Lieutenant-General Sir Walter Congreve, VC, was professionally minded and prepared, which was why his XIII Corps triumphed over German positions at Montauban. He focused on consolidating gains rather than exploiting them. (IWM)
Generalleutnant Martin Châles de Beaulieu’s hands-off command of 12th Infantry Division between Montauban and the River Somme condemned his men to failure against the British XIII Corps and French XX Corps. (Courtesy of Infantry Regiment 23)
Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Horne had a ruthless, nimble mind and produced partial victory by his XV Corps at Fricourt and Mametz, but his opportunist streak caused unnecessary casualties when he attempted to force Fricourt’s early capture. (IWM)
General Sir Hubert Gough was the bullish, attack-minded commander of Reserve Army, which was to come into play after German lines were breached. He was to be frustrated throughout the opening day of the Somme. (Te Papa)
Officers and men of 15th West Yorkshires take a break from practising trench digging in England. This battalion was destroyed by German machine-gun fire near Serre on 1 July 1916. (Peter Smith Collection)
Württemberg soldiers of all ages stop work for a cigarette and a crafty swig of wine in a trench near Beaucourt, in the River Ancre valley