by Peter Hart
Chaplain Ernest Crosse, 8th and 9th Battalions, Devonshire Regiment, 20th Brigade, 7th Division
Meanwhile, on their right, the 91st Brigade attacked across a patch of No Man’s Land that narrowed to just 100 yards. They, too, were troubled by machine-gun fire but found sufficient momentum to drive themselves right up to the outskirts of Mametz.
The first rush may have over-run the German trenches but the mopping up had not been sufficiently thorough to eradicate the copious numbers of Germans that subsequently emerged from their deep dugouts. One artillery forward observation officer witnessed the rough justice meted out when German snipers were hunted down.
The 2nd Gordons were deepening the communication trench to Bulgar support but we had to stop here some time as the sniping was continuing. One captain was sitting in the front line eating his lunch with one hand and shooting the snipers with the other as they came out to surrender. I thought that rather rough as some had their hands up, but he said that he had had several wounded Jocks shot on their stretchers. There were a great many dead lying about, both Gordons and Boche.95
Second Lieutenant Y. R. N. Probert, 37th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, 7th Division
In the early afternoon elements of the hitherto uncommitted 22nd Brigade were ordered forward to carry out the next stage of the plan by making an assault on Fricourt itself. Private Arthur Burke was a reserve Lewis-gun team member when his battalion went over the top.
All those weary hours the lads remained calm, but very eager to get it over. They did not go over after a strong ration of rum as some people imagine these affairs are carried out, no, they went over feeling themselves. The Colonel watched them mount the steps and his last remarks were, ‘Isn’t it wonderful?’ The way they extended to six paces and walked over at the slope, one would have thought they were at Belton Park.96
Private Arthur Burke, 20th Battalion, Manchester Regiment, 22nd Brigade, 7th Division
Their front waves got across No Man’s Land almost intact, but heavy machine-gun fire took an increasingly severe toll thereafter. When they arrived in the German lines there was an understandable moment of tension as the excited troops sought to determine what was happening. There were many close shaves.
I was very nearly bayoneted by a Warwick who was shot about five yards from us by snipers who opened up a fusillade. This was a very noisy, alarming and bloody affair. The cries of the wounded for stretcher bearers, who could not be attended to because of the snipers, were distressing. Although the Boche trenches were flattened by our bombardment the deep dugouts were hardly affected and spewed out snipers who effectively prevented movement until this second attack was made.97
Second Lieutenant Y. R. N. Probert, 37th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, 7th Division
Private Burke was one of those sent to help in mopping up the German front line and dugouts. They were then to bomb their way down the German support lines across the Willow stream valley to penetrate Fricourt itself. It was clearly a vicious affair.
Then the hand-to-hand fighting started. It was Hell. Bombing was the star turn; many of the Devils were taken unawares and were asleep in their dugouts. We threw bombs of every description down, smoke bombs especially and as the hounds came up, crawling half dead, we stuck the blighters and put them out of time. In one dugout there were about twenty-five in there and we set the place on fire and we spared them no mercy, they don’t deserve it. They continued sniping as we were advancing until we reached them and then they throw up their hands, ‘Merci, Kamerad!’ We gave them mercy, I don’t think! We took far too many prisoners, they numbered about 1,000 and they didn’t deserve being spared. What tales they told us, and they would give us anything for souvenirs to spare their lives.98
Private Arthur Burke, 20th Battalion, Manchester Regiment, 22nd Brigade, 7th Division
Progress was hard and achingly slow. The further they went forward the more the German resistance stiffened and the inevitable losses weakened the attackers. The arrival of reinforcements could make all the difference in these hard-fought skirmishes.
