk possesses to a
marked degree. In this instance, as in many others,
when the Tyneside men swept roaring into the
trenches the Germans either ﬂed or threw up their
hands. The condition of the prisoners was unex-
pectedly good. “They have new uniforms, new
brown boots, leggings, and are as fat as butter,” said
one spectator, which is at great variance with de-
scriptions from other parts of the line.
We have now completed our survey of that long
stretch of line in which our gallant advance was
broken against an equally gallant resistance. The
account has necessarily had to concern itself with in-
cessant details of units and orders of battle, since
these are the very essence of such an account, and
without them it might read, as contemporary de-
scriptions did read, like some vague combat in the
moon. But, casting such details aside, the reader
can now glance up that long line and see the wreck-
age of that heroic disaster—the greatest and also
the most glorious that ever befell our arms.
CHAPTER
III.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


CHAPTER
IV.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
CHAPTER IV
THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME
The Attack of the Fifteenth and Thirteenth Corps,
July 1, 1916
The advance of the Twenty~ﬁrst Division—64th Brigade—First
permanent gains—50th Brigade at Fricourt—Advance of
Seventh Division—Capture of Mametz—Fine work by Eigh<
teenth Division—Capture of Montauban by the Thirtieth
Division—General view of the battle—Its decisive importance.
IMMEDIATELY to the south of Pulteney’s Third
Corps, and extending from Bécourt in the north to a
point opposite Fricourt village, lay Horne’s Fif-
teenth Corps. The general task of this Corps was to
attack Mametz on the right, contain Fricourt in the
centre, and attack between there and La Boiselle to-
wards Mametz Wood. It consisted of the Twenty-
ﬁrst, the Seventh, and the Seventeenth Divisions. Of
these, the most northerly was the Twenty-ﬁrst, that
ﬁne North-country division which had so terrible an
ordeal when it came up in support upon the second
day of Loos. Those who held that in spite of defeat
its conduct upon that occasion was soldierly, were
borne out by its achievement on the Some, where it
made a lodgment in the enemy’s line upon the ﬁrst
day, and did good service at later stages of the bat-
tle. Let us now turn our attention to its advance. It
may ﬁrst be mentioned that the units were the same
76


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 77
as those enumerated in the description of Loos, save
that in each brigade one regular battalion had been
substituted. Thus the 1st Lincolns, 4th Middlesex,
and 1st East Yorks took the place of the 8th East
Yorks, 12th West Yorks, and 14th Durhams respect-
ively. The 50th Brigade of the Seventeenth Division
was attached to the Twenty-ﬁrst Division for the
purpose of the attack, and will be included with it in
this summary of the operations. The rest of the
Seventeenth Division was in reserve.
The attack was on a three-brigade front, the 64th
Brigade upon the north, just south of La Boiselle,
and in close touch with the Thirty-fourth Division.
To the right of the 64th was the 63rd Brigade, and
CHAPTER
IV.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
to the right of that the 50th, which advanced straight ‘
upon Fricourt. The 62nd Brigade was in reserve.
It will be best to deal with the attack of the 64th
Brigade with some detail, as its exploits had a very
direct bearing upon the issue of the battle.
This brigade advanced upon the signal with the
10th Yorkshire Light Infantry upon the left in touch
with the Royal Scots of the 101st Brigade. On their
right was their 9th namesake battalion. Behind
them in immediate support were the 1st East Yorks
(left) and 15th Durhams (right). The advance was
greatly helped by the formation of a Russian sap
between the lines on which the front companies could
assemble. It was found, however, upon the men ad-
vancing that the ﬁre was so severe that they could
only get forward by crawling from hole to hole, with
the result that the barrage lifted before they could
reach the front trenches, and the Germans were able
to mount the parapet and slate them with riﬂe-ﬁre.
Colonel Lynch of the 9th Yorkshire Light Infantry


78 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
IV.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
was killed by a shell between trenches, as were all
four captains, but the men stuck to their work and
ﬁnally the leading battalions swept over the Ger-
man lines, which had been greatly disorganised by
the artillery, and they killed or captured the occu-
pants with no very severe resistance. Two ﬁxed
points lay in front of the brigade, which were part
of the deﬁnite objectives of the division. The ﬁrst
was a sunken road 1100 yards from the British front,
the second was a trench 400 yards farther, on which,
by the irony of Fate, a large wayside cruciﬁx looked
down, so that it was called Cruciﬁx Trench. Beyond
these on the left front were several shattered woods,
Shelter Wood and Birch-tree Wood, which gave the
enemy good cover, and to the right was a large
ruined building, Fricourt Farm, which raked the ad-
vance with its snipers and machine-guns.
On passing the front German line the successive
British waves lost their formation and clubbed to-
gether, so that a long loose line of Yorkshire and
Durham men scrambled onwards into, out of and
over the successive impediments, beating down all
resistance as they went. When the ﬁre became too
hot, the men crawled forwards upon their stomachs
or made short sharp rushes from one shell-hole to
another, but the advance was steady and unbroken.
The smoke from the shells was as dense as a Scotch
mist. Every now and then through the haze the
ﬂashes of a machine-gun would be spied and possibly
the vague ﬁgures of the German gunners as they
swept it across in their deadly traverse, but a rush of
furious infantry put each in turn out of action. The
evidence seems to be conclusive that some at least of
these gunners were found to be chained to their


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 79
guns, which may well have happened at their own
request, as a visible proof that they would never
desert their post. They ﬁred up to the last instant,
and naturally they received no quarter from the
stormers. Now and again the ragged line of men
would stumble suddenly upon a section of proper
trench, would spring down into it, clear up the occu-
pants, and then sit in ﬂushed, hard-breathing groups
until a whistle from the officer and a cheer from their
comrades would call them on once more.
In this sector there appears, however, to have been
a systematic, if superﬁcial, examination of the dug-
outs before a trench was passed. One does not hear
of those surprise attacks from the rear which were
so common and so fatal to the north. The examina-
tion usually took the form of a sharp summons at
the mouth of the burrow, quickly followed—if there
were no response—by a Mills bomb. Then, as often
as not, there would crawl out of the black oriﬁce
eight or ten terriﬁed and bleeding men, who would
join the numerous small convoys trailing backwards
to the rear. These prisoners were nearly all from
the 110th and 111th Reserve Bavarian Regiments,
and the alacrity with which they made for the rear
with their hands above their heads, formed the only
comic touch in a tragic day. One made a grab for
a riﬂe. “He lived about ﬁve seconds,” says the nar-
rator. “They were thin, unshaven, and terriﬁed,”
says an ofﬁcer, talking of the particular batch he
handled. “Most had dark hair—a very different-
type from the Prussians.”
Having overrun the German trenches, the infan-
try were now faced with a considerable stretch of
open which lay between them and the Sunken Road,
CHAPTER
IV.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


80 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
IV.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
leading from Fricourt to Contalmaison. Many were
hit upon this perilous passage. A subsidiary line of
German trenches lay in front of this road, and into
this the British tumbled. The Colonel of the 15th
Durhams was the senior ofﬁcer who had got up, and
he took command at this point, rallying the weary
men of all four battalions for a fresh advance. A ,
few of the Royal Scots of the Thirty-fourth Division
were found already in possession, the fringe of that
body who have already been described as making so
invaluable a stand at Round Wood.
At this point the 64th Brigade was found to be
some distance in front of the main body of the
Thirty-fourth Division on the left, and of their com-
rades on the right, so that they could get no farther
for the moment without their ﬂanks being badly ex-
posed. In front through the haze they could dimly
see the Cruciﬁx which was their ultimate objective.
The men had to cower low, for the bullets were com-
ing in a continuous stream from Fricourt Farm on
the right and from the woods on the left. The
Sunken Road was ten or twelve feet deep at the spot,
and though it was exposed at the sides, by rapid dig-
ging the men got some cover, though many dropped
before they could make a shelter. Here the sur-
vivors of the advance waited for some hours, spend-
ing some of the time in ransacking the enormous
thirty-foot deep dug-outs which the Germans had
excavated at certain points along the side of the
road. Into these the wounded were conveyed, and
refreshed by the good things of life from Seltzer-
water to gold-tipped cigarettes, which were found
within.
In the afternoon the General Ofﬁcer Commanding


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 81
had come up as far as the Sunken Road, and had CHAPTER
examined the position for himself. The 63rd Brigade 1"-
was now well forward upon the right and the ad- git“
vance could be resumed. It was pushed swiftly on- of the
wards and Cruciﬁx Trench was occupied, nearly a 8mm“
mile from the British front line. A lieutenant of the
9th Yorkshires, though wounded by shrapnel, seems
to have been the ﬁrst to lead a party into this ad-
vanced trench, but soon it was strongly occupied.
The pressing need was to consolidate it, for it was
swept by gusts of ﬁre from both ﬂanks. Another
lieutenant of the Yorkshires, also a wounded man,
took over the direction, and the men, with very little
cover, worked splendidly to strengthen the position.
Their numbers were so reduced that a counter-attack
would have been most serious, but the splendid sup-
port given by the artillery held the German infantry
at a distance. A few of the British tried to advance
upon Shelter Wood, but the machine-guns were too
active and they had to fall back or lie in shell-holes
until after dark, only seventeen out of sixty getting
back.
A captain of the 10th Yorkshires took over the
advanced command and sent back to the colonel of
the Durhams, who had meantime been wounded at
the Sunken Road, to ask for instructions. The an-
swer was to hold on and that help was at hand. This
help was in the form of the 62nd Reserve Brigade,
the leading battalions of which, the 1st Lincolns and
10th Yorkshire Regiment, came swinging splendidly
across the open and ﬂung themselves into Cruciﬁx
Trench. From that time the maintenance of the
ground was assured. The men of the 64th Brigade
who had done so ﬁnely were drawn back into the


82 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
IV.

The
‘ Battle
of the
Somme.
Sunken Road, having fully secured their objective.
One cannot but marvel here, as so often elsewhere,
at the ﬁne work done by young subalterns when the
senior officers have been disabled. A lieutenant of
the 9th Yorkshire Light Infantry found himself in
command of the whole battalion at the most critical
moment of the engagement, and on leaving could
only hand it over to a brother subaltern, who carried
on with equal courage and ability. The brigade was
drawn back to the German ﬁrst line, where it lay
for forty-eight hours, and ﬁnally acted as reserve
brigade to the successful advance undertaken by the
62nd Brigade, by which Shelter Wood was captured
on July 3.
Such, in some detail, were the adventures of the
64th Brigade, which may be taken as parallel to
those of the 63rd upon the right, who were faced by
much the same obstacles, having the Sunken Road
ahead and the Fricourt houses upon their right. The
8th Somersets were on the left in touch with the 9th
Yorkshire Light Infantry, and supported by the 8th
Lincolns. On the right were the 4th Middlesex and
the 10th York and Lancasters. They were able to
get well up to Fricourt Farm upon the left of the
village, but the ground was unfavourable and they
never got as far forward as their comrades on the
left. Of the German resistance on this front, it can
be said that it was worthy of the reputation which
the Bavarians have won in the War. The men were
of splendid physique and full of courage. They
fought their machine-guns to the last. All was
ready for a vigorous advance next morning. The ar-
tillery of the Twenty-ﬁrst Division, which has won a
name for exceptional efﬁciency, was up nearlylevel


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 83
with the infantry at 10 P.M. that night, a road having
been laid in that time from the original gun position
to a point half a mile inside the German front line.
On the immediate right of the 63rd Brigade, in
front of Fricourt, was the 50th Brigade (Glasgow)
to which was assigned the task of attacking the vil-
lage while the Twenty-ﬁrst Division got part of it
upon the north. The brigade advanced gallantly, the
front line consisting of two ﬁne Yorkshire battalions,
the 10th West Yorks and the 7th East Yorks, with
part of the 7th Yorl shires. The attack reached and
partly occupied the front trenches, but the ﬁre and
the losses were both very heavy, the 10th West York-
shires being specially hard hit. The survivors be-
haved with great gallantry, and some of them held
on all day, though surrounded by enemies. In the
afternoon a second advance was made by Yorkshires
and East Yorkshires, with 6th Dorsets in support,
but again the losses were heavy and no solid foot-
hold could be got in the village. When dusk fell some
of the troops who had held their own all day were
able to get back to the British trenches bringing
prisoners with them. A notable example is that of a.
lieutenant of the West Yorks, who managed to stag-
ger back with three wounds upon him and three Ger-
mans in front of him. The 51st Brigade was brought
up in the eVening to continue the assault, but with
the morning of the 2nd it was found that the work
had been done, and that the advance upon both ﬂanks
had caused the evacuation of the village.
The line of trenches takes a very peculiar turn
just south of Fricourt, which is shown in the dia~
gram of the battle, so that the attack of the Seventh
Division, which was the next in the line,,was from
CHAPTER
IV.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


84 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
IV.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
almostrdue south, Whilst all the others had been from
due west. The project was that a holding attack to
engage the defenders should be made upon Mametz,
whilst the remaining divisions in the line, the
Seventh of the Fifteenth Corps, with the Eighteenth
and Thirtieth of the Thirteenth Corps, should ad-
vance upon the line Mametz-Montauban. Their suc-
cess would obviously make the position both of Fri-
court and of Mametz impossible, the more so if the
Twenty-ﬁrst Division could maintain its position at
the Sunken Road to the north of Fricourt. This was
the calculation, and it worked to perfection, so that
both these villages fell eventually into our hands
with a minimum loss of life to the assailants. Every
honour is due to the leaders who devised and to the
soldiers who carried out the scheme, but it should at
the same time be understood that in the case of these
southern divisions, and also of the French Army of
General Foch upon the right, they were attacking a
portion of the line which was far less organised, and
manned by very inferior troops to those in the north.
All this section of attack seems to have been a com-
plete surprise to the Germans.
The famous Seventh Division was now command-
ed by one of the three Brigadiers who had led it dur-
ing its heroic days at Ypres. Its units, however, had
changed considerably, and the 91st Brigade had
taken the place of the 21st. This Brigade, consisting
partly of Manchester Battalions and partly of old
units of the Seventh Division (2nd Queen’s Surrey,
1st South Staffords, 21st and 22nd Manchesters),
attacked upon the right, while the 20th Brigade ad-
vanced upon the left, having the 2nd Gordons and
9th Devons in the van, with the 8th Devons and 2nd
I


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 85
Borders in support. The front trenches were over-
run without much diﬂiculty. The order of battle was
the 22nd Manchesters upon the right with the 1st
South Staffords in close support. In the centre were
the 2nd Gordons and upon their left the 9th Devons.
The right got forward with comparatively small
losses and overran the front German line. The Gor-
dons had their left company held up by uncut wire,
but got forward none the less with considerable
losses. The 9th Devons were the most exposed and
suffered very severely, but in spite of a casualty list
which included half the ofﬁcers and men, they never
winced or wavered for an instant, showing what had
been often shown before, that the spirit of old days
still lives in the country of Drake and of Raleigh,
The survivors seized and held Tirpitz Trench. The
2nd Borders had also seized Danube Support, and
the whole front line was in British hands.
The 91st Brigade were now closing in upon the
right of Mametz village and had entered Danzig Al-
ley, from which they were for a time driven by a
brisk counter-attack. The 1st South Staﬁords had
won their way into the outskirts of Mametz, but the
losses were heavy, and half of the 21st Manchesters
came racing up to reinforce. At one o’clock the
Danzig Alley had again been occupied by the Man-
chesters. Half the 2nd Warwicks were sent up to
reinforce the Gordons and the line of infantry
dashed forward upon the village, 600 of the enemy
throwing up their hands in front of them. The 20th
Manchesters also advanced, losing heavily by the
ﬁre from Fricourt, but pushing on as far as the
Sunken Road on the extreme left of the advance.
There is a tangle of trenches at this point, the chief
CHAPTER
IV.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


86 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916-
CHAPTER
IV.

The
Battle
ofthe
Somme
of which is the Rectangle, but with the 2 id of the 1st
Welsh Fusiliers they were all cleared and the ﬂank
of the Division made good, and consolidated since it
had advanced farther than the troops to the left. In
the morning, however, when it was found that Fri-
court had been evacuated, the whole division was
able to get forward and by July 3 had occupied Bot-
tom Wood, while the 2nd Royal Irish had actually
penetrated Mametz Wood, taking 2 guns and 50 pris-
oners. Some days later, Mametz Wood had become
a diﬁerent proposition, but the general order: at the
time were that it should not be seriously attac. ed.
Altogether in these Mametz operations the
Seventh Division took 1500 prisoners, seven ﬁeld-
guns and much booty of different kinds.
We have now recorded in succession the repulse
of the Seventh Corps at Gommecourt, that of the
Eighth Corps at Serre and Beaumont Hamel, and
that of the Tenth Corps at Thiepval. The record of
heroic disaster was then alleviated by the partial
success of the Third Corps ,at La Boiselle, the con-
siderable success of the Fifteenth Corps at Mametz,
and now by the complete success of the Thirteenth
Corps at Montauban. South of this point along the
whole French line the victory was never in doubt.
These latter operations do not come within the direct
scope of this narrative, though some short account
must be given of them later, in order to co-ordinate
the results of the two wings of the Allied Armies.
The Thirteenth Corps was commanded by General
Congreve, who, it will be remembered, gained his
V.C. in the affair of the guns where young Roberts
met his death at Colenso. It consisted of the Eight-
eenth, the Thirtieth, and the Ninth Divisions of the


88 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916-
CHA PTER
IV.
The
Battle
of the
Somme.
Montauban Alley to a point east of Mametz where
they should touch the right units of the Seventh
Division.
Of the three brigades the 55th was on the right,
the 53rd in the centre, and the 54th on the left. In
accordance with the general scheme of description
we will begin with the latter.
The 54th Brigade had the 7th Bedford on the
right, the 11th Royal Fusiliers on the left, the 6th
Northants in support, and the 12th Middlesex in re-
serve. As they rushed forward they faced a feeble
barrage, but a heavy machine-gun ﬁre. It was found,
however, here, and along the whole divisional front,
that the German wire was utterly destroyed, thanks
largely to the work of the trench mortars which
had supplanted ﬁeld-guns for this particular pur-
pose. The ﬁrst trenches were taken without a pause,
and parties remained behind to clear out the dug-
outs.
“Cowering in the trench,” says one of the storm-
ers, “clad in the pale grey uniforms we had longed
for twelve months to see, unarmed and minus equip-
ment, with fear written on their faces, were a few
of those valiant warriors of the Kaiser whose prow-
ess we were out to dispute. Here let me say that the
exact moment selected for our attack had taken the
Huns by surprise. This view was subsequently con-
ﬁrmed by prisoners, who said that they had expected
us earlier in the day andhad since stood down.”
This idea of a surprise only refers of course to the
front trench. Soon the ﬁghting grew very severe.
The ﬁrst serious check was in front of a strong
point called the Pommiers Redoubt. The wire here
had been invisible from long grass so that its pres-


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 89
ence was a surprise. Again and again the machine-
guns swept away the leading ﬁles of the attack. The
redoubt could be outﬂanked, however, and an oﬁicer
of the Fusiliers brought his bombers round and
eventually to the rear of it. Snipers held him for a
time, but they were rushed by an oﬂicer and a few
men. The Germans still held bravely to their point,
but Bedfords and Fusiliers swarmed in upon them
until their arms went down and their hands up.
From this strong point bombing parties were sent
down the communication trenches, the infantry fol-
lowing closely and occupying the new ground.
The brigade was now in some danger from its own
success, for it had outrun the 91st Brigade of the
Seventh Division upon its left, and its own comrades
of the 53rd Brigade upon its right. The 6th North-
ants held the defensive ﬂank on the left. Later in
the day the 53rd came into line upon the right and
CHAPTER
IV.
The
Battle
of the
Somme.
before dark the 54th was able to move on again with '
little resistance until it had reached its full objective
at Montauban Alley.
The 53rd Brigade was on the right of the 54th.
Its assaulting line was formed by the 8th Norfolk
upon the right, and the 6th Berkshires upon the left,
with the 10th Essex in support and the 8th Suffolk
in reserve. The ﬁrst two lines were taken in their
stride with little loss. A strong point behind these
lines held them up for a short time, but was rushed,
and its garrison of the 109th Regiment was captured.
Further progress of the Norfolks was made diﬁicult,
however, by a ﬂanking ﬁre and by a second redoubt
in front. As in the case of the 53rd Brigade it was
found that the way round is often the shorter. Two
bombing parties under gallant subalterns worked up


90 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER the trenches on the ﬂank, while that murderous
IV' weapon, a Stokes gun, was brought up and opened
ﬁrst“ ﬁre. The combined effect was decisive and 150 Ger-
of the mans threw down their arms. Sixty more were
3mm“ taken in another redoubt to the left.
Whilst the Norfolks had been ﬁghting their way
forward in this fashion the Berkshires upon their
left, following very closely upon their own barrage,
had attained their objective in twenty minutes, and
had to hold it for some hours until the Norfolks had
made good. During this time their right ﬂank was
necessarily exposed. This ﬂank was defended suc-
cessfully by means of bombing parties and a Lewis
gun, while the left company instead of resting lent a
hand to their neighbours of the 54th Brigade in
carrying Pommiers Redoubt. I
Meanwhile the Norfolks had come ahead again,
but the advance of the Berkshires was held up by a
small but determined band of bombers and snipers
in a strong position. A Stokes mortar drove back
the bombers, but the snip-ers still held fast, and killed
in succession Lieutenant Rushton and Lieutenant
Saye who gallantly attacked them. A sergeant-
major of the Berkshires was more fortunate, how-
ever, and killed the chief sniper whose automatic
riﬂe had played the part of a machine-gun. In doing
so he was severely wounded himself. The Essex had
come up into the ﬁring line, but progresswas still
slow until an invaluable Stokes mortar was again
brought to bear and with its shower of heavy bombs
blasted the strong point out of existence. When
night fell the whole line of Montauban Alley had
been successfully won and the various units were in
close touch and were busily organising their position.


THE BATTLE OF THE soMME 91
Great obstinacy was shown by the Germans in
their defence, which was a gallant one, and might
well have been successful against a less skilful at-
tack. Among other instances of their tenacity was
one in which a sniper in a trench behind the stormers
continued to ﬁre from some subterranean retreat
and deﬁed all efforts to get at him, until it was found
necessary to blow in the whole face of the dug-out
and so to bury him within his own stronghold.
The hardest ﬁghting of any fell to the lot of the
55th Brigade upon the right. The advance was made
with the 8th East Surrey and 7th Queen’s Surrey
in front, the latter to the left. The 7th Buffs were in
support and the 7th West Kents in reserve. No
sooner had the troops come out from cover than
they were met by a staggering ﬁre which held them
up in the Breslau Trench. The supports had soon to
be pushed up to thicken the ranks of the East Sur.
rey—a battalion which, with the ineradicable sport-
ing instinct and light-heartedness of the Londoner,
had dribbled footballs, one for each platoon, across
No Man’s Land and shot their goal in the front line
trench. A crater had been formed by a mine explo-
sion, forming a gap in the German front, and round
this crater a ﬁerce ﬁght raged for some time, the
Germans rushing down a side sap which brought
them up to the fray. Into this side sap sprang an
ofﬁcer and a sergeant of the Buffs, and killed 12 of
the Germans, cutting off their-ﬂow of reinforce-
ments, while half a company of the same battalion
cleared up the crater and captured a machine-gun
which had fought to the last cartridge. It is worth
recording that in the case of one of these machine-
guns the gunner was actually found with a four-foot
CHAPTER
IV.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


92 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
IV.
The
Battle
of the
Somme.
chain attaching him to the tripod. Being badly
wounded and unable to disengage himself the
wretched man had dragged himself, his wound, and
his tripod for some distance before being captured
by the British. The fact was duly established by a
sworn inquiry.
The brigade was winning its way forward, but
the hard resistance of the Germans had delayed it
to such a point, that there was a danger that it would
not be in its place so as to cover the left ﬂank of the
90th Brigade, who were due to attack Montauban at
10 A.M. Such a failure might make the difference be-
tween victory and defeat. At this critical moment
the ofﬁcer commanding the East Surreys dashed to
the front, re-formed his own men with all whom he
could collect and led them onwards. Captain Neville
was killed in gallantly leading the rush, but the wave
went forward. There was check after check, but the
point had to be won, and the Suffolks of the 53rd
Brigade were brought round to strengthen the at-
tack, while the West Kents were pushed forward to
the ﬁghting line. By mid-day two platoons of West
Kents were into Montauban Alley, and had seized
two houses on the western end of Montauban, which
were rapidly fortiﬁed by a section of the 92nd Field
Company. The ﬂank of the 90th was assured. A
South African oﬁicer led the ﬁrst group of Surrey
men who seized Montauban. He is said during the
action to have slain seventeen of the enemy.
The rest of the brigade, however, had desperate
work to get into line with the village. The East Sur-
reys and Buffs were coming along well, but the
Queen’s Surreys had lost heavily and were held up
by a strong point called Back Trench. A major of


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 93
the Queen’s gathered his men together, called up a CHIA‘IFER
bombing party from the 8th Sussex, the pioneer bat- '
talion of the brigade, and then by a united front and gale
ﬂank attack carried the position. One hundred and ofthe
seventy Germans remained ‘alive in the trench. The somme'
infantry then surged forward to the line of the Ma-
metz-Montauban Road, where they lay under ma-
chine-gun ﬁre with their left in the air, for a con-
siderable gap had developed between them and the
53rd Brigade. The main line of Montauban Alley
in front of them was still strongly held by the
enemy.
Once again the Stokes guns saved what looked like
a dangerous situation. They blasted a hole in Mont-
auban Alley, and through the hole rushed a furious
storming party of the Queen’s. As evening fell,
after that long day of ﬁghting, the weary Eighteenth
Division, splendid soldiers, splendidly led, held the
whole line from Montauban to the junction with the
Seventh Division near Mametz. One does not know
which to admire most—the able dispositions, the in-
ﬂexible resolution of the troops, or the elastic
adaptability which enabled the initiative of the ofﬁ-
cers upon the spot to use ever-varying means for
getting over the successive difficulties. The losses
were very heavy, amounting to about 3000 ofﬁcers
and men, something under 1000 being fatal. Of the
Germans 700 were captured, 1200 were buried after
the action, and the total loss could not possibly have
been less than those incurred by the British. It
should be added that a great deal of the success of
the attack was due to the 82nd, 83rd, 84th, and 85th
Brigades, Royal Field Artillery, forming the divi-
sional artillery, who earned the earnest gratitude of


94 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER the infantry, the highest reward to which the gun-
IV.
The
Battle
of the
Somme.
ner can attain. Some of the artillery of the Ninth
Division was also engaged.
A few words may be said of the immediate future
of the Eighteenth Division before the narrative of
July 1 is completed by a consideration of the work of
the Thirtieth Division. The ground captured in-
cluded part of what may be called the Montauban
Ridge, and the possession of this point proved to be
of great service for observation in connection with
the immediate operations at Bottom, Shelter, and
Mametz Woods by the Fifteenth Corps. The guns
were at once advanced and patrols were thrown out
in front which penetrated and eventually occupied
Caterpillar Wood, a long winding plantation on the
immediate front of the Division. These various pa-
trols picked up no less than twelve German ﬁeld-
guns abandoned by the enemy. The front was held
until July 8, when the Eighteenth was relieved by
the Third Division.
As to the ﬁghting of the Germans upon this front,
it was excellent as usual—but it is needful to ac-
centuate it, as there is a tendency to depreciate the
enemy at a point where he is beaten, which is an in-
justice to the victors. The latter had no doubts
about the matter. “There is one thing we have all
learned and that is that the Hun is a jolly good sol-
dier and engineer, so don’t listen to any other non-
sense. If you get hand-to-hand with him he gives
in at once, but he practically never lets you get so
close. As long as Fritz has a trench and a gun he
will stick there till he is made crows’ rations. We
know we are just slightly better than he is, but
there’s nothing much in it—nothing to justify con-


THIE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 95
tempt or liberties.” Such was the considered opin-
ion of an experienced soldier.
If the advance of the Eighteenth Division was
successful, that of the Thirtieth upon its right 'was
not less so. This division had been raised originally
from Liverpool and Manchester, the battalions being
all of the King’s Liverpool or of the Manchester
Regiments. The greater part of these battalions,
which owe their origin largely to that great patriot,
Lord Derby, were recruited on the “pa ” system, by
which friends in peace should be comrades in war.
So close was Lord Derby’s connection with the divi-
sion that his brother commanded one brigade, and
three of his family served with the guns, one of them
commanding an artillery unit. This was the ﬁrst
appearance of this ﬁne force in actual battle, and it
can truly be said that no division could have been
more fortunate or have given a better account of it-
self. It may be explained that it had exchanged its
91st Brigade for the 21st of the Seventh Division,
and that several of the veteran battalions of the old
Seventh now served with the Thirtieth.
The objective of this division was the important
village of Montauban deep within the enemy’s line.
It seemed an ambitious mark in a war where every
yard means an effort, but it was accomplished with
surprising ease, for the advance was as determined
as the defence was slack. On the right opposite
Maricourt the attack fell to the 89th Brigade, con-
sisting of the 2nd Bedfords and the 17th, 19th, and
20th King’s Liverpool battalions. On their left was
the 21st Brigade, while the 90th Brigade was in im-
mediate support with order-s to go through and seize
the village itself. From the start the attack went
CHAPTER
IV.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 97
their objective. On the right, the Liverpool brigade,
the 17th and 18th King’s Liverpools in the lead,
fought their way up to the brick-ﬁelds, which lie
nearly level with Montauban, but to the south of it.
A company seized these and a good bunch of pris-
oners. There it consolidated in close touch with the
famous “iron corps” of the French army upon their
right, while on the left the blue and yellow advance-
ﬂags of the Thirtieth formed a continuous line with
the red and yellow of the Eighteenth Division. On
the left of the Liverpools the Manchesters with the
Scots Fusiliers of the 90th Brigade had stormed
their way into Montauban, the ﬁrst of that long list
of village fortresses which were destined in the suc-
ceeding months to fall into the hands of the British.
It was carried with a rush in spite of the determined
resistance of small groups of Germans in various
houses, which had already been greatly mauled by
our artillery. The British fought their way from
room to room, drove their enemies down into the cel-
lars, and hurled bombs on to them from above. The
German losses were heavy, and several hundreds of
prisoners were sent to the rear. By the early after-
noon the whole village was in the hands of the 90th
Brigade, who had also occupied Montauban Alley,
the trench 200 yards upon the further side of it,
whence by their riﬂe-ﬁre they crushed several at-
tempts at counter-attack. These were feeble during
the day, but a very heavy one came during the night,
aided by a powerful shrapnel ﬁre. The Germans,
advancing in the closest order, for a time won a
lodgment in the new British front trench, killing a
party of the 17th Manchesters, but they were unable
to hold it, and with daylight they were ejected once
CHAPTER
IV.

The
Battle
ofthe
Somme.


98 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
more. The reader who is weary of hearing of Brit-
ish losses will be interested to know on the authority
of Colonel Bedell of the 16th Bavarians, that out of a
garrison of 3500 men from the 6th Bavarian Reserve
Regiments only 500 escaped from the Montauban
front. All these operations were carried out in close
touch with the French upon the right, so close indeed
that the colonel of the 17th King’s Liverpools, see-
ing that the French colonel of the ﬂank battalion was
advancing beside his men, sprang out and joined
him, so that the two colonels shook hands in the cap-
tured position.
Some stress has in this narrative been laid upon
the fact that the difﬁculties to be overcome in the
south were less than those in the north. Such an
assertion is only fair to the gallant men who failed.
At the same time nothing should detract from the
credit due to those splendid southerly divisions who
really won the battle and made the hole through
which the whole army eventually passed.
Though the French operations do not primarily
come within the scope of this record, it is necessary
to give some superﬁcial account of them, since they
form an integral and essential part of the battle. So
important were they, and so successful, that it is not
too much to say that it was the complete victory, upon
their line which atoned for our own want of success
in the north, and assured that the balance of this
most bloody day should be in our favour. It is true,
as they would be the ﬁrst to admit, that the troops
of General Foch had none of those impassable bar-
rages, concentrations of machine-guns, and desper-
ately defended inner lines of trenches which inﬂicted
such losses upon our stormers. Both the positions


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 99
and the men who held them were less formidable.
On the other hand, it is for us to bear in mind that
the French had already made their great effort in
the common cause at Verdun, and that this attack
upon the West was primarily a British offensive in
which they were playing a subsidiary part. It is
the more remarkable that their success should have
been so great and that they should have been able
for months to come to play so notable a part in the
battle that the tale of their prisoners and booty
was not less than our own.
The attack of the British was roughly upon a
twenty-mile front, from the Gommecourt salient to
Maricourt. On this stretch they broke the German
lines for 7 miles from the north of Fricourt to Mont-
auban. The French front was about 8 miles long,
and moved forward for its whole extent. Thus it
may be said that the whole battle line was 28 miles,
and that more than one-half, or 15 miles, represented
the area of victory. During the whole operations
for many months the French army was cut in two
by the marshy valley of the Somme, the detachment
to the north of it acting in close unison with the
British Thirteenth Corps upon their left. We will
call these the northern and the southern French
armies, both being under the direction of General
Foch. '
It may brieﬂy be stated that the advance of the
French army was carried out with great dash and
valour on both banks of the river. After carrying
several lines of trenches at very little loss to them-
selves, the northern army found itself, on the even-
ing of July 1, holding the outskirts of the villages of
Curlu and of Hardecourt. On July 2 Curlu was en-
CHAPTER
IV.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


100 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
IV.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
tirely occupied, and shortly afterwards Hardecourt
also fell. The southern army, which consisted of
the ﬁery Colonial Division upon the left and the
Twentieth upon the right, under the immediate lead-
ership of General Fayolle, had even greater success.
Not only all the lines of trenches, but the villages of
Dompierre, Becquincourt, Bussu, and Fay were
stormed upon July 1. On the 2nd Frise and the
Moreaucourt Wood had also been taken, and several
counter-attacks repelled. On that evening the
French were able to report that they had taken 6000
prisoners, while the British operations had yielded
3500—or 9500 in all. '
When the sun set upon that bloody day—probably
the most stirring of any single day in the whole
record of the world, the higher command of the Al-
lies must have looked upon the result with a strange
mixture of feelings, in which dismay at the losses in
the north, and pride at the successes in the south
contended for the mastery. The united losses of all
.the combatants, British, French, and Germans, must
have been well over 100,000 between the rising and
the setting of one summer sun. It is a rout which
usually swells the casualties of a stricken army, but
here there was no question of such a thing, and these
huge losses were incurred in actual battle. As the
attackers our own casualties were undoubtedly heav-
ier than those of the enemy, and it is natural that
as we turn from that list we ask ourselves the ques-
tion whether our gains were worth it. Such a ques-
tion might be an open one at Neuve Chapelle, or at
Loos, but here the answer must be athousand times
Yes. Together we had done the greatest day’s work
in the War up to that time—a day’s work which led


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 101
to many developments in the future, and eventually
to a general German retreat over 70 miles of front.
It was not a line of trenches which we broke, it was
in truth the fortiﬁed frontier of Germany built up
by a year and a half of unremitting labour. By
breaking it at one point we had outﬂanked it from
the Somme to the sea, and however slow the process
might be of getting room for our forces to deploy,
and pushing the Germans off our ﬂank, it was cer-
tain that sooner or later that line must be rolled up
from end to end. It was hoped, too, that under our
gunﬁre no other frontier of similar strength could
_ grow up in front of us. That was the great new de-
parture which may be dated from July 1, and is an
ample recompense for our losses. These young lives
were gladly laid down as a price for ﬁnal victory—
and history may show that it was really on those
Picardy slopes that ﬁnal victory was in truth en-
sured. Even as the day of Gettysburg was the turn-
ing-point of the American Civil War, and as that of
Paardeburg was the real death-blow to the Boers, so
the breaking of the line between Fricourt and Frise
may well prove to have been the decisive victory in
the terrible conﬂict which the swollen dreams of
Prussia had brought upon the world.
When one considers the enormous scale of the
action, the desperate valour of the troops engaged,
and the fact that the German line was fairly and
permanently broken for the ﬁrst time, one feels that
this date should be for ever marked in British mili-
tary annals as the glorious First of July.
CHAPTER
IV.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


CHAPTER
V.

The
Battle
otthe
Somme.
CHAPTER V
THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME
From July 2 to July 14, 1916
General situation—Capture of La Boiselle by Nineteenth Division—
Splendid attack by 36th Brigade upon Ovillers—Siege and
reduction of Ovillers—Operations at Contalmaison—Desperate
ﬁghting at the Quadrangle by Seventeenth Division—Capture of
Mametz Wood by Thirty-eighth. Welsh Division—Capture of
Trones Wood by Eighteenth Division.
THE terrible ﬁghting just described, during which
the German line was broken at its southern end, was
but the opening of a most desperate battle, which
extended over many months. This, while it cost
very heavy losses to both sides, exacted such a toll
from the Germans in prisoners and lost material, as
well as in casualties, that it is probable that their
army would have been largely disorganised had not
the wet weather of October come to hamper the op-
erations. As it was, the letters of the soldiers and
the intercepted messages of the Generals, show an
amount of demoralisation which proves the mighty
pressure applied by the allied armies. It was a
battle which was seldom general throughout the
curve into which'the attackers had encroached, but
which conﬁned itself to this or that limited objec-
tive—to the north, to the east, or to the south, the
blow falling the more suddenly, since during the
whole of this time the Allies preserved the command
102


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 103
of the air to an extent which actually enabled them
to push their guns forward across the open. Some-
times it was a fortiﬁed village which was carried.
Sometimes it was the trenches between villages, so
that the garrisons might feel in danger of being
cut off. Sometimes—the worst obstacle of all—it
was one of the patches of wooddotted over the coun-
tryside, which had to be cleared of the enemy’s stub-
born infantry and machine-gunners. But whatever
the task might be, it may be stated generally that it
was always carried out, if not at the ﬁrst, then at the
second, third, or some subsequent attempt. It may
also be said that never once during all that time did
a yard of ground which had been taken by the Allies
pass permanently back to the enemy. Before the
winter had fallen more than forty villages had been
carried and held by the attack—but not one by the
counter-attack. The losses were heavy, sometimes
very heavy, but so perfect now was the co-ordination
between infantry and guns, and so masterful the
allied artillery, that it is highly probable that at
last the defence was losing as many as the attack.
Those deep ravines which had enabled the Germans
to escape the effects of the early bombardments no
longer existed in the new lines, and the superﬁcial
ditches which now formed the successive lines of
defence offered little protection from a ﬁre directed
by a most efficient air service. On the other hand,
since the German air service had been beaten out
of the sky, the sight of the German gunners was
dim, and became entirely blind when by their succes-
sive advances the Allies had pushed them over the
low ridges which formed their rearward positions.
CHAPTER

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


104 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
The map, however skilfully used, is a poor substitute
for the observation ofﬁcer and the aeroplane.
Standing on the edge of this welter, and gazing
at this long haze into which vigorous divisions con-
tinually plunge, relieving exhausted units, only to
stagger out in their turn, rent and torn, while yet
others press to the front, one feels appalled at the
diﬁiculty of following such complex operations and
of conveying them clearly and in their due order to
the mind of the reader. Some ﬁxed system must
evidently be followed if the narrative is to remain
intelligible, and the relation of the various actions to
each other to be made evident. Therefore the course
of events will still, so far as possible, be traced from
the north, and each incident be brought to some sort
of natural pause before we pass onwards down the
line. We can at once eliminate the whole northern
portion of the British line from the Gommecourt
salient down to Albert, since for that long stretch
attack had changed deﬁnitely to defence, and we
start our narrative from the south of the Albert-
Bapaume road. From that point four villages im-
mediately faced the old British line, and each was
now a centre of ﬁghting. From the north they were
La Boiselle, Fricourt, Mametz, and Montauban.
The latter had been held against a strong counter_
attack on the early morning of July 2, and it was
ﬁrmly in the possession of the Thirtieth Division.
Mametz was held by the Seventh Division, who were
pushing on to the north, driving a weak resistance
before them. Fricourt had been deserted by the
morning of July 2, and had been occupied by the
Seventeenth Division, who also at once pushed on
towards the woodlands behind. La Boiselle was


106 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
V.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
lers, and carrying each narrative to a deﬁnite term.
Before embarking upon this account it should be
mentioned that the two northern corps of Rawlin-
son’s army—the Eighth and Tenth—were from now
onwards detached as a separate Fifth Army under
Sir Hubert Gough, one of the most rising command-
ers in the Service. The functions of this Army were
to hold the line from La Boiselle to Serre, and to
form a defensive ﬂank and pivot for the Third, Fif-
teenth, and Thirteenth Corps to the south.
We shall ﬁrst follow the further fortunes of the
troops which operated in the north. Upon July 3
there was a short but severe action upon that part
of the old British line immediately to the left of the
gap which had been broken. In this action, which
began at 6 A.M., the Thirty-second Division, already
greatly weakened by its exertions two days before,
together with the 75th Brigade, lent them by the
Twenty-ﬁfth Division, tried to widen the rent in
the German line by tearing open that portion of it
which had been so fatal to the Eighth Division. The
attack failed, however, though most bravely deliv-
ered, and the difﬁculties proved once more to be un-
surmountable. The attempt cost us heavy casualties, '
a considerable proportion of which fell upon the
75th Brigade, especially upon the 11th Cheshires,
whose Colonel was killed, and upon the 2nd South
Lancashires, who ran into wire and were held up
there. The 8th Borders reached their objective, but
after one-and-a~half hours were forced to let go of
it. The operation proved that whatever misfor-
tunes had befallen the Germans to the south, they
were still rooted as ﬁrmly as ever in their old posi-


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 107
tions. The same lesson was to be taught us on the
same morning at an adjacent portion of the line.
This episode was at the immediate south of the
unsuccessful attack just described. It has already
been stated that the Twelfth, the English division
which have seen so much hard ﬁghting at Loos, had
taken over part of the trenches of the Eighth Divi-
sion, and so found themselves facing Ovillers. Their
chances of a successful advance upon the village
were increased by the fact that the Nineteenth Divi-
sion, after hard ﬁghting, had got into La Boiselle ,to
the south, and so occupied a ﬂank to their advance.
Some further deﬁnition is required as to the situa-
tion at La Boiselle, how it was brought about, and
its extreme importance to the general plan of op—
erations. When the left of the Thirty-fourth Divi-
sion had failed to hold the village, while some mixed
units of the right brigade had established them-
selves within the German lines as already narrated,
it became very vital to help them by a renewed at-
tempt upon the village itself. For this purpose the
Nineteenth Division had moved forward, a unit
which had not yet been seriously engaged. It was
under the command of a ﬁghting Irish dragoon,
whose whimsical expedient for moving forwards
the stragglers at St. Quentin has been recorded in a
previous volume. On the evening of July 1, one bat-
talion of this division, the 9th Cheshires, had got
into the German front line trench near the village,
but they were isolated there and hard put to it to
hold their own during a long and desperate night.
On the following afternoon, about 4 o’clock, two of
their fellow-battalions of the 58th Brigade, the 9th
Royal Welsh Fusiliers and the 6th Wilts, charged
CHAPTER
V.
The
Battle
of the
Somme.


108 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER suddenly straight across the open at the village,
while by a clever device the British barrage was
'g‘t’ue turned elsewhere with the effect of misleading the
or the German barrage which played upon the wrong area.
8mm By 9 RM. on July 2 the south end of the village had
been captured, but the resistance was still very
ﬁerce. Early next morning the whole of the divi-
sion was drawn into this street ﬁghting, and grad-
ually the Germans were pushed back. There was
one desperate counter-attack during which the Brit-
ish line was hard put to it to hold its own, and the
house-to-housc ﬁghting continued throughout the
whole day and night. Two British Colonels, one of
the 7th South Lancashires and the other of the 8th
Gloucesters, particularly distinguished themselves
in this close ﬁghting. The latter, a dragoon like his
commander, was a hard soldier who had left an eye
in Somaliland and a hand at Ypres, but the sight of
him in this day of battle, tearing out the safety-pin
of bombs with his teeth and hurling them with his
remaining hand, was one which gave heart to his
men. Slowly the Germans were worn down, but the
ﬁghting was ﬁerce and the British losses heavy, in-
cluding three commanding ofﬁcers, Wedgwood of
the North Staffords, Royston Piggott of the 10th
Worcesters, and Heath of the 10th Warwicks, the
ﬁrst two killed, the latter wounded. In the midst of
the infantry ﬁghting a single gun of the 19th Battery
galloped with extraordinary gallantry right into the
village and engaged the enemy point-blank with
splendid effect. For this ﬁne performance Captain
Campbell and ten men of the gun’s crew received
decorations. By the evening of the 6th the whole
village was solidly consolidated by the Nineteenth


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 109
Division, they had broken up a strong counter-attack
from the direction of Poziéres, and they had ex-
tended their conquest so as to include the redoubt
called Heligoland. We must turn, however, to the
attack which had in the meanwhile been prepared
upon the line to the immediate north of La Boiselle
by the Twelfth Division.
This attack was carried out at three in the morn-
ing of July 7 by the 35th and the 37th Brigades. The
ﬁghting line from the right consisted of the 5th
Berks, 7th Suffolks, 6th Queen’s Surrey, and 6th
West Kent, with the other battalions in close sup-
port. Unhappily, there was a group of machine-
guns in some broken ground to the north of La
Boiselle, which had not yet been reached by the
Nineteenth Division, and the ﬁre of these guns was
so deadly that the battalions who got across were
too weak to withstand a counter-attack of German
bombers. They were compelled, after a hard
struggle, to fall back to the British line. One cu-
rious beneﬁt arose in an unexpected way from the
operation, for part of the 9th Essex, losing its way
in the dark, stumbled upon the rear of the German
defenders of the northern edge of La Boiselle, by
which happy chance they took 200 prisoners, helped
the Nineteenth in their task, and participated in a
victory instead of a check.
It was evident that before the assault was renewed
some dispositions should be made to silence the guns
which made the passage perilous. With this in view,
another brigade, the 74th from the Twenty-ﬁfth Di-
vision, was allotted to the commander of the Twelfth
Division, by whom it was placed between his own
position and that held by the Nineteenth at La
CHAPTER
V.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


110 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
The
Battle
otthe
Somme.
Boiselle. It was arranged that these fresh troops
should attack at eight o’clock in the morning of
July 7, approaching Ovillers from the south, and
overrunning the noxious machine-guns, while at 8.30
the 36th Brigade, hitherto in reserve, should advance
upon Ovillers from the west. By this difference of
half an hour in the attack it was hoped that the 74th
would have got the guns before the 36th had started.
After an hour’s bombardment the signal was
given and the 74th Brigade came away with a rush,
headed by the 13th Cheshires and 9th North Lanca-
shires, with the 2nd Irish Riﬂes and 11th Lancashire
Fusiliers in support. The advance found the Ger-
mans both in front and on either ﬂank of them, but
in spite of a withering ﬁre they pushed on for their
mark. Nearly every oﬂicer of the 13th Cheshires
from Colonel Finch down to Somerset, the junior
subaltern, was hit. Half-way between La Boiselle
and Ovillers the attack was brought to a halt, and
the men found such cover as they could among the
shell-holes. Their supporting lines had come up,
but beyond some bombing parties there was no fur-
ther advance during the day. Fifty yards away the
untaken machine-gun emplacements lay in front of
them, while Ovillers itself was about 500 yards dis-
tant upon their left front.
In the meantime, after waiting half an hour, the
36th Brigade had advanced. The machine-guns
were, however, still active on either ﬂank of them,
and on their immediate front lay the rubbish-heap
which had once been a village, a mass of ruins now.
But amid those ruins lay the Fusiliers of the Prus-
sian Guard—reputed to be among the best soldiers


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 113
tacks very well carried out. On the 7th they pushed
forward, as part of the general scheme of extension
upon that day, advancing with such dash and deter-
mination that they got ahead of the German barrage
and secured a valuable trench.
When upon Sunday, July 9, the Thirty-second
Division had entirely taken over from the Twelfth
on the west of Ovillers, the 14th Brigade were in the
post of honour on the edge of the village. The 2nd
Manchesters on the left and the 15th Highland Light
Infantry on the right, formed the advanced line with,
the 1st Dorsets in support, while the 19th Lancashire
Fusiliers were chieﬂy occupied in the necessary and
dangerous work of carrying forward munitions and
supplies. Meanwhile, the Pioneer battalion, the
17th N orthumberland Fusiliers, worked hard to join
up the old front trench with the new trenches round
Ovillers. It should be mentioned, as an example of
the spirit animating the British Army, that Colonel
Pears of this battalion had been invalided home for
cancer, that he managed to return to his men for
this battle, and that shortly afterwards he died of
the disease.
On July 10 at noon the 14th Brigade advanced
upon Ovillers from the west, carrying on the task
which had been so well begun by the 36th Brigade.
The assailants could change their ranks, but this
advantage was denied to the defenders, for a per-
sistent day and night barrage cut them off from
their companions in the north. None the less, there
was no perceptible weakening of the defence, and
the Prussian Guard lived up to their own high tra-
ditions. A number of them had already been cap-
tured in the trenches, mature soldiers of exceptional
CHAPTER
V.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


114 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
V.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
physique. Their ﬁre was as murderous as ever, and
the 2nd Manchesters on the north or left of the line
suffered severely. The 15th Highlanders were more
fortunate and made good progress. The situation
had been improved by an advance at 9 RM. upon this
date, July 10, by the 2nd Inniskilling Fusiliers from
the Sixth Division, higher up the line, who made a
lodgment north-west of Ovillers, which enabled a
Russian sap to be opened up from the British front
line. The Inniskillings lost 150 men out of two com--
panies engaged, but they created a new and promis-
ing line of attack. . i _
The British were now well into the village, both
on the south and on the west, but the ﬁghting was
closer and more sanguinary than ever. Bombard-
ments alternated with attacks, during which the
British won the outlying ruins, and fought on from
one stone heap to another, or down into the cellars
below, where the desperate German Guardsmen
fought to the last until overwhelmed with bombs
from above, or stabbed by the bayonets of the fu-
rious stormers. The depleted 74th Brigade of the
Twenty-ﬁfth Division had been brought back to its
work upon July 10th, and on the 12th the 14th Bri-
gade was relieved by the 96th of the same Thirty-
second Division. On the night of July 12 fresh
ground was gained by a surge forward of the 2nd
South Lancashires of the 75th Brigade, and of the
19th Lancashire Fusiliers, these two battalions push-
ing the British line almost up to Ovillers Church.
Again, on the night of the 13th the 3rd Worcesters
and 8th Borders made advances, the latter captur-
ing a strong point which blocked the way to further
progress. On the 14th, however, the 10th Cheshires


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 115
had a set-back, losing a number of men. Again, on
the night of July 14 the 1st Dorsets out still further
into the limited area into which the German resist-
ance had been compressed. On the night of the 15th
the Thirty~second Division was drawn out, after a
fortnight of incessant loss, and was replaced by the
Forty-eighth Division of South Midland Territo-
rials, the 143rd Brigade consisting entirely of War-
wick battalions, being placed under the orders of the
General of the Twenty-ﬁfth Division. The Village, a
splintered rubbish-heap, with the church raising a
stumpy wall, a few feet high, in the middle of it, was
now very closely pressed upon all sides. The Ger-
man cellars and dug-outs were still inhabited, how-
ever, and within them the Guardsmen were as dan-
gerous as wolves at bay. On the night of July 15-16,
a ﬁnal attack was arranged. It was to be carried
through by the 74th, 75th, and 143rd Brigades, and
was timed for 1 A.M. For a moment it threatened
disaster, as the 5th Warwicks got forward into such
a position that they were cut off from supplies, but
a strong effort was made by their comrades, who
closed in all day until 6 P.M., when the remains of the
garrison surrendered. Two German officers and 125
men were all who remained unhurt in this desperate
business; and it is on record that one of the officers
expended his last bomb by hurling it at his own men
on seeing that they had surrendered. Eight ma-
chine-guns were taken. It is said that the British
soldiers saluted the haggard and grimy survivors as
they were led out among the ruins. It was certainly
a very ﬁne defence. After the capture of the village,
the northern and eastern outskirts were cleared by
the men of the Forty-eighth Territorial Division,
CHAPTER
V.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 117
ing, the Statfords, Lincolns, and Sherwoods pushed
their way into Railway Alley and Railway Copse,
while the 7th Borders established themselves in
Bottom Wood. The operations came to a climax
when in the afternoon a battalion of the 186th Prus-
sian Regiment, nearly 600 strong, was caught be-
tween the two Brigades in Cruciﬁx Trench and had
to surrender; altogether the 51st Brigade had done
a very strenuous and successful spell of duty. The
ground gained was consolidated by the 77th Field
Company, Royal Engineers.
The 62nd Brigade of the Twenty-ﬁrst Division,
supported by the 63rd, had moved parallel to the
51st Brigade, the 1st Lincolns, 10th Yorkshires, and
two battalions of Northumberland Fusiliers advanc-
ing upon Shelter Wood and carrying it by storm. It
was a ﬁne bit of woodland ﬁghting, and the ﬁrst inti-
mation to the Germans that their fortiﬁed forests
would no more stop British infantry than their vil-
lage strongholds could do. The enemy, both here
and in front of the Seventeenth Division, were of
very different stuff from the veterans of Ovillers,
and surrendered in groups as soon as their machine-
guns had failed to stop the disciplined rush of their
assailants. After this advance, the Twenty-ﬁrst Di-
vision was drawn out of line for a rest, and the
Seventeenth extending to the left was in touch with
the regular 24th Brigade, forming the right of Bab-
ington’s Twenty-third Division, who were closing in
upon Contalmaison. On the right the 17th were in
touch with the 22nd Brigade of the Seventh Division,
which was pushing up towards the dark and sinister
clumps of woodland which barred their way. On
the night of July 5 an advance was made, the
CHAPTER
V.
The
Battle
ofthe
Somme.


118 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
Seventh Division upon Mametz Wood, and the
Seventeenth upon the Quadrangle Trench, connect-
ing the wood with Contalmaison. The attack upon
the wood itself had no success, though the 1st Royal
Welsh Fusiliers reached their objective, but the 52nd
Brigade was entirely successful at Quadrangle
Trench, where two battalions—the 9th Northumber-
land Fusiliers and 10th Lancashire Fusiliers—crept
up within a hundred yards unobserved and then car-
ried the whole position with a splendid rush. It was
at once consolidated. The Twenty-third Division
had advanced upon the left and were close to Con-
talmaison. On the night of July 5 the Seventh Divi-
sion was drawn out and the Thirty-eighth Welsh Di-
vision took over the line which faced Mametz Wood.
The Seventeenth Division, after its capture of the
Quadrangle Trench, was faced by a second very dan-
gerous and difﬁcult line called the Quadrangle Sup-
port, the relative position of which is shown upon
the diagram on the next page.
It is clear that if either Mametz Wood or Contal-
maison were to fall, this trench would become unten-
able for the Germans, but until those two bastions,
or at least one of them, was in our hands, there was
such a smashing ﬁre beating down upon an open ad-
vance of 600 yards, that no harder task could pos-
sibly be given to a Division. The trench was slightly
over the brow of a slope, so that when the guns
played upon it the garrison were able to slip quickly
away and take refuge in Mametz Wood, coming back
again in time to meet an assault which they were
well aware could only be delivered by troops which
had passed through an ordeal of ﬁre which must
shake and weaken them.


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120 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916‘
CHAPTER
V.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
It seemed that the best chance to bring a striking
force up to the trench was to make the attempt at
night, so at 2 A.M. of July 7 the 9th Northumberland
Fusiliers and 10th Lancashire Fusiliers, the same
battalions which had already taken Quadrangle
Trench, advanced through the darkness of an in-
clement night upon their objective. The enemy
proved, however, to be in great force, and their
trench was stuffed with men who were themselves
contemplating an attack. A party of Lancashire
Fusiliers got into Pearl Alley, which is on the left
1 near Contalmaison, but the village stands on a slight
eminence, and from it the trench and the apprOaches
can be swept by ﬁre. The British attack was driven
back with loss, and was followed up by the 9th Gren-
adiers of the Prussian Guard, who were in turn
driven back by the left of the British line, consist-
ing of the 10th Lancashire Fusiliers and some of
the 1st Worcesters. In the morning another at-
tempt was made upon Quadrangle Support, this
time by the 9th West Ridings and the 12th Manches-
ters. Small parties got up to Acid Drop Copse, close
to Contalmaison, but they were too weak to hold on.
At the end of this attack the 52nd Brigade, which
had been so badly mauled, was drawn out and the
51st put back in its place.
This severe ﬁghting at the Quadrangle was part
of a wider action, which was to include an attack by
the Twenty-third Division upon Contalmaison and
an attack by the Thirty-eighth upon Mametz Wood.
The Contalmaison attack won its way into the north-
west side of the village at 11 o’clock on the morning
of July 7, but by 12 o’clock it had been held and
"eventually repulsed. By 4.30 the 24th Brigade of


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 121
the Twenty-third Division, which was on the imme-
diate left of the Seventeenth Division, had been
driven back to its trenches, the 1st Worcesters, 2nd
East Lancashires, and 2nd Northamptons suffering
heavily.
Whilst the Contalmaison attack had failed upon
the left, that upon Mametz Wood had no better suc-
cess upon the right. It was to have been carried out
by the Thirty-eighth Welsh Division, but in its ap-
proach such opposition was encountered to the wood
that the 16th Welsh (City of Cardiff) and 10th
South Wales Borderers could not get forward.
Meanwhile, the 50th Brigade from the Seventeenth
Division had been told off to co-operate with this
attack, and naturally found themselves with their
right ﬂank in the air, the 7th East Yorks suffering
severely in consequence. None the less, some ad-
vance was made upon this side.
In the night of July 7 a third attack was made
upon Quadrangle Support, with no better result
than the others. On this occasion, the 51st Brigade
had relieved the 52nd, and it was the 10th Sherwood
Foresters which endured the heavy losses, and per-
severed until they were within bomb-throw of their
objective, losing Major Hall Brown, a gallant Ceylon
planter, and many officers and men. At the same
hour the 50th Brigade had again tried to gain ground
in the direction of Mametz Wood, but had failed
on account of uncut wire. The military difﬁculties
of the situation during this day were greatly en-
hanced by the state of the ground, owing to most
unseasonable heavy rain, which left four feet of mud
in some of the trenches. Altogether, when one con-
siders the want of success at Ovillers, the repulse at
CHAPTER

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


122 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
V.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
Contalmaison, the three checks in one day at the
Quadrangle, and the delay of the attack on Mametz
Wood, the events of July 7 showed that the task of
the British, even inside a broken German line, was
still a very heavy one. General Horne upon the line
and Sir Douglas Haig behind it, must both have felt
the strain that night.
At six in the morning of July 8 the undefeatable
Seventeenth Division was again hard at work encom-
passing the downfall of its old opponents in Quad-
rangle Support. Since it could not be approached
above ground, it was planned that two brigades—
the 51st and the 50th, should endeavour to bomb
their way from each side up those trenches which
were in their hands. It is wonderful that troops
which had already endured so much, and whose
nerve might well be shattered and their hearts
broken by successive failures, should still be able to
carry out a form of attack which of all others call
for dash and reckless courage. It was done, none
the less, and with some success, the bombers blast-
ing their way up Pearl Alley on the left to the point
where it joins on to the Quadrangle Support. The
bombers of the 7th Lincolns did particularly well.
“Every attempted attack by the Bosche was met by
them with the most extraordinary Berserker fury.
They utterly cowed the enemy.” So wrote an ex-
perienced spectator. On the right the 50th Brigade
made some progress also up-Quadrangle Alley. Ar-
tillery ﬁre, however, put a term to the advance in
both instances, the guns of Contalmaison dominat-
ing the whole position. In the evening a fresh
bombing attack was made by the same troops, whose
exertions seem really to have reached the limit of


THE BATTLE OF THE soMME 123
human capacity. This time the 7th Borders ac-
tually reached Quadrangle Support, but were un-
able to get further. The same evening some of the
50th Brigade bombed down Wood Trench towards
Mametz Wood, so as to facilitate the coming attack
by the Thirty-eighth Division. On July 9, both
Brigades again tried tobomb their way into Quad-
rangle Support, and were again held up by the ene-
my ’s ﬁre. This was the sixth separate attempt upon
the same objective by the same soldiers—~an example
surely of the wonderful material of which the New
Armies were composed.
But'their labours were not yet done. Though
both brigades were worn to shadows, it was still a
point of honour to hold to their work. At 11.20 that
night a surprise attack was made across the open
under the cover of night. The 8th South Staﬁords
on the left—charging with a yell of “Staffordsl”
-—reached the point where Pearl Alley joins the
Quadrangle Support (see Diagram), and held on
most desperately. The 50th Brigade on the right
were vchecked and could give no assistance. The
men upon the left strove hard to win their way down
Quadrangle Support, but most of the officers were
down, the losses were heavy, and the most that
they could do. was to hold on to the junction with
Pearl Alley. The 50th were ready to go forward
again to help them, and the Yorkshire men were
already on the move; but day was slowly breaking
and it was doubtful if the trench could be held under
the guns of Contalmaison. The attack upon the
right was therefore stopped, and the left held on as
best it might, the South Staffords, having lost griev-
CHAPTER
V.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


124 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
ously, nearly all their ofﬁcers, including the Adju-
tant, Coleridge, being on the ground.
We may now leave this heroic tragedy of the
Quadrangle and turn our attention to what had been
going on at Mametz Wood upon the right, which was
really the key to the situation. It has already been
stated that the wood had been attacked in vain by a
brigade of the Seventh Division, and that the Thirty-
eighth Welsh Division had found some diﬁiculty in
even approaching it. It was indeed a formidable
obstacle upon the path of the army. An ofﬁcer has
described how he used to gaze from afar upon the
immense bulk, the vast denseness and darkness of
Mametz Wood, and wonder, knowing the manifold
dangers which lurked beneath its shadows, whether
it was indeed within human power to take it. Such
was the ﬁrst terrible task to which the Welshmen of
the New Army were called. It was done, but one
out of every three men who did it found the grave
or the hospital before the survivors saw the light
shine between the further tree trunks.
As the Welshmen came into the line they had the
Seventeenth Division upon their left, facing Quad-
rangle Support, and the Eighteenth upon their right
at Caterpillar Wood. When at 4.15 on the morning
of July 10 all was ready for the assault, the Third
Division had relieved the Eighteenth on the right,
but the Seventeenth was, as we have seen, still in its
position, and was ﬁghting on the western edge of the
wood.
The attack of the Welshmen started from White
Trench, which lies south-east of the Wood, and
meanders along the brow of a sharp ridge. Since it
was dug by the enemy it was of little use to the at-


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 125
tack, for no riﬂe ﬁre could be brought to bear from
it upon the edge of the wood, while troops coming
over the hill and down the slope were dreadfully ex-
posed. Apart from the German riﬂemen and ma-
chine-gunners, who lay thick among the shell-blasted
stumps of trees, there was such a tangle of thick un-
dergrowth and fallen trunks lying at every conceiv-
able angle, that it would take a strong and active
man to make his way through the wood with a fow-
ling-piece for his equipment and a pheasant for his
objective. No troops could have had a more des-
perate task—the more so as the German second line
was only a few hundred yards from the north end of
the wood, whence they could reinforce it at their
pleasure.
The wood is divided by a central ride running
north and south. All to the west of this was allotted
to the ‘113th Brigade, 9. unit of Welsh Fusilier bat-
talions commanded by a young brigadier who is
more likely to win honour than decorations, since he
started the War with both the V.C. and the D.S.O.
The 114th Brigade, comprising four battalions of the
Welsh Regiment, was to carry the eastern half of the
wood, the attack being from the south. The front
line of attack, counting from the right, consisted of
the 13th Welsh (2nd Rhonddas), 14th Welsh (Swan-
sea), with its left on the central ride, and 16th Royal
Welsh Fusiliers in the van of the 113th Brigade.
About 4.30 in the morning the barrage lifted from
the shadowy edge of the wood, and the infantry
pushed forward with all the Cymric ﬁre which burns
in that ancient race as ﬁercely as ever it has done, as
every ﬁeld of manly sport will show. It was a mag-
niﬁcent spectacle, for wave after wave of men could
CHAPTER
The
Battle
otthc
Somme.


126 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER be seen advancing without hesitation and without a
‘7' break over a distance which in some places was not
gale less than 500 yards.
ofthe The Swansea men in the centre broke into the
smme' wood without a check, a lieutenant of that battalion
charging down two machine-guns and capturing
both at the cost of a wound to himself. The 13th
on the right won their way also into the wood, but
were held for a time, and were reinforced by the
15th (Carmarthens). Here for hours along the
Whole breadth of the wood the Welsh infantry strove
desperately to crawl or burst through the tangle of
tree trunks in the face of the deadly and invisible
machine-guns. Some of the 15th got forward
through a gap, but found themselves isolated, and
had great difﬁculty in joining up with their own
battle line once more. Eventually, in the centre and
right, the three battalions formed a line just south
of the most southern cross ride from its junction
with the main ride. ,
On the left, the 16th Welsh Fusiliers had lost
heavily before reaching the trees, their Colonel, Car-
den, falling at the head of his men. The circum-
stances of his death should be recorded. His Welsh
Fusiliers, before entering action, sang a hymn in
Welsh, upon which the Colonel addressed them, say-
ing, “Boys, make your peace with God! We are
going to take that position, and some of us won’t
come back. But we are going to take it.” Tying
his handkerchief to his stick he added, “This will
show you where I am.” He was hit as he waved
them on with his impromptu ﬂag; but he rose, ad-
vanced, was hit again, and fell dead.
Thickened by the support of the 15th Royal Welsh


128 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
V.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
Fusiliers, the line rushed on, and occupied the end'
of the wood until they were abreast of their com-
rades on the right. Once among the trees, all cohe-
sion was lost among the chaos of tangled branches
and splintered trunks, every man getting on as best
he might, with ofﬁcers rallying and leading forward
small groups, who tripped and scrambled onwards
against any knot of Germans whom they could see.
On this edge of the wood some of the Fusiliers
bombed their way along Strip Trench, which out-
lines the south-western edge, in an endeavour to
join hands with the 50th Brigade on their left. At
about 6.30 the south end of the wood had been
cleared, and the Welshmen, ﬂushed with success,
were swarming out at the central ride. A number
of prisoners, some hale, some wounded, had been
taken. At 7 o’clock the 113th were in touch with the
114th on the right, and with the 50th on the left.
Further advance was made difﬁcult by the fact
that the ﬁre from the untaken Wood Support Trench
upon the left swept across the ride. The losses of
the two Fusilicr battalions had been so heavy that
they were halted while their comrades of the 13th
Reyal Welsh Fusiliers, under Colonel Flower, who
was killed by a shell, attacked Wood Support—even-
tually capturing the gun which had wrought such
damage, and about 50 Germans. This small body
had succeeded, as so often before and since, in hold-
ing up a Brigade and disorganising an advance.
Until the machine-gun is checkmated by the bullet-
proof advance, the defensive will maintain an over-
powering and disproportionate advantage.
The 10th Welsh had now come up to reinforce
the left of the 114th Brigade, losing their Colonel,


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 129
Rickets, as they advanced into the wood. The 19th
Welsh pioneer battalion also came forward to con-
solidate what had been won. There was a consider-
able pause in the advance, during which two bat-
talions—the 17th Welsh Fusiliers and the 10th South
Wales Borderers from the Reserve Brigade, 115th
—came up to thicken the line. At about four, the
attack was renewed, until at least two-thirds of the
wood had been gained. The South Wales Borderers
worked up the eastern side, pushing the defenders
into the open, where they were shot down by British
machine-guns in Caterpillar Wood and Marlbor-
ough Wood. About 50 yards from the northern end
the khaki line was at last held up and remained
there, crouching in shell-holes or behind broken
trunks. The main resistance came from a trench
outside the wood, and it was eventually determined
to bombard it, for which purpose the troops were
withdrawn some hundreds of yards. Late in the
evening there was another gallant attempt to get the
edge of the wood, but the trench was as venomous
as ever, and the main German second line behind it
was sweeping the underwood with bullets, so the
advance was halted for the night.
During the night the 115th Brigade had come to
the front, and in the morning of July 11 had relieved
the 113th and 114th Brigades. The relief in a thick
wood, swept by bullets, and upon a dark night in the
close presence of a formidable enemy, was a most
difficult operation. The morning was spent in recon-
naissance, and it was only at 3.15 P.M. that the ad-
vance could be made upon the main German defence,
a trench just outside the north end of the wood.
About 4 o’clock the Brigade swept on, and after a.
CHAPTER
V.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


130 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
V.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
sharp bayonet ﬁght gained the trench towards the
north-east, but the Germans still held the centre and
swept with their ﬁre the portion in our possession. ~-
The 11th South Wales Borderers (2nd Gwents) held
on splendidly, in spite of their heavy losses. The
situation was now such, with only 300 yards to go
to reach the German second line, that it was deemed
well to relieve the Thirty-eighth Division by the
Twenty-ﬁrst Division, who had been selected for
the coming battle. This change was carried out by
the morning of July 12.
The action of the Thirty-eighth Division in cap-
turing Mametz Wood had been a very ﬁne one, and
the fruit of their victory was not only an important
advance, but 398 prisoners, one ﬁeld gun, three heavy
guns, a howitzer and a number of smaller pieces.
It was the largest wood in the Somme district, and
the importance attached to it by the Germans may
be gathered from the fact that men of ﬁve different
German regiments, the 3rd Lehr, 16th Bavarians,
77th, 83rd, and 122nd, were identiﬁed among our
opponents. Among many instances of individual
valour should be mentioned that of a colonel of the
Divisional Staff, who twice, revolver in hand, led
the troops on where there was some temporary check
or confusion. It is impossible to imagine anything
more difficult and involved than some of this ﬁght-
ing, for apart from the abattis and other natural
impediments of a tangled wood, the place was a per-
fect rabbit-warren of trenches, and had occasional
land mines in it, which were exploded—some of
them prematurely, so that it was the retreating Ger-
mans who received the full force of the blast. Bum-
ing petrol was also used continually in the defence,


. THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 131
and frequently proved to be a two-edged weapon.
Some of the garrison stood to their work with ex-
traordinary courage, and nothing but the most de-
voted valour upon the part of their assailants could
have driven them out. “Every man of them was
killed where he stood,” said a Welsh Fusilier, in de-
scribing the resistance of one group. “They refused
offers of quarter right to the last, and died with
cheers for the Kaiser or words of deﬁance on their
lips. They were brave men, and we were very sorry
indeed to have to kill them, for we could not but
admire them for their courage.” Such words give
honour both to victors and vanquished. The Ger-
man losses were undoubtedly very heavy—probably
not less than those of the Welsh Division.
Though the Welsh Division had overrun Mametz
Wood from south to north, there was still one angle
in the north-west which had lain out of their course,
and had not been taken by them. This part of the
wood was occupied upon the evening of July 11 by
the 62nd Brigade of the Twenty-ﬁrst Division, which
had already performed such notable services upon
the Somme. Eight ﬁeld-guns were discovered in
this part of the wood and were captured by the
Brigade.
The situation had now greatly improved for the
Seventeenth Division in front of Quadrangle Sup-
port, for not only was Mametz Wood mostly in the
hands of the Welsh, but the Twenty-third Division
on the left, who after their temporary check at Con-
talmaison had fallen back upon the line Peake Alley
-—Birch Tree Wood—Shelter Wood, now came for-
ward again and occupied Bailiff Wood upon the
north of Contalmaison. Under these circumstances,
CHAPTER

The
Battle
of the '
Somme.


132 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
(Imam; the 50th Brigade upon the right again attempted to
' get forward in order to keep level with the Welsh
ﬁfth in the wood. Connection had not yet been made at
otthe that point, however, and the 7th East Yorks, who
8mm" were the leading battalion, suffered heavy losses be-
fore being compelled to abandon the attempt.
Victory, however, was at last coming to reward
the living and vindicate the dead. At four in the
afternoon of July 10, the Twenty-third Division ad-
vanced from Bailiff Wood for its second assault
upon Contalmaison. This time everything went to
perfection, and the much-enduring infantry were
able to take possession of the village, while a coun-
ter-attack by the third Reserve Division of the Prus-
sian Guards came under concentrated artillery ﬁre,
and was completely disorganised and destroyed. It
was the wounded of the Guard from this attack who
were seen at Potsdam, and described by Mr. Curtin
the American journalist, in one of the most brilliant
articles of the War. Carried into furniture vans,
they were conveyed to their hospitals with every
secrecy, in order to conceal from the populace the
results of the encounter between the famous Corps
and those men of the New Army who for more than
a year had been the favourite butt of the Witz-Bldt-
ter of P. " " Old Father Time has a humour of his
own, and his laugh is usually the last. Besides the
Guard the 70th Jaeger and the 110th, 114th, and
119th Regiments were included in this defeat.
The two bastions having fallen, the problem of
the Quadrangle Support became a very different
one, and the 51st Brigade, joining up with the right
of the Twenty-third Division in the evening, was
able to get hold of the left end of it. Even now, how-


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 133
ever, the Germans fought hard to the right, and both
the 7 th East Yorks and the 6th Dorsets had to push
strongly before they could win through. They were
encouraged in their efforts when, in the waning
light, they were able to see small bodies of the enemy
retiring in the distance out of the fringe of the
wood. By ten o’clock that night, the long task had
been accomplished, and the dead might sleep in
peace, for Quadrangle Support was in the hands of
the Seventeenth Division. They were relieved by
the Twenty-ﬁrst Division upon July 11.
At or about the same time as the relief of the
Seventeenth Division, the Twenty-third upon their
left were also relieved, their line being taken over
by the First Division. Since the capture of Contal-
maison and the heavy repulse of the German Guard
Division, the British had made further progress, so
that both Pearl Wood and Contalmaison Villa to the
north of the village were ﬁrmly in their hands. The
instructions to the'First Division were to endeavour
to improve this advantage, and an advance was at
once made which, occurring as it did upon the night
of July 15, may be best described under the heading
which treats of the breaking of the second German
line.
Having dealt with the operations upon the left
and those in the centre of the intermediate German
position, we will now turn to those upon the right,
which are concerned with the Eighteenth and the
Thirtieth Divisions, supported by the Ninth. After
the fall of Montauban, these Divisions advanced, the
one upon Caterpillar Wood, and the other to Berna-
foy Wood, both of which were occupied. For the
occupation of Bernafoy Wood the 27th Brigade of .
CHAPTER
The
Battle
of the
Somme.