We took the first two lines after a hard struggle, but taking the third was Hell. We were all surrounded and had it not been for a very strong bombing party coming to our assistance, we should have been all ‘dicky up’. We captured many guns and all kinds of souvenirs, but the souvenir I treasure most is my life.99
Private Arthur Burke, 20th Battalion, Manchester Regiment, 22nd Brigade, 7th Division
Eventually their progress was halted and although small parties of the 22nd Brigade made brief incursions into Fricourt they could not possibly cling on in the face of German counter-attacks and were soon forced to retire. However, further along the line the 91st Brigade was by this time making real progress into Mametz. By 1605 the village had been fully secured and the men had pushed on to consolidate a defensible line based on Bunny Trench.
By around 2000 all the objectives had been secured although the situation was naturally still very confused and the 8th and 9th Devons found themselves badly mixed up in trenches just to the west of Mametz. As evening began to fall some of the men who had been kept out of battle were sent forward. Among them was Private Conn who was sent forward to bring a Lewis-gun team up to strength and to assist at the same time in carrying forward some rations. In an entirely typical manner he was keen to secure the best possible souvenir of the fighting that had raged in his absence.
I lost no time in getting myself dug in. The dead had fallen in many strange, grotesque postures, some on their hands and knees as if they were praying. I did have a bit of a scrounge round though. I thought I might get one of those belts with ‘Gott mit uns’ on it or perhaps one of those Prussian helmets. I did come across one bloke, but when I lifted his helmet half the top of his nut was in it—it was full of brains like mincemeat. I’m not very squeamish, but I didn’t fancy scraping that out.100
Private Albert Conn, 8th Battalion, Devonshire Regiment, 20th Brigade, 7th Division
The attack of the XV Corps had been far more successful than that of its neighbours to the north. The reason was the far more effective counter-battery work that had preceded the assault. The German artillery was almost quiescent and as the narrower space between the opposing front lines allowed the British troops to get across No Man’s Land correspondingly quicker, they were able to catch the German front-line troops, in some cases before they had emerged from their dugouts. Ironically, the much vaunted artillery experiments with a creeping barrage, which would later provide a partial template for most infantry attacks on the Western Front, was not particularly relevant to their success. The line of bursting shells was too ‘thin’ in that there were insufficient shells bursting and there was a lack of the masses of high explosive shells needed to give it a real ‘bite’. The over-ambitious speed of advance also meant that in reality the line of shells quickly outpaced the struggling infantry, who were left far behind to fend for themselves. But the successes such as they were had come at a cost. The 21st Division suffered 4,256 casualties while the 7th Division lost some 3,380 men.
XIII Corps: Montauban—success on the right of the line
The southernmost sector of the British assault was to be carried out by the XIII Corps under the command of Lieutenant General William Congreve VC. In this sector the German front line ran out from the main Pozières Ridge across the Montauban to Mametz Spur. Behind it lay the deep Caterpillar Valley, through which the Willow stream ran on its way to pass between Fricourt and Mametz. Montauban had been fortified and there were several self-contained strong points within the trench system, such as the Glatz and Pommiers Redoubts, which had been carefully constructed to break up the smooth flow of any attack that penetrated the front line. Two intermediate defence lines were then backed up by the Second Line system some 3,000 yards back along the Bazentin Ridge. One advantage held by the British was that the Maricourt Ridge behind the British lines provided not only excellent observation of the German forward lines but shelter for the massed batterie
s of guns on the reverse slopes. Here there was no doubt that a clear British artillery superiority had been established, valuably augmented by the French artillery of the XX Corps, which was next in the Allied line to the south. Here the concentrated counter-battery fire had eroded the numbers of German guns facing the Allies until they were all but silenced on the day that mattered.
The plan produced by Congreve called for the 18th and 30th Divisions to seize all of the Montauban Spur on the first day, reaching forward to Montauban Alley, which ran on the near face of Caterpillar Valley. In reserve would be the 9th (Scottish) Division. The artillery were to use a simple form of the creeping barrage whereby all the heavy artillery moved in sudden lifts from one objective line to the next, but the field artillery was to creep back in short lifts picking up every previously identified trench between the lines. The VIII Corps orders were reputedly the first to actually use the word ‘creep’ although the concept was still imperfectly realised.