.134
THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
the Ninth Division had been put at the disposal of
the commander of the Thirtieth, and this force oc-
cupied the position without much loss, but were ex-
posed afterwards to a most deadly shell-ﬁre, which
caused heavy losses to the two front battalions—the
6th King’s Own Scottish Borderers and the 6th
Scots Riﬂes. The wood was held, however, together
with three guns, which were found within it. On
July 5 the Thirtieth Division handed over that line
to the Ninth. On that date they sustained the
heavy loss of Colonels Trotter and Smith—both
killed by distant shell-ﬁre.
The rest of the Thirtieth Division only lasted for
a very few days, and upon July 7 they were facing
the enemy position from Malzhorn Farm upon the
right to Trones Wood upon the left, and were about
to be initiated in that terrible wood ﬁghting which
cost us so dear. There is no ﬁghting in the world
which is more awesome to the mind, and more ex-
hausting to the body than such combats as these
amid the ghostly atmosphere of ruined woods, with
Death lurking in the shadows on every hand, and
the thresh of the shells beating without cessation
by night and by day. Trones, Mametz, High Wood,
Delville—never has the quiet, steadfast courage of
the British soldier been put to a more searching test
than in those haunts of gloom and horror. In the
case of Trones Wood some account must be given of
the peculiar tactical difficulties of the situation, and
then we shall turn to the sombre, but glorious narra-
tive of the successive attacks.
The tactical problem was a remarkable one. The
wood was connected up on the German side by good
lines of trenches with Malzhorn Farm on the south,


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 135
with Guillemont on the east, and with Waterlot
Farm on the north—each of these points being from
400 to 700 yards away. It was also commanded by a
large number of heavy guns. The result was that if
the British stormers held the wood in strength, they
were shelled out with heavy losses. If, on the other
hand, the wood were lightly held, then the German
infantry pouring in from the east and north could
drive them out. The British, on the other hand, had
no trenches leading up to the wood, though in other
respects the Germans found the same difﬁculties in
holding the place that they did. It was a terrible
contest in tenacity between the infantry of the two
nations, and if in the end the British won it must at
least be admitted that there was no evidence of any
demoralisation among the Germans on account of
the destruction of their main line. They fought well,
were well led, and were admirably supported by
their guns. /
The ﬁrst attack upon Trones Wood was carried
out from the south upon July 8 by the 21st Brigade.
There was no suspicion then of the strength of the
German position, and the attack was repulsed within
a couple of hours, the 2nd Yorks being the chief
sufferers.
There was more success upon the right of the line
where the French were attacking Malzhorn Farm.
A company of the 2nd Wilts made their way suc-
cessfully to help our Allies, and gained a lodgment
in the German trenches which connect Malzhorn
Farm with the south end of Trones Wood. With
the aid of some of the 19th Manchesters this posi-
tion was extended, and two German counter-attacks
were crushed by riﬂe-ﬁre. The position in this south- _
The
Battle
of the
Somme.


136 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER ern trench was permanently held and it acted like a.
v. . . .
__ self-registering gauge for the combat in Trones
Efﬁe Wood, for when the British held the wood the whole
orthe Southern Trench was British, while a German suc-
smm‘ cess in the wood always led to a contraction in the
holding of the trench.
At one o’clock upon July 8 the 218t Brigade re-
newed their attempt, attacking with the 2nd Wilt-
shires in the lead from the side of Bernafoy Wood.
The advance was a ﬁne one, but Colonel Gillson was
badly wounded, and his successor in command, Cap-
tain Mumford, waskilled. About three o’clock the
18th and 19th Manchesters came up in support.
German bombers were driving down from the north,
and the ﬁghting was very severe. In the evening
some of the Liverpools came up to strengthen the
line, and it was determined to draw out the weak-
ened 21st, and replace it by the 90th Brigade. At
the same time a party of the 2nd Scots Fusiliers of
this Brigade took over Malzhorn Tr'ench, and rushed
the farmhouse itself, capturing 67 prisoners. The
whole of the Trench was afterwards cleared up with
two machine-guns and 100 more prisoners. It was a
ﬁne bit of work, worthy of that splendidbattalion.
Upon July 9 at 6.40 A.M. began the third attack
upon Trones Wood led by the 17th Manchesters.
They took over the footing already held, and by
eight o’clock they had extended it along the eastern
edge, practically clearing the wood of German infan-
try. There followed, however, a terriﬁc bombard-
ment, which caused such losses that the 17th and
their comrades of the 18th were ordered to fall back
once more, with the result that the Scots Fusiliers
had to give up the northern end of their Malzhorn


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 137
Trench. An enemy counter-attack at 4.30 P.M. had
no success. A fresh British attack (the fourth) was
at once organised, and carried out by the 16th Man-
chesters, who at 6.40 P.M. got into the south end of
the wood once more, ﬁnding a scattered fringe of
their comrades who had held on there. Some South
African Highlanders from the Ninth Division came
up to help them during the night. This ﬁne battalion
lost many men, including their Colonel, Jones, while
supporting the attack from Bernafoy Wood. In the
morning the position was better, but a gap had been
left between the Manchesters in the wood and the
Scots in the trench, through which the enemy made
their way. After much confused ﬁghting and very
heavy shelling, the evening of July 10 found the
wood once more with the Germans.
In the early morning of July 11 the only remain-
ing British Brigade, the 89th, took up the running.
At 3.50' the 2nd Bedfords advanced to the attack.
Aided by the 19th King’s Liverpools, the wood was
once again carried and cleared of the enemy, but
once again a terriﬁc shellfall weakened the troops
to a point where they could not resist a strong at-
tack. The Bedfords fought magniﬁcently, and had
lost 50 per cent of their effectives before being com-
pelled to withdraw their line. The south-east corner
of the wood was carried by the swarming enemy,
but the south-west corner was still in the hands of
our utterly weary and yet tenacious infantry. At
9.30 the same evening, the 17th King’s Liverpools
pushed the Germans back once more, and consoli-
dated the ground won at the southern end. So the
matter stood when the exhausted division was with-
drawn for a short rest, while the Eighteenth Divi-
CHAPTER

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


138 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
sion took up their difﬁcult task. The Lancashire
men had left it unﬁnished, but their conduct had
been heroic, and they had left their successors that
one corner of consolidated ground which was needed
as a jumping-off place for a successful attack.
It was the 55th Brigade of the Eighteenth Division
which ﬁrst came up to take over the ﬁghting line.
A great responsibility was placed upon the general
ofﬁcer commanding, for the general attack upon the
German line had been ﬁxed for July 14, and it was
impossible to proceed with it until the British held
securely the covering line upon the ﬂank. Both
Trones Wood and the Malzhorn Trench were there-
fore of much more than local importance, so that
when Haig found himself at so late a date as July
12 without command of this position, it was a very
serious matter which might have far-reaching con-
sequences. The orders now were that within a day,
at all costs, Trones Wood must be in British hands,
and to the 55th, strengthened by two battalions of
the 54th Brigade, was given the desperate task. Thev
situation was rendered more difﬁcult by the urgency
of the call, which gave the leaders no time in which
to get acquainted with the ground.
The German defence had become a strong one.
They had formed three strong points, marked S1,
S2, and S3 in the Diagram, p. 141. These, together
with several trenches, dotted here and there, broke
up every attack, and when once order was broken it
was almost impossible in the tangle and obscurity
for the troops to preserve any cohesion or direction.
Those troops which penetrated between the strong
points found themselves with the 'enemy in their
rear and were in a disorganised condition, which


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 139
was only overcome by the individual bravery of the
men, who refused to be appalled by the difficult sit-
uation in which they found themselves.
The attack of the 55th Brigade was made from
the sunken road immediately south of the wood,
and it ran at once into so heavy a. barrage that it
lost heavily before it had reached even the edge of
its objective. The 7th West Kents, who formed the
attacking force, were not to be denied, however, and
they pushed forward through a deepening gloom, for
it was seven in the evening before the signal had
been given. Whilst the Kents fought up from thev
south, the Queen’s Surreys attempted to win a
lodgment on the north-west where the Longueval
Alley led up from Bernafoy Wood. They also suf—
fered heavily from the barrage, and only a few brave
men reached the top of the wood and held on there
for some hours. The West Kents passed the line of
strong points and then lost touch with each other,
until they had resolved themselves into two or three
separate groups holding together as best they could
in the darkness with the enemy all round them, and
with the communications out behind them. The tele-
phone wires had all been broken by the barrage, and
the anxious commanders could only know that the
attack had failed, that no word came back from the
front, and that a British battalion had been swal-
lowed up by the wood.
The orders were peremptory, however, that the
position should be taken, and General Maxse, with-
out hesitation, threw a second of his brigades into
the dangerous venture. It was the 54th Brigade
which moved to the attack. It was just past mid-
night when the soldiers went forward. The actual
CHAPTER
The
Battle
of the
Somme.


140 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER assault was carried out from south to north, on the
same line as the advance of the West Kents. The
gal. storming battalions were the 6th Northamptons and
of the 12th Middlesex, the former to advance direct
sow“ through the wood and the latter to clean up behind
them and to form a defensive ﬂank on the right.
The attack was a ﬁne feat of arms. Though heav-
ily hit by the barrage, the Northamptons, closely fol-
lowed by two companies of the Middlesex, pushed
their way into the wood and onwards. It was pitch
dark, and the men were stumbling continually over
the fallen trees and the numerous dead bodies which
lay among the undergrowth. None the less, they
kept touch, and plodded steadily onwards. The gal-
lant Clark was shot, but another ofﬁcer led the
Northamptons against the central strong point, for
it had been wisely determined to leave no enemy in
the rear. Shortly after dawn on July 14 this point
was carried, and the Northamptons were able to get
forward. By 8 o’clock the wood was full of scat-
tered groups of British infantry, but the situation
was so confused that the colonel went forward and
rallied them into a single line which formed across
the wood. This line advanced until it came level
with the strong point S3, which was captured. A
number of the enemy then streamed out of the east-
ern side of the wood, making for Guillemont. These
men came under British machine-gun ﬁre and lost
heavily. The remaining strong point at S1 had
been taken by a mixed group of Buffs and Middlesex
about 9 A.M. These three strong points having been
occupied, the whole wood was now swept clear and
was permanently occupied, though still subjected to
very heavy shell ﬁre by the enemy. Thus, the right


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142 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916

CHAPTER
V.
The
Battle
of the I
Somme.
ﬂank of the army was covered, and the important
operations of July 14 were enabled to go forward
without danger of molestation. Of the two gallant
battalions who mainly achieved this important re-
sult, the losses of the N orthamptons were about 300,
and of the Middlesex about half that amount.
There was an epilogue which was as honourable
to the troops concerned as the main attack had been.
This concerns the fate of the men of West Kent, who,
as will be remembered, had been cut OH in the wood.
The main body of these, under the regimental adju-
tant, together with a few men of the Queen’s, formed
a small defensive position and held out in the hope
of relief. They were about 200 all told, and their po-
sition seemed so hopeless that every excuse might
have been found for surrender. They held out all
night, however, and in the morning they were suc-
cessfully relieved by the advance of the 54th Bri-
gade. It is true that no severe attack was made
upon them during the night, but their undaunted
front may have had something to do with their im-
munity. Once, in the early dawn, a German ofﬁcer
actually came up to them under the impression that
they were his own men—his last mistake upon earth.
It is notable that the badges of six different German
regiments were found in the wood, which seemed to
indicate that it was held by picked men or volun-
teers from many units. “To the death!” was their
password for the night, and to their honour be it
said that they were mostly true to it. So also were
the British stormers, of whom Sir Henry Rawlinson
said: “The night attack on, and ﬁnal capture of
Trones Wood were feats of arms which will rank


THE BATTLE OE THE SOMME- 143
high among the best achievements of the British
Army.”
An account of this fortnight of desperate and al-
most continuous ﬁghting is necessarily concerned
chieﬂy with the deeds of the infantry, but it may ﬁtly
end with a word as to the grand work of the artillery,
without whom in modern warfare all the valour and
devotion of the foot-soldier are but a useless self-sac-
riﬁce. Nothing could exceed the endurance and the
technical efficiency of the gunners. No ﬁner tribute
could be paid them than that published at the time
from one of their own oﬂicers, which speaks with
heart and with knowledge: “They worked their guns
with great accuracy and effect without a moment’s
cessation by day or by night for ten days, and I don’t
believe any artillery have ever had a higher or a
longer test or have done it more splendidly. And
these gunners, when the order came that we must
pull out and go with the infantry—do you think they
were glad or willing? Devil a bit! They were sick
as muck and only desired to stay on and continue
killing Bosches. And these men a year ago not even
soldiers—much less gunners! Isn’t it magniﬁcent—
and is it not enough to make the commander of such
men uplifted?” No cold and measured judgment of
the historian can ever convey their greatness with
the conviction produced by one who stood by them in
the thick of the battle and rejoiced in the manhood of
those whom he had himself trained and led.
CHAPTER
The
Battle
ofthe
Somme.


CHAPTER
VI.
The
Battle
otthe
Somme.
CHAPTER VI
THE BATTLE on THE SOMME
The Breaking of the Second Line. July 14, 1916
The great night advance—The Leicester Brigade at Bazentin—
Assault by Seventh Division—Success of the Third Division—-
Desperate ﬁght of Ninth Division at Longueval—Operations of
First Division on ﬂank—Cavalry advance.
WITH the fall of Mametz Wood, the impending cap-
ture of Trones Wood upon the right, and the close
investment of Ovillers upon the left ﬂank, the army
could now face the second line of German defences.
The ground in front of them sloped gently upwards
until it reached the edge of a rolling plateau. Upon
this edge were three villages: Little Bazentin upon
the left, Grand Bazentin upon the centre, and Lon-
gueval upon the right, all nestling among orchards
and ﬂanked by woods. Through these lay the ene-
my’s position, extending to Pozieres upon the one
side, and through Guillemont to the French junction
on the other. These two ﬂanks were for the time to
be disregarded, and it was determined to strike a
heavy frontal blow which would, as it was hoped,
crush in the whole middle of their line, leaving the
sides to be dealt with at our leisure. It was a most
formidable obstacle, for all three villages were as
strong as the German sappers could make them, and
were connected up with great lines of trenches, the
- 144
-


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 145
whole front which was to be attacked covering about 05:71?!
6000 yards. A small wood screened Little Bazentin '
on the left, while behind Longueval, facing the right gale
attack, was a larger plantation which, under the ofthe
name of Delville Wood, has won for itself a terrible 80mm
and glorious name in British military history.
The heavy guns had been advanced and the de-
struction of the German wire and trenches had begun
upon July 11. On the evening of the 13th the troops
mustered for the battle. They were all divisions
which had already been heavily engaged, and some
of them had endured losses in the last. fortnight
which might have seemed to be sufﬁcient to put them
out of action. None the less they were not only
eager for the ﬁght, but they were, as it proved, ca-
pable of performing the most arduous and delicate
of all operations, a night march in the face of the
enemy. More than a thousand yards of clear ground
lay at many points between the British outposts and
the German trenches. To cover it in daylight meant,
as they had so often learned, a heavy loss. It was
ordered therefore that the troops should move up
to within striking distance in the darkness, and dash
home with the ﬁrst glimmer of morning light. There
was no confusion, no loss of touch as 25,000 stormers
took up their stations, and so little sound that the
Germans seem to have been unaware of the great
gathering in their immediate front. It was ticklish
work, lying for hours within point-blank range with
no cover, but the men endured it as best they might.
With the ﬁrst faint dawn the long line sprang to
their feet and with a cheer dashed forward at the
German trenches, while the barrage rose and went


146 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916‘
CHAPTER roaring to eastward whence help might come to the

VI' hard-pressed German defence.
Efﬁe On the extreme left of the section attacked was
of the the First Regular Division, which took no part in the
somme‘ actual advance but held the ﬂank in the neighbour-
hood of Contalmaison Villa, and at one period of the
day sent forward its right-hand battalion, the 1st
North Lancashires, to aid their neighbours in the
ﬁght.
The left of the line of actual attack was formed
by the Twenty-ﬁrst Division opposite to Bazentin-le-
Petit. This attack was carried out upon a single
brigade front, and the Brigade in question was the
110th from the Thirty-seventh Division. This di~
vision made no appearance as a unit in the Battle
of the Some, but was several times engaged in its
separate brigades. On this occasion the 110th, con-
sisting entirely of men of Leicester, took the place
of the 63rd Brigade, much reduced by previous
ﬁghting. Their immediate objective was the north
end of Bazentin-le-Petit village and the whole of the
wood of that name. Led by the 8th and 9th Leices—
ters the brigade showed, as has so often been shown
before, that the British soldier never ﬁghts better
than in his ﬁrst engagement. Owing to the co-opera-
tion of the First Division and to a very effective
smoke screen upon their left, their advance was not
attended with heavy loss in the earlier stages, and
they were able to ﬂow over the open and into the
trenches opposite, capturing some 500 prisoners.
They continued to ﬁght their way with splendid
steadiness through the wood and held it for the re-
mainder of the day. Their greatest trouble came
from a singleGerman strong point which was ‘200


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 147
yards away from the corner of the wood, and, there-
fore, beyond their objective. The machine-guns in
this redoubt caused great loss whenever the edge of
the wood was approached. This strong point was
destroyed next day, but meanwhile the position was
consolidated and was ﬁrmly held for the next four
days, after which the division was withdrawn for
a rest. ‘
On the right of the Twenty-ﬁrst Division lay the
Seventh Division, to which had been assigned the
assault of the Bazentin-le-Petit village. The leading
brigade was the 20th and the storming battalions,
the 8th Devons and 2nd Borders, crept up to their
mark in the darkness of a very obscure night. At
3.25 the barrage was lifted, and so instantaneous
was the attack that there was hardly an interval be-
tween the last of the shrapnel and the ﬁrst of the
stormers. The whole front line was captured inan
instant, and the splendid infantry rushed on without
a pause to the second line, springing into the
trenches once more at the moment that the gunners
raised their pieces. In ten minutes both of these
powerful lines had fallen. Several dug-outs were
found to be crammed with the enemy, including the
Colonel of the Lehr Battalion, and with the machine-
guns which they had been unable to hoist into their
places before the wave had broken over them. When
these were cleared, the advance was carried on into
Bazentin-le-Grand Wood, which was soon occupied
from end to end. A line in front of the wood was
taken up and consolidated.
' In the meanwhile, the 22nd Brigade had taken up
the work, the 2nd Warwicks pushing forward and
occupying without any opposition from the disor-
' CHAPTER
VI.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


148 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
VI.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
ganised enemy, the Circus Trench, while the 2nd
Royal Irish advanced to the attack of the village of
Bazentin-le-Petit. Their leading company rushed
the position with great dash, capturing the Colonel
commanding the garrison, and about 100 of his men.
By 7.30 the place was in their hands, and the leading
company had pushed into a trench on the far side of
it, getting into touch with the Leicesters on their
left.
The Germans were by no means done with, how-
ever, and they were massing thickly to the north
and north—east of the houses, where some scattered
orchards shrouded their numbers and their disposi-
tions. As the right of the brigade seemed to be in
the air, a brave sergeant of the 2nd Warwicks set
off to establish touch with the 1st Northumberland
Fusiliers, who formed the left unit of the Third Di-
vision upon the right. As he returned he spotted a
German machine-gun in a cellar, entered it, killed
the gunner, and captured four guns. The wings of
the two divisions were then able to co-operate and
to clear the ground in front of them.
The Irishmen in the advance were still in the air,
however, having got well ahead of the line, and they
were now assailed by a furious ﬁre from High Wood,
followed by a determined infantry assault. This en-
ﬁlade ﬁre caused heavy losses, and the few survivors
of those who garrisoned the exposed trench were
withdrawn to the shelter afforded by the outskirts
of the village. There and elsewhere the Lewis gun
had proved invaluable, for every man of intelligence
in the battalion had been trained to their use, and in
spite of gunners being knocked out, there was never
any lack of men to take their place. The German


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 149
counter-attack pushed on, however, and entered the
village, which was desperately defended not only by
the scattered infantrymen who had been driven back
to it, but also by the consolidating party from the
54th Field Company Royal Engineers and half the
24th Manchester Pioneer Battalion. At this period
of the action a crowd of men from various battalions
had been driven down to the south end of the village
in temporary disorganisation due to the rapidity of
the advance and the sudden severity of the counter-
attack. These men were re-formed by the adjutant
of the Irish, and were led by him against the ad-
vancing Germans, whom they drove back with the
bayonet, ﬁnally establishing themselves on the
northern edge of Bazentin-le-Petit Wood, which they
held until relieved later by the 2nd Gordons of the
20th Brigade. At the same time the village itself
was cleared by the 2nd Warwicks, while the 1st
Welsh Fusiliers drove the Germans out of the line
between the windmill and the cemetery. The trench
held originally by the Irish was retaken, and in it
was found a British officer, who had been badly
wounded and left for a time in the hands of the
enemy. He reported that they would not dress him,
and prodded at him with their bayonets, but that
an ofﬁcer had stopped them from killing him. No
further attempt was made by the Germans to regain
the position of Bazentin. The losses, especially
those of the Royal Irish, had been very heavy dur-
ing the latter part of the engagement.
Much had been done, but the heavy task of the
Seventh Division was not yet at an end. At 3.20
P.M. the reserve Brigade (91st) were ordered to at-
tack the formidable obstacle of High Wood, the
CHAPTER
VI.
The
Battle
of the
Somme.


150 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CH‘AGTER 100th Brigade of the Thirty-third Division (Landon)
' co-operating from the left side, while a handful of
Efﬁe cavalry from the 7th Dragoon Guards and 20th Dec-
ofthe can Horse made an exhilarating, if premature, ap-
Smme‘ pearance upon the right ﬂank, to which some allusion
is made at the end of this chapter. The front line
of the 91st Brigade, consisting of the 2nd Queen’s
Surrey and 1st South Staffords, marched forward in
the traditional style of the British line, taking no
notice of an enﬁlade ﬁre from the Switch Trench,
and beating back a sortie from the wood. At the
same time the Brigadier of the 100th Brigade upon
the left, pushed forward his two leading battalions,
the 1st Queen’s Surrey and the 9th Highland Light
Infantry, to seize and hold the road which led from
High Wood to Bazentin-le-Petit. This was done in
the late evening of July 14, while their comrades of
the Seventh Division successfully reached the south
end of the wood, taking three ﬁeld-guns and 100
prisoners. The Queen’s and part of the Highland
Light Infantry were ﬁrmly in possession of the con-
necting road, but the right ﬂank of the Highlanders
was held up owing to the fact that the north-west pf
the wood was still in the hands of the enemy and
commanded their advance. We will return to the
situation which developed in this part of the ﬁeld
during the succeeding days after we have taken a
fuller view of the doings upon the rest of the line
during the battle of July 14. It may be said here,
however, that the facility with which a footing was
established in High Wood proved to be as fallacious
as the parallel case of Mametz Wood, and that many
a weary week was to pass, and many a brave man
give his heart’s blood, before it was ﬁnally to be in-


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME
153
ergy. “Every one was digging like madmen, all
mixed up with the dead and the dying.” One coun-
ter-attack of some hundreds of brave men did charge
towards them in the afternoon, but were scattered
to the winds by a concentration of ﬁre. The posi-
tion was permanently held.
7 The Ninth Division was on the immediate right
of the Third, facing Longueval, a straggling village
which lay against the sinister background of Del-
ville Wood. The Division was, as will be remem-
bered, the ﬁrst of the new armies, and had distin-
guished itself greatly at Loos. It had been entirely
a Highland Division, but it had undergone a pic-
turesque change by the substitution of the South
African Infantry Brigade in place of the 28th. The
attack upon Longueval was carried out by the 26th
Brigade, the 8th Black Watch and 10th Argyll and
Sutherlands in the lead, with the 9th Seaforths in
support and the 5th Camerons in reserve. The ad-
vance was so ﬁne as to rouse the deepest admiration
from an experienced French oﬂicer who observed it.
“Who would believe,” he wrote, “that only a few
months ago not one of these men knew anything of
the soldier’s profession? They carried themselves
as superbly as the Old Guard. Once I was near
enough to see their faces as they deployed for attack
under the devastating ﬁre rained on them. . . .
Their teeth were set and their eyes were ﬁxed ﬁrmly
on the goal towards which they were advancing.
They were determined to achieve their object, and
nothing but death would stop them. . . . Only those
who were seriously hit thought of dropping out.
The others pressed proudly on, regardless of the
pain they suﬁered, and took part in the ﬁnal charge
CHAPTER
VI.
The
Battle _
of the
Somme.


154 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHQIPITER in which the enemy were driven from the position.”
' Such a tribute from a soldier to soldiers is indeed a
$25... glory-
of the The village and the trenches around it were taken
80mm“ with a splendid rush, but the ﬁghting among the
houses was of a desperate character, “more so,”
says the same observer, “than any I had seen
before.” The Germans refused to give or take
quarter. When the Highlanders broke the line they
cut off those who held the trench. The ofﬁcer in
command offered quarter. The German commander
refused. “I and my men,” he replied, “have orders
to defend this ground with our lives. German sol-
diers know how to obey orders. We thank you for
your offer, but we die where we stand.” When the
Highlanders ﬁnally took possession of the trench, all
but a mere handful of the defenders were dead. It
is episodes like this which would make us ready to
take a German by the hand if it were not that his
country’s hand is red with innocent blood.
The defence was not everywhere equally desper-
ate. As the Highlanders dashed past the trenches
and into the scattered group of houses which marked
the village, grey ﬁgures darted round corners, or
rushed out with hands to heaven. Many prisoners
were taken. Here and there groups of brave men
sold their lives dearly, especially in some ruins at
the east end of the village. The blast of ﬁre from
this place was so hot that for a moment the advance
was staggered; but a brave piper ran to the front,
and the joyous lilt of “The Campbells are coming”
sent the clansmen ﬂooding onwards once more.
Neither bullets, bombs, nor liquid ﬁre could stop


156 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
VI.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
German line along the whole central position, the
ﬂanks both to the right and to the left were still
inviolate. Upon the German right the whole range
of powerful fortiﬁcations which extended through
Poziéres to Thiepval were untouched, while ‘upon
the German left the equally formidable line stretch-
ing from Longueval through Waterlot Farm and
Guillemont to Falfemont Farm, was also intact. It
is correct, then, to say that the German second line
had been stormed and penetrated, but it had not
been captured throughout its full extent, and the
greater part of the autumn campaign was to pass be-
fore this had been accomplished. The reduction of
the German right wing will be recounted in the chap-
ters which deal with Gough’s army, to whom the task
was assigned. That of the left wing is covered by
the narrative, which gives some details of the nu-
merous, bloody, and protracted attacks which ended
in the capture of Guillemont.
Meanwhile, a word may be said as to the opera-'
tions of the First Division, who had been upon the
left of the attack upon July 14, and had covered that
ﬂank without attempting an advance. Upon the
night of July 15 they moved forward to attack the
continuation of the German second line system be-
tween the captured Bazentin and the uncaptured
Poziéres. The attack was made by the 3rd Brigade,
the 2nd Munsters being to the left, the 1st South
Wales Borderers to the right, and the 1st Glouces- v
ters in the centre with the 2nd Welsh in reserve. No
less than 1200 yards of No Man’s Land had to be
crossed, but this was the more easy since both Pearl
Wood and Contalmaison Villa were occupied. A
daring daylight reconnaissance by the colonel of the


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 157
Gloucesters greatly helped the advance. The men
were marched silently in platoons along the road,
and then re-formed into line on the far side of the
enemy’s barrage, a manoeuvre which in the darkness
called for great steadiness and discipline, the line
being dressed on a shaded lamp in the Wood. On
the word the eager troops pushed on with such speed
that they crossed the German front trenches and
were into the second before their own barrage had
properly lifted. Pushing forward again, they were
soon some hundreds of yards past their objective,
where they halted close to the formidable Switch
Line, having occupied all of the second line system
in their front. Their formation was now so dense,
and they were so close to the German machine-guns,
that there was a possibility of disaster, which was
increased by the Welsh Borderers losing direction
and charging towards a body of men whom they
dimly saw in front of them, who proved to be the
Gloucesters. Fine restraint upon both sides pre-
vented a catastrophe. Ofﬁcers and men were now
keen to push on and to attack the Switch Line, from
which ﬂares were rising; but prudence forbade the
opening up of an entirely new objective, and the men
were drawn back to the captured German trenches.
So ended a successful and almost bloodless opera-
tion.
It has been stated in the account of the action of
July 14, that at one stage of the battle the cavalry
advanced, but it was impossible to stop the descrip-
tion of a large movement to follow the fortunes of
this small tactical stroke. None the less the matter
was important, as being the ﬁrst blood lost or drawn
by cavalry, as cavalry, since the early months of the
CHAPTER
VI.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


158 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
VI.

The
Battle
ofthe
Somme.
War. The idea was, that by a sudden move forward
a small body of horse might establish itself in ad-
vance of the general line, and occupy a position
which it could hold until the slower infantry came
forward to take it over. This was actually done, and
the movement may therefore be claimed as a suc-
cessful experiment. The two detachments from the
Deccan Horse and 7th Dragoon Guards galloped
three miles from the rear, so as to be under obser-
vation as short a time as possible, passed swiftly
through the lines of the astonished and jubilant in-
fantry, and riding right into the enemy’s position
upon our right centre, established themselves in a
strong point, and, aided by a friendly monoplane,
beat off the German attacks. - The advance was at
six in the evening, and it was able to hold on until
nightfall and to hand over in the early morning to
the infantry. Some 40 Germans fell to lance or
sabre, and a few were taken prisoners by the daring
cavaliers, who suﬂered somewhat heavily, as they
might well expect to do in so novel and deeperate a
venture.


CHAPTER VII
THE BATTLE or THE soMME
July 14 to July 31
Gradual advance of First Division—Hard ﬁghting of Thirty-third
Division at High Wood—The South Africans in Delville Wood
—The great German counter-attack—Splendid work of 26th
Brigade—Capture of Delville Wood by 99th Brigade—Indecisive
ﬁghting on the Guillemont front.
THE central fact of the situation after the battle of
Bazentin was that although the second German line
had been broken, the gap made was little more than
three miles wide, and must be greatly extended upon
either ﬂank before a general advance upon the third
line could take place. This meant that the left wing
must push out in the Pozieres direction, and that the
right wing must get Ginchy and Guillemont. For
the time the central British position was not an ad-
vantageous one, as it formed a long salient bending
‘ from High Wood through Delville Wood to Guille-
mont, so placed that it was open to direct observa-
tion all along, and exposed to converging ﬁre which
could be directed with all the more accuracy as it
was upon points so well known to the Germans, into
which the guns, communications, and reserves were
now crammed. Sir Douglas Haig’s great difﬁculties
were increased by a long spell of wet and cloudy
weather, which neutralised his advantages in the air.
CHAPTER
VII.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
159


162 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
VII.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
I
Riﬂes lost about 250 men in this night attack, and
the other ﬁrst line battalions—the 2nd Sussex, 10th
Gloucesters, and 1st Cameron Highlanders—were
all hard hit. The failure seems to have been partly
due to misdirection in the dark.
Upon July 25 the 1st South Wales Borderers of
the 3rd Brigade attacked Munster Alley, but were
again unable to get forward on account of the ma-
chine-guns. Nothing daunted, the 2nd Welsh had
another ﬂing at Munster Alley next day, and actually
took it, but had not weight enough to conolidate and
to hold it. On the other hand, the British line was
held inviolate, and a strong German attack upon July
25 towards Pozieres was repulsed with loss.
The Twenty-third Division relieved the First and
were in turn relieved by the Fifteenth in this sector,
which faced the Switch Trench and Martinpuich.
The Switch Line was exposed to a very heavy ﬁre
for several days, at the end of which it was attacked
by this famous division, the same in number at least
as that which had left nearly two-thirds of its rank
and ﬁle upon the bloody slopes of Hill 70. On Au-
gust 12, the advance was carried out with great
dash: the 45th Brigade upon the left and the 46th
upon the right. The attack was only partially suc-
cessful, and the 46th Brigade was held up through
the fact that the Germans had themselves been in the
act of attack, so that the trenches were very strong-
ly held. The operations continued, however, and the
initial gains were enlarged, until upon August 20
the whole Switch Line fell and was permanently
consolidated.
Leaving this left sector we must turn to the
Thirty-third Division on its right, two battalions of


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 163
which had got forward on July 15, as far as the line
of the road connecting High Wood with Little Ba-
zentin. The right ﬂank of the Highland Light In-
fantry had been held up by ﬁre from this wood, and
in the evening the 91st Brigade of the Seventh Divi-
sion had evacuated the southern edge of the wood
in order to allow of bombardment. That was the
position on the night of July 15.
The line of the road was held all night, and early
next morning the advance was ordered upon the
German Switch Trench in front. It was hop-ed that
the wood had been cleared during the night, but in
the morning the Highlanders found themselves still
galled by the continual ﬁre upon their right. It was
clear that the attack could not go forward with such
an impediment upon the ﬂank—one more instance
of a brigade being held up by a handful of concealed
men. It was hoped that the enemy had been silenced,
and the attack was made, but no sooner had it de-
veloped than a murderous ﬁre burst from the wood,
making it impossible for the Highlanders to get
along farther than the road. The 1st Queen’s, how-
ever, being farther from the wood were able to get
on to the Switch Trench, but found it heavily wired
and stiff with men. Such a battalion does not take
“No” easily, and their Colonel, with a large pro-
portion of their ofﬁcers and men, was stretched in
front of the fatal wire before it became evident that
further perseverance would mean destruction. The
16th Riﬂes and half the 2nd Worcesters, the re-'
maining battalions of the 100th Brigade, were
brought up, but no further advance was possible
until the wire could be cut by the guns. About four in
the afternoon of July 16 the remains of the brigade
CHAPTER
VII.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


164 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
VII.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
were back in the road from which they had started.
The attack had failed, partly from the enﬁlade ﬁre of
High Wood, partly from the impassable wire.
The 98th Brigade was on the left of the 100th,
ﬁlling up the gap to Bazentin village. They had ex-
tended their right in order to help their sorely-tried
comrades, and they had themselves advanced upon
the line of the Switch Trench—the 1st Middlesex
leading, with the 4th Suffolk in support. The 2nd
Argyll and Sutherlands with the 4th King’s Liver-
pool were in reserve. They got well forward, but
ceased their advance when it was found that no
progress could be made upon the right. Thus, for
the time, the division was brought to a stand. That
night the 19th Brigade relieved the 100th, which had
been very hard hit in this action. After the change
the 1st Scottish Riﬂes and the 20th Royal Fusiliers
formed the front line of the 19th Brigade, the Riﬂes
in touch with the 22nd Brigade of the 7th upon their
right, while the Fusiliers were in touch with the 98th
Brigade upon their left.
The general situation did not admit of an imme-
diate attack, and the Germans took advantage of the
pause to strengthen and slightly to advance their
position. On July 17, the hard-worked Twenty-ﬁrst
Division upon the left was drawn out, and both the
Thirty-third and Seventh had to extend their fronts.
On the other hand, the First Division came in upon
the left and occupied a portion of the Bazentin-le-
Petit Wood. The position at that time was roughly
that the Seventh Division covered the front from
High Wood to Bazentin Grand, the Thirty-third Di-
vision from Bazentin Grand to Bazentin Petit, and
the First was from their left to Poziéres.


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 165
Upon July 18 there was a very heavy German at-
tack upon Delville Wood, which is treated elsewhere.
This was accompanied by a severe barrage ﬁre upon
the Bazentins and upon Mametz Wood, which con-
tinued all day. That night the Nineteenth Division
came into line, taking over Bazentin Petit, both vil-
lage and wood; The Thirty-third Division moved to
the right and took some pressure off the Seventh,
which had done such long and arduous service,
These incessant changes may seem wearisome to the
reader, but without a careful record of them the
operations would become chaos to any one who en-
deavoured to follow them in detail. It is to be em-
phasised that though divisions continually changed,
the corps to which they temporarily belonged did
not change, or only at long intervals, so that when
you are within its area you can always rely upon
it that in this particular case Home of the Fifteenth
Corps is the actual brain which has the immediate
control of the battle.
As the pressure upon Congreve’s Thirteenth
Corps on the right at Delville Wood and elsewhere
was considerable, it was now deemed advisable to
attack strongly by the Fifteenth Corps. The units
for attack were the Thirty-third Division upon the
left, and the depleted Seventh upon their right.
There was to be no attack upon the left of the
Thirty-third Division, but the 56th Brigade of the
Nineteenth Division was handed over to the 33rd
Division to strengthen the force. The objectives to
be attacked were once again High Wood (Bois des
Foureaux), Switch Trench, and the connecting
trench between them. The Seventh Division at-
CHAPTER
VII.

The
Battle
otthe
Somme.


166
THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
~ VII.

The
Battle
otthe
Somme.
tacked east of the wood on the line between it and
Delville Wood.
The assault upon High Wood was assigned to the
19th Brigade. The 2nd Worcesters of the 98th Bri-
gade were pushed over so as to cover the left ﬂank of
the assaulting column. At 2 A.M. of July 20 the tWO
advance battalions of stormers, the 5th Scottish
Riﬂes on the right, the 1st Scottish Riﬂes upon the
left, were formed up in open ground outside the
British wire. Preceded by scouts, they went silently
forward through the gloom until they approached
the south-western edge of the wood. A terriﬁc bom-
bardment was going on, and even those stout north-
ern hearts might have quailed at the unknown dan-
gers of that darksome wood, lit from moment to
moment by the red glare of the shells. As the bar-
rage lifted, the wave of infantry rushed forward,
the 5th Scottish Riﬂes making for the eastern edge,
while the 1st Regular Battalion pushed on in the
endeavour to win through and secure the northern
edge.
It was speedily found that the tenacious enemy
had by no means loosened his grip of the wood. A
portion of the Switch Trench runs through it, and
this was strongly held, a line of spirting ﬂames amid
the shadow of the shattered trees. Machine-guns and
wire were everywhere. None the less, the dour Scots
stuck to their point, though the wood was littered
with their dead. Both to east and to north they
slowly pushed their way onwards to their objectives.
It was a contest of iron wills, and every yard won
was paid for in blood. By 9 o’clock the whole of the
southern half of the wood had been cleared, the lead-
ing troops being helped by the 20th Fusiliers, who


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 167
followed behind them, clearing up the lurking Ger-
mans. At that hour, the northern end of the wood
was still strongly held by the enemy, while the
stormers had become much disorganised through
loss of officers and through the utter confusion and
disintegration which a. night attack through a wood
must necessarily entail.
The remaining battalion of the 19th Brigade, the
2nd Welsh Fusiliers, was, at this critical moment,
thrown into the ﬁght. A heavy barrage was falling,
and considerable losses were met with before the
wood was entered; but the Fusiliers went forward
with splendid steadiness and dash, their colonel tak-
ing entire local command. In the early afternoon,
having got abreast of the exhausted Scottish Riﬂes,
who had been under the hottest ﬁre for nearly twelve
hours, the Welsh attacked the north end of the wood,
their advance being preceded by a continuous ﬁre
from our Stokes mortars, that portable heavy artil-
lery which has served us so well. The enemy was
still unabashed, but the advance was irresistible, and
by 7 RM. the British were for a time in possession of
the whole of the blood-sodden plantation. It was a
splendid passage of arms, in which every devilry
which an obstinate and ingenious defence could com-
mand was overcome by the inexorable British infan-
try. The grim pertinacity of the Scots who stood
that long night of terror, and the dash of the Welsh
who carried on the wave when it was at the ebb, were
equally ﬁne; and solid, too, was the work of the pub-
lic school lads of the 20th Fusiliers, who gleaned be-
hind the line. So terriﬁc was the shell-ﬁre of the dis-
appointed Germans upon the north end of the wood,
that it was impossible to hold it; but the southern
CHAPTER
VII.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


168 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
VII.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
part was consolidated by the 18th Middlesex pioneer
battalion, and by the 11th Company Royal Engi-
neers.
Whilst the Thirty-third Division stormed High
Wood, their neighbours upon the right, the Seventh
Division, depleted by heavy losses but still full of
spirit, had been given the arduous and important
task of capturing the roads running south-west from
High Wood to Longueval. The assaulting bat-
talions, the 2nd Gordons on the left and the 8th Dev-
ons on the right, Aberdeen and Plymouth in one
battle line, advanced and took their ﬁrst objective
through a heavy barrage. Advancing further, they
attempted to dig in, but they had got ahead of the
attack upon the left, and all the machine-guns both
of Switch Trench and of High Wood, were available
to take them in ﬂank and rear. It was a deadly busi-
ness—so deadly that out of the two leading platoons
of Gordons only one wounded ofﬁcer and ﬁve men
ever got back. Finally, the whole line had to crawl
back in small groups to the ﬁrst objective, which
was being consolidated. That evening, the Fifth Di-
vision took over the lines of the Seventh, who were
at last drawn out for a rest. The relief was marked
by one serious mishap, as Colonel Gordon, command-
ing a battalion of his clansmen, was killed by a Ger- 1
man shell.
It has been stated that the 56th Brigade of the
Nineteenth Division had been placed under the
orders of the Thirty-third Division during these
operations. Its r61e was to cover the left ﬂank of
the attack and to keep the Germans busy in the
Switch Line position. With this object the 56th
Brigade, with the 57th Brigade upon its left, lad-


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 169
vanced its front line upon the night of July 22, a
movement in which the 7th Scuth Lancashires upon
the right of the 56th Brigade were in close touch
with the 2nd Worcesters upon the left of the 100th
Brigade. Going forward in the darkness with Ger-
man trenches in front of them and a raking ﬁre from
High Wood beating upon their ﬂank the Lancashire
men lost heavily and were unable to gain a footing in
the enemy’s position. This brigade had already
suffered heavily from shell-ﬁre in its advance to the
front trenches. Two deaths which occurred during
this short episode may be cited as examples of the
stuff which went to the building up of Britain’s new
armies. Under the shell-ﬁre fell brave old Lieuten-
ant Webber, a subaltern in the ﬁeld, a Master of
Foxhounds at home, father of another dead subal-
tern, and 64 years old. In the night operation, gal-
lantly leading his company, and showing his com-
rades in the dark how to keep direction by astron-
omy, fell Captain Gerard Garvin, student, poet,
essayist, and soldier, just 20 years of age. A book
might be written which would be a national inspira-
tion dealing with the lives of those glorious youths
who united all that is beautiful in the mind with all
that is virile in the body, giving it unreservedly in
their country’s cause. They are lives which are
more reminiscent of Sydney, Spencer, and the ﬁner
of the Elizabethans than anything we could have
hoped to evolve in these later days. Raymond As-
quith, Rupert Brooke, Charles Lister, Gerard Gar—
vin, Julian Grenfell, Donald Hanke'y, Francis Led-
widge, Neil Primrose, these are some at least of this
ﬁnest ﬂower of British culture and valour, men who
Omen:
VII.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


170 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
VII.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
sacriﬁced to the need of the present their inheritance
as the natural leaders of the future.
Though the Nineteenth Division was able to make
no progress upon the night of July 22, upon the next
night one of their brigades, the 58th, reinforced by
two other battalions, made a strong movement for-
ward, capturing the strong point upon the edge of
the wood which had wrought the mischief the night
before, and also through the ﬁne work of the 10th
Warwicks and 7th King’s Own carrying the whole
British line permanently forward upon the right,
though they could make no headway upon the left.
Some conception of the services of the Nineteenth
Division may be gathered from the fact that during
the month of July it had lost 6500 casualties.
The Thirty-third Division was given a well-de-
served rest after their ﬁne exploit in High Wood.
During seven days’ ﬁghting it had lost heavily in
ofﬁcers and men. Of individual battalions the heav-
iest sufferers had been the two Scottish Riﬂe bat-
talions, the 20th Royal Fusiliers, the 1st Queen’s
Surrey, 9th Highland Light Infantry, and very spe-
cially the 16th King’s Royal Riﬂes.
Whilst this very severe ﬁghting had been going
on upon the left centre of the British advance, an
even more arduous struggle had engaged our troops
upon the right, where the Germans had a consider-
able advantage, s_ince the whole of Delville Wood
and Longueval formed the apex of a salient which
jutted out into their position, and was open to a
converging artillery ﬁre from several directions.
This terrible ﬁght, which reduced the Ninth Scot-
tish Division to about the strength of a brigade, and
which caused heavy losses also to the Third Divi-


172 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
Cnégm perimeter of the wood had been occupied, and the
' brigade was stretched round the edges of the trees
ﬁfth and undergrowth. Already they were suffering
gage heavily, not only from the _ Longueval guns upon
m ‘ their left, but from the heavy German artillery
which had their range to a nicety and against which
there was no defence. With patient valour they held
their line, and endured the long horror of the shell-
fall during the night.
Whilst the South Africans were occupying Del-
ville Wood, the 27th Brigade had a task which was
as arduous, and met in as heroic a mood, as that of
their comrades on the day before. Their attack was
upon the orchards and houses to the north and east
of Longueval, which had been organised into for-
midable strong points and garrisoned by desperate
men. These strong points were especially danger-
ous on account of the support which they could give
to a counter-attack, and it was thus that they did us
great mischief. The Scottish Borderers, Scots Fusi-
liers, and Royal Scots worked slowly forward during
the day, at considerable cost to themselves. Every
house was a fortress mutually supporting every
other one, and each had to be taken by assault. “I
saw one party of half a dozen Royal Scots rush head-
long into a house with a yell, though there were Ger-
mans at every window. Three minutes later one of
the six came out again, but no more shots ever came
from that house.” Such episodes, with ever-varying
results, made up that long day of desperate ﬁghting,
which was rendered more difﬁcult by the heavy Ger-
man bombardment. The enemy appeared to be re-
signed to the loss of the Bazentins, but all their en-
ergy and guns were concentrated upon the recon-


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 173
quest of Longueval and Delville Wood. Through the
whole of the 16th the shelling was terribly severe,
the missiles pitching from three separate directions
into the projecting salient. Furious assaults and
heavy shell-falls alternated for several days, while
clouds of bombers faced each other in a deadly and
never-ending pelting match. It was observed as
typical of the methods of each nation that while the
Germans all threw together with mechanical and ef-
fective precision, the British opened out and fought
as each man judged best. This ﬁghting in the wood
was very desperate and swayed back and forwards.
“It was desperate hand-to-hand work. The enemy
had no thought of giving in. Each man took advan-
tage of the protection offered by the trees, and
fought until he was knocked out. The wood seemed
swarming with demons, who fought us tooth and
nail.” The British and Africans were driven deeper
into the wood. Then again they would win their way
forwards until they could see the open country
through the broken trunks of the lacerated trees.
Then the fulness of their tide would be reached, no
fresh wave would come to carry them forwards, and
slowly the ebb drew them back once more into the
village and the forest. In this mixed ﬁghting the
Transvaal battalion took 3 oﬂicers and 130 men pris~
oners, but their losses, and those of the other African
units, were very heavy. The senior oﬂicer in the
ﬁring line behaved with great gallantry, rallying his
ever-dwindling forces again and again. A joint at-
tack on the evening of July 16 by the Cape men, the
South African Scots, and the 11th Royal Scots upon
the north-west of the wood and the north of the vil-
lage, Was held up by wire and machine-guns, but the
CHAPTER
VII.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


174 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
VII.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
German counter-attacks had no better fate. During
the whole of the 17th the situation remained un-
changed, but the strain upon the men was very se-
vere, and they were faced by fresh divisions coming
up from Bapaume. The Brigadier himself made his
way into the wood, and reported to the Divisional
Commander the extremely critical state of affairs.
On the morning of July 18, the Third Division
were able to give some very valuable help to the
hard-pressed Ninth. At the break of day the let
Gordons, supported by the 8th King’s Liverpools,
both from the 7 6th Brigade, made a sudden and furi-
ous attack upon those German strong points to the
north of the village which were an ever-present
source of loss and of danger. “Now and again,”
says a remarkable anonymous account of the in-
cident, ‘ ‘during a lull in the roar of battle, you could
hear a strong Northern voice call out: ‘On, Gor-r-r-
dons, on !’ thrilling out the r’s as only Scotsmen can.
The men seldom answered save by increasing their
speed towards the goal. Occasionally some of them
called out the battle-cry heard so often from the
throats of the Gordons: ‘Scotland for ever!’ . . .
They were out of sight over the parapet for a long
time, but we could hear at intervals that cry of ‘On,
Gor-r-r-dons, on!’ varied with yells of ‘Scotland for
ever!’ and the strains of the pipes. Then we saw
Highlanders reappear over the parapet. With them
were groups of German prisoners.”
The assault won a great deal of ground down the
north-west edge of Delville Wood, and in the north
of the village; but there were heavy losses and two
of the strong points were still intact. All day the
bombardment was continuous and deadly, until 4.30


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME
175
in the afternoon, when a great German infantry at-
tack came sweeping from the east, driving down
through the wood and pushing before it with an irre-
sistible momentum the scattered bodies of Scottish
and African infantry, worn out by losses and
fatigue. For a time it submerged both wood and
village, and the foremost grey waves emerged even
to the west of the village, where they were beaten
down by the Lewis guns of the defenders. The
southern edge of the wood was still held by the Brit-
ish, however, and here the gallant 26th Brigade
threw itself desperately upon the victorious enemy,
and stormed forward with all the impetuosity of
their original attack. The Germans were ﬁrst
checked and then thrown back, and the south end
of the wood remained in British hands. A ﬁner or
more successful local counter-attack has seldom been
delivered, and it was by a brigade which had already
endured losses which made it more ﬁt for a rest-
camp than for a battle line. After this second ex-
ploit the four splendid battalions were but remnants,
the Black Watch having lost very heavily, while the
Argylls, the Seaforths, and the Camerons were in no
better case. Truly it can never be said that the
grand records of the historic regular regiments have
had anything but renewed lustre from the deeds of
those civilian soldiers who, for a time, were privi-
leged to bear their names. ’
Whilst this severe battle had been in progress, the
losses of the South Africans in Delville Wood had
been terrible, and they had fought with the energy
of desperate men for every yard of ground. Stands
were made in the successive rides of the wood by the
Colonel and his men. During the whole of the 19th
CHAPTER
VII.
The
Battle
of the
Somme.


176 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
0mm these ﬁne soldiers held on against heavy pressure.
“1' The Colonel was the only ofﬁcer of his regiment to
gale return. Even the Newfoundlanders had hardly a
of the more bloody baptism of ﬁre than the South Africans,
8mm" or emerged from it with more glory.
The situation now was that the south of the wood
was held by the British, but the north, including the
greater part of the village, was still held by the Ger-
mans. The worn-out Ninth Division, still full of
spirit, but lacking sadly in numbers, was brought
out of line upon July 19, and the Eighteenth English
Division, fresh from its own great ordeal in Trones
Wood, came forward to take its place. At seven in
the morning of the 19th the 53rd Brigade attacked
from the south, the situation being so pressing that
there was no time for artillery preparation. The
infantry went forward without it, and no higher or-
deal could be demanded of them. It was evident that
there was great danger of the strong German col-
umn breaking through to westward, and so outﬁank-
ing the whole British line. Only a British attack
from north and from south could prevent its prog-
ress, so that the Third Division were called upon for
the one, and the Eighteenth for the other. This
wood of infamous memory is cut in two by one broad
ride, named Princes Street, dividing it into two
halves, north and south (vide p. 180). The southern
half was now attacked by the 8th Norfolks, who
worked their way steadily forward in a long fringe
of bombers and riﬂemen. The Brigade-Major,
Markes, and many oﬂicers and men fell in the ad-
vance. After a pause, with the help of their Lewis
guns, the Norfolks pushed forward again, and by 2
o’clock had made their way up to Princes Street


180 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
VI 1.

The
Battle
otthe
Somme.
shown on those fateful days, nor had his well-tried
instrument of war lost its power of ﬁghting its way
through a diﬂicult position. The struggle at Lon-
gueval had been a desperate one, and the German
return upon July 18 was undoubtedly the most se-
vere reaction encountered by us during the whole of
the Somme ﬁghting; and yet after the ﬂuctuations
which have been described it ﬁnished with the posi-
tion entirely in the hands of the British. On the-
days which followed the attack of July 23 the Thir-
teenth Brigade of the Fifth Division pushed its way
gradually through the north end of the village, the
1st Norfolks bearing the brunt of the ﬁghting. They
were relieved on the 27th by the 95th Brigade, who
took the ﬁnal posts on the north and east of the
houses, the lst East Surreys holding the northern
front. The 12th Gloucesters particularly distin-
guished themselves on this occasion, holding on to
three outlying captured posts under a very heavy
ﬁre. The three isolated platoons maintained them-
selves with great constancy, and were all retrieved,
though two out of three oﬂicers, and the greater part
of the men were casualties. This battalion lost 320
men in these operations, which were made more cost-
ly and difﬁcult by the fact that Longueval was so
exaggerated a salient that it might more properly
be called a corner, the Germans directing their very
accurate ﬁre from the intact tower of Ginchy
Church.
The Second Division had now been brought down
to the Somme battle-front, and upon July 26 they
took over from the Third Division in the area of Del-
ville Wood. So complicated was the position at the
point occupied, that one oﬂicer has described his


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME .181
company as being under ﬁre from the north, south,
east, and west, the latter being presumably due to
the fact that the distant ﬁre of the British heavies
fell occasionally among the front line infantry. At
seven in the morning of July 27 the 99th Brigade,
now attached to the Second Division, was ordered
to improve our position in the wood, and made a de-
termined advance with the 1st Riﬂes upon the right,
and the 23rd Fusiliers upon the left, the 1st Berk-
shires and 22nd Royal Fusiliers being in support.
Moving forward behind a strong barrage, the two
battalions Were able with moderate loss to force
their way up to the line of Princes Street, and to
make good this advanced position. A trench full of
dead or wounded Germans with two splintered ma-
chine guns showed that the artillery had found its
mark, and many more were shot down as they re;
tired to their further trenches. The 1st Berkshires
held a defensive ﬂank upon the right, but German
bombers swarmed in between them and the Riﬂes,
developing a dangerous counter-attack, which was
ﬁnally beaten off after a sharp ﬁght, in which Cap-
tain Howell of the latter battalion was mortally
wounded after organising a splendid defense, in
which he was greatly helped by a sergeant. At 11
o’clock the left ﬂank of the advance was also very
heavily attacked at short range, and the two com-
panies of the Riﬂes on that side were in sore straits
until reinforced by bombers from the 23rd Fusiliers,
and also by the whole of the 22nd Fusiliers. The
German barrage fell thickly behind the British ad-
vance, and it was a difﬁcult and costly matter to send
forward the necessary-supports, but before evening
part of the 17th Fusiliers and of the 17th Middlesex
CHAPTER
VII.
The
Battle
ofthe
Somme.


182 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
.V II.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
from the 5th Brigade, had pushed forward and re-
lieved the exhausted front line. It was a most nota-
ble advance and a heroic subsequent defence, with
some of the stiffest ﬁghting that even Delville Wood
had ever witnessed. The East Anglian Field Com-
pany Royal Engineers consolidated the line taken.
The 1st Riﬂes, upon whom the greater part of the
pressure had fallen, lost 14 ofﬁcers, including their
excellent Adjutant, Captain Brocklehurst, and more
than 300 men. The immediate conduct of the local
operations depended upon the Colonel of this bat-
talion. The great result of the ﬁght was that Del-
ville Wood was now in British hands, from which
it never again reverted. It is a name which will ever
remain as a symbol of tragic glory in the records of
the Ninth, the Third, the Eighteenth, and ﬁnally of
the Second Divisions. Nowhere in all this desper-
ate war did the British bulldog and the German wolf-
hound meet in a more prolonged and fearful grap-
ple. It should not be forgotten in our military an-
nals that though the 99th Brigade actually captured
the wood, their work would have been impossible had
it not been for the ﬁne advance of the 95th Brigade
of the Fifth Division already recorded upon their
Longueval ﬂank.
We shall now turn our attention to what had
been going on in the extreme right-hand part of the
line, where in conjunction with the French three of
our divisions, the 55th Lancashire Territorials, the
35th Bantams, and the hard-worked 30th, had been
attacking with no great success the strong German
'line which lay in front of us after the capture of
Trones Wood. The centre of this defence was the


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 183
village of Guillemont which, as already mentioned,
had been unsuccessfully attacked by the 21st Brigade
upon July 23. About this date the Thirty-sixth Ban—
tam Division had a repulse at the Malzhorn Farm
to the south of Guillemont, both the 104th and 105th
Brigades being hard hit, and many of the brave lit-
tle men being left in front of the German machine-
guns. A week later a much more elaborate attack
was made upon it by the rest of the Thirtieth Divi-
sion, strengthened by one brigade (the 106th) of the
Thirty-ﬁfth Division. This attack was carried out
in co-operation with an advance of the Second Divi-
sion upon Guillemont Station to the left of the vil-
lage, and an advance of the French upon the right
at Falfemont and Malzhorn.
The frontaladvance upon Guillemont from the
Trones Wood direction appears to have been about
as difﬁcult an operation as could be conceived in
modern warfare. Everything helped the defence
and nothing the attack. The approach was a glacis
700 yards in width, which was absolutely command-
ed by the guns in the village, and also by those placed
obliquely to north and south. There was no cover of
any kind. Prudence would no doubt have suggested
that we should make good in the north at Longueval
and thus outﬂank the whole German line of defence.
It was essential, however, to ﬁt our plans in with
those of the French, and it was understood that
those were such as to demand a very special, and if
needs be, a self-immolating effort upon the right of
the line.
The attack had been arranged for the morning of
July 30, and it was carried out in spite of the fact
that during the ﬁrst few hours the fog was so dense
CHAPTER
VII.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


184 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CH6?“ that it was hard to see more than a few yards. This
' made the keeping of direction across so broad a
Efﬁe space as 700 yards very difﬁcult; while on the right,
orthe where the advance was for more than a mile and
S°mm°' had to be co-ordinated with the troops of our Allies,
it was so complex a matter that there was consider-
able danger at one time that the ﬁght in this quarter
would resolve itself into a duel between the right of
the British Thirtieth and the left of the French
Thirty-ninth Division.
The 89th Brigade advanced upon the right and
the 90th upon the left, the latter being directed
straight for the village. The two leading battalions,
the 2nd Scots Fusiliers and the 18th Manchesters,
reached it and established themselves ﬁrmly in its
western suburbs; but the German barrage fell so
thickly behind them that neither help nor munitions
could reach them. Lieutenant Murray, who was sent
back to report their critical situation, found Ger-
mans wandering about behind the line, and was com-
pelled to shoot several in making his way through.
He carried the news that the attack of the Second
Division upon the station had apparently failed, that
the machine-gun ﬁre from the north was deadly, and
that both battalions were in peril. The Scots had
captured 50 and the Manchesters 100 prisoners, but
they were penned in and unable to get on. Two
companies of the 17th Manchesters made their way
with heavy loss through the fatal barrage, but failed
to alleviate the situation. It would appear that in
the fog the Scots were entirely surrounded, and that
they fought, as is their wont, while a cartridge
lasted. Their last message was, that their ranks and
munition supply were both thin, their front line


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 185
broken, the shelling hard, and the situation critical.
None of these men ever returned, and the only sur-
vivors of this battalion of splendid memories were
the wounded in N o Man’s Land and the Headquarter
Staff. It was the second time that the 2nd Royal
Scots Fusiliers had fought to the last man in this
war. Of the 18th Manchesters few returned, and
two companies of the 16th Manchesters were not
more fortunate. They got into the village on the
extreme north, and found themselves in touch with
the 17th Royal Fusiliers of the Second Division; but
neither battalion could make good its position. It
was one of the tragic episodes of the great Somme
battle.
The 89th Brigade upon their right had troubles of
their own, but they were less formidable than those
of their comrades. As already described, they had
the greatest difﬁculty in ﬁnding their true position
amid the fog. Their action began successfully by a
company of the 2nd Bedfords, together with a
French company, rushing an isolated German trench
and killing 70 men who occupied it. This was a
small detached operation, for the front line of the
advancing brigade was formed by the 19th Man-
chesters on the left, and by the 20th on the right,
the latter in touch with the French 153rd of the line.
The 19th reached the south-eastern corner of Guille-
mont, failed to get in touch with the Scots Fusiliers,
and found both its ﬂanks in the air. It had eventual-
ly to fall back, having lost Major Rolls, its com-
mander, and many ofﬁcers and men. The 20th Man-
chesters advanced upon the German Malzhorn
Trenches and carried the front one, killing many of
the occupants. In going forward from this point
CHAPTER
VII.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


186 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
VII.
The
Battle
of the
Somme.
they lost 200 of their number, while passing down a
bullet-swept slope. Three out of four company com-
manders had fallen. Beyond the slope was a sunken
road, and at this point a young Lieutenant, Musker,
found himself in command with mixed men from
three battalions under his orders. Twelve runners
sent back with messages were all shot, which will
give some idea of the severity of the barrage.
Musker showed good powers of leadership, and con-
solidated his position in the road, but was unfortu-
nately killed, the command then devolving upon a
sub-lieutenant. The Bedfords came up to reinforce,
and some permanent advance was established in this
quarter—all that was gained by this very sanguinary
engagement, which cost about 3000 men. The Ban-
tams lost heavily also in this action though they only
played the humble role of carriers to the storming
brigades.
The whole of the ﬁghting chronicled in this chap-
ter may be taken as an aftermath of the action of
July 14, and as an endeavour upon our part to en-
large our gains and upon the part of the Germans to
push us out from what we had won. The encroach-
ment upon High Wood upon the left, the desperate
defence and ﬁnal clearing of Delville Wood in the
center, and the attempt to drive the Germans from
Guillemont upon the right—an attempt which was
brought later to a successful conclusion—are all part
of one system of operations designed for the one
end. ‘
It should be remarked that during all this ﬁght-
ing upon the Somme continual demonstrations,
amounting in some cases to small battles, occurred
along the northern line to keep the Germans em-


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 187
ployed. The most serious of these occurred in the
Eleventh Corps district near Fromelles, opposite the
Aubers Ridge. Here the Second Australians upon
the left, and the Sixty-ﬁrst British Division upon the
right, a unit of second-line Territorial battalions,
largely from the West country, made a most gallant
attack and carried the German line for a time, but
were compelled, upon July 20, the day following the
attack, to fall back once more, as the gun positions
upon the Aubers Ridge commanded the newly-taken
trenches. It was particularly hard upon the Aus-
tralians, whose grip upon the German position was
ﬁrm, while the two brigades of the Sixty-ﬁrst, though
they behaved with great gallantry, had been less
successful in the assault.
CHAPTER
VII.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


CHAPTER
VIII.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
CHAPTER VIII
THE BATTLE on THE SOMME
The Operations of Gough’s Army upon the Northern
Flank up to September 15
Advance, Australial—Capture of Pozieree—Fine work of Forty-eighth
Division—Relief of Australia by Canada—Steady advance of
Gough’s Army—Capture of Courcelette.
ALL the ﬁghting which has been described was car-
ried out by Rawlinson’s Fourth Army, consisting of
the Third, the Fifteenth, and the Thirteenth Corps.
A new element was now, however, introduced upon
the left ﬂank. It will be remembered that Sir Hubert
Gough had been given a Fifth or reserve army, con-
sisting of the Eighth and Tenth Corps, with which
to hold the ﬂank. Of these, the Tenth, including the
Forty-ninth, Forty-eighth, and First Australian Di-
visions, was now pushed forward into the ﬁghting,
with the intention of attacking Poziéres and widen-
ing the British front.
This was the ﬁrst serious appearance of the Aus-
tralians upon a European battle-ﬁeld, and it may be
said at once that the high reputation which they had
gained as dogged and dashing ﬁghters in the Gal-
lipoli campaign was fully endorsed in France. From
General Birdwood, their admirable leader, down
through every unit of their divisions, there ran an
1.88


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 189
indomitable spirit, united to an individuality and
readiness of resource which made them soldiers of
the highest type. Their physique, too, was extraor-
dinarily ﬁne, and even the stay-at-home Londoner
who had seen the lithe ﬁgures and the eager, clean-
cut, aquiline faces under the broad-rimmed hats,
bringing a touch of romance into our drab streets,
would need no assurance that the men were splendid.
A nation of sportsmen had changed themselves very
easily into a nation of soldiers. Of all the strange
turns of fate in this extraordinary war, surely there
are few more quaint than that the black fellow call
of Gooee! should many a time have resounded at the
crisis of a European battle.
As the First Australian Division lay upon July
22 it had the straggling and strongly entrenched vil-
lage of Poziéres in front of it. Upon the right they
were in touch with the First Division ﬁlling the gap
between Poziéres and Bazentin, as described at the
beginning of Chapter VII. On their left was the
Forty-eighth Division of South Midland Terri—
torials. The village had been reduced to a mere rub—
bish-heap by the guns, but was none the less danger-
ous on that account. 7
On the early morning of July 23, before it was
light, the Australians made their ﬁrst eruption into
the Somme ﬁghting. “The difﬁculty,” as their
chronicler truly declares, “was not to get the men
forward, but to hold them.” With an eager rush
the men of New South Wales overwhelmed the front
trench across the face of the village. It was dotted
with German bodies, killed by the artillery. The
second trench in the village itself was found to be
obliterated in places. It was occupied as far as pos-
CHAPTER
VIII.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 191
(4 and 6) and Worcesters (7 and 8), and the 145th
from Gloucester (5), Buckingham, Oxford and Buck-
ingham (4), and Berkshire (4), took it in turns to
surge up against the formidable German line, show-
ing the greatest valour and perseverance, overcom-
ing difﬁculty after difﬁculty, and always getting slow-
ly forward from the ﬁrst movement upon July 22,
until upon July 26 they had overcome every obstacle
and joined hands with the Australians at the ceme-
tery which marks the north end of the village of
Pozieres. Many prisoners and a ﬁne extension of
the line were the fruits of their exertions. The 5th
Royal Sussex pioneer battalion, amidst considerable
difﬁculties and heavy shell-ﬁre, consolidated all that
had been won. The 4th Gloucesters and 7th Worces-
ters particularly distinguished themselves at this
time by their persistent day-by-day work against the
German trench line.
On the morning of July 26 the Australian advance
was resumed. There were two obstacles immediate-
ly in front—the one a strong redoubt, the other a
line of trench. The redoubt was most gallantly at-
tacked by the men of Queensland and of South Aus-
tralia, and was overwhelmed by their bombs. The
Victorians, meanwhile, had won their way into the
trench, but as it communicated by many runways
with the main German system behind, an endless
ﬂow of reinforcements were able to come into it, and
the length of the trench enabled the Germans to at-
tack upon both ﬂanks. It was a most bloody and des-
perate conﬂict which swung and swayed down the
long ditches, and sometimes over the edges of them
into the bullet-swept levels between. Men threw and
threw until they were so arm-weary that not an-
CHAPTER
VIII.
The
Battle
of the
Somme.


192 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER other bomb could be lifted. If ever there were born
vm' natural bombers it must surely be among the coun-
Efﬁe trymen of Spoiforth and Trumble—and so it proved
mum at that terrible international by Poziéres village. A
3mm" British aeroplane swooped down out of the misty
morning, and gave signals of help and advice from
above, so as to dam that ever-moving stream of re-
inforcement.
The trenches in dispute were of no vital import-
ance themselves, but they were the outposts of the
great German second line which stretched behind its
broad apron of barbed wire within a few hundred
yards to the north-east of the village. The ground
sloped upwards, and the Germans were on the crest.
This was the next objective of the Australians, and
was attacked by their Second Division on July 29.
On the ﬂank of the hill to the left the Victorians won
a lodgment, but the main position was still impreg-
nable—and almost unapproachable. Sullenly and
slowly the infantry fell back to their own trenches,
leaving many of their best and bravest before or
among the fatal wires.
The position had been improved upon the left,
however, by an advance of the Forty-eighth Divi-
sion. The Warwick Brigade upon their right made
no great progress, but the 145th Brigade upon the
left took the trench in front of it and pushed that
ﬂank well forward. This successful attack was at
seven in the evening of July 27. The leading bat-
talions were the 4th Berks upon the right and the 6th
Gloucesters on the left, and these two sturdy bat-
talions captured all their objectives. A number of
the 5th Regiment of the Prussian Guard were killed
or captured in this aﬁair. As the whole line had to


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 193
turn half left after leaving the taking-01f trench, it Cnmm
was a ﬁne piece of disciplined ﬁghting. General VIII'
Gough was a personal witness of this attack. $316
On August 4, six days later, the Australians came orthe
back to the attack with all the dour pertinacity of somme‘
their breed. This time their success was triumph-
ant. A steady bombardment had laid the German
front open, and in the dark of the night the Aus-
tralian infantry, advancing over their own dead,
rushed the position, surprising the Germans at a
moment when a relief was being carried out. Many
of the Germans who had been expecting a rest from
their labours got one indeed—but it was in England
rather than in their own rear. With the early morn-v
ing the Australians were on the Poziéres Ridge, and
one of the few remaining observation posts of the
enemy had passed from him for ever. In front of
them was the land of promise—the long slope
seamed by German trenches, the distant German
camps, the churches and villages of that captive
France which they had come so far to redeem.
Once again the left ﬂank of the Australians was
in close co-operation with a British Division. The
Forty-eighth had been withdrawn and replaced by
the Twelfth, a division which was rapidly acquiring
a. very solid reputation in the army. The men of
the 7th Sussex upon the right and those of Surrey
and of Kent upon the left, were in the front of the
battle-line, which rolled slowly up the slope of
Poziéres, continually driving the German resistance
before it. The ground gained early in August was
some 2000 yards of frontage with a depth of 400
yards, and though the whole ridge, and the Wind-
mill which marks it, had not yet been cleared, the


194 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
VIII.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
fact that the British had a good foothold upon it was
of the utmost strategical importance, apart from the
continual stream of prisoners who fell into their
hands. The Sussex battalion linked up with the Aus-
tralians, and nothing could have been closer than
the co-operation between the two, so much so that
it is on record that with a glorious recklessness _a
bunch of Australians pushed forward without orders
in order to keep the Sussex men company in one of
their attacks. The South Saxons have again and
again shown that there is no more solid military
material in England. It is said that a rampant pig
with “We won’t be druv!” as a motto was an old
emblem of that ancient county. Her sons assuredly
lived up to the legend during the War.
On the morning of the 6th and of the 7th two
counter—attacks stormed up to the new British line.
The ﬁrst was small and easily repelled, a sporadic
effort by some gallant hot-headed ofﬁcer, who died in
the venture, clicking his Mauser to the last. The
second was serious, for three battalions came very
gallantly forwards, and a sudden rush of 1500 Ger-
mans, some of whom carried ﬂammenwerfer, burst
into the trenches at two separate points, making
prisoners of some 50 Australians who were cut off
from their comrades. The attack was bravely de-
livered in broad daylight, the enemy coming on in
good line in the face of severe ﬁre; but the Aus-
tralians, with their usual individuality, rallied, and
not only repulsed the enemy, but captured many of
them, besides recapturing the prisoners whom they
had taken. This was the supreme German attempt
to recapture the position, but they were by no means
able to reconcile themselves to the loss of it, and


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 195
came on again and again in smaller assaults spread
over several days, which had no result save to in-
crease their already very heavy losses in this re-
gion.
This ﬂammenwerfer attack had broken also upon
the outposts of the 36th Brigade to the left, eight of
these infernal machines coming forward with a
throng of bombers behind them. The captain of the
9th Royal Fusiliers, instead of awaiting the attack
in a crowded trench, rushed his men forward in the
open, where they shot down the ﬂame-bearers before
they could bring their devilish squirts to hear. The
bombers, who had followed the advance, led the
ﬂight. On this day 127 Germans who had been caught
in a pocket between the British trenches were forced
to surrender, after a very creditable resistance.
On August 12 the Twelfth Division attacked once
more upon a broad front, the 35th Brigade upon the
right, the 37th upon the left. The result of the at-
tack was a satisfactory accession of ground, for al-
though the Surreys and West Kents were held up,
the Norfolks and Essex attained their objective and
held it. Some 40 prisoners and a useful line of
trench were the results. That night the 48th South
Midlanders replaced the Twelfth Division once
more, resuming their old station upon the left of
the Australians, whose various divisions rang
changes upon each other, men from every corner of
the great island continent, from the burning plains
of the Northern Territories to the wind-swept hills
of Tasmania relieving each other in the ever-advanc-
ing line of trenches and strong points which slowly
ate into the German front. One day it was the West
Australians who blew back an attack with their riﬂe
CHAPTER
VIII.
The
Battle
of the
Somme.


196 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
0mm:
VIII.