The 18th Division attacked from in front of the village of Carnoy directly across the intermediate trenches of Pommiers Alley and Train Alley to seize and consolidate Montauban Alley. Their commanding officer was Major General Sir Ivor Maxse, who had a reputation for attention to detail and meticulous training. He placed all three of his brigades in line for the assault: 54th, 53rd and 55th Brigades. They were assisted by the detonation of two mines, one of 500 lbs on the western edge of the sector intended to remove the threat from a nest of flanking machine guns, and another of 5,000 lbs under the German strong point at the salient of Casino Point. The German line had been much disturbed by previous mine warfare in front of Carnoy earlier in 1916 and as a result the Germans had abandoned their old linear front concentrating instead on a mixture of barbed-wire obstacles and machine-gun strong points in the old craters.
The two mines went up at 0727 and the three brigades surged forward into the attack. Private Henwood was in a support company as the 6th Royal Berkshires went over the top opposite the Casino Point mine.
We was standing on the firestep just as the attack had started and we had orders that we were going to send a mine up before our men took the front line German trench. But our men were so mad to get there they rushed forward under cover of smoke bombs, a slight wind carrying the smoke towards the German line. One of our companies, being well in front, got to the German parapet and was just landing in the trench when the mine went up and blew most of that company up with it. Just as that happened we had orders to go over the top and extend out.101
Private Fred Henwood, 6th Battalion, Royal Berkshire Regiment, 53rd Brigade, 18th Division
Further along the front, Private Cude was with a party designated to remain in the trench as the assaulting troops moved forwards.
This must be the beginning of the end. 7.22 a.m. Every gun for eight minutes gave of their best and the din was terrific. Punctual to time, 7.28 a.m., two minutes before the line advances, Captain Nevill, 8th East Surreys, kicks off the football that is to take the boys across to Jerry. Now although the line right and left have moved, I am too busy to take in the surroundings other than our immediate front. East Surreys and Queens go over singing and shouting and the ball is punted from one to another.102
Private Robert Cude, 7th Battalion, East Kent Regiment, 55th Brigade, 18th Division
One of the footballs had on it ‘The Great European Cup-Tie Final. East Surreys v. Bavarians, Kick off at Zero!’ while the other had emblazoned on it, ‘No referee’ to indicate that ‘rough stuff’ was entirely appropriate to the occasion. Second Lieutenant Alcock wrote to explain to Nevill’s family what happened in the following minutes.
Five minutes before zero time he strolled up in his usual calm way, and we shared a last joke before going over. The company went over the top very well, with Soames and your brother kicking off with the company footballs. We had to face a very heavy rifle and machine-gun fire, and nearing the front German trench, the lines slackened pace slightly. Seeing this Wilfred dashed in front with a bomb in his hand, and was immediately shot through the head, almost side by side with Soames and Sergeant Major Wells.103
Second Lieutenant Charles Alcock, 8th Battalion, East Surrey Regiment, 55th Brigade, 18th Division
Such tragedies not withstanding, the initial attack was reasonably successful. Assisted by the mines the assault battalions burst through the German front line to tackle the first real line of defence along Pommiers Trench and Train Alley. The garrison was thoroughly alert to the danger that faced them and they opened up a heavy fire. Now was the moment that Colonel Irwin considered his men needed the extra push his leadership could hopefully provide.