The
Battle
of the -
Somme.
ﬁre. On the next it was the Melbourne men who
had rushed another position. On the summit of the
Ridge was the stump of an old windmill, which lay
now between the two lines, and it was towards this
and along the slope of the crest that the advance was
gradually creeping. It is worth noting that in this
part of the line some sort of amenity was introduced
concerning the wounded, and that neither party
sniped the other so long as a Red Cross ﬂag was
shown. It is grievous to think that such a condi-
tion needs to be recorded.
August 10 and 11 witnessed two night attacks by
the 4th and 6th Gloucesters respectively, neither of
which made much progress. The Territorials of the
Forty-eighth Division still kept step, however. with
the Australians in all that desperate advance up the
long slope of Poziéres Hill, the two units striving in
a generous rivalry of valour, which ended in deep
mutual conﬁdence and esteem.
On August 14 the enemy counter-attacked with
some vigour, and momentarily regained a trench
near the windmill. On the 15th the line had been
restored. On the 17th there was a strong attack in
six successive lines upon the Forty-eighth British
and the First Australian Divisions, but it had no
result. On the 18th, however, the 5th and 6th War-
wicks paid a return visit with great success, carry-
ing three lines of trenches and capturing 600 prison-
ers. This was a very ﬁne exploit, carried out at 5
RM. of a summer evening.
It was about this date that a new movement be-
gan upon the British left, which extended their line
of battle. Since the capture of Ovillers, a month be-
fore, the ﬂank of the army to the left of the attack


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 197
upon Poziéres had been guarded by the Forty-ninth
Division of Yorks Territorials, but no attack had
been attempted in this quarter. On August 18 the
Twenty-ﬁfth Division relieved the Forty-ninth, and
an advance upon a small scale which gradually as-
sumed more importance was started in the direction
of Thiepval, the German village fortress of sinister
reputation, which lay upon the left ﬂank on the hither
side of the River Ancre. Upon this General Gough
had now ﬁxed a menacing gaze, and though his ad-
vance was gradual, it was none the less inexorable
until his aim had been attained; and not only Thiep-
val itself, but the important heights to the north and
east of it which dominate the valley of the Ancre
were in the hands of his persevering troops. The
ﬁrst obstacles in his path were a stronghold named
the Leipzig Redoubt, and to the east of it a wide-
spread farm, now spread even wider by British
shells. This nest of snipers and machine-guns was
known as Mouquet Farm. Upon the 19th, as part of
the general attack along the line, which will be more
fully dealt with elsewhere, not only was our Poziéres
front pushed forward past the windmill for 300
yards, but the 1st Wiltshires of the Twenty-ﬁfth Di-
vision, operating upon the left of the Forty-eighth,
which in turn was on the left of the Australians,
made an important lodgment on the high ground to
the south of Thiepval. The Forty-eighth Division
also made some advance, the 4th Gloucesters upon
the night of the 19th capturing 400 yards of trench
with 200 prisoners. Their comrades of the 6th Bat-
talion had less fortune, however, in an attack upon
the German trenches on August 22, when they had
two companies partially destroyed by machine-gun
CHAPTER
VIII.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


198 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER ﬁre, while every ofﬁcer engaged was hit, including
VIII“ Major Coates, who was killed. On this same day
gale there was again an Australian advance near
01! the Pozieres, whilst at the other end of the line, which
8mm“ was biting like acid into the German defences, the
Twenty-ﬁfth Division began to encroach upon the
Leipzig salient, and were within 1000 yards of Thiep-
val. In this entirely successful attack a new inven-
tion, the push pipe-line, was used for the ﬁrst time
with some success, having the double effect of blow-
ing up the enemy’s strong point, and of forming a
rudimentary communication trench in the track of
its explosion. In this connection it may be stated
generally that while the Germans, with their objects
clear in front of them, had used before the War
far greater ingenuity than the British in warlike in-
vention, as witness the poison gas, mine'nwerfer and
ﬂame-throwers, their methods became stereotyped
after War broke out; while the more individual
Britons showed greater ingenuity and constructive
ability, so that by the end of 1916 they had attained
a superiority upon nearly every point. Their heavy
artillery, light machine-guns, aeroplanes, bombs,
trench-mortars, and gas apparatus were all of the
very best; and in their tanks they were soon to take
an entirely new departure in warfare. It is as difﬁ-
cult in our British system to ﬁx the responsibility
for good as for evil, but there is ample evidence of a
great discriminating intelligence in the heart of our
affairs.
The Hindenburg Trench was the immediate object
of these attacks, and on August 24 a stretch of it,
containing 150 occupants, was carried. A pocket of
Germans was left at one end of it, who held on man-


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 199
fully and made a successful resistance against a
company of the 8th North Lancashires, who tried to
rush them. Ultimately, however, these brave men
were all taken or killed.
Day by day the line crept on, and before the end
of the month the 1000 yards had become 500, whilst
every advance yielded some new trench with a crop
of prisoners. The enemy was fully alive, however,
to the great importance of the Thiepval position,
which would give the British guns an opportunity of
raking Beaumont Hamel and their other strongholds
upon the north of the Ancre. A very strong coun-
ter-attack was made, therefore, by some battalions
of the Prussian Guard on the evening of August 25,
preceded by a shattering bombardment. The attack
—the edge of which was blunted by the British bar-
rage—fell mainly upon the 7th Brigade of the Twen-
ty-ﬁfth Division. The result was a German defeat,
and the menacing line drew ever nearer to Thiepval,
though an attack by the North Lancs upon the Prus-
sian Fusilier Guards upon August 28 was not suc-
cessful. On the day before, however, the Forty-
eighth Division upon the right of the Twenty-ﬁfth,
made a successful advance, taking a good line of
trench with 100 of the redoubtable Guards. Be-
tween Thiepval and Pozieres the ruins of Mouquet
Farm had been taken by the West Australians and
the Tasmanians, and was found to be a perfect war-
ren of snipers, so that it was some time before it
was absolutely clear. On the Poziéres Ridge ground
and prisoners were continually being gained, and
the trenches between the Ridge and Mouquet Farm
were cleared by Queensland on the right and by Tas-
mania on the left. It was a most spirited ﬁght,
CHAPTER
VIII.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


200 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
where Australian and Prussian stood up to each
' other within short bomb-throw. But nothing could
Efﬁe stand against the ﬁre of the attack. The whole line
of the of trench upon the right was captured. There was
somme' a dangerous gap, however, upon the Tasmanian left,
and this the Tasmanians were compelled to endure
for two days and nights, during which they were
hard pressed by never-ending shelling and incessant
German attacks. It is on record that their constant
reports of their parlous state sent on to headquar-
ters concluded always with the words: “But we will
hold on.” If Tasmania needs a motto, she could
ﬁnd no better one, for her sons lived and died up to
it during those terrible hours. When at last they
were relieved, their numbers were sorely reduced,
but their ground was still intact. At the other side
of the gap, however, the West Australians, hard
pressed by an overpowering bombardment, had been
pushed out from Mouquet Farm, which came back
into German hands, whence it was destined soon to
pass.
It was during this severe ﬁghting that a little
scene occurred which, as described by Mr. Bean, the
very able Australian chronicler, must stir the blood
of every Imperialist. A single oﬁicer “of middle
age, erect, tough as wire, with lines on his face such
as hard ﬁghting and responsibility leave on every
soldier,” appeared in the Australian communication
trenches, asking to see the oliicer-in-charge. He
spoke the same tongue but with a different intona-
tion as he explained his mission. He was the fore-
runner of the relieving force, and the First Division
of Canada was taking over the line from Australia
-—a line which was destined to bring glory to each of


202 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
0mm Our narrative of the events upon the left wing of
VIII.
The
Battle
of the
Somme.
the army has now got in front of the general account,
but as the operations of General Gough’s force have
deﬁnite objectives of their own, the story may now
be continued up to September 15, after which we can
leave this ﬂank altogether for a time and concentrate
upon the happenings in the centre, and especially
upon the right ﬂank where Delville Wood, Ginchy
and Guillemont had presented such impediments to
the advance. At or about the time, September 4,
when the Canadians took over the lines of the Aus-
tralians at Poziéres and Mouquet Farm, the
Eleventh British Division, the First English Divi—
sion of the New Army, which had come back from
hard service in the East, relieved the Twenty-ﬁfth
Division upon the Canadian left. For a week there
was quiet upon this part of the line, for a great for-
ward move along the whole eleven-mile front had
been planned for September 15, and this was the
lull before the storm. On the evening before this
great assault, the Eleventh Division crept up to and
carried the main German stronghold, called the
Wonderwork, which lay between them and Thiepval.
There was some sharp bayonet work, and the de-
feated garrison ﬂying towards Thiepval ran into the
barrage so that the enemy losses were heavy, while
the British line crept up to within 350 yards of the
village. This advance stopped for ever the ﬂank
ﬁre by which the Germans were able to make Mou-
quet Farm almost untenable, and the Canadians
were able to occupy it. The capture of the Wonder-
work was carried out by Price’s 32nd Infantry Bri-
gade of Yorkshire troops. The most of the work
and the heaviest losses fell upon the 9th West Yorks,


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 203
but the 8th West Ridings and the 6th Yorks were
both engaged, the latter losing their Colonel, For-
syth. The total casualties came to 26 oﬂicers and
742 men.
On September 15th the Eleventh Division held the
ﬂank in front of Thiepval, but the Second and Third
Canadian Divisions shared in the general advance,
and pushed forward their line over the Pozieres
Ridge and down for 1000 yards of the slope in front,
joining hands with the Fifteenth Scottish Division
in Martinpuich upon the right. This ﬁne advance
crossed several German trenches, took the fortiﬁed
position of the Sugar Reﬁnery, and eventually in-
cluded in its scope the village of Courcelette, which
had not been included in the original scheme. All
Canada, from Halifax in the east to Vancouver in
the west, was represented in this victory; and it was
particularly pleasing that the crowning achievement
—the capture of Courcelette—was carried out large-
ly by the 22nd Battalion of the 5th Brigade French
Canadians of the Second Division. French Canada,
like Ireland, has been diverted somewhat by petty
internal inﬂuences from taking a wide and worthy
view of the great struggle against German conquest,
but it can truly be said in both cases that the ﬁne
quality of those who came did much to atone for the
apathy of those who stayed. Thirteen hundred Ger-
man prisoners were brought back by the Canadians.
During the Courcelette operations, the Third Cana-
dian Division was working upon the left ﬂank of the
Second as it attacked the village, protecting it from
enﬁlade attack. The work and the losses in this use-
ful movement fell chieﬂy upon the 8th Brigade.
This considerable victory was, as will afterwards
CHAPTER
VIII.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


204 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
VIII.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
be shown, typical of what had occurred along the
whole line upon that great day of battle and victory.
It was followed, so far as the Canadians were con-
cerned, by a day of heavy sacriﬁce and imperfect
success. The Third Division, still operating upon
the left of the Second, endeavoured to carry the for-
midable Zollern Trench and Zollern Redoubt to the
north of Courcelette. The 7th and 9th Brigades
were in the attacking line, but the former was held
up from the beginning. The latter got forward, but
found itself confronted by the inevitable barbed
wire, which stayed its progress. N 0 good was done,
and two gallant battalions, the 60th (Montreal) and
the 52nd (New Ontario) lost 800 men between them.
The operation was suspended until it could be re-
newed upon a larger scale and a broader front.
At this point we may suspend our account of the
operations of Gough’s Fifth Army, while we return
to the Fourth Army upon the south, and bring the
record of its work up to this same date. After-
wards, we shall return to the Fifth Army and de-
scribe the successful operations by which it cleared
the Thiepval Ridge, gained command of the Ancre
Valley, and ﬁnally created a situation which was
directly responsible for the great German retreat
in the early spring of 1917.


CHAPTER IX
THE BATTLE on THE SOMME
August 1 to September 15
Continued attempts of Thirty-third Division on High Wood—Co-
operation of First Division-Operation of Fourteenth Divison
on fringe of Delville Wood—Attack by Twenty-fourth Division
on Guillemont—Capture of Guillemont by 47th and 59th
Brigades—Capture of Ginchy by Sixteenth Irish Division.
AFTER the very hard ﬁghting which accompanied
and followed the big attack of July 14, continuing
without a real break to the end of the month, there
was a lull of a couple of weeks, which were employed
by the German commentators in consoling articles
to prove that the allied offensive was at an end, and
by the Allies in bringing forward their guns and pre-
paring for a renewed eﬁort. The middle of August
heard the drum ﬁre break out again and the opera-
tions were continued, but on a local rather than a
general scale. Many isolated positions had to be
mastered before a general surge forward could be
expected or attempted, and experience was to prove
that it is precisely those isolated operations which
are most diﬂicult and costly, since they always mean
that the whole concentration of the German guns
can be turned upon the point which is endangered.
It will simplify the following operations to the
reader if he will remember that the whole left
CHAPTER
IX.
The
Battle
of the
Somme.

205


206 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
IX.
The
Battle
of the
Som me.
wing of the army is excluded, being treated sepa-
rately as Gough’s ﬂank advance. We only deal
therefore with Rawlinson’s Army. The front which
faces us may be divided into several well-deﬁned
areas, each cf which is in turn subjected to attack.
There is High Wood on the extreme left, with the
Intermediate Trench and the Switch Trench within
it, or to its north. There is the line of trenches,
Switch Trench, Wood Trench, Tea Trench, etc., link-
ing up High Wood with Delville Wood. There is the
north-eastern fringe of Delville Wood, there are the
trenches between Delville Wood and Ginchy, there
is Ginchy itself, there are the trenches between
Ginchy and Guillemont, there is Guillemont itself,
and ﬁnally there is a stretch of trench between
Guillemont and the French left at Falfemont. This
is the formidable barrier which was attacked again
and again at various points between August 1 and
September 15 as will now be told.
August 16 witnessed another attack by the Thirty-
third Division upon High Wood, a position which
had once already been almost entirely in their hands,
but which had proved to be untenable on account
of the concentration of ﬁre which the German guns
could bring to bear upon its limited space. None the
less, it was determined that it should be once again
attempted, for it was so situated that its machine-
guns raked any advance between it and Delville
Wood. The attack upon this occasion was carried
out on the Eastern side by the 98th Brigade,
strengthened for the work by the addition of the
20th Royal Fusiliers and a wing of the 1st Middle—
sex. It might well seem depressing to the soldiers
to be still facing an obstacle which they had carried


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 209
throw them out of their new gains. This attack was
renewed with much greater weight, however, upon
August 17, and both the 1st and 2nd Brigades were
driven back for a few hours. In the afternoon they
rallied and regained most of the lost ground. Im—
mediately in front of them stretched a long German
trench termed the Intermediate Trench, being the
chief one between the second and third lines. ' To-
wards evening the~1st Brigade attacked this trench,
the 1st Black Watch being the most advanced battal-
ion. There was a hard ﬁght, but the position was
still too strong. Next morning, August 18, the gal-
lant Highlanders were back at it once more, but the
day was very misty, and the advance seems to have
lost its exact bearings. The left company stumbled
upon a pocket of 30 Germans, whom it took or killed,
but could not ﬁnd the trench. The right company
got into the trench, but were not numerous enough
to resist a very vigorous bembing attack, which re-
established the German garrison. The 8th Berk-
shires pushed forward to try their luck, but a smoke
cloud thrown out by a division on the left came
drifting down and the attack was enveloped in it,
losing both cohesion and direction. The Interme-
diate Trench was still German in the evening.
Although the 1st Brigade had been held up at this
point the 2nd Brigade had made some progress upon
their right, for a successful attack was made by the
1st Northamptons and by the 1st North Lancashires
upon a German trench to the north-west of High
Wood. Colonel Longridge of the staff, a valuable
officer, was killed in this affair, but the place was
taken, and a strong point established. During the
night two platoons of the Northamptons made an
Cmr'rnn
IX.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


210 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
IX.
The
Battle
of the
Somme.

audacious attempt to steal an advance by creeping
forwards 400 yards and digging in under the very
noses of the Germans, on a. small ridge which was
of tactical importance. There was a considerable
bickering all day round this point, the Sussex en-
deavouring to help their old battle-mates to hold the
fort, but the support: were too distant, and even-
tually the garrison had to regain their own line.
Upon August 20 there was a severe German at-
tack upon the line of the First Division, which was
held at the time by the 1st Northamptons and the
2nd Riﬂes. The advance developed in great force,
driving in the outpost line and part of the North-
amptons. The brave old “Cobblers” were a very
seasoned battalion, and took a great deal of shifting
from their shallow trench, hand-to-hand ﬁghting
taking place along the line. With the help of two
companies of the Riﬂes the advance was stayed on
the Northampton front; but a second attack devel-
oped out of High Wood upon the right ﬂank of the
Riﬂes. Two platoons under Lieutenant Stokes
showed great gallantry in holding up this sudden
and dangerous incursion. The platoons were re-
lieved by the Gloucesters, but as there was no ofﬁcer
with the relief, Stokes remained on with the new
garrison, and helped to drive back two more attacks,
showing a splendid disregard for all danger, until
he was ﬁnally killed by a shell. Captain Johnstone,
who had led the Riﬂemen in their relief of the
Northamptons, was also killed, while Major Atkin—
son and 130 men of the Riﬂes were hit. The losses
of the N orthamptons were even more heavy, but the
German advance came to nought. ‘ ‘
At the risk of carrying the account of the opera-


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 211
tions near High Wood and between High Wood and
the west edge of Delville Wood to a point which
will compel a considerable return in order to bring
up the narrative of the rest of the line, we shall still
continue them to the date of the great advance of
September 15, when the whole vast array from
Pozieres upon the-left to Leuze WoOd upon the right
heaved itself forward, and local attacks gave place
to a big concerted movement. We shall therefore
continue to follow the fortunes of the First Division
in their hard task in front of the Intermediate
Trench. After the failure of their attempt to get
forward upon August 19 the action died down, and
for four days there was no fresh advance. The 3rd
Brigade had come up into the front line, and upon
August 24 the Munsters made an attempt upon the
German trench without success. Colonel Lyon lost
his life in this affair. Upon August125 another bat-
talion of the Brigade, the South Wales Borderers,
made a bombing attack, and again were in the trench
and once again were driven out. They were not to
be denied, however, and upon August 26 actually
occupied 180 yards of it, taking one of the deadly
guns which had wrought such damage. On the 27th
a German counter-attack was heavily repulsed, but
an attempt of the South Wales Borderers to improve
their success was also a failure. On the evening of
this day, the Fifteenth Scottish Division took over
the position in front of the Intermediate Trench, the
First Division'moving to the right and enabling the
Thirty-third Division upon its ﬂank to move also to
the right. The Fifteenth Division was able in very
tempestuous weather partly to outﬂank the Inter-
mediate Trench, with the result that upon the after-
CHAPTER
IX.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


THE BATTLE OF, THE SOMME 213‘
days and turn our attention to the long right ﬂank
of the army, from Longueval in the north to Falfe-
mont, where we joined on to the French in the south.
The northern angle of this position was, as has al-
ready been explained, extremely disadvantageous to
us, forming an almost fantastic peninsula, which
jutted out into the German positions. Even if their
infantry could not carry it, their guns could at all
times rake it from three sides, and could command
the whole Montauban valley, along which our sup-
plies were bound to pass. Therefore it became very
necessary to get more elbow-room along this line.
South-east of Delville Wood was the strongly-for-
tiﬁed village of Ginchy, and between the wood and
the village were what may be called the Alcoholic
system of trenches, where the long and powerful
Beer Trench, stretching a few hundred yards north
of the wood, was connected up with Vat Alley, Hop
Alley, and Ale Alley, the whole forming a formidable
labyrinth. To the south of Ginchy lay the very
strongly organised village of Guillemont, which
could not be approached save over a long quarter of
a mile of open ground. Ginchy and Guillemont were
linked up in a strong line, of which Waterlot Farm
and Guillemont Station were two nodal points.
South of Guillemont came Wedge Wood and ﬁnally
Falfemont Farm, where the right of Rawlinson’s
Fourth Army joined on to the French. The whole
of this long line was most powerfully defended, both
by material appliances and by that constant human
valour without which all appliances are useless.
How to push it back was the pressing and diﬁicult
question which now faced the British commanders.
Guillemont had already been attacked upon July
CHAPTER
IX.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


214 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
IX.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
30 by the Thirtieth Division as described in a pre-
vious chapter. Thi attack had been most valiantly
urged, but the losses had been heavy, and the gains
small. The Second Division had relieved the Thir-
tieth on this point, and were in turn relieved upon
August 10 by the Twenty-fourth, a division which
had seen a good deal of rough service in that fa-
mous forcing-house for young soldiers—the Ypres
Salient.
A few days later it closed in upon Guillemont with
orders to reconnoitre and then attack. A partial
attack was made upon August 16 upon the outskirts
of the village by the 72nd Brigade, which was rather
in the nature of a reconnaissance in force. The
place was found to be very strong and the advancing
troops drew off after incurring some losses, which
were heaviest in the 9th East Surreys, who came
Under a blast of machine-gun ﬁre, and dropped nine
ofﬁcers and over 200 men. The division drew off,
broadened their front of attack, and came on again
upon August 18 in a wide advance which covered the
whole enemy line, striking not only at the village it-
self, but at the station, quarry, and farm to the
north of it, covering a front of nearly a mile.
The 73rd Brigade attacked the village and the
quarry. The right attack was led by the 13th Mid-
dlesex and supported by the 2nd Leinster, but it had
no success, and ended in heavy losses, especially to
the English regiment. The men who got across were
‘unable to penetrate, and after a hand-to-hand ﬁght
were driven back. Upon the left of the brigade
things went better. The attack upon that side was
led, by the 7th Northants, supported by the 9th Sus-
sex. The Cobblers had lost their Colonel from a


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 215
wound in the morning. This Colonel was the famous
international three-quarter Mobbs, who gave one
more illustration of the fact that the ﬁne sportsman
turns rapidly into the ﬁne soldier. His successor
had only been a few hours in command. The direc-
tion of the ﬁght was none the less admirable. The
Midlanders dashed with great ﬁre across the 300
yards of open which separated them from the Quar-
ries, while the Sussex crowded up into the advanced
trenches, sending on company after company in re-
sponse to demands for help. The British barrage
had lifted, and it was no easy matter in face of the
ﬂank ﬁre to get the men across, so that only a per-,
centage reached the hard-pressed ﬁring-line upon
the other side. The Colonel of the Sussex held back
therefore, and sent his third company over as dusk
fell, so that they came in on the ﬂank of the North-
amptons with little loss, while the fourth followed"
later with supplies. The lodgment made by the
leading battalions was secured, and some ground to
the north of the village passed into British hands.
Although Guillemont itself remained for the mo-
ment with the Germans, the assault of the Twenty-
fourth Division had a success along the whole of the
rest of the line and greatly improved the position of
the British upon this ﬂank. The 17th Brigade had
attacked the station and after a severe ﬁght had cap-
tured it, the 3rd Riﬂe Brigade especially distin-
guishing itself in this affair. Farther still to the
north of the line of trenches leading up to and in
front of Waterlot Farm had fallen also to the 17th
Brigade, the 8th Buffs having the heavier share of
the work. These attacks, which cost the division
more than 3000 men, were carried out in co-operation

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


216 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
IX.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
with French attacks to the south and east of Guille-
mont, the net result being partly to isolate that
stubborn village, and turn it into a salient on the
German line.
The Twenty-fourth Division was now drawn out
for a short period, and the Twentieth replaced it,
and held ﬁrmly to the conquered line.
The Germans were acutely uneasy as to the ero-
sion of their line which was going on from Longue-
val to Guillemont, and upon August 23 endeavoured
to win back the ground gained at Guillemont Sta-
tion, but their counter-attack, stronger as usual in
its artillery preparation than in its infantry ad-
vance, had no success, though it cost the Twentieth
Division some heavy losses. It was one clear sign of
the degeneration of the German soldier that the
overture should so continually be better than the
performance. The machines were as formidable as
ever, but the human element was slowly wilting, and
that subtle sentiment was developing upon either
side which means the ascendancy of one and the de-
cline of the other. The ease with which the prison-
ers surrendered, the frequent failure to hold ground
and the constant failure to gain it, all pointed to the
same conclusion.
Upon August 24 a very widespread and deter-
mined attempt was made by the British to enlarge
their area on the right wing, and the attack ex-
tended along the whole line to the north of Guille-
mont. It was carried out by three divisions, the
Thirty-third which had side-stepped to the right,
and now covered the ground to the immediate left
of Delville Wood, the Fourteenth Light Division
which covered the north of Delville Wood, and the


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 217
Alcohol system of trenches, and ﬁnally the Twentieth
Division covering Ginchy and the rest of the line
down to Guillemont.
Describing these operations from the left of our
line the ﬁrst unit of attack was the 100th Brigade
which had for its objective Tea Trench and other
German defences which were to the north-west of
Delville Wood. The Longueval-Flers road sepa-
rated their right ﬂank from the left ﬂank of the 42nd
Brigade of the Fourteenth Division. In order to
carry out the attack the three leading battalions of
the Brigade had to be crowded forward into a nar-
row front before daylight upon August 24.
All day they lay there, but towards evening the
bombardment which they endured, changed into an
immense barrage which fell like a steel guillotine in
front of our line, the British counter battery work
being unable to check it. Shortly before 7 o’clock
in the evening the leading companies of the attack
belonging from the left to the 1st Queen’s, 16th
Riﬂes and 2nd Worcesters, crept forward until they
were on the edge of the barrage. At 7 o’clock they
took the plunge, advancing with brisk alacrity into
that terrible pelt of missiles. By 7.30 the Queen’s
had established themselves in the German position,
and were bombing their way up Wood Lane trench.
The other two battalions had also at that hour got
well forward, and the 42nd Brigade of the Four-
teenth Division upon the right has been equally suc-
cessful. The new positions were at once consoli-
dated by the 9th Highland Light Infantry, and by
parties of the 222nd Field Company, together with
the 18th Middlesex pioneers, under a very heavy
ﬁre. The Worcesters were in good touch with the
CHAPTER
IX.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 221
the north-east corner of the wood and regaining Hop
Alley. The 2nd Queen’s relieved the exhausted
Staffords, and at noon of September 2 made a vig-
orous bombing attack which had some success,
though the assailants were considerably mystiﬁed
by the appearance of a party of Germans who had
dressed themselves in the khaki and helmets taken
the night before. This powerful attack fell also
upon the Twentieth Division, and upon the Four-
teenth to the right of the Seventh, but although it
inﬂicted heavy losses, especially upon the 60th Bri-
gade of the Twentieth Division, it failed to gain any
ground or to obtain any strategic advantage.
On September 3 at noon the attack upon Ginchy
was carried out by the 22nd Brigade, the 1st Welsh
Fusiliers attacking to the north of the village, the
20th Manchesters moving on to the village itself, and
the 2nd Warwicks on to the trenches to the west of
the village. The Manchesters succeeded about one
o’clock in forcing their way into the village, sending
back 200 of the garrison as prisoners. The ﬁrst rush
behind the barrage sustained few casualties, and it
was not until the Manchesters in their ﬁery eager-
ness began to push on beyond their mark that they
ran into a very severe ﬁre from the north, which
mowed down their ranks, including nearly all their
ofﬁcers. The Welsh Fusiliers upon the left had been
unable to get forward, and as a consequence the
Manchester men were in so precarious a position
and so reduced in numbers, that they had to fall
back through the village, while the 2nd Royal Irish,
who had passed on as far as Ginchy Telegraph, had
now to retire, as their rear was in danger. The 2nd
Warwicks, however, held ~on to the south of the vil-
CHAPTER
IX.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


222 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916.
CHAPTER
IX.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
lage, and refused to be dislodged, keeping their po-.
sition there against all attacks until the night of
September 5. In the afternoon, two companies of
the Irish attempted to retrieve the situation by a
renewed advance upon the village, but their losses
were heavy, and they could not get further than the
western outskirts. The casualties during the day
were severe, and in the night it was thought advis-
able to replace the 22nd by the 20th Brigade. The
latter made a fresh attack upon the village at eight
in the morning of September 4 by the 9th Devons,
but again it was found impossible, in the face of the
inexorable machine-guns, to eﬁect a permanent
lodgment. The 2nd Queen’s, however, on the left
of the Brigade, improved our position at the north-
eastern corner of Delville Wood. There was a
short lull in the ﬁghting, and then at 5.30 A.M. upon
the 6th the 2nd Gordons stormed into the orchards
round the village, but had to dig themselves in upon
the Western edge. At 2 RM. they again attacked,
aided by two companies of the 9th Devons, getting
as far as the middle of the village, and capturing
some prisoners, but the Germans came back with so
heavy a counter-attack that the evening found our
troops back in their own front line once more. On
the night of September 7, the division was taken
out—the 16th (Irish) and 55th moving up to the
Ginchy Front. ,
This severe ﬁghting by the Seventh Division from
the 3rd onwards was an excellent example of how a
force may be called upon to sacriﬁce itself without
seeing the object of its sacriﬁce until it learns the
general plans of the Commander. The assaults
upon Ginchy, unsuccessful at the moment, were of


~ Wedge Wood.


WATERLOT _ Falfemont
Ginchy. FARM. Station. Gulllemont. Farm.
I
i 7th Div. \ l 5*.h DiV. Fneucu
Y
b ' ' h
20*. ON. (watlx DBwojf
. ATTACK ON GERMAN LEFT FLANK
i September 5. l9l6.
.—-._._--_------_ ,----- _--_----_—-_-------


224 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CnAPm
IX.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
the greatest value as leading to the capture of Guille-
rnont in the south. The task allotted to the Seventh
Division was a very difﬁcult one, involving an ad-
vance from a salient with the left ﬂank exposed, and
the magnitude of this task was greatly increased
by the truly execrable weather. If no successful
eﬁorts were made to counter-attack upon Guille-
mont, the reason undoubtedly lay in the absorption
of the German strength at Ginchy.
On this same day the battle raged from Ginchy
along the whole right of our line through Waterlot
Farm, Guillemont and Falfemont Farm to the left
ﬂank of the French. The diagram on page 223 will
give some idea of the forces engaged and their sev-
eral objectives on September 3.
As will be seen by this plan, the Fifth Division
formed the unit next to the French, and the 13th
Brigade were ordered to help our gallant allies in
attacking the extreme southern point at Falfemont,
while the 95th Brigade covered the ground between
their comrades of the 13th, and the village of Guille-
mont. The advance was made shortly after mid-
day, and though the operations were long, bloody,
and difﬁcult, the famous 01d division, inheritors of
the glories of Mons and Le Cateau, was not to be
denied. The resistance was very strenuous, and
only the most devoted constancy could have even-
tually overcome it. To follow the fortunes of the
13th Brigade ﬁrst it may be brieﬂy stated that upon
Sunday, September 3, they ﬁrst gained the Falfe-
mont Farm, and then lost it again. That night they
were reinforced by three battalions of the 15th Bri-
gade, and were able next day to push in between the
Farm and Guillemont, pressing the defenders upon


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 225
every side. It was a widespread building, with
many loopholed outhouses, and one of these fell
after the other until only the central ruin, still
spouting ﬁre like an anchored battleship, remained
in the hands of the defenders. Their position was
hopeless, however, and by the morning of September
5 the changes in the line to the north of them, and
especially the loss of Guillemont, caused them to
evacuate the position.
The advance of the 95th Brigade upon the left of
the Fifth Division had been a very gallant one,
though the objectives which they so bravely won
were nameless lines of trenches and a sunken road.
The ﬁrst line of the attack was formed by the 1st
Duke of Cornwall ’s on the left, and the 12th Glouces-
ters upon the right, closely followed by the 1st Dev-
ons and 1st East Surreys. They were in close
touch with the 59th Brigade of the Twentieth Divi-
sion, who were attacking Guillemont upon their
left. Within two hours of the ﬁrst attack all three
, objectives had been captured, and the remains of
the victorious battalions were digging in upon the
line Ginchy-Wedge Wood. The losses were heavy
in each battalion, but particularly so in the 12th
Gloucesters. For a time they were under ﬁre from
both the British and the German batteries. Yet
they held on to their ultimate objective, and the
following extract from the impression which they
produced upon an experienced regular Colonel is
worth quoting, if only to show the pitch of soldier-
ship to which our amateur volunteers had reached.
“The battalion came on in their extended lines as
steadily as on parade and, without wavering, though
suffering heavy losses, passed through a hot German

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CHAPTER
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Battle
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barrage in the most gallant manner. The lines were
also much troubled by long-range machine-gun ﬁre
from the direction of Falfemont, but although gaps
appeared and the lines were rapidly thinning out, I
never saw the slightest sign of wavering. No troops
could have carried through such a difﬁcult task with
more indifference to consequences.” Gloucester-
shire was once the favourite forcing-ground for the
champions of the British ring. The old ﬁghting
breed still lives. Altogether the 95th Brigade ad-
vanced 3000 yards in this action, and was respon-
sible for the capture both of Wedge Wood and of
Leuze Wood.
Upon the left of the Fifth Division the difﬁcult
task of storming Guillemont had been entrusted to
the Riﬂe and Riﬂe Brigade battalions of the 59th
Brigade upon the right, and to the 47th Brigade of
the Sixteenth Irish Division. This brigade had
come temporarily under the command of General
Douglas Smith upon the left, taking the place of the
60th Brigade, which had lost heavily in strength
from cold, wet, and continual German gassing and
bombardment. The 61st was in divisional reserve.
The attack was ordered for noon. Proﬁting by
previous experiences it was planned that the whole
village should not be rushed at once, but that the
attack should proceed with method in three deﬁnite
stages. The guns of the Sixth and of the Twenty-
fourth Divisions joined in the preliminary bom-
bardment. At noon, the infantry leapt over their
parapets and charged home. The enemy was taken
unawares. The 10th and 11th Riﬂe Brigade with
the 10th and 11th King’s Royal Riﬂes, supported by
the 6th Oxford and Bucks, carried all before them


THE BATTLEOF THE SOMME 227
on the south. and west of the village, while the Lein-
sters, Connaughts, and Royal Irish did as much in
the north. The Quarries, which was a nest of ma-
chine-guns, was taken in their stride. No more
valiant or successful advance had been seen during
the War, and it may take a place beside the attack
of the 36th Brigade at Ovillers as a classical exam-
ple of what British infantry can do with all the odds
against them. The Riﬂemen fought in grim silence,
but the Irish went through with a wild Celtic yell
which, blending with the scream of their pipes, must
have added one more to the horrors of the shaken
and hard-pressed garrison. Neck and neck the two
brigades, English and Irish, went through the Ger-
man line. Hand-to-hand ﬁghts took place in the
village, but all resistance was soon beaten down.
By 12.30 the ﬁrst objectives were solid and at 1.20
the whole village was taken and the survivors of the
enemy streaming out to eastward. The English
losses were heavy and equally distributed. The
Irish were also heavy, especially in the case of the
6th Connaughts who also lost their Colonel. At
this time, through the failure of recruiting in Ire-
land, these brave battalions were below full strength,
in spite of which within six days they stormed or
helped to storm two of the strongest villages upon
the line. One hardly knows which emotion is
stronger—one’s pride in those who went, or one’s
' contempt for those who bided at home. No one ad-
mired the splendid dash of the Irish stormers more
heartily than the British Riﬂemen, who kept pace
with them in their desperate venture. Equally
brave, they were more deliberate in their methods,
with the result that more than once pockets of ﬁght-
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228 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
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The
Battle
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ing Germans who had been overrun by the Irish,
but were still venomous, were cleared up by the
Riﬂemen on the ﬂank. So infectious, however, was
the ﬁery dash of the Irish, that Mr. Philip Gibbs has
left it on record in one of his admirable letters, that
an English sergeant of Riﬂes complained that he
had almost blown his teeth away in whistling his
men back from overrunning their objectives. The
garrison, it may be remarked, were chieﬂy Hanover-
ian, and once again our men were amused and
amazed to see “Gibraltar” printed upon their hats,
a reminiscence of the days when they formed part
of the British army.
Whilst the attack had been in progress, two bat-
talions of the 61st Brigade, the 7th Somersets and
12th King’s Liverpools, were in close support, ad-
vancing steadily through the German barrage. The
enemy were, as already shown, strongly held at
Ginchy on the left ﬂank of the Guillemont advance,
but in spite of their preoccupations they made strong
attempts at a counter-attack from this direction,
which fell upon the Connaughts, who had been rein-
forced by two companies of the 12th King’s. This
small ﬂanking force pushed out posts which behaved
with great gallantry, holding off the enemy until
evening, though at considerable loss to themselves.
One .of these posts, under Sergeant Jones of the
12th King’s, was cut off by the Germans and held
out for two days without food or water—a deed for
which the sergeant received the Victoria Cross. On
September 4, the positions were put into a state of
defence, and on the 5th the Twentieth Division drew
out of the line after their ﬁne deed of arms.
The Fourteenth Division had been in support


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 229
upon the left during the attack upon Guillemont,
and the 43rd Brigade had moved up to the northern
edge of the village itself, losing a number of ofﬁcers
and men, including the Colonel of the 6th Somersets,
who, though badly wounded, remained’with his bat-
talion until it had consolidated its new position. A
German advance was attempted at this point about
8 P.M., but the 43rd Brigade helped to drive it back.
It may be said that the whole of September 3 was
a series of small victories, making in the aggregate
a very considerable one, and breaking down the
whole of the ﬂank German defences.
The Irish Division was now brought up to face
Ginchy, the one point still untaken upon the German
second line, whilst the Fifth Division pursued its
victorious way up to Leuze Wood and to the lower
corner of Bouleaux Wood, always in close touch with
the French upon their right. The 47th Brigade of
the Irish had already lost near half its numbers, and
other units of the Division, both infantry and sap-
pers, especially the 7th and 8th Irish Fusiliers, had
lost heavily in supporting the Fifth Division in its
attack, but the battalions were still full of ﬁght.
In the late afternoon of September 9, the ﬁnal
attack upon Ginchy by the Irish tore that village
from the close grip of its Bavarian and Pomeranian
garrison. The Fifty-ﬁfth Division made a support-
ing attack upon the left, but the main advance was
left for the now depleted but indomitable Division.
It dashed forward upon a two-brigade front, the
47th upon the right and the 48th upon the left, the
brigades being strengthened by three battalions of
the 49th, so that practically all the reserves were
in the line from the start, but the commander had
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230 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
IX.
The
Battle
of the
Somme.
the comforting assurance that the Guards were mov-
ing up in his rear. On the right the ﬁrst wave con-
sisted of the 6th Royal Irish and the 8th Munsters
who dashed forward with great gallantry but were
held up by machine-guns. The same ﬁre held up
the 1st Munsters upon the right of the 48th Brigade,
but some natural cover was found which enabled
them to continue to advance. On their left the 7th
Irish Riﬂes and 7th Irish Fusiliers had broken into
the German line in the ﬁrst determined advance. By
six in the evening the 8th and 9th Dublins had rein-
forced the attack and had pushed on into the village
where the 156th Field Company Royal Engineers
at once consolidated—a swift measure which was
fully justiﬁed since two attacks stormed out of the
darkness of the night and were beaten back into it
again. Next morning the Sixteenth Division was
relieved by the Guards and returned for the time
from the line which they had so materially helped
to enlarge and consolidate. Their losses had been
heavy. Five battalion commanders were among the
casualties. They fell out of the line upon Septem-
ber 10. A few days earlier the Fifth Division had
been relieved by the Fifty-sixth.
The total effect of these operations had been to
extend the whole British position for several thou;
sand yards in frontage and nearly a mile in depth.
At least 2000 more prisoners had fallen into our
hands. The attack of July 14 had broken in the
centre of the German second line, but the two ﬂanks
had held ﬁrm. The fall of Pozieres upon our left
before the Australians and the Forty-eighth Divi-
sion, and of Guillemont upon our right before the
Twentieth and-Fifth, meant that the ﬂanks also had


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 231
gone, and that the whole front was now clear. A
third strong line ran through Warlencourt and Le
Transloy, but very numerous impediments—woods,
villages, and trenches—lay in front of the army be-
fore they could reach it. It proved, however, that
the worst impediment of all—vile weather and a
premature winter—was to be the only real obstacle
to the complete success of the army.
In order to complete this description of these
widespread operations which are difﬁcult to syn-
chronise and bring into any settled plan, one must
return to what was going on upon the left of Del-
ville Wood. Towards the end of August the Thirty-
third Division which had covered the line between
Delville and High Woods was relieved by the
Twenty-fourth. Upon the left of the Twenty-fourth
the First Division was still continuing that series of
operations upon High Wood which have been al-
ready described. On their left in turn was the Fif-.
teenth Scottish Division, the left unit of Rawlinson’s
Army. They were busy from this time onwards in
digging their assembly trenches for the great as-
sault. A
The ﬁrst incident which calls for attention was a
very sudden and violent German attack upon Au-
gust 31 upon the Twenty-fourth Division. The Ger-
man onslaught met with some success at ﬁrst, as it
burst through the line of the 13th Middlesex, a bat-
talion which had lost heavily in the attack upon
Guillemont ten days before, and was for the mo-
ment more ﬁt for a rest-camp than the forefront of
the battle. The 9th Sussex, who were on the right
of the Middlesex, stood ﬁrm, and the German ad-
vance which had penetrated some distance down the
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232 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
IX.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
long communication trench which is known as Plum
Street, was eventually brought to a halt. This result
was partly brought about by the initiative and de-
termination of a 2nd Lieutenant of the Middlesex,
“a little palefaced fellow,” who carried off a Lewis
gun, and worked it from different positions down
the trench, continually holdiﬁg up the Germans and
giving time for the Sussex men to gather such a
force at the end of Plum Street as prevented the
Germans from debouching into the larger trenches
which led down towards Longueval. The attack had
been equally severe upon the 72nd Brigade, who
held the right of the Division, which included the
northern end of Delville Wood. They entirely re-
pulsed the Germans with great loss, the 8th Queen’s
Surrey being the battalion which bore the brunt of
the ﬁght.
On the next day, September 1, the 17th Brigade
camp up to restore the situation on the left, and by
evening the position had been almost cleared. On
the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th there were fresh German at-
tacks, but the line was now ﬁrmly held and no im-
pression was made. None the less, the ﬁghting had
been costly, and the depleted division had 2000 more
names upon its roll of honour. It was drawn out
shortly afterwards, but its artillery, which was left
in the line, had the misfortune to lose its distin-
guished chief, General Phillpotts, upon September 8.
We shall now move a mile eastwards to follow the
First Division in its diﬂicult and, as it proved, im-
possible task of improving our position as regards
High Wood, a spot which caused us more delay and
loss than any other upon the German line.
On September 3 a strong attack by the whole of


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 233
the 1st Brigade was made upon the wood, which was
gridironed with trenches and studded with strong
points. The immediate objectives were the main
trench in the wood and the trenches to the south-
east of the wood. The 1st Camerons, supported by
the 8th Berks, advanced upon the right, the Black
Watch, supported by the 10th Gloucesters, on the
left. The attack had considerable success which
could not, however, be maintained. The battalions
on the right won home, but the consolidating parties
were delayed. On the left, the attack was only par-
tially successful, being held up at a large mine-
crater. When eventually a strong German counter-
attack swept forward from the north-east of High
Wood, the British had to fall back to their own
original line, taking, however, 80 German prisoners
with them. The ground had been won, but there
had not been weight enough to hold it. The losses
of the two Highland battalions were severe.
On September 8, the 3rd Brigade penetrated into
the western part of High Wood, but again it was
found impossible to make more than a. temporary
lodgment. The 2nd Welsh, 1st South Wales Bor-
derers and 1st Gloucesters were all involved in this
affair, as was the 9th Black Watch of the Fifteenth
Division, who played a very gallant part. Next day
the attack was renewed with the 2nd Brigade upon
the right, the 3rd upon the left. In the centre the
1st Northants captured the crater, but were driven
out of it later in the day, after a hard ﬁght. On
the left, the Munsters and Gloucesters were held up
by machine-gun ﬁre. On the right the advance of the
2nd Sussex and of the 2nd Riﬂes met with gratify-
ing success. The important trench called Wood
CHAPTER
IX.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


CHAPTER X
THE BATTLE on THE SOMME
Breaking of the Third Line, September 15
Capture of Martinpuich by Fifteenth Division—Advance of Fiftieth
Division—Capture of High Wood by Forty-seventh Division——
Splendid advance of New Zealanders—Capture of Flers by
Forty-ﬁrst Division—Advance of the Light Division—Arduous
work of the Guards and Sixth Divisions—Capture of Quadri-
lateral—Work of Fifty-sixth Division on ﬂank—Début of the
tanks.
THE Army had been temporarily exhausted by its
extreme eﬁorts and the consequent losses, but was
greatly buoyed up by the certainty that with their
excellent artillery and their predominant air service
they were inﬂicting more punishment than they were
receiving. Steadily from week to week the tale of
prisoners and of captured guns had been growing,
the British and the French keeping curiously level
in the numbers of their trophies. Fresh divisions,
ardent for battle, were streaming down from the
Northern line, while old divisions, already badly
hammered, ﬁlled up rapidly with eager drafts, and
were battle-worthy once again in a period which
would have been pronounced absolutely impossible
by any military critic before the War. All the rear-
ward villages were choked with the supports. There
was rumour also of some new agency to be used, and
wondrous stories were whispered as to its nature
CHAPTER

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
235


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 237
From the right of Horne’s Corps to the point of
junction with the French the line was ﬁlled by the
Fourteenth Corps, under Lord Cavan of Ypres fame.
In the movement, then, which we are immediately
considering, it is the Third, Fifteenth, and Four-
teenth Corps which are concerned. We shall take
them as usual from the left, and follow the for-
tunes of each until their immediate operations
reached some deﬁnite term. It is a gigantic move-
ment upon which we look, for from the Eleventh Di-
vision in the Thiepval sector to the left, along ten
miles of crowded trenches to the Fifty-sixth Division
near Combles upon the right, twelve divisions, or
about 120,000 infantry were straining on the leash
as the minute hand crawled towards zero and the
shell streams swept ever swifter overhead.
The three divisions which formed the Third Corps
were, counting from the left, the Fifteenth, the
Fiftieth, and the Forty-seventh. Of these, the Scots
Division was faced by the strong line of defence in
front of Martinpuich and the village of that name.
The north of England territorials were opposite to
the various German trenches which linked Martin-
puich to High Wood. The Londoners were faced by
the ghastly charnel-house of High Wood itself, taken
and retaken so often, but still mainly in German
hands. At 6.20 A.M. the assault went forward along
the line.
The Fifteenth Division, which had been strength-
ened by the 103rd Brigade, advanced upon the line
of trenches Which separated them from Martinpuich,
the 46th Brigade being upon the left and the 45th
upon the right. The 10th Highland Light Infantry
upon the left of the 46th Brigade were in close touch
CHAPTER
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The
Battle
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Somme.


238 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
X.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
with the Canadians upon their left, forming the
right-hand unit of Gough’s Army. This brigade,
consisting of Highland Light Infantry, Scots Bor-
derers, and Scottish Riﬂes, swarmed over the Ger-
man defences, while their comrades upon the right,
including Royal Scots, Scots Fusiliers, Camerons,
and Argylls, were no less successful. The fact that
the whole line was engaged removed the old bug-
bears of enﬁlade ﬁre which had, broken up so many
of our advances. The German barrage was heavy,
but the advance was so swift and the close ﬁght of
the trenches came so quickly, that it was less effec-
tive than of old. A creeping barrage from the Brit-
ish guns, going forward at a pace of ﬁfty yards a
minute, kept in front of the infantry, whose eager
feet were ever on the edge of the shrapnel. With the
44th Highland Brigade in close support the whole
division swept roaring over the trenches, and with
hardly a pause ﬂooded into Martinpuich where they
met the fringe of the Canadians, whose main ad-
vance was to the north-west of the village. It was a
magniﬁcent advance, and the more noteworthy as
the men of the 15th Division had already been for
six unbroken weeks in the line, digging, working,
ﬁghting, and continually under shell-ﬁre. Some
groups of Germans in the village attempted a short
and hopeless resistance, but the greater number
threw their arms down and their hands up. It is
said that a detachment of six Argylls got into Mar-
tinpuich some little time before their comrades, ow-
ing to some gap in the defences, and that they not
only held their own there, but were found when re-'
inforced to be mounting guard over ﬁfty prisoners.
Arnong many anecdotes of military virtue may he


GUQP": Trend" Q Prue Trench
CARTDIANS ~
. . [Division
start ir—sh Trench 50% Division


TAxme or MARTINPUICHQSEPTEMBEB 15, 1916.


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 241
that they kept the centre level with the two victor-
ious wings, and that in the evening of September 15
they extended from the Starﬁsh Trench on the left to
the new position of the Forty-seventh Division upon
the right. This position was a magniﬁcent one, for
High Wood had been ﬁnally carried, and the British
line had been carried forward by these splendid Lon-
don battalions, until in the evening the 140th Bri-
gade upon the right had been able to join up with
the New Zealanders upon the Flers line. Advancing
upon a one-brigade front, with the 6th and 15th
London in the lead, the London territorials, after
one slight check, rushed the wood, and by 11 o’clock
not only had it in their complete possession, but had
won 150 yards beyond it, where they consolidated.
Two tanks which had been allotted to them were
unfortunately unable to make their way through that
terrible chaos of fallen trees," irregular trenches,
deep shell-holes, and putrescent decay, which ex-
tended for a third of a mile from south to north.
The wood now passed permanently into British
hands, and the Forty-seventh Division has the hon-
our of the ﬁnal capture; but in justice to the Thirty-
third and other brave divisions which had at diﬁer-
ent times taken and then lost it, it must be remem-
bered that it was a very much more difﬁcult propo-
sition to hold it when there was no general attack,
and when the guns of the whole German line could
concentrate upon the task of making it uninhabitable.
So much for the capture of High Wood by the
Forty-seventh Division. Speaking generally, it may
be said that each of the three divisions forming
Pulteney’s Third Corps was equally successful in
CHAPTER

The
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ofthe
Somme.


242 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
\
reaching and in retaining the objectives assigned for
the attack. _
The dividing line between the Third Corps and
Horne’s Fifteenth Corps was to the south of High
Wood in the neighbourhood of Drop Trench. The
order of the divisions in the latter corps from the
left was the New Zealanders, the Forty-ﬁrst Divi-
sion, and the Fourteenth Light Division. We shall
follow each in its turn.
The New Zealand Division had conﬁrmed in
France the high reputation which their predecessors
had founded in South Africa, and which they had
themselves renewed on the Gallipoli peninsula.
They were troops with a splendid spirit, and no
Londoner who has seen their tall lithe ﬁgures with
the crimson hatbands which distinguish them from
other oversea troops, needs to be told how ﬁne was
their physique. They were fortunate, too, in a di-
visional commander of great dash and gallantry. It
is not surprising, therefore, to ﬁnd that in this, their
ﬁrst serious battle, they carried themselves with
great distinction and made good the objective which
had been assigned to them.
This objective was the famous Switch Trench
between High Wood and Delville Wood, a section
which was held by the Fourth Bavarian Division.
Good as the Bavarians are, they had no chance when
it came to close quarters with the stalwart men of
Auckland and Otago, who formed the 2nd Brigade in
the front line of the New Zealand battle. The ma-
chine-gun ﬁre which they had to face was heavy and
deadly, especially for the Otagos, who were in the
left near High Wood. They poured on, however, in
an unbroken array, springing down into Switch


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 243
Trench, bayoneting part of the garrison, sending
back the survivors as prisoners, and rapidly forming
up once more for a fresh advance. The New Zealand
Riﬂe Brigade passed over the captured trench and
lay down under the barrage 300 yards beyond it,
whence at 6.40 they went forward upon a new ad-
vance with such impetuosity that they could hardly
be kept out of the friendly ﬁre in front of them.
The next obstacle, Fat Trench, was easily surmount-
ed, and by noon the Flers Trench and Flers Support
Trench had both fallen to this ﬁne advance. . The
,village of Flers was not in the direct line of the ad-
vance, but the fringe of the New Zealanders passed
through the edge of it, and connected up with the
Forty-ﬁrst Division who had occupied it.
When, as will presently be shown, the left-hand
brigade of this Division was temporarily driven back
by a sharp German counter-attack, the New Zealand-
ers were bare upon their right, while a. gap existed
also upon their left. In spite of this they held on
to their advanced position to the north-west of the
village, the line being strengthened by battalions
from Wellington, Hawke’s Bay, and West Coast,
who pushed forward into the ﬁght.
In the morning of the 16th the reserve brigade had
come up and the advance was renewed as far as
Grove Alley upon the left, the Canterbury battalion
clearing and holding the new ground, with the Auck-
landers and Otagos in immediate support. With this
new advance the New Zealanders had come forward
3000 yards in two days—a notable performance—
and were within short striking distance of the great
German systems of Gird Trench and Gird Support.
Two German counters that evening, one upon the
CHAPTER
The
Battle
of the
Somme.


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 245
stormers, who rushed into it shortly after eight
o’clock. One tank went up the east side of the vil-
lage and crushed in two houses containing machine-
guns, while another one passed down the main
street; and yet another cleared up the west side.
Nowhere upon this day of battle did these engines
of warfare justify themselves so well as at Flers.
By ten o’clock the village was cleared and consoli-
dated, but the German guns were very active, and
there was a strong counter-attack from fresh in-
fantry, which fell heavily upon the already worn
troops who had now passed beyond the village and
got as far as the Box and Cox trenches. There had
been a large number of ofﬁcer casualties. Shortly
after ten o’clock an ofﬁcer of the 18th King’s Royal
Riﬂes had got far forward with a mixed party of 100
men with some Lewis guns, and had established a
strong point at Box and Cox, which he held until
about one. During those three hours the shell-fall
was very severe. The division had become some-
what scattered, partly owing to the street ﬁghting
in Flers and partly because the 124th Brigade upon
the right, although it had kept touch with the 41st
Brigade, had lost touch with its own comrades upon
the left. Finding that its left ﬂank was open, it fell
back and took up the line of the Sunken Road, a
quarter of a mile south of Flers, where it remained.
Meanwhile, the 122nd Brigade was in some
trouble. The pressure of counter-attack in front of
it had become so heavy that there was a general fall-
ing back of the more advanced units. This retro-
grade movement was stopped by the Brigade-Major,
who collected a section of the 228th Field Company
of Royal Engineers, together with little groups of
CHAPTER
X.
The
Battle
of the
Somme.


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 249
gade pushed on, keeping in close touch with the
Forty-ﬁrst Division upon the left, but gradually los-
ing touch with the Guards upon their right, so that
a dangerous gap was created. It was covered by the
7th Divisional Artillery as well as by its own guns.
In its advance it passed through the ranks of its
fellow-brigade which had cleared the ﬁrst trenches
up to and including the line of the Switch Trench.
The front line from the left consisted of the 5th
Shropshires and 9th Riﬂe Brigade with the 5th Ox-
ford and Bucks and 9th Riﬂes behind. From the
beginning the brigade was under heavy ﬁre, and the
Col0nel of the Oxfords was twice wounded, which
did not prevent him from still leading his battalion.
The ﬁrst obstacle, Gap Trench, was safely carried,
and the line swept onwards to Bulls Road where
they were cheered by the sight of a tank engaging
and silencing a German battery, though it was itself
destroyed in the moment of victory. The losses in
the two riﬂe battalions were especially heavy as the
right ﬂank was exposed owing to the gap which had
formed. This deadly ﬁre held up the ﬂank with the
result that the Shropshires and Oxfords who were
less exposed to it soon found themselves consider-
ably in advance of their comrades, where they
formed a line which was extended about mid-day by
the arrival of the 9th Riﬂes. At this period large
reinforcements of the enemy were seen ﬂocking into
Gird Trench and Gird Support Trench in front. So
strong were they that they attempted a counter-
attack upon the right front of the 42nd Brigade,
but this was brought to a stand, and ﬁnally broken
up by riﬂe and Lewis-gun ﬁre. The supporting 43rd
Brigade came up in the evening and took over the
CHAPTER
The
Battle
of the
Somme.


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 251
was withdrawn from the line after this, and their
place taken by the Twenty-ﬁrst.
We have now brieﬂy considered the operations
carried out during this great battle by Horne’s Fif-
teenth Corps. Upon their right, stretching from the
neighbourhood of Ginchy to the left of the French
Army in the neighbourhood of Combles, was Cavan’s
Fourteenth Corps, which contained in its battle line
the Guards, the Sixth Division, and the 56th London
Territorial Division. Taking them, as always, from
the left we will begin by tracing the progress of the
Guards.
The Guards Division had taken over the Ginchy
Section some days previously from the Irish Divi-
sion, and had at once found themselves involved in
very heavy ﬁghting, which left them a good deal
weakened for the great advance. They were faced
,by a strong system of trenches and especially by
one stronghold upon their right front, called the
Quadrilateral, which was a most formidable thorn,
not only in their side but also in that of the Sixth
Division upon the right. On September 13 and 14‘
these twodivisions strove hard, and sustained heavy
losses in the endeavour to clear their front of, and
to outﬂank, this serious obstacle, and some account
of these preliminary operations may be here intro-
duced, although, as explained, they were antecedent
to the general engagement. The attack upon the Ger-
man trenches on the evening of September 13 was
begun by the Sixth Division, which advanced with
the 71st Brigade upon the left, the Sixteenth upon
the right, and the Eighteenth in reserve. For 500
yards the advance was successful until it reached
the sunken road which leads from Ginchy to Leuze

Th e
Battle
of the
Somme.


252 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
Wood. Here the leading battalions of the 71st Bri-
gade, the 2nd Sherwood Foresters upon the left, and
the 9th Suffolk upon the right, were held up by a
furious ﬁre which caused them heavy losses. The
8th Bedford, one of the leading battalions of the
16th Brigade, was also heavily punished. Many
ofﬁcers fell, including Major Mack of the Suffolks, a
civilian-bred soldier over sixty years of age, who had
distinguished himself by his ﬁery courage. The 2nd
Brigade of Guards had advanced upon the left, near
Ginchy Telegraph, and had also forced their way as
far as the road where they were held up partly by a
terriﬁc barrage from the North East and partly by
the murderous ﬁre from the Quadrangle. The whole
line dug in upon the ground they had won and waited
for a further push in the morning. In this action
No. 2 Company of the 2nd Irish Guards suffered
heavy casualties from close range ﬁre.
On September 14 a second attempt was made to
get forward, the action being a purely local one, but
extending over a considerable space from Ginchy to
near Leuze Wood, with its centre on the line of
Ginchy Telegraph. The 3rd Brigade of Guards came
into action this morning and made some progress in
the orchard north of Ginchy. At the same, time, the
2nd Sherwoods got astride of the little railway
which intersected their position. The gains were in-
considerable, however, which could not be said for
the losses, mostly due to machine-gun ﬁre from the
Quadrangle. The fact that this point was still un-
taken gave the whole Fourteenth Corps a very difﬁ-
cult start for the general action upon September
15 to which we now come.
On the signal for the general advance the Guards


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 253
Division advanced on the front between Delville
Wood and Ginchy. The 1st Guards Brigade was on
the left, the 2nd on the right, and the 3rd in reserve.
The front line of battalions counting from the left
were the 3rd, 2nd, and 1st Coldstreams with the 3rd
Grenadiers as right ﬂank. Behind, in the second
line from the left, were the 1st Irish, 2nd Grena-
< diers, 2nd Irish, and 1st Scots. Disregarding the
Quadrilateral upon their right, which was holding
up the Sixth Division, the Guards swept magniﬁcent-
ly onwards, losing many ofﬁcers and men, but never
their direction or formation. From 6.20 in the
morning until 4 P.M. they overcame one obstacle
after another, and continually advanced, though the
progress was unequal at different points on the line.
There was a short sharp bout of hand-to-hand ﬁght-
ing in the front line trench, but the rush of the heavy
disciplined Guardsmen was irresistible, and the de-
fenders were soon overwhelmed. In this mélée the
battalions got badly mixed up, part of the 2nd Irish
getting carried away by the 1st Brigade. The 1st
Brigade found a more formidable obstacle in front
of them in Vat Alley, but this also was cleared after
a struggle, the left-hand units getting mixed with
the right-hand units of the Fourteenth Division.
About one o’clock the 3rd Coldstreams on the ex-
treme left were held up by a wired strong point.
They were weak in numbers and almost without ofﬁ-
cers, so they dug in as best they could and waited.
On the right, the 2nd Brigade made good prog-
ress, and about mid-day its leading line topped the
low ridge and saw the land of promise beyond, the
green slope leading up to Lesboeufs, and in the
middle of the slope, not more than a thousand yards
CHAPTER
X.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 255
the Guards were rested after this splendid but cost-
ly service.
In the meantime the gallant Sixth Division was
left face to face with the hardest problem of all, the
Quadrilateral trenches, which, as the name would
indicate, were as formidable in the ﬂanks or rear as
in front. With a tenacity which was worthy of the
traditions of this great division it settled down to the
task of clearing its front, meeting with check after
check, but carrying on day and night until the thing
was done. On the ﬁrst assault upon September 15,
the 1st Leicesters of the 71st Brigade were able to
make some progress, but the 8th Bedford of the 16th
Brigade, who shared the attack, were completely
held up at the starting point by the terriﬁc ﬁre, while
the 1st Buffs had heavy losses in endeavouring to
come up to their aid. By about mid-day a mixture
of battalions, which numbered about 200 of the York
and Lancasters, 50 Buffs and 50 Bedfords, had made
their way into the advanced German line, but the
Quadrilateral was still intact. The General, seeing
the certain losses and uncertain results which must
follow from a frontal attack, determined to work
round the obstacle, and before evening the 16th
Brigade, which had already lost 1200 men, was ready
for the advance. The 18th Brigade had gone for-
ward past the Quadrilatcral upon the left, working
up to the Ginchy-Morval Road, and in close touch
with the 1st Scots Guards on the extreme ﬂank of the
Guards Division. It now worked down towards the
north face of the German stronghold, and in the
course of September 16 the 2nd Durham Light In-
fantry, by a bold advance laid hold of the northern
trench of the Quadrilateral down to within a hun-
CHAPTER

The
Battle
of the ,
Somme.


256 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
X.
The
Battle
otthe
Somme'
dred yards of the Ginchy-Morval Road. Here they
were relieved by the 1st West Yorks, who took over
the task upon the 17th, keeping up constant pres-
sure upon the Garrison whoseresistance was ad-
mirable. These brave men belonged to the One hun-
dred and eighty-ﬁfth German Division. By this
time they were isolated, as the British wave had
rolled far past them on either side, but their spirit
was as high as ever. A second trench to the north
of the work was rushed upon September 17 by the
Leicesters, who bayoneted ﬁfty Germans in a hand-
to-hand conﬂict. Early in the morning of September
18 came the end, when the British battalions, led by
the 1st Shropshire Light Infantry, closed suddenly
in and stormed the position. Seven machine-guns
(ﬁve of which fell to the Shropshires) and a few
hundred exhausted or wounded prisoners represent-
ed the trophies of this very difﬁcult operation. The
Sixth Division now connected up with the Twen-
tieth upon their left, and with the Fifty-sixth upon
their right, after which, upon September 19, they
handed over their front for a time to the Fifth Divi—
sion. ,
There now only remains the Fifty-Sixth Division
upon the extreme right of the Army—the division
which contained many of the crack London Terri-
torial Battalions, reformed and reinforced since its
terrible losses at the Gommecourt Salient upon July
1. In following the fortunes of this ﬁne division
upon September 15, it is necessary to go back for
some days, as a series of operations had been under-
taken before the great battle, which were as arduous
as the battle itself. On coming into the line on Sep-
tember 9, the Division had at once been given the


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258 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER task of advancing that wing of the Army. Upon
1" that date the 168th and 169th Brigades were attack-
‘lggftle ing upon the line of the road which connects Ginchy
of the with Combles, the general objects of the advance
smme‘ being to gradually outﬂank Combles on the one side
and the Quadrilateral upon the other. Some ground
was permanently gained by both brigades upon that
day, the Victoria Riﬂes and the 4th London doing
most of the ﬁghting.
(Upon September 10 the advance was continued,
a scattered clump of trees called Leuze Wood being
the immediate obstacle in front of the right-hand
brigade, while the left-hand brigade was trying to
get into touch with the Division upon their left, and
were confronted by the continuation of the same
system of trenches. The 169th Brigade upon the
right was advancing through Leuze Wood, and suf-
fered heavy losses before reaching its objective. On
the left the London Scottish and the Rangers were
extending east along the Ginchy Road, endeavouring
to link up with the Guards, for there was an awk-
ward gap at that date between the divisions. This
was ﬁlled, however, by the advent of the Fifth and
subsequently of the Sixth Divisions. The object
of all the above operations was to get the right ﬂank
of the Army into its allotted position for the battle
to come.
Upon September 15 the London Division went
forward with the whole line at 6.20 in the morning,
the 167th Brigade on the left, the 169th upon the
right. The original direction of advance had been
north and 'south, but it soon became almost from
west to east as the Division, pivoting upon Leuze
Wood, swung round to attack Bouleaux Wood to the


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 259
north of it, and to hold a defensive ﬂank for the
whole army. Their front was a very narrow one to al-
low for the fact that their essential work was lateral.
The 167th Brigade fought its way bravely into
Bouleaux Wood, where they endured the usual hor-
rors of this forest ﬁghting, which came especially
upon the 7th Middlesex battalion, who lost 400 men,
chieﬂy from the ﬁre of unseen machine-guns. There
was a very heavy barrage between Ginchy and Bou-
leaux Wood, so that all reserves and supports en-
dured heavy losses before they could get up. By
mid-day the 1st London and the 8th were involved
in the wood and some progress was being made,
while the 2nd London of the 169th Brigade had
taken and consolidated a trench near the Sunken
Road, but a further attack upon a second trench to
the east of Leuze Wood, two days later, was a.
failure. On this same day, September 18, the 168th
Brigade relieved the 167th in Bouleaux Wood, while
the whole division, like one blade of a scissors, edged
its way eastwards towards Combles to meet the
French Second Division, who were closing in from
the other side. Already rumours were current that
the Germans were evacuating this important little
town, but many very active German trenches and
strong points still lay all round it, through which
the Allies, from either side, were endeavouring to
force their way. On the night of September 18-19,
the 5th Cheshires, pioneer battalion of the division,
constructed a long trench parallel to Bouleaux
Wood, which formed a defensive ﬂank for the opera-
tions. The whole of this wood had now been cleared
with the exception of the extreme Northern corner.
Here we may leave the Fifty-sixth Division, for the
CHAPTER
X.

The
Battle
otthe
Somme.


260 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER fall of Combles will ﬁt in more properly to our next
X' survey, when we shall have once again to go down

Efﬁe the whole line from left to right and to show one
otthe more stage in the advance.
S°mm°' This Battle of Flers may be said to mark an epoch
in military history on account of the use of the so-
called tank, an instrument which had no vital effect
upon the course of the ﬁght, but which was obvi-
ously capable of being much enlarged, and of being
made in every way more formidable. It had been
a common criticism up to this date that our military
equipment had always been an imitation, very be-
lated, of that of our enemy. Now at last Great Brit-
ain, warming to thev War, was giving her inventive
and manufacturing, as well as her military, talents,
full scope—and the tank was the ﬁrst-born of her
fancy. It is a matter of history that Britain has
been the inventor of processes and Germany the
adapter of them, so that we had a valuable asset
in that direction could we break through our bonds
of red tape and get without hindrance from the
thinker in his study to the ﬁghter in the trench.
Those who have had the experience of discussing
any military problem in the Press, and have found
by the next post ﬁfty letters from men of all ranks
and professions, presenting solutions for it, can best
understand how active is the inventive brain of the
country. In this instance, Mr. Winston Churchill
is said, during his tenure of ofﬁce, to have ﬁrst con-
ceived the idea of the tanks, but the actual details
were worked out by a number of men. Especially
they are owing to Colonel Stern, a civilian before
the War, who used his knowledge of motor manufac-
ture and his great organising ability to put the con-


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 261
struction through in the shortest time, to Com-
mander d’Eyncourt of the Navy, and to Colonel
Swinton, R.E., who looked after the crews and equip-
ment. On an average six of these engines, strange
modern resuscitations of the war-chariots of our an-
cestors, were allotted to each division. The whole
affair was frankly experimental, and many got into
trouble through the breakdown of machinery, the
limits of carrying capacity, and the slipping of the
caterpillar driving-bands at the sides. Their pace,
too, was against them, as they could only go twenty
yards per minute as against the ﬁfty of the infantry.
Hence they had to be sent ahead down lanes in the
barrage, with the result that the element of surprise
was lessened. Their vision also was very defective,
and they were bad neighbours, as they drew ﬁre.
The result was a very mixed report from various
Divisional Commanders, some of whom swore by,
and others at them. The net result, however, was
summed up by the words of commendation from
General Haig in his despatch, and there were some
cases, as at Flers itself, where the work done was
simply invaluable, and the machine-guns were nosed
out and rooted up before they could do any damage.
The adventures of individual tanks could, and no
doubt will, ﬁll a volume to themselves, some of them,
either in ignorance or recklessness, wandering deep
into the enemy’s lines, and amazing rearward bat-
teries by their sudden uncouth appearance. Several
were destroyed, but none actually fell into the Ger-
man hands. Enough was done to show their possi-
bilities, and also to prove that the Navy and the Fly-
ing Service had not suﬂi‘ced to exhaust our amazing
supply of high-spirited youths ready to undertake
CHAPTER

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


262 .
THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
X.

The
Battle
ofthe
Somme.
I
the most nerve-shaking tasks so long as a touch of
sport gave them a ﬂavour. The very names of these
land cruisers, Creme de Menthe and the like, showed
the joyous, debonair spirit in which their crews
faced the unknown dangers of their new calling.
Summing up the events of September 15, it was
without any doubt the greatest British victory,
though not the most important, which had been
gained up to date in the War. July 1 was the most
important, and all subsequent ones arose from it,
since it was then that the Chinese Wall of Germany
was breached. July 14 was also a considerable vic-
tory, but it was only a portion of the line which was
attacked, and that portion was partly regained for
a time by the German counter-attacks. The battle
of September 15, however, was on as huge a scale as
that of July 1, but was devoid of those long stretches
of untaken trench which made us pay so heavy a
price for our victory. From the Pozieres Ridge
upon the left to Bouleaux Wood upon the right
twelve divisions moved forward to victory, and, save
in the small section of the Quadrilateral, everything
gave way at once to that majestic advance. The
ultimate objectives had been carefully deﬁned, for
the Battle of Loos had taught us that the infantry
must not outrun the guns, but this pre-ordained limit
was attained at almost every spot. Martinpuich,
High Wood, Flers, Delville, and Leuze Wood, all
passed permanently within the British lines, and the
trophies of victory amounted to 5000 prisoners and
a dozen guns. At this stage no less than 21,000
prisoners had been taken by the British and 34,000
by the French since the great series of battles was
commenced upon July 1.


CHAPTER XI
THE GAINING OF THE THIEPVAL RIDGE
Assault on Thiepval by Eighteenth Division—Heavy ﬁghting—Co—
operation of Eleventh Division—Fall of Thiepval—Fall of
Schwaben Redoubt—Taking of Stuff Redoubt—Important gains
on the Ridge.
HAVING treated the successful advance made by
Rawlinson’s Fourth Army upon September 15, it
would be well before continuing the narrative of
their further efforts to return to Gough’s Army upon
the North, the right Canadian wing of which had
captured Courcelette, but which was occupied in the
main with the advance upon the Thiepval Ridge.
The actual capture of Thiepval was an operation
of such importance that it must be treated in some
detail. The village, or rather the position, was a
thorn in the side of the British, as it lay with its
veteran garrison of Wurtemburgers, girdled round
and ﬂanked by formidable systems of trenches upon
the extreme left of their line. Just above Thiepval
was a long slope ending in a marked ridge, which
was topped by the Schwaben Redoubt. Both armies
recognised the extreme importance of this position,
since its capture would mean a ﬁre-command over all
the German positions to the north of the Ancre, while
without it the British could never reap the full result
of their success in breaking the line upon July 1.
For this reason, instructions had been given to the
CHAPTER
XI.

The
gaining
of the
Thiepval
Ridge.
263


266 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTuB

The
gaining
of the
Thiepval
Ridge.
ness. So war-wise were the British, and so cool
their dispositions, that certain enemy trenches were
actually exempted from bombardment, so that they
might form an intact nucleus of defence when the
place was taken.
The Canadian Corps were to attack from Cource-
lette upon the right, but their advance was only
indirectly concerned with Thiepval Village, being
directed towards the ridge which runs north-west of
Courcelette to the Schwaben Redoubt. Next to the
Canadians on the left was the Eleventh Division, and
on their left the Thirteenth, which had been
strengthened by the addition of the 146th Brigade
of the Forty-ninth Division. The latter brigade held
the original British front line during the action so
as to release the whole of the Eighteenth Division
for the advance. The immediate objective of this
Division was Thiepval Village, to be followed by the
Schwaben Redoubt. Those of the Eleventh Division
on its right were Zollern and Stuff Redoubts.
The Eighteenth Division assaulted with two
brigades, the 53rd on the right, the 54th on the left,
each being confronted by a network of trenches
backed by portions of the shattered village. The
advance was from south to north, and at right angles
to the original British trench line. The hour of fate
was 12.35 in the afternoon of September 26.
The average breadth of No Man’s Land was 250
yards, which was crossed by these steady troops at'
a slow, plodding walk, the pace being regulated by
the searching barrage, which lingered over every
shell-hole in front of them. Through the hard work
of the sappers and Sussex pioneers, the assembly


GAINING OF THE THIEPVAL RIDGE
267
trenches had been pushed well out, otherwise the
task would have been more formidable.
Following the fortunes of the 53rd Brigade upon
the right, its movements were supposed to synchro-
nise with those of the 33rd Brigade upon the left
ﬂank of the Eleventh Division. The right advanced
battalion was the 8th Suffolk, with the 10th Essex up-
on the left, each of them in six waVes. Close at their
heels came the 8th Norfolk, whose task was to search
dug-outs and generally to consolidate the ground
won. The front line of stormers rolled over Joseph
Trench, which was the German advanced position,
but before they had reached it there was a strange
eruption of half-dressed unarmed Germans yelling
with terror and bolting through the barrage. Many
of them dashed through the stolid Suffolks, who took
no notice of them, but let them pass. Others lost
their nerve like rabbits at a battue, and darted here
and there between the lines until the shrapnel found
them. It was an omen of victory that such clear
signs of shaken morale should be evident so early
in the day. There was sterner stuff behind, how-
ever, as our men were speedily to learn.
The advance went steadily forward, cleaning up
the trenches as it went, and crossing Schwaben
Trench, Zollern Trench, and Bulgar Trench, in each
of which there was sharp resistance, only quelled by
the immediate presence of our Lewis guns, or occa_
sionally by the rush of a few determined men with
bayonets. It was 2.30 before the advance was
brought to a temporary stand by machine-gun ﬁre
from the right. After that hour a small party of
Suffolks under Lieutenant Mason got forward some
distance ahead, and made a strong point which they
CHAPTER
XI.

The
gaining
of the
Th lepval
Ridge.


268 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER held till evening, this gallant young oﬂicer falling un-
XI' der the enemy’s ﬁre.
gains The success of the Suffolks upon the right was
ofthe equalled by that of the Essex on the left, passing
35;?“ through the eastern portion of Thiepval without
great loss, for the usual machine-gun ﬁre seemed to
have been stamped out by the British guns. The
whole of this ﬁne advance of the 53rd Brigade cov-
ered about 1000 yards in depth and accounted for a
great number of the enemy in killed, wounded, and
prisoners. The advance made and the cost paid
both showed that our ofﬁcers and soldiers were learn-
ing the lessons of modern warfare with that swift
adaptability which Britain has shown in every phase
of this terriﬁc and prolonged test. This old, old
nation’s blood has ﬂowed into so many younger ones
that her own vitality might well be exhausted; but
she has, on the contrary, above all the combatants,
given evidence of the supple elasticity of youth,
moulding herself in an instant to every movement of
the grim giant with whom she fought.
Great as had been the success of the 53rd Brigade,
it was not possible for them to get on to the
Schwaben Redoubt, their ultimate objective, because,
as will be shown, matters were more difﬁcult upon
the left, and one corner of the village was still in
German possession. They ended the day, therefore,
with two battalions consolidating the Zoller-n Line,
a third in support in the Schwaben Trench, and a.
fourth, the 6th Berks, bringing up munitions and
food to their exhausted but victorious comrades.
The front line was much mixed, but the men were in
good heart, and a visit from their Brigadier in the
early morning of the 27th did much to reassure them.


GAINING OF THETHIEPVAL RIDGE 269
To carry on the story of this brigade to the conclu-
sion of the attack it may be added that the whole of
the 27th was spent on consolidation and on a daring
reconnaissance by a captain of the 53rd Trench
Mortar Battery, who crawled forward alone, and
made it clear by his report that a new concerted ef-
fort was necessary before the Brigade could advance.
We shall now return to 12.35 P.M. on September 26,
and follow the 54th Brigade upon the left. The ad-
vance was carried out by the 12th Middlesex, with
instructions to attack the village, and by the 11th
Royal Fusiliers, whose task was to clear the maze of
trenches and dug-outs upon the west of the village,
while the 6th Northamptons were to be in close sup-
port. So diiﬁcult was the task, that a frontage of
only 300 yards was allotted to the Brigade, so as to
ensure weight of attack—the Fusiliers having a
front line of one platoon.
The advance ran constantly into a network of
trenches with nodal strong points which were held
with resolution and could only be carried by ﬁerce
hand-to-hand ﬁghting. Captain Thompson, Lieuten-
ants Miall-Smith and Cornaby, and many of their
Fusiliers in the leading company, were killed or
wounded in this desperate business. So stern was
the ﬁght that the Fusiliers on the left get far behind
their own barrage, and also behind their Middlesex
comrades on the right, who swept up as far as the
chateau before they were brought to a temporary
halt. Here, at the very vital moment, one of the
tanks, the only one still available, came gliding for-
ward and put out of action the machine-guns of the
chateau, breaking down in the eﬁort, and remaining
on the scene of its success. Across the whole front
CHAPTER
XI.
The
gaining
of the
Thiepval
Ridge.


270 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHArm
XI.