When the impetus died down I thought that this was the moment that I might be of some use. I went in and picked up all the chaps I could and went over the parapet by myself, stood well out in the open and said, ‘Come on, come on, come on.... !’ They all came on quite smoothly. They didn’t know what to do after they’d taken their first objective but I think I acted properly, but I really don’t know. It’s a very difficult job to know what a commanding officer should or shouldn’t do.104
Lieutenant Colonel Alfred Irwin, 8th Battalion, East Surrey Regiment, 55th Brigade, 18th Division
As the British barrage line swiftly moved on without reference to the real situation on the ground the prognosis would have been grim but for the minimal nature of the German artillery response. There was no wall of German shells smashing down on No Man’s Land to isolate the forward troops and in these circumstances the sheer weight of the superiority of numbers gave the British a greatly enhanced chance of success. Slowly they moved forward, plagued by German strong points, every one of which had to be overrun or outflanked. Nevertheless, the men continued to make progress, greatly assisted by the vaulting advance of the neighbouring 30th Division facing Montauban. There was, however, a very real price to pay—individual machine guns could cause painful casualties in a matter of mere seconds.
All our best men and NCOs are gone and when one sees the remains of a fine battalion one realises the disgusting sordidness of modern war, when any yokel can fire a gun that may or may not—chance entirely—kill a man worth fifty of the firer. But we must bear these losses silently, for it is the way that lies before us and the only way to victory.105
Second Lieutenant Alan Jacobs, 8th Battalion, East Surrey Regiment, 55th Brigade, 18th Division
Each man had his own way of dealing with the pain of the losses suffered. For some religion was at the centre of their lives and war was viewed through a prism of pure sanctimony.
Men who had not prayed for years confessed that they did pray that morning, whilst beside the dead body of several were found New Testaments sealed with the blood of men who had remembered that the Eternal God is the only Refuge of us all. A few hundred yards away from where we were fast becoming busy, my good and brave friend, Captain Nevill, led his men into the fight with footballs. And thus he died. With the Englishman’s way of fighting, he went on his way. The War was a game which was to be played to the end in a clean and straight manner.106
Chaplain Leonard Jeeves, 55th Brigade, 18th Division
Although the fighting was savage and in places little quarter was given or asked, prisoners were nevertheless taken and sent back to the rear areas. For men like Jeeves everything and anything was a reinforcement of his warped core beliefs.
All eyes were turned to the bend in the road, around which came the first batch of prisoners. A more pitiable spectacle of human misery I have seldom seen outside of a madhouse. Worn white and thin with the appalling bombardment, and with hands uplifted, they glanced like hunted animals from side to side as they crept through the lines of wounded men and went back to the place provided for them. And again, and yet again, they came along, many of them never meant for a soldier’s life, but driven to it by a State in which a few ambitious leaders made the whole land rise and use all the means that science could teach them in warfare.107
Chaplain Leonard Jeeves,
55th Brigade, 18th Division
The prisoners may have looked pitiful, but in the heightened emotions of the day there were some awful incidents as German prisoners were killed out of hand. It is strange that some of the most bloodthirsty reactions came from those who had not actually gone into action themselves.
I am aghast at the accuracy of the fire. He has plenty of machine guns and is making a frightful carnage. I long to be with the battalion so that I can do my best to bereave a German family. I hate these swines. One feels that one must kill, as often as one can. My hand strays to my pocket. I have two ‘Mills’ in each, and there are some Jerries against me. They are prisoners and had it not been for the fact that they are being closely watched, I would have put one at least of my bombs amongst them.108
Private Robert Cude, 7th Battalion, East Kent Regiment, 55th Brigade, 18th Division
By the end of the day the 18th Division had achieved all of its major objectives and managed to consolidate a new front line that stretched along Montauban Alley and Beetle Alley to make a firm link with the neighbouring 7th Division on their left. As the reserve battalions moved forward they were shaken by the sheer horror of the sights that surrounded them.
A battlefield in the old days, even though casualties were often far greater, must have been a clean, sweet business compared to one these days. The area over which it is fought is merely the face of God’s lovely earth wrecked beyond recognition, except as a plague of volcanoes. Everything about the thing is unlovely and rather dreadful; and to those who are at all weak in the stomach, very dreadful and altogether unbearable. And there are a great many to whom, at any rate in cold blood, it is intolerable. I have two officers both shaken and now useless from mere sights and I suppose there are plenty of men the same.109