The
gaining
of the
'l‘h iepval
Ridge.
of the advance there were now a series of small con-
ﬂicts at close quarters, so stubborn that the left wing,
of the Fusiliers was held stationary in constant com-
bat for the rest of the day. Extraordinary initiative
was shown by privates of both leading battalions
when left without oﬂicers in this scattered ﬁghting,
and here, no doubt, we have a result depending upon
the formed educated stuff which went to the making
of such troops as these London units of the new
armies. Private Edwards and Private Ryder each
gained their V.C. at this stage of the action by single-
handed advances which carried forward the line.
Corporal Tovey lost his life in a similar gallant
venture, bayoneting single-handed the crew of a
machine-gun and silencing it. Fierce battles raged
round garrisoned dug-outs, where no quarter was
given or taken on either side. One considerable gar-
rison refused to surrender and perished horribly in
the ﬂames cf their wood-lined refuge. Those who
ﬂed from their refuges were cut down by Lewis guns,
a lieutenant of the Fusiliers getting 50 in this man-
ner. This oﬁ‘icer also distinguished himself by his
use of a captured map which enabled him to lead his
men to the central telephone installation, where 20
operators were seized by a corporal and two ﬁle of
Fusiliers, who afterwards put the wires out of gear.
These great results had not been obtained without
heavy losses. Colonel Carr of the Fusiliers, Major
Hudson, and the Adjutant had all fallen. About
three in the afternoon the village had all been cleared
save the north-west corner, but the battalions were
very mixed, the barrage deadly, the order of the
attack out of gear, and the position still insecure.
The 54th Brigade was well up with the 53rd upon the


GAINING OF THE THIEPVAL RIDGE 271
right, but upon the left it was held up as already de-
scribed. The German egg bombs were falling in this
area as thick as snowballs in a schoolboy battle,
while the more formidable stick bombs were often to
be seen, twenty at a time, in the air.
A great deal now depended upon the supports as
the front line was evidently spent and held. The
immediate support was the 6th Northamptons. In
moving forward it lost both Colonel Ripley and the
Adjutant, and many oﬂicers fell, two companies
being left entirely to the charge of the sergeants,
who rose ﬁnely to their responsibilities. When by
four o’clock the battalion had got up through the
barrage, there were only two unwounded company
ofﬁcers left standing, both second lieutenants. It
was one more demonstration of the fact that a mod-
ern barrage can create a zone through which it is
practically impossible for unarmoured troops to
move. The result was that the battalion was so
weak by the time it got up, that it was less a support
to others than a unit which was in need of support.
The three depleted battalions simply held their line,
therefore, until night, and under the cover of dark-
ness they were all drawn off, and the remaining bat-
talion, the 7th Bedfords, took their place. That this
could be done at night in strange trenches within a
few yards of the German line is a feat which soldiers
will best appreciate. The result was that as day
broke on the 27 th the Germans were faced not by a.
fringe of exhausted men, but by a perfectly fresh
battalion which was ready and eager for immediate
attack.
The whole of Thiepval had been taken upon the
26th, save only the north-west corner, and it was
CHAPTER
XI.

The
gaining
of the
Thiepval
Ridge.


GAINING OF THE THIEPVAL RIDGE 273
operation of the Eleventh upon its right. This was
the capture of the formidable stronghold, made up
of many trenches and called the Schwaben Redoubt.
It was a thousand yards distant up a long broken
slope. No time was lost in tackling this new labour,
and at 1 P.M. on September 28 the troops moved for-
ward once again, the same brigades being used, but
the worn battalions being replaced by fresh units
drawn from the 55th brigade. The 53rd Brigade on
the right had the undefeatable Suffolks and the 7th’
Queen’s Surreys in the van with Norfolks and Essex
behind. The 54th upon a narrower front had the 7th
Bedfords in front, with the 5th West Yorks from the
Forty-ninth Division in immediate support, the Buﬁs
and East Surrey being in Divisional Reserve. The
Germans had got a captive balloon into the air, but
their gunnery was not particularly improved
thereby.
At the ﬁrst rush the Suffolk and Queen’s on the
right took Bulgar and Martin Trenches, while the
Eleventh Division took Hessian. By 2.30 Market
Trench had also fallen. The troops were now well
up to Schwaben, and small groups of men pushed
their way home in spite of a furious resistance. The
Eleventh Division had won home on the right, and
the Suffolks were in touch with them and with the
Queen’s, so that the position before evening was
thoroughly sound. Part of this enormous strong-
hold was still in German hands, however, and all our
efforts could not give us complete control.
Upon the left the 7th Bedfords, leading the 54th
Brigade, had made a very notable advance, crossing
Market Trench and getting well up to the western
face of the great Redoubt. The Reserves, however,
CHAPTER

The
gaining
of the
Thiepval
Ridge.


274 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER lost direction amid the chaos of shell-holes and

XL trenches, drifting away to the left. The Schwaben
gigging was occupied at several points, and the ﬁrst-fruits
ofthe of that commanding position were at once picked,
1353;?“ for the light machine-guns were turned upon the
German fugitives as they rushed with bent backs
down the sloping trenches which led to St. Pierre
Divion. The West Yorkshires were well up, and for
a time these two battalions and the Germans seem
to have equally divided this portion of the trench
between them. There was stark ﬁghting everywhere
with bomb and bayonet, neither side ﬂinching, and
both so mixed up that neither German nor British
commanders could tell how the units lay. In such a
case a General can only trust to his men, and a
British General seldom trusts in vain.
As night fell in this confused scene‘where along
the whole line the Eighteenth Division had reached
its objective but had not cleared it, attempts were
made to bring up new men, the Berkshires, a bat-
talion of young‘drafts, relieving the Suffolks on the
right. In the morning two local counter-attacks by
the Germans succeeded in enlarging their area. At
the same time the 55th Brigade took over the front,
the four battalions being reunited under their own
Brigadier. It was clear that the German line was
thickening, for it was a matter of desperate urgency
to them to recover the Redoubt. They still held the
northern end of the labyrinth. On September 30
the East Surreys, moving up behind a massive bar-
rage, took it by storm, but were driven out again
before they could get their roots down. The Ger-
mans, encouraged by their success, surged south
again, but could make no headway. On October 1'


GAINING OF THE THIEPVAL RIDGE ,275
the tide set northwards once more, and the Buffs
gained some ground. From then till October 5,
when the Eighteenth Division was relieved by the
Thirty-ninth, there were incessant alarms and excur-
sions, having the net result that at the latter date the
whole Redoubt with the exception of one small sec-
tion, afterwards taken by the Thirty-ninth, was in
our hands. So ended for the moment the splendid
service of the Eighteenth Division. Nearly 2000
ofﬁcers and men had fallen in the Schwaben opera-
tions, apart from the 1500 paid for Thiepval. It is
certain, however, that the Schwaben Garrison had
suffered as much, and they left 232 prisoners in the
hands of the victors.
For the purpose of continuity of narrative, we
have kept our attention ﬁxed upon the Eighteenth
Division, but the Eleventh Division, which we have
left at the Mouquet Farm some pages before, had
been doing equally good work upon the right. In the
afternoon of September 27 the 6th Borders, rushing
suddenly from Zollern Trench, made a lodgment in
Hessian Trench, to which they resolutely clung, On
their left the 6th Yorks and 9th West Yorks had also
advanced and gained permanent ground, winning
their way into the southern edge of Stuff Redoubt.
Here they had to face a desperate counter-attack, but
Captain White, with a mixed party of the battalions
named, held on against all odds, winning his V.C. by
his extraordinary exertions. During the whole of
September 29 the pressure at this point was extreme,
but the divisional artillery showed itself to be ex-
tremely efﬁcient, and covered the exhausted infantry
with a most comforting barrage.
The 32nd Brigade was now brought up, and on
CHAPTER
XI.

The
gaining
of the
Th iepval
Ridge.


276 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER September 30 the advance was resumed, the whole of
XL this brigade and the 6th Lincolns and 7th South
:11 mg Staffords of the 33rd being strongly engaged. The
of the results were admirable, as the whole of Hessian
35;? Trench and the south of Stuff Redoubt were occu-
pied. That night the Eleventh Division was relieved
by the Twenty-ﬁfth, and it will now be told how the
conquest of the Ridge was ﬁnally achieved. The
Eleventh withdrew after having done splendid work
and sustained losses of 144 ofﬁcers and 3500 men.
Their prisoners amounted to 30 ofﬁcers and 1125 of
all ranks, with a great number of machine-guns and
trench mortars.
After the fall of Thiepval and the operations which
immediately followed it the front British line in this
quarter ran approximately east and west along the
Thiepval-Courcelette ridge. As far as part of the
front was concerned we had observation over the
Valley of the Ancre, but in another part the Germans
still held on to the Stuff Redoubt, and thence for a
stretch they were still on the crest and had the obser-
vation. The Stuff Redoubt itself on the southern
face had been occupied by the Eleventh, when the
Schwaben Redoubt was taken by the Eighteenth
Division, but the northern faces of both were still in
the hands of the enemy. These had now to be taken
in order to clear up the line. A further stronghold,
called The Mounds, immediately to the north, came
also within the operation.
The Twenty-ﬁfth Division had, as stated, relieved
the Eleventh, and this new task was handed over to
it. Upon October 9 the ﬁrst attack was made by the
10th Cheshires, and although their full objective was
not reached, the result was satisfactory, a lodgment


sian Trench


“65
Hessian "Trent"h
STUFF REDOUBT SYSTEM showing Hessian.Regina and Stuff.


GAINING OF THE THIEPVAL RIDGE 279
British Columbia, Alberta, and Winnipeg Battalions
showed their usual resolution, and took a couple of
hundred prisoners, but were unable to gain much
ground. A concerted movement of the whole line
was now organised.
The great Stuff Trench, which was roughly a con-
tinuation of the Regina, was opposite the centre of
the attack, and was distant some 300 yards from the
British front. The barrage arrangements co-ordi-
nated by the Second Corps (Jacob), to which these
units now belonged, worked most admirably. The
attack was made all along the line and was eminently
successful. At 12.35 upon October 21 the general
advance began, and at 4.30 the whole objective, in-
cluding Stuff and Regina, was in the hands of the
British and Canadians. It was a ﬁne victory, with
20 machine-guns and 1000 prisoners of the 5th Ersatz
and Twenty-eighth Bavarian Divisions as trophies.
So rapid was the consolidation that before morning
trenches were opened out between the captured line
and the old British position. A curious incident in
this most successful attack. was that the 8th Border
Regiment advanced at least a thousand yards beyond
its objective, but was successful in getting back. By
this brilliant little action the enemy was ﬁnally
driven down upon a three-mile front north of
Thiepval and Courcelette, until he had no foothold
left save the marshes to the south of the Ancre,
where he cowered in enﬁladed trenches for that ﬁnal
clearing up which was only delayed by the weather.
It should be added that on this same date, October 21,
the left of the British line, formed by the Thirty-
ninth Division, was attacked by Stormtroops of the
German Twenty-eighth Reserve Division, armed
CHAPTER
XI.

The
gaining
of the
Thiepval
Ridge.


280 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER with ﬂammenwerfer and supported by 60 light bat-

XI' teries. The attack was formidable, and twice got
mg into the British line, but was twice driven out again,
of the leaving many prisoners and trophies behind. The
352:?“ Sussex and Hampshire troops of the 116th Brigade,
aided by the 17th Riﬂes, stood splendidly to their
work, and ended by holding every inch of their
ground, and adding a new German trench which was
carried by the 14th Hants.
From this time onwards this northern section of
the line was quiet save for small readjustments, until
the great effort upon November 13, which brought
the autumn campaign to a close with the considerable
victory of Beaumont Hamel. From the point which
the Second Corps had now reached it could command
with its guns the Valley of the Ancre to the north of
it, including some of those positions which had re-
pulsed our attack upon July 1 and were still in
German hands. So completely did we now outﬂank
them from the south that it must have been evident
to any student of the map that Haig was sure, sooner
or later, to make a strong infantry advance over the
ground which was so completely controlled by his
artillery. It was the German appreciation of this
fact which had caused their desperate eﬁorts at suc-
cessive lines of defence to hold us back from gaining
complete command of the crest of the slope. It will
be told in the ﬁnal chapter of this volume how this
command was utilised, and a bold step was taken
towards rolling up the German positions from the
south—a step which was so successful that it was in
all probability the immediate cause of that general
retirement of the whole German front which was
the ﬁrst great event in the campaign of 1917.


CHAPTER XII
THE BATTLE or THE SOMME
From September 15 to the Battle of the Ancre
Capture of Eaucourt—Varying character of German resistance-Hard
trench ﬁghting along the line—Dreadful climatic conditions—
The meteorological trenches—Hazy Trench—Zenith Trench—-
General observations—General von Arnim’s report.
HAVING described the Battle of Flers, which began
upon September 15 and which extended over one,
two, or three days according to the completeness of
the local victory, or- the difﬁculty of reaching any
deﬁnite limit, we will now turn once more to the left
of the line (always excepting Gough’s ﬂanking army,
which has been treated elsewhere), and we shall fol-
low the deeds of the successive divisions in each
sector up to the end of the operations. We will
begin with the Third Corps, who abutted upon the
Canadians in the Martinpuich sector, and covered
the line up to Drop Alley, north-east of High Wood,
where they joined up with the Fifteenth Corps.
The line on this western section was less active
than on the right, where the great villages of Com-
bles, Lesbreufs, and Morval were obvious marks for
the advance. After the battle of September 15, the
Twenty-third Division, relieving the Fifteenth, took
its station at the extreme left of the line, just north
of Martinpuich. To the right of the Twenty-third,
CHAPTER
XII.
The
Battle
of the
Somme.

. 281


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 283
opposite the Third Corps. Upon October 1, how-
ever, it was attacked, and was taken without any
great difﬁculty, though the Fiftieth in the centre had
to ﬁght hard for their section. The storming bat-
talions, after re-forming, continued their advance,
and occupied the line between Le Sars and Flers.
The village of Eaucourt lay in their path, and was
well guarded upon the west by uncut wire, but a tank
rolled its majestic path across it and the shouting
infantry crowded close behind. The 141st Brigade
of the Forty-seventh Division, which had come back i
once again into the line, was the ﬁrst to enter this
village, which was the sixteenth torn by the British
from the grip of the invaders since the breaking of
the line, while the French captures stood at an even
higher ﬁgure. There was a strong counter-attack
upon Eaucourt during the night, accompanied by a
shortage of bombs owing to the fact that the store
had been destroyed by an unlucky shell. The Ger-
mans for the time regained the village, and the ruins
were partly occupied by both armies until October 3,
when the British line, once more gathering volume
and momentum, rolled over it for the last time. It
‘ had been stoutly defended by men of a German re-
serve division, and its capture had cost us dear.
One of the mysteries of the ﬁghting at this stage
was the very varied quality of the resistance, so
that the advancing British were never sure whether
they would ﬁnd themselves faced by demoralised
poltroons, capable of throwing up their hands by
the hundred, or by splendid infantry, who would
ﬁght to the death with the courage of despair.
Having won Eaucourt, the next village which faced.
the British line in this sector was Le Sars, imme-
CHAPTER
XII.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


284 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
XII.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
diately to the north-west. The advance upon this
was carried out amid rain and slush which made
military operations almost impossible. It was again
found that the resistance was very spirited, but the
place was none the less carried and consolidated
upon October 7.
In the week preceding the ﬁnal assault there was
hard ﬁghting during which the 70th Brigade won its
way forward into a favourable position for the at-
tack. The 8th York and Lancasters particularly
distinguished themselves by their gallantry in clear-
ing by bombing the outlying German defences, Major
Sawyer and Lieutenant de Burgh of that battalion
winning the Cross for their ﬁne leadership upon
that occasion. The decisive attack was carried out
by the other two brigades of the Twenty-third Divi-
sion, which advanced upon the village, whilst the
Forty-seventh Division made an attempt upon the
formidable Butte of Warlencourt. The latter ven-
ture met with no success, but the former was bril-
liantly carried out. The advance was made by the
68th Brigade upon the right and the 69th upon the
left, the Martinpuich-Warlencourt Road being the
dividing line between the two divisions. The attack
was at 1.45 P.M., and in broad daylight the battalions
concerned, notably the 12th and 13th Durhams and
the 9th Yorks, clambered over their sodden sandbags
and waded through the mud which separated them
from the Germans. The numbers were so reduced
that the companies formed only two weak platoons,
but none the less they advanced very steadily. Cap-
tain Blake, leading the ﬁrst company of Durhams,
was shot dead; but another captain took over both
companies and led them straight at the village, both


286 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
XII.

The
Battle
0! the
Somme.
doned. The old prehistoric mark called the Butte of
Warlencourt, which had long stood up as a goal in
front of the British trenches, proved really to be the
ﬁnal mark of their advance until a new season should
dawn. Upon October 12, there was an attempt to
get forward, but the conditions were impossible, and
the results unsatisfactory. In this affair, the gallant
Ninth Division had considerable losses, their advance
being conducted with the 26th Brigade upon the right
and the South Africans upon the left. Some small
gain was achieved by the former, but the latter were
held up by a deadly machine-gun ﬁre. The Thir-
tieth Division was upon the right of the Ninth at
this period, and twice endeavoured to get forwards—
once upon the 12th and once upon the 18th; but
neither of these attempts had good success, partly
owing to the very bad weather, and partly to the
excellent resistance of the Sixth Bavarian Reserve
Division, which is described by those who have
fought against it as one of the very best divisions in
the German army. On the 20th a fresh attack was
made by the 27th Brigade with no success and heavy
losses to the 6th Scottish Borderers. Early in No-
vember a renewed attempt was made by the Fiftieth
Division to advance in this quarter, but the country
was a morass and no progress was possible. The
Canadians, Forty-eighth and Fiftieth Divisions, who
held the Le Sars front, were condemned to inactivity.
From that time onwards the line of the Third Corps
was undisturbed, save for a strong counter-attack
upon November 6, which neutralised a small advance
made upon the 5th. Le Sars and Eaucourt Were
consolidated and continued to be the British ad-
vanced posts in this quarter. The conditions of


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 287
mud and discomfort can only be described as
appalling.
Having brieﬂy traced the work of the Third Corps
from the action of September 15 to the coming of
the winter, we shall now turn to the Fifteenth Corps
upon the right and follow their operations from the
same date. It will be remembered that the New
Zealanders formed the left-hand division, and that
they had advanced so ﬁnely that by the evening of
September 16 they were up to, but not in, Goose
Alley and Factory Corner, from which they were
within striking distance of the Gird System.
Before attacking this, however, it was necessary
to get a ﬁrmer hold of Flers Trench, which in its
western reaches was still in the hands of the Ger-
mans. It was a desperate business of bombing from
traverse to traverse and overcoming successive bar—
ricades upon a very narrow front where a few de-
termined men could hold up a company. This difﬁ-
cult business was taken in hand at 8.30 on the night
of September 21 by the 2nd Canterbury Battalion,
who advanced down the trench. It was a Homeric
conﬂict, which lasted for the whole night, where
men stood up to each other at close quarters, clear-
ing away the dead and dying in order to make room
for fresh combatants in the front line. Down Flers
Trench and Drop Alley raged the long struggle, with
crash and ﬂare of bombs, snarl of machine-guns,
shrill whistles from rallying officers, and shouts from
the furious men. The New Zealand Black Watch had
gained a portion of the trench, but the German re-
inforcements streamed down a communication
trench which opened behind them, and found them-
selves between the two bodies of New Zealanders.
CHAPTER
XII.

The
Battle
ofthe
Somme.


288 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
XII.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
It was a great ﬁght, but by morning it had been deﬁ-
nitely decided in favour of the men from oversea.
The long section of Flers Trench was cleared and
part of Goose Alley, opening out of it, was held.
No less than 350 German dead were picked up, and
a handful of prisoners were left with the victors.
The New Zealand losses were about 150 of all ranks.
On September 25 the New Zealanders tightened
their grip upon Goose Alley, which connects up the
Flers and the Gird Systems of trenches. In the
meantime, the divisions upon their right were mov-
ing to the north-east of Flers towards the village
of Guedecourt, which lay upon the further side of
the Gird Trenches. The actual attack upon the vil-
lage was committed to the Twenty-ﬁrst Division,
who advanced on a two-brigade front, the 110th
Leicester Brigade making straight for the village
itself, while the 64th Brigade upon its right,
strengthened by the inclusion of the 1st Lincolns,
was ordered to occupy 1000 yards of front to the
right. The two brigades were not equally fortu-
nate. The Leicester brigade, by a ﬁne advance,
pierced the Gird Trench, and made their way be-
yond it. The 64th Brigade was held up by uncut
wire, which they could not penetrate. The result
was that the Leicesters, being heavily counter-at-
tacked, and having their ﬂanks open, were forced
back as far as the Gird Trench, to which they clung.
The position in the evening was a curious one, for
we held the Gird Trench at two different points, but
between them lay a stretch of 1000 yards still oc-
cupied by the Germans and faced with pncut wire.
Orders reached the Divisional General during the
night that at all costs the position must be carried.


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 289
By a happy inspiration he sent for a tank from
Flers, and ordered the Leicesters to bomb down Gird
Trench in co-operation with the tank, which crawled
along the parapet. A strong point had been erected
at the far end of the trench, and the Germans as
they rushed away from the danger ran into a dead-
ly machine-gun ﬁre. The upshot was that a great
number were killed, while 8 ofﬁcers and 362 men
were taken, with a loss to the attackers of 5 wound-
ed. To add to the quaintness of the operation, an
aeroplane ﬂew low over the trench during its prog-
ress, helping with its bombs to make the victory
complete. The result was far more than the capture
of the trench, for the 64th Brigade, led by the Dur-
hams, at once swept forward and captured their
objective, while the 110th Brigade upon the left
reached Guedecourt under happier auspices and re-
mained in possession of the village.
Although the Gird line had been pierced at this
point, it was held in its western length, and this
was attacked upon September 27 by the New Zea-
landers and the Fifty-ﬁfth Lancashire Territorial
Division, both of which gained their objectives, so
that the whole end of this great trench system from
a point north of Flers passed deﬁnitely into the
British possession.
On October 1 there was a fresh general advance
which led to no great change in this part of the line,
save that both the New Zealanders and the Twenty-
ﬁrst Division improved their position, the latter get-
ting as far as Bayonet Trench. Shortly afterwards
the New Zealanders were drawn out, having been
23 consecutive days in the line, and earned them-
selves a great reputation. “The Division has won
CHAPTER
XII.
The
Battle
ofthe
Somme.


292 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
XII.

The
Battle
otthe
Somme.
a defensive ﬂank upon the left while the other bat-
talions reached their full objective and dug in, un-
molested save by our own barrage. The 1st Irish
and 3rd Coldstream, who were on the left of the 1st
Brigade, also got through without heavy loss and
occupied the trenches to the immediate north and
north-east of Lesboeufs. The 2nd Grenadiers, who
led the right of the Brigade, with their supporting
battalion the 2nd Coldstream, headed straight for
the village, and were held up for a time by uncut
Wire, but the general attack upon the right Was
progressing at a rate which soon took the pressure
off them.
The British infantry were swarming round Les-
boeufs in the early afternoon, and about 3.15 the
1st West Yorks of the 18th Brigade penetrated into
it, establishing touch with the Guards upon their
left. They were closely followed by their old battle
companions, the 2nd Durham Light Infantry. The
German resistance was weaker than usual, and the
casualties were not severe. On the Morval front the
15th Brigade of the Fifth Division, with the 95th
Brigade upon their right, were making a steady and
irresistible advance upon Morval. The 1st Norfolks
and 1st Cheshires were in the front, and the latter
battalion was the ﬁrst to break into the village with
the 1st Bedfords, 2nd Scots Borderers, and 16th
Royal Welsh Fusiliers in close support. The 1st
Cheshires particularly distinguished itself; and it
was in this action that Private Jones performed
his almost incredible feat of capturing single-handed
and bringing in four ofﬁcers and 102 men of the
146th Wurtemberg Regiment, including four wear-
ers of the famous Iron Cross. The details of this


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 293
extraordinary aﬁair, where one determined and
heavily-armed man terrorised a large company.
taken at a disadvantage, read more like the romantic
exploit of some Western desperado who cries
“Hands up!” to a drove of tourists, than to any
operation of war. Jones was awarded the V.C., and
it can have been seldom won in such sensational
fashion.
Whilst the 15th Brigade of the Fifth Division at-
tacked the village of Morval the 95th Brigade of
the same division carried the German trenches to
the west of it. This dashing piece of work was ac-
complished by the 1st Devons and the 1st East Sur-
reys. When they had reached their objective, the
12th Gloucesters were sent through them to occupy
and consolidate the south side of the village. This
they carried out with a loss of 80 men. In the even-
ing a company of the 6th Argylls, together with
the 2nd Home Company Royal Engineers, pushed
on past the village and made a strong point against
the expected counter-attack; while the 15th Brigade
extended and got into touch with the 2nd York and
Lancasters of the Sixth Division upon their left.
It was a great day of complete victory with no re-
grets to cloud it, for the prisoners were many, the
casualties were comparatively few, and two more
village sites were included by one forward spring
within the British area. The Town Major of Mor-
val stood by his charge to the last and formed one
of the trophies. On the 26th the Germans came
back upon the Guards at about one o’clock, but their
eﬁort was a ﬁasco, for the advancing lines came
under the concentrated ﬁre of six batteries of the
7th Divisional Artillery. Seldom have Germans
CHAPTER
XII.
The
Battle
otthe
Somme.


294 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
XII.

The
Battle
of the -
Somme.
stampeded more thoroughly. “Hundreds of the
enemy can be seen retiring in disorder over the
whole front. They are rushing towards Beaulen-
court in the wildest disorder.” Such was the re-
port from a forward observer. At the same time a
tank cleared the obstacles in front of the Twenty-
ﬁrst Division and the whole line was straight again.-
The British consolidated their positions ﬁrmly, for
it was already evident that they were likely to be
permanent ones. The Guards and Fifth Division
were taken out of the line shortly afterwards, the
Twentieth Division coming in once more upon'Sep-
tember 26, while upon September 27 the French took
over part of the line, pushing the Twentieth Divi-
sion to the left, where they took over the ground for-
merly held by the Twenty-ﬁrst. Upon October 1
the 61st Brigade was ordered to push forward ad-
vanced posts and occupy a line preparatory to fu-
ture operations. This was well carried out and
proved of great importance when a week later at-
tacks were - made upon Cloudy and Rainbow
Trenches.
Leaving this victorious section of the line for the
moment, we must turn our attention to the hard_
Worked and splendid Fifty-sixth Division upon their
right, whose operations were really more connected
with those of the French on their right than with
their comrades of the Fourteenth Corps upon the
left. By a happyvchance it was the French division
of the same number with which they were associated
during much of the time. It will be remembered that
at the close of the Flers action (September 15 and
on), the Fifty-sixth Division Was holding a defen-
sive ﬂank to the south, in the region of Bouleaux


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 295
Wood, part of which was still held by the Germans.
They were also closing in to the southwards, so as
to co-operate with the French, who were approach
ing Combles from the other side. On September 25,
while the Fifth were advancing upon Morval, the
Fifty-sixth played an important part, for the 168th,
their left brigade, carried the remainder of Bouleaux
Wood, and so screened the ﬂank of the Fifth Divi-
sion. One hundred men and four machine-guns were
captured in this movement. On the 26th, as the
woods were at last clear, the division turned all its
attention to Combles, and at 3.15 in the afternoon of
that day ﬁghting patrols of the 169th Brigade met
patrols of the French in the central square of the
town. The Germans had cleverly evacuated it, and
the booty was far less than had been hoped for, but
none the less its capture was of great importance, for
it was the largest place that had yet been wrenched
out of the iron grasp of Germany. After the fall of
Combles the French, as already stated, threw out
their left wing upon that side so as to take over the
ground which had been covered by the Fifty-sixth
Division, and afterwards by the Fifth Division.
On September 30 the Fifty-sixth Division took
over from the Guards, and again found itself upon
the right of the British line, and in touch with the
new dispositions of the French. On its left was the
Twentieth Division, and on their left the Sixth.
These three divisions now found themselves oppo-
site to a long line of trenches, to which various me-
teorological names had been given, though the ac-
tual meteorological conditions at the time formed a
greater obstacle than the defences in front of them.
A simple diagram (p. 296) will show more clearly
CHAPTER
XII.

The
Battle
ofthe
Somme.


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298 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
XII.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
the French, all took part in the order named from
the left. The weather was most execrable, and its
vileness told entirely against the Allies, since it was
they who had to move and since the superior gun-
power needed for a modern attack was largely neu-
tralised by the diﬂiculty in using aircraft observa-
tion. The attack was at 1.45 P.M., when the troops
advanced under a heavy barrage along the whole
sodden and slippery front. The results were un-
equal, though the infantry behaved everywhere with
their wonted valour and perseverance. '
The 122nd Brigade upon the extreme left of the
attack could only get on about a hundred yards, so
heavy was the ﬁre; while the 124th to the right of
them could do little better, and eventually dug in at
a point 200 yards short of the Bayonet Trench,
which was their immediate objective. Seventy ofﬁ-
cers and nearly 1300 men fell during this attack of
the Forty-ﬁrst Division, which was handicapped in
many ways, for the men were weary, it was too
cloudy for reconnaissance, the battalions were al-
ready depleted, and the enemy was fresh and un-
shaken. The success of the Twelfth Division upon
the right of the Forty-ﬁrst was little better. The
36th and 37th Brigades endured heavy losses, espe-
cially in the caseof the two Royal Fusilier battalions
and of the 6th Buﬂ’s, whose colonel greatly distin-
guished himself. In spite of every effort and con-
siderable loss there were no permanent gains of
importance at this point. '
Things went better, however, with the Twentieth
Division upon the right. The two brigades in the
front line were the 61st upon the left and the 60th
on the right. The leading battalions, counting from


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 299
the left, were the 7th Yorks Light Infantry,_12th
King’s Liverpool, 6th Oxford and Bucks, and 12th
Riﬂe Brigade. The troops had to endure a consider-
able shelling before leaving their trenches, but it
seemed only to add additional ﬁre to their advance,
which swept over the low ridge in front of them,
and took a long stretch of Rainbow Trench. The
right attack was slower than the left, as it ran into
a dip of the ground in which the Germans had some
cleverly-sited wire entanglement, unseen and un-
touched by our guns. Nothing daunted, the Oxford
and Bucks proceeded to cut lanes through the wire
under heavy ﬁre, and one ofﬁcer of the battalion had
actually succeeded in crawling under it when he was
shot at point-blank range from the German trench.
The front line had now done its work and rested in
Rainbow, while the second line—consisting, from the
left, of the 7th Somerset, 7th Cornwalls, 6th Shrop-
shires, and 12th Riﬂes—swept onwards in splendid
form, capturing both Cloudy and Misty Trenches.
There the victorious infantry dug themselves in on
the forward slope of the ridge. The brigades were
ahead of their comrades, with the result that their
ﬂanks were exposed, they suffered from enﬁlade ﬁre,
and it was necessary to form defensive ﬂanks. Two
counter-attacks were made during the day, but both
were beaten off. The prisoners captured in this ﬁne
advance were 5 ofﬁcers and 187 men, with 5 machine-
guns and 2 trench-mortars. By the morning of the
8th strong points had been made and the whole line
was deﬁant of recapture.
The Fifty-sixth Division had advanced with equal
valour upon the right and had made good progress,
thoughits gains had not been so substantial as those
CHAPTER
XII.

The
Da ttle
of the
Somme.


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 301
trenches as best they could, dragging with them a
captured machine-gun as a souvenir of a long and
bloody day’s work. On October 9 the British held
none of “the points in dispute in this section on the
right, save only a portion of Spectrum. There was
a pause in this long and desperate ﬁght which was
conducted by tired infantry ﬁghting in front of tired
guns, and which left the survivors of both sides
plastered with mud from head to heel. When it was
resumed, the two British Divisions, the Twentieth
and Fifty-sixth, which had done such long service
in the line, and were greatly reduced, had been with-
drawn. The Fourth Division had taken the place
of the Londoners, while the Sixth, itself very worn,
had relieved the Twentieth.
On October 12 both these divisions delivered an
attack together with the French and with the Fif-
teenth Corps upon their left. The 14th Durham
Light Infantry were in Rainbow on the left and were
in touch with the 1st West Yorks of the 18th Brigade
upon their right, but could ﬁnd no one upon their
left, while the German pressure was very strong.
The 18th Brigade worked along Rainbow, therefore,
until it got into touch with the Twelfth Division
upon their left. The Twelfth Division had been lent
the 88th Brigade of the Twenty-ninth Division, and
this gallant body, so terribly cut up on July 1, had
an instalment of revenge. They won their objective,
and it is pleasant to add that the N ewfoundlanders
especially distinguished themselves. The 16th Bri-
gade upon the right attacked Zenith Trench, the 2nd
York and Lancaster leading the rush. The position
could not be held, however, by battalions which were
depleted by weeks of constant strain and loss. A,
CHAPTER
XII.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


THE BATTLE-0F THE SOMME 303
brigade (24th), was directed upon the junction be-
tween Mild and Cloudy, while the right [brigade
(23rd) had Zenith for its objective. The ﬁrst at-
tack of the left brigade failed, but the second
brought them into Cloudy. By 4.15 the 2nd Scots
Riﬂes of the 23rd Brigade had penetrated the right
of Zenith, and some small parties had even moved on
to Orion beyond. The central brigade (25th) had
won its way up to Misty, the 2nd Lincolns, 2nd
Berks, and 2nd Riﬂe Brigade in the lead. In the
meantime the East Lancashires on the left were en-
deavouring to bomb their way down the maze of
trenches, ﬁlled with yard-deep mud, which separated
them from their comrades. The ﬁghting was des-
perate, however, and the losses considerable. The
2nd Lincolns had got detached in the labyrinth, and
were out of touch with their companions. At 6.45
the Germans came again in strength and those of
the Scots Riﬂes who had gained Orion were driven
back. The casualties in this splendid battalion,
which had suffered so often and so much, were once
again very severe.
The Fourth Division had also had a hard ﬁght
upon the right and had made no great progress.
The 'French upon their right had been held up after
an initial advance. The 12th Brigade attacked Dew-
drop, but were unable to hold it. The 11th had
seized Hazy, but their grip of it was still precarious.
Every position was raked with machine-guns and
‘ clogged with the all-pervading and often impassable
morass. In mud and blood and driving rain, "amid
dirt and death, through day and night, the long
death-grapple never ceased until exhaustion and
winter brought a short surcease. ‘ '
CHAPTER
XII.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


304 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
XII.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
Upon the 24th the hard-earned gains in these
trenches were consolidated. In the sector of the
Eighth Division they were substantial and justiﬁed
the hope that this obdurate line would go the way
of all the others which had barred the army. Had
it been earlier in the season it would have been easy
to wait for clear weather, beat them into pulp with
heavy guns, and then under a good barrage capture
them by assault. But this could not be done, for Sir
Douglas Haig could not afford to wait with winter
coming on and only a few weeks or days left in which
to bring his men forward to their ﬁnal line. The
general position upon October 24 was that the 2nd
Middlesex of the 24th Brigade held Zenith in part,
that the 25th Brigade was in Gusty and held part of
Misty, while the 23rd Brigade had made no advance
upon the right but their left was in Cloudy and Mild.
Upon this date the Thirty-third Division came up
to relieve the Fourth, and upon September 28 it
made a brilliant advance which altered the whole
situation in this section. At 7 A.M. on that date the
4th King’s Liverpool of the 98th Brigade by a sud-
den dash carried the whole of Dewdrop, taking 100
prisoners. The 19th Brigade upon the right kept up
with the advance, and before evening Frosty, Gun-
pits, and Dewdrop had all been included in the Brit-
ish line.
There was a pause after this advance, and than
upon November 5 there was another advance of the
Thirty-third, together with the French. Again there
was a good gain, which was effected by the 100th
Brigade on the right, and the 19th upon the left.
Mirage, Boritzka, and Hazy were all reported as
being at last in our hands. The 5th Scottish Riﬂes,


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 305
16th King’s Royal Riﬂes, and 20th Fusiliers all dis-
tinguished themselves, and all—especially the last-
named—met with considerable losses in this attack.
The Seventeenth Division, which had for a few days
taken the place of the Eighth, joined in this advance
and extended the ground upon their front, the ﬁght-
ing falling chieﬂy to the 50th Brigade, in which the
7th York and 7th East York were the principal suf-
ferers. Great work was also done by the 51st Bri-
gade, the 7th Borders and the 7th Lincolns particu-
larly distinguishing themselves. These battalions
not only cleared up Zenith Trench, but upon the
Germans countering they reserved their ﬁre until
the stormers were within 40 yards of them, and
then mowed down several hundreds of them. “The
men marched back seven miles last night,” wrote
one of the officers, “after ﬁghting for forty-eight
hours without sleep, singing at the tops of their
voices all the way. Priceless fellows!”
On November 7 the Eighth Division was at work
again, taking 1100 yards of front, 5 machine-guns,
and 80 prisoners. The season was now far advanced
and prematurely Wet and cold, so that winter lines
were formed by the British in this quarter with the
village of Le Transloy in their immediate front.
Over the rest of the line facing north there had been
no serious attempt at advance during this period,
and the only ﬁghting to be recorded was on the part
of the Anzac Corps, who came in at the end of 00-
tober, and took over the whole front of the Fifteenth
Corps in the centre of the line. These troops joined
the attack already recorded upon November 5, and
captured that portion of Gird Support Trench which
was not yet in our possession. For a time they held
Curran
XII.
The
Battle
of the
Somme.


306 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
XII.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.
Bayonet Trench, but were driven out by a strong
bombing attack by the 5th Regiment of the Fourth
Prussian Guards Division. The Australians and the
50th Brigade worked in close co-operation during
these hard days, and it is pleasing to ﬁnd the high
opinion which they entertained of each other. “On
several occasions,” says an Australian, “we had to
rely on Yorkshire grit to support our division at
critical moments, and the Tikes never failed us once.
We owe a big debt to the East Yorkshires in particu-
lar. We found them the most loyal of comrades.”
This sentiment was heartily reciprocated by the Im-
perial troops.
The ﬁghting now died down in this quarter and.
the Winter lull had set in, leaving the front British
trenches some hundreds of yards from Le Transloy
and the Bapaume Road. It would be an ungcnerous
Briton who would not admit that in holding us off
from it so long, even if we make every allowance for
the weather and its disastrous consequences to the
attack, the Germans performed a ﬁne feat of arms.
It was done by fresh units which had not suffered
from the gruelling which their comrades had re-
ceived upon the Somme, and which Would no doubt
have been worn down in time, as the others had been,
but they fought with great tenacity and certainly
prevented our winter line from being as far forward
as we had hoped.
Whilst giving the German army every credit for
.its tenacious resistance and for the hard digging by
which it constructed. so many lines of defence that
ﬁve months of hard ﬁghting and a dozen separate
victories had been unable to carry the attackers
through them, we must still insist upon the stupen-


THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 307
dous achievement of the British. Nearly every di-
vision had passed through the ﬁery ordeal of the
Somme, many of them twice and thrice, and each
had retired with fresh honour and new records of
vict0ry. Apart‘from great days of battle like July
1, July 14, September 15, and September 26, when
many miles of German trench were carried with a
corresponding number of prisoners and guns, there
was a separate epic round each village and wood,
so that the names of many of them will ﬁnd im-
mortality in military history. High Wood, Trqnes
Wood, Mametz Wood, and Delville Wood each rep-
resents a very terrible local battle. So, too, do such
village names as “Ovillers, Contalmaison, Poziéres,
Thiepval, Longueval, Ginchy, and especially Guille-
mont. Every one of these stern contests ended with
the British infantry in its objective, and in no single
case were they ever driven out again. So much for
the tactical results of the actions. As to the strategic
effect, that was only clearly seen when the threat of
renewed operations in the spring caused the German
army to abandon all the positions which the Somme
advance had made untenable, and to fall back upon
a new line many miles to the rear. The Battle of the
Marne was the turning-point of the ﬁrst great Ger-
man levy, the Battle of the Some that of the sec-
ond. In each case the retirement was only partial,
but each clearly marked a fresh step in the struggle,
upward for the Allies, downward for the Central
Powers. .
In the credit for this result the ﬁrst place must
be given to the efﬁciency of British leadership, which
was admirable in its perseverance and in its general
conception, but had, it must be admitted, not yet
CHAPTER
XII.

The
Battle
of the
Somme.


308 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER attained that skill in the avoidance of losse which

XH' was gradually taught by our terrible experiences,
12:5“. and made POSSible by our growing strength in artil-
gr the lery. The severe preliminary bombardment con-
°mm°' trolled by the direct observation which is only pos-
sible after air supremacy has been attained, the
counter-battery work to reduce the enemy’s ﬁre, the
creeping barrage to cover the infantry, the dis-
cipline and courage which enable infantry to ad-
vance with shrapnel upon their very toes, the use of
smoke clouds against ﬂank ﬁre, the swift advance
of the barrage when a trench has fallen so as to head
off fugitives and stiﬂe the counter-attack, all these
devices were constantly improving with practice,
until in the arts of attack the British Army stood
ahead even of their comrades of France. An in-
tercepted communication in the shape of a report
from General von Arnim, commanding the Fourth
German Army, giving his experience of the pro-
longed battle, speaks of British military efﬁciency in
every arm in a manner which must have surprised
the General Staff if they were really of opinion that
General Haig’s army was capable of defence but not
of attack. This report, with its account of the dash».
and tenacity of the British infantry and of the efﬁ~
ciency of its munitions, is as handsome a testimonia ‘4
as one adversary ever paid to another, and might!
be called magnanimous were it not that it was meanut
for no eye save that of his superiors.
But all our leadership would have been vain had.
it not been supported by the high efﬁciency of every“.
branch of the services, and by the general excellence» \
of the materiel. As to the actual value of the troops. .
it can only be said with the most absolute truth that


THE BATTLE OF THE AN CRE
311
had been able partly to ﬁnd and partly to make a
series of excavations in the chalk and clay soil of the
district which gave them almost complete protec-
tion against the heaviest shell-ﬁre. Whole bat-
talions led a troglodytic life in subterranean caverns
from which they were trained to rush forth upon the
alarm of an infantry advance. It was clear, how-
ever, that if the alarm should be too short their
refuges might very easily become traps, as has so
often been the case in the German lines of defence.
The safety from shells is dearly paid for when a
squad of furious stormers with Mills bombs in their
hands and death in their faces glare in from the
door. Their minds were kept easy, however, by the
knowledge that broad ﬁelds of barbed wire, so rusty
and so thick that they resembled ploughland from a
distance, lay between them and the British. A very
large garrison draWn from seven divisions, one of
them being the 2nd Guards Reserve, held this dan-
gerous salient in the German line.
> For the attack General Gough hadmustered two
Army Corps of six divisions, three of which, form-
ing the Second Corps, were to advance from the
south under General Jacob, having the almost im-
passable mud slopes of the Ancre in front of them.
Three others of the Fifth Corps, under General
E. A. Fanshawe, were to storm the German line
north of the Ancre. This latter movement was to
be directed not only from the new British positions,
but also from the old lines as far north as Serre.
The advance from the west divided the enemy’s gun-
power, and distracted his attention from the south,
so that its failure and the loss which that failure in-
volved, were part of the price paid for the victory.
CHAPTER
X] I I.

The
Battle
otthe
Ancre.


312 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
XIII.

The
Battle
of the
Ancre.
After a two days ’ bombardment, which started up-
on November 11, and which uprooted the greater part
of the German wire, the actual attack was made at
six in the foggy, misty morning of November 13.
It is inconceivable that the Germans were not stand-
ing to arms since dawn had long been the hour of
doom, and the furious drumﬁre was certainly the
overture to a battle. The thick weather, however,
shrouded the British movements, and the actual rush
of the infantry seems at the end to have been a sur-
prise. Both in the western and southern advance,
which covered respectively 5000 and 3000 yards,
every reﬁnement of artillery barrage which years of
experience could suggest was used to form such a
downpour as would protect the assailants, and beat
the German riﬂemen and gunners back into their
burrows.
Of the three divisions which attacked the old Ger-
man line from the west, the most northern was the
Thirty-ﬁrst, with as objective the second and third
German line, and to form a defensive ﬂank between
Gommecourt and Serre. This division, which con-
tained some splendid North-country battalions from
great Yorkshire towns, advanced with great in‘
trepidity. So skilful was the barrage arranged that
the 12th East Yorkshires on the left and 13th East
Yorkshires on the right (10th and 11th East York-
shires in reserve), belonging to the 92nd Brigade,
had little difﬁculty in reaching the German front
line, which was quickly mopped up. The going be-
tween the ﬁrst and second line was so heavy, and
the German snipers so numerous, that the barrage
got ahead of the advancing waves, but after a sharp
riﬂe ﬁght the second linewas captured, which was


THE BATTLE OF THE ANCRE 313
the ﬁnal objective of the left (12th East Yorkshires)
battalion. The 13th East Yorkshires, whose ﬁnal
objective was the third German line, had a very se-
vere ﬁght before reaching that position. Owing to
the failure of the Division on the right of the 13th
East Yorkshires to get forward, the Germans later
on put in several heavy bombing counter-attacks
against their right ﬂank, which eventually drove
them back to the second line, where they took up
their position alongside the 12th, and for the re-
mainder of the day repulsed numerous counter-at-
tacks. As soon as the l2th East Yorkshires on the
left had reached their objectives they consolidated
it, and with the aid of the 93rd Brigade, to whom was
attached the Machine-gun Sections of the Lucknow
and Sialkote Cavalry Brigades, beat off a very
strong counter-attack which developed about 9.30
4.11., practically wiping it out and several minor
ones during the day.
At 2.30 P.M. the German bombardment against the
92nd became very intense, and was kept up till 5.30
P.M., in spite of which the 12th and 13th East York-
shires stuck to their gains. It was only at 9 P.M.
when the Divisional General saw that there was no
prospect of the Division on the right advancing that
the 12th and 13th were ordered to fall back to their
original line.
The experience of the Third Division upon the
right or south of the Thirty-ﬁrst was a very trying
one. There is a strip of Picardy between those lines
from Serre to the Ancre, where more Britons have
given their lives for their country and for the cause
of humanity than in any area in this or any other
war. Twice it has been the scene of tragic losses,
CHAPTER
XIII.

The
Battle
of the
Ancre.


314 _ THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
XIII.

The
Battle
ofthe
Ancre.


on July 1, and yet again on November 13, though,
as already said, it is well in each case to regard the
general result rather than the local tragedy. Once
again the Third Division gave itself freely and un-
selﬁshly for the common cause. In this case, also,
the cause of the scanty results lay in the heavy
ground and the uncut wire. In the case of the 7 6th
Brigade, which may be taken as typical of its neigh-
bours, it advanced to the immediate south of the
93rd, and experienced even more diﬁicult conditions.
The 2nd Suffolks and the 10th Welsh Fusiliers were
in the van, but the 8th Royal Lancasters and 1st
Gordons came up in support, the whole thick line
of men clustering in front of the wire and en-
deavouring to hack a way. Sergeants and ofﬁcers
were seen in front of the obstacle endeavouring to
ﬁnd some way through. Here and there a few push-
ful men, both from the 76th Brigade and from the
9th upon its right, did succeed in passing, but none
of these ever returned. Finally, a retreat was or-
dered through a pelting barrage, and even in their
own front-line trenches the troops were exposed to
a furious shell fall. It was an unfortunate business
and the losses were heavy.
Immediately upon the right of the Third Division
was the Second Division, which attacked with the
5th and 6th Brigades in the van, the latter being on
the immediate ﬂank of the Third Division, and shar-
ing in the obstacles which faced that division and
the check which resulted from them. The immediate
objective was the great Munich Trench lurking with-
in its far-ﬂung spider-web of wire. Although all of
the 6th Brigade save the right-hand battalion were
brought to a stand, and wound up in their own


316 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
XIII.
The
Battle
of the
Ancre.
could only be got across it upon pack-horses, on spe-
cial paths. In spite of these diﬁiculties, the Thirty-
ninth Division carried the lines of trenches and the
village of St. Pierre Divion as well, the resistance
being far from heroic. The attack was made by the
117th Brigade, which advanced with such speed that
the front waves, consisting of the 16th Riﬂe Brigade
upon the right and the 17th Sherwood Foresters
upon the left, were into the German trenches be-
fore the barrage could fall. It did fall, however,
and did great harm to the supports, both the 17th
Riﬂes and 16th SherWOods losing heavily, especially
the former. The British line was pushed right up
to the river, and the survivors of the garrison—
some 1400 in number—were compelled to lay down
their arms. This attack to the south of the river
was an isolated, self-contained operation, apart
from the larger and more serious movement on the
north bank. ‘
The right of the main assault was carried out by
the gallant Sixty-third Royal Naval Division, whose
emergency baptism of ﬁre at Antwerp has been men-
tioned in this narrative though its subsequent splen-
did services at Gallipoli have not come within its
scope. After the evacuation of Gallipoli and the
subsequent redistribution of the eastern army, at
least three ﬁne divisions, the Eleventh, the Forty-
second, and the Naval, besides the splendid Aus-
tralian and New Zealand infantry, were transferred
to the French front. This action of the Ancre was
the ﬁrst opportunity which these volunteer sailors
had had of showing upon a large European stage
those qualities which had won them fame elsewhere.
The Naval Division. attaqked to the immclia-te


THE BATTLE OF THE ANCRE 317
north of the Ancre, having the river upon their
right. The lines of assault were formed under cover
of darkness, for the assembly trenches were inade-
quate and the ground occupied was under direct
observation from the German lines. The Division
in this formation was a thick mass of 10,000 infan-
try on a front of about 1600 yards with a depth of
300. Fortunately, the screen of the weather covered
them completely, and there was little and random
shelling during the night, but the men were stiflc and
chilled by their long vigil, during which they might
neither speak nor smoke. At last, just before dawn,
the crash of the barrage told that the hour had come,
and the lines moved forward, keeping well up to the
shower of shrapnel which crept on at the rate of 100
yards in ﬁve minutes, searching every hollow and
crevice of the ground.
The ﬁrst objective was the enemy’s front line sys-
tem of triple trenches. The second was a road in
the hollow behind called Station Road, with trenches
on either side of it. The third was the trenches
which fringed the village of Beaucourt. The fourth,
which was only to be attempted after the third was
consolidated, was the village itself, which lies among
trees upon the north side of the river.
v The advance of the 189th Brigade on the right
of the Naval Division, consisting of the Hood,
Hawke, Nelson, and Drake battalions, was compara-
tively easy, as they were partly protected from ﬂank
ﬁre by the dead ground formed by the low-lying
northern slope down to the river. With great dash
and vigour they carried the successive lines of
trenches, and before mid-day they were consoli-
CHAPTER
XII I.
The
Battle
of the
Ancre.


THE BATTLE OF THE ANCRE
319'
joined hands so as to cut it off. The whole German
second line was then in their possession, and the
right third of their third line as well. 'lhe enemy
still held ﬁrm, however, in the centre of the ﬁrst line
system, and showed no signs of weakening, although
they must have known that British troops were in
their rear. An attempt was made to rebombard this
portion of the line, but it was diiﬁcult for the gun-
ners without aerial observation to locate the exact
portion of the line which still remained with the
enemy, and there was great danger of the shells fall-
ing among our own infantry. About three in the
afternoon the conclusion was reached that it was
better for the time to leave this great pocket of Ger-
mans alone, cutting them oif from either escape or
reinforcement.
The 111th Brigade from the Thirty-seventh Divi-
sion was therefore sent up, battalion by battalion,
along the river-bank until it passed the central ob-
stacle and reached the Sunken Road. Thence the
13th Riﬂes were sent forward with orders to reach
the advanced line, where the Hoods and Drakes,
somewhat reduced in numbers but not in spirit, were
lying in front of Beaucourt. It was dark before
these changes could be made. The Riﬂemen, when
they had attained their position, rested their right
upon the Ancre, and prolonged their left, clearing
the Germans out in that direction. This movement
to the left was strengthened in the early morning
when the 13th Riﬂe Brigade and the 13th Royal
Fusiliers of the same Brigade came up to join in,
whilst the H.A.C'. also advanced and took up a posi-
tion on the right of the naval men.
About seven o’clock the assault upon the village
CHAPTER
XIII. p

The
Battle
of the
Ancre.


THE BATTLE OF THE ANCRE 321
The advance of the Fifty-ﬁrst Highland Terri-
torial Division upon the immediate left of the Naval
Division had been equally successful and had ended
in the capture of the important village of Beaumont
Hamel with all its network of caverns, a great store
of machine-guns, and 1500 of the garrison. The
objectives of the division may be said to have been
the continuation of those of the Naval Division, sub-
stituting Beaumont Hamel for Beaucourt, but the
position was complicated by a deep ravine, called
after its shape, the Y Ravine, which ran down from
the village to the German trenches. The ground
over which the advance was made was still littered
with the skeletons clad in rags which represented
the men who had fallen in the attack of July 1. Now,
after ﬁve months, they were glorioasly avenged. The
rush of the Division was headed by the 153rd Bri-
gade, with the 4th and 7th Gordons in the lead.
These two ﬁne battalions carried the front German
lines, but on reaching the Sunken Road they gave
place to the 6th and 7th Black Watch behind them,
who carried the attack up the Y Ravine and on to
Beaumont, while the Seaforths and Argylls of the
other brigades, with their staunch Lowland com-
rades of the 9th Royal Scots, thickened the line of
attack, and gave it the weight to carry each suc-
cessive obstacle. Only in the Y Ravine was there
any momentary check to the ﬁery advance. There
for a short time the Germans stood stoutly to their
task, and there was some of that man-to-man work
which the Scotsman loves. Then the last signs of
resistance died out, and before the late afternoon
the whole poition Was in the hands of the assailants,
who pushed on and occupied the low ridge to the
CHAPTER
XIII.

The
Battle
of the
Ancre.


322 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
XIII.

The
Battle
of the
Ancre.
north which separates it from Serre. One curious
incident connected with the close of the action was,
that a mopping-up party of Gordons in One of the
front lines of trenches were suddenly surprised and
captured by a considerable body of Germans, who
emerged suddenly from an underground tunnel. ' In
the evening, however, the positions were reversed,
and the prisoners were rescued, while the Germans
had to surrender to the victors. Fifteen hundred
prisoners and 54 machine-guns were the spoils of
the Fifty-ﬁrst Division ;. but these were considerably
increased when the dug-outs were more carefully
examined next day. Altogether nearly 7000 oﬂicers
and men were captured in the course of the action.
Whilst the considerable action of Beaumont
Hamel was fought upon the left, the various divi-'
sions upon the south of the river forming the re-
mainder of Gough’s Fifth Army all made a forward
movement and gained ground. Of these Divisions,
the Thirty-ninth, whose doings have already been
described, was nearest to the main battle, and was
most heavily engaged, winning a complete success.
Upon its right in the order given were the Nine—
teenth and the Eighteenth, connecting up with Raw-
linson’s Fourth Army upon the right. These vari-
ous divisions all moved their lines forward in the
direction of the river-bank, with the villages of
Grandcourt and Petit Miraumont in their front.
These movements were rather in the nature of a
feint and a demonstration, so that they were not ac-
companied by any severe ﬁghting. It had been
planned, however, that as these divisions advanced
to the north the space which would-be left between
Gough’s right and Rawlinson’s left should be ﬁlled


THE BATTLE OF THE ANCRE 323
_ up by the Thirty-second Division, which should push
on in the direction of Pys. This movement gave rise
to some severeﬁghting in which the historical 14th
Brigade sustained some heavy losses. The imme-
diate obstacle in front of the Division was a power-
ful system of trenches lying amid morasses caused
by the recent heavy rains, and known as the Munich
Line, with the Frankfort line behind it. Upon No-
vember 17 the Division took over the advanced
trenches, while the Eighteenth Division side-stepped
to the left. The Thirty-second Division had formed
its line for attack with the 14th Brigade upon the
left, and the 97th upon the right, the leading bat-
talions from left to right being the 15th Highland
Light Infantry, the 2nd Manchesters, the 2nd York-
shire Light Infantry, and another battalion of H.L.I.
The advance was to have been upon the 17th, but
from the beginning a series of misfortunes occurred,
arising largely from the weather, the condition
of the trenches, and the severe German barrage be-
hind the line, which made all preparations difﬁcult
and costly. The attack was postponed till the 18th
and even then the advancing battalions were short
of bombs without which trench ﬁghting becomes im-
possible. The ground behind the troops was so
awful that one mile in an hour was considered re-
markable progress for an unladen messenger; while
the enemy’s ﬁre was so severe that of six runners
sent with a despatch only the last arrived un-
wounded. The Germans in front appeared to be
both numerous and full of ﬁght, and upon the 17th
they made a vain attack upon the advanced line of
the 14th Brigade. Two companies of the Manches-
ters sustained upon this day the losses of half their
CHAPTER
XIII.

The
Battle
of the
Ancre.


THE BATTLE OF THE ANCRE 325
who had died ﬁghting to the last in a single group.
On the left of the Thirty-second Division some
movement forward had been necessary upon the
part both of the Eighteenth Division, and of the
Nineteenth in order to keep the left ﬂank of Jacob’s
Second Corps on the south of the river level with
the right ﬂank of Fanshawe’s Fifth Corps upon the
northern bank. This operation did not involve much
work upon the part of the Eighteenth, but the move-
ment of the Nineteenth was diﬂicult and complex,
with Grandcourt as a possible objective. It meant
an attack upon a maze of trenches under the worst
possible terrestrial conditions, while the advance
had really to be in three different directions, due
north, north-east, and almost due east. The 57th
Brigade, strengthened by the 7 th South Lancashires
of the 56th Brigade, was chosen for the diﬂicult task.
At 6 A.M. upon November 18 in a sharp snow-storm
the advance began.
It was the last concerted operation of the year,
but it was not unfortunately destined for success.
The garrison of the trenches appear to have been
as numerous as the stormers and far more advan-
tageously placed. The ground was such that an ad-
vance over it without opposition would have been no
easy matter. Upon the left two battalions, the 7th
South Lancs and the 8th Gloucesters, old battle com-
panions of La Boiselle, pushed vigorously forward
and seized the western outskirt of Grandcourt where
they held on against every attempt to dislodge them.
Stick bombs, egg bombs, riﬂe-grenades, and every
sort of evil missile crashed and splintered around
them, but they had in command two leaders who
might be trusted to hold what they had taken. Only
CHAPTER
XIII.

The
Battle
ofthe
Ancre.


328 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
(Janna
XIII.

The
Battle
ofthe
Ancre.
achievement, and it may fairly be added to the credit
of the Somme Battle, since without it, it could hardly
have been possible.
The second considerable factor was one of those
great Russian advances which, alternating with
equally great Russian retreats, each of them com-
ing with a constant rhythm, made the war of the
Eastern Front resemble some sort of majestic and
terrible tide, with an ebb and ﬂow which left death
and destruction strewn over those unhappy border
countries. On this occasion the advance was in the
Brody and Stanislau direction, and was pushed with
such energy and success by the ﬁery Brusiloﬁ that
nearly 400,000 prisoners—or perhaps Slavonic
refugees would be a more accurate description—
were taken by our Allies. The movement extended
from June to September, and might have been a
vital one, had it not been for political disorganisa-
tion and treachery in the rear.
The Italian armies had in the meanwhile given a
splendid account of themselves, as every one who
had seen them in the ﬁeld, predicted that they would.
Though hard pressed by a severe Austrian attack in
the Trentino in May, they rallied and held the enemy
before he could debouch upon the plains. Then with
three hard blows delivered upon August 6 to August
9, where they took the town of Gorizia and 12,000
prisoners, on October 10, and on November 1 they
broke the Austrian lines and inﬂicted heavy losses
upon them. The coming of winter saw them well
upon their way to Trieste.
On August 4 the British forces in Egypt defeated
a fresh Turco-German attack upon that country.
The battle was near Romani, east of the Suez Canal,


THE BATTLE OF THE ANCRE 329
and it ended in a creditable victory and the capture
of 2500 prisoners. This was the end of the serious
menace for Egypt, and the operations in this quar-
ter, which were carried on by General Murray, were
conﬁned from this time forwards to clearing up the
Sinai peninsula, where various Turkish posts were
dispersed or taken, and in advancing our line to the
Palestine Frontier.
On August 8 our brave little ally, Portugal, threw
her sword into the scale of freedom, and so gave
military continuity to the traditions of the two na-
tions. It would have rejoiced the austere soul of the
great Duke to see the descendants of his much-
valued Cacadores, ﬁghting once more beside the
great grandsons of the Riﬂemen and Guardsmen of
the Peninsula. Two divisions appeared in France,
where they soon made a reputation for steadiness
and valour.
In the East another valiant little nation had also
ranged herself with the Allies, and was destined,
alas, to meet her ruin through circumstances which
were largely beyond her own control. Upon Au-
gust 27 Roumania declared war, and with a full re-
liance upon help which never reached her, advanced
at once into the south of Hungary. Her initial suc-
cesses changed to defeat, and her brave soldiers,
who were poorly provided with modern appliances
_ of war, were driven back before the pressure of Fal-
kenhayn’s army in the West and Mackensen’s, which
eventually crossed the Danube, from the south. On
December 6 Bucharest fell, and by the end of the
year the Roumanians had been driven to the Russian
border where, an army without a country, they hung
on, exactly as the Belgians had done, to the extreme
CHAPTER
XIII.

The
Battle
of the
Ancre.


330 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
Cmmn
XIII.

The
Battle
of the
Ancre.
edge of their ravaged fatherland. To their W est-
ern allies, who were powerless to help them, it was
one of the most painful incidents of the War.
The Salonica expedition had been much hampered
by the sinister attitude of the Greeks, whose posi-
tion upon the left rear of Sarrail’s forces made an
advance dangerous, and a retreat destructive. King
Constantine, following the example of his brother-
in-law of Berlin, had freed himself from all consti-
tutional ties, refused to summon a parliament, and
followed his own private predilections and interests
by helping our enemies, even to the point of sur-
rendering a considerable portion of his own king-
dom, including a whole army corps and the port of
Kavala to the hereditary enemy, the Bulgarian.
Never in history has a nation been so betrayed by its
king, and never, it may be added, did a nation which
had been free allow itself so tamely to be robbed of
its freedom. Venezelos, however, showed himself
to be a great patriot, shook the dust of Athens from
his feet, and departed to Salonica, Where he raised
the ﬂag of a ﬁghting national party, to which the
whole nation was eventually rallied.~ Meanwhile,
however, the task of General Sarrail was rendered
more difﬁcult, in spite of which he succeeded in re~
gaining Monastir and establishing himself ﬁrmly
within the 01d Serbian frontier—a result which was
largely due to the splendid military qualities of the
remains of the Serbian army.
On December 12 the German Empire proposed
negotiations for peace, but as these were apparently
to be founded upon the war~map as it then stood,
and as they were accompanied by congratulatory
messages about victory from the Kaiser to his


THE BATTLE OF THE ANCRE 331
troops, they were naturally not regarded as serious
by the Allies. Our only guarantee that a nation will
not make war whenever it likes is its knowledge that
it cannot make peace when it likes, and this was the
lesson which Germany was now to learn. By the
unanimous decision of all the Allied nations no
peace was possible which did not include terms
which the Germans were still very far from con-
sidering—restitution of invaded countries, repara-
tion for harm done, and adequate guarantees against
similar unprovoked aggression in the future. With-
out these three conditions the War would indeed
have been fought in vain.
This same month of December saw two of the
great protagonists who had commenced the War re~
tire from that stage upon which each had played a
worthy part. The one was Mr. Asquith, who, weary
from long labours, gave place to the fresh energy of
Mr. Lloyd George. The other was “Father” J offre,
who bore upon his thick shoulders the whole weight
of the early campaigns. Both names will live hon-
ourably in history.
And now as the year drew to its close, Germany,
wounded and weary, saw as she glared round her
at her enemies, a portent which must have struck a
chill to her heart. Russian strength had been dis-
counted and that of France was no new thing. But
whence came this apparition upon her Western
ﬂank—a host raised, as it seemed, from nowhere,
and yet already bidding fair to be equal to her own?
Her public were still ignorant and blind, bemused
by the journals which had told them so long, and
with such humorous detail, that the British army
was a paper army, the creature of a dream. Treit-
CHAPTER
XIII.

The
Battle
of the
Ancre.


332 THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN, 1916
CHAPTER
XIII.
The
Battle
of the
Ancre.

schke’s foolish phrase, “The unwarlike Islanders,”
still lingered pleasantly in their memory. But the
rulers, the men who knew, what must have been their
feelings as they gazed upon that stupendous array,
that vision of doom, a hundred miles from wing to
wing, gleaming with two million bayonets, canopied
with aeroplanes, fringed with iron-clad motor mon—
sters, and backed by an artillery which numbered
its guns by the thousand? Kitchener lay deep in the
Orkney waves, but truly his spirit was thundering
at their gates. His brain it was who ﬁrst planted
these seeds, but how could they have grown had the
tolerant, long-suffering British nation not been made
ready for it by all those long years of Teutonic in-
sult, the ravings of crazy professors, and the insults
of unbalanced publicists“! All of these had a part in
raising that great host, but others, too, can claim
their share: the baby-killers of Scarborough, the
Zeppelin murderers, the submarine pirates, all the
agents of ruthlessness. Among them they had put
life and spirit into this avenging apparition, where
even now it could be said that every man in the bat-
tle line had come there of his own free will. Years
of folly and of crime were crying for a just retribu-
tion. The instrument was here and the hour was
drawing on.


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INDEX
335
Jones, Sergeant, V.C. (King’s
Liverpool), 229
Jones, Private, V.C. (Cheshires),
292 >
Jutland, battle of, 31
Kavala, Greek surrender of, to
Bulgaria, 329
Kiggell, General Sir L., 36
Kitchener, Lord, 5, 331
Kut, British force surrenders to
Turks at, 2
La. Boiselle, 69-75, 76, 77, 86,
104, 105, 107-109
Laidlaw, Colonel, 65
Lambton, General, 53
Landon, General, 150
Ledwidge, Francis, 169
Leipzig Redoubt, the, 63, 64, 65,
197
Le Sars, 284, 285, 286
Lesbmufs, 281, 291, 292
Lister, Charles, 169
Longridge, Colonel, 209
Longueval, 144, 145, 151, 153-
155, 171-180, 212, 216
Loos, 4, 17-19, 30
Luard, Colonel, 17
Lynch, Colonel, 78
Lyon, Colonel, 211
McNair, Lieutenant, V.C., 8
Machell, Colonel, 64
Mack, Major, 252
Mackensen, General, 329
Maddison, Colonel, 69
Mametz, 76, 84-86, 88, 93, 96,
104
Mametz Wood, 116, 118, 120, 121,
124-132, 134
Maricourt, 95, 99
Markes, Brigade-Major, 176
Martinpuich, 203, 236, 237-240,
269
Mason, Lieutenant, 267
Maxse, General, 139, 272
Mercer, General, 24
Mesopotamia, British Expedition
in, 2, 3
Miall-Smith, Lieutenant (Royal
Fusiliers), 269
Military Service Bill, the, 6
Mobbs, Colonel, 215

Monastir re-occupied by the
Serbian Army, 330
Monro, General Sir Charles, 11
Montauban, 84, 86-98, 99, 104
Montenegro overrun by Central
Powers, 2
Moreaucourt, 100
Morland, General Sir T., 34, 58
Morval, 281, 291, 292, 293, 294
Mumford, Captain, 136
Murray, General Sir A., 328
Murray, Lieutenant, 184
Musker, Lieutenant, 185, 186
Neville, Captain, 92
0rd, Corporal, 219
Ovillers, 58, 66, 105, 106, 107,
110-116, 197
Palk, Colonel the Hon. 0. W., 53
Pears, Colonel, 113
Phillpotts, General, 232
Pierce, Colonel, 56
Piggott, Colonel Royston, 108
Plumer, General Sir Herbert, 11,
14
Poland occupied by Central Pow-
ers, 2
Pommiers Redoubt, the, 89, 90
Portugal declares war against the
Central Powers, 328
Pozieres, 144, 156, 159, 188-203,
230
Price, Brigadier-General, 202
Primrose, Captain Neil, 169
Prowse, Brigadier-General, 52, 53
Pulteney, General Sir W., 34, 58,
66, 74, 76, 236, 241
Rawlinson, General Sir Henry,
11, 34, 106, 142, 188, 206,
213, 231, 236, 263, 322
Regiments:
Artillery—
Royal Field Artillery, 93, 108
Trench Mortar Battery, 269
Honourable Artillery Company,
318, 319
Cavalry——
7th Dragoon Guards, 150, 158
20th Deccan Horse, 150, 158
Lucknow and Sialkote Cavalry
Brigades, 313


336
INDEX
Regiments:
Guards—
Coldstream, 252, 253, 254, 291,
292
Grenadier, 252, 253, 291, 292
Irish, 252, 253, 291
Scots, 253, 254, 255
Welsh, 291
Infantry—
‘Argyll and Sutherland High-
landers, 153, 164, 175, 208,
238, 293, 321
Bedford, 88, 89, 95, 137, 185,
186, 251, 255, 271, 273, 292,
318
Berkshire, 70, 71, 89, 90, 109,
177, 181, 191, 192, 209, 232,
268, 274, 302, 315
Black Watch, 153, 175, 209,
232, 233, 321
Border, 8, 64, 85, 106, 114,
117, 123, 147, 272, 275, 279
Buﬁs (East Kent), 91, 92,
140, 215, 255, 273, 274, 291,
298
Cameron Highlanders, 153,
162, 175, 232, 238
Cameronians (Scottish Riﬂes),
70, 134, 164, 166, 167, 170,
238, 302, 303, 304
Cheshire, 106, 107, 110, 115,
259, 276, 278, 292, 326
Connaught Rangers, 226, 227,
228
Devon, 70, 85, 147, 168, 222,
225, 293
Dorset, 64, 83, 113, 115, 132,
272, 324
Dublin Fusiliers, 19, 52, 230,
318 ’
Duke of Cornwall’s, 220, 225,
250, 290, 299
Durham Light Infantry, 49, 51,
77, 78, 80, 81, 220, 247, 250,
255, 284, 285, 289, 291, 292,
301
East Lancashire, 49, 50, 51, 53,
74, 121, 302, 326
East Surrey, 11, 12, 91, 92,
180, 214, 225, 273, 274, 293
East Yorkshire, 77, 83, 121,
132, 151, 304, 305, 312, 313
Essex, 52, 54, 89, 90, 109, 177,
195, 267, 268, 273

Regiments:
Infantry—
Gloucester, 28, 108, 116, 156,
157, 162, 180, 191, 192, 196,
197, 210, 225, 232, 293, 325
Gordon Highlanders, 10, 14,
84, 85, 149, 168, 174, 222,
314, 321
Hampshire, 51, 53, 55, 244, 279,
280, 302
Highland Light Infantry, 30,
63, 64, 65, 68, 113, 114, 150,
163, 170, 217, 237, 238, 323,
324
Inniskilling Fusiliers, 18, 53,
56, 61, 64, 114
King’s Liverpool, 95, 96, 97,
98, 137, 151, 152, 164, 174,
179, 207, 219, 228, 233, 298,
304
King’s Own Royal Lancaster,
52
King’s Own Scottish Border-
ers, 134, 172, 238, 286, 292
King’s Royal Riﬂes, 170, 226,
244, 245, 248, 249, 290, 304
Lancashire Fusiliers, 7, 8, 20,
53, 63, 64, 110, 113, 114, 118,
120, 272, 302
Leicester, 146, 148, 255, 256,
288, 289
Leinster, 215, 227
Lincoln, 8, 10, 42, 70, 72, 77,
81, 82, 116, 117, 122, 275,
288, 302, 303, 304
Liverpool, 136
London Riﬂe Brigade, 43, 300
London Scottish, 43, 44, 258,
299
lst London, 259
2nd London, 43, 259
3rd London, 44, 300
4th London, 43, 256, 299
6th London, 241
8th London, 259
9th London (Queen Victoria
Riﬂes), 43, 256, 300
12th London (Rangers), 43, 258
13th London (Kensington), 43
15th London (Civil Service),
241
— London (Queen ’s Westmin-
sters), 43
Manchester, 65, 84, 85, 95, 96,


338
INDEX
Regiments:
Infantry—
77, 78, 81, 82, 218, 220, 247,
250, 298, 323

Royal Engineers, 92, 117, 149,
168, 182, 217, 219, 230, 245,
293
Royal Naval Division, 315, 316,
317, 318, 319, 320
Overseas Forces-—
Australians, 116, 161, 186, 187,
188, 189, 190, 191, 192, 193,
194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199,
200, 201, 202, 230, 305
New Zealanders, 201, 233, 241,
242, 243, 244, 245, 287, 288,
289
1st Canadians (Ontario), 278
2nd Canadians, 14
3rd Canadians (Toronto), 27
7th Canadians (British Colum-
bia), 26, 27, 278
10th Canadians, 26
13th Canadians (Royal High-
landers), 16, 27, 201
14th Canadians (Montreal), 25
15th Canadians (48th High-
landers), 25, 201
16th Canadian Scottish, 16, 27
22nd Canadians, 15, 203
27th Canadians (Winnipeg),
15, 278
29th Canadians (Vancouver),
15
31st80anadians (Alberta), 15,
27
49th Canadians, 22
52nd Canadians
tario), 25, 204
60th Canadians
204
— Canadians
wick), 16
—160anadians (Nova Scotia),
(New On-
(Montreal) ,
(New Bruns-
Princess Patricia’s, 22, 24
Royal Canadian Regiment, 22
Canadian Mounted Riﬂes, 23
Newfoundland Regiment, 46,
54, 55, 301
South Africans, 137, 153, 155,
171, 172, 173, 175, 176, 286
Richebourg, 28-30

Rickets, Colonel, 128
Ripley, Colonel, 271 ‘
Robertson, General Sir William,
5, 308
Rolls, Major, 185
Romani, battle near, 328
Roumania declares war against
the Central Powers, 329
Rushton, Lieutenant, 90
Ryder, Private, V.C., 270
St. Eloi, 12-16
St. Pierre Divion, 316
Salonica, 3; operations round,
329
Sarrail, General, 329, 330
Sawyer, Major, V.C., 284
Says, Lieutenant, 90
Schwaben Redoubt, the, 61, 263,
266, 268, 272-275, 276
Serbia overrun by Central Pow-
ers, 2
Serre, 46, 49-53, 86, 311, 313
Shuts, Major, 64
Sinai peninsula, operations in,
328
Smith, General Douglas, 226
Smith, Colonel, 134
Smuts, General Right Hon. Jan,
3
Snow, General Sir T., 34, 39, 45
Somerset, Lieutenant, 110
Somme, battle of the: disposition
of the British Armies, 34—36;
preparations preceding the
battle, 36, 37; German an-
ticipation of Allied attack,
37; work of the Royal Fly-
ing Corps, 38, 39; attack of
the Seventh and Eighth
Corps at Gommecourt, Serre,
and Beaumont Hamel, 39-
56; general failure of at-
tack, 56; attack of the
Tenth and Third Corps at
Beaucourt, Thiepval, Ovil-
lers, and La Boiselle, fails,
58-75; attack of the Fif-
teenth and Thirteenth Corps
at Fricourt, Mametz, and
Montauban, 76-101; capture
of Fricourt, 77-84; of Ma-
metz village, 84-86 ; of Mon-
tauban, 86-98; operations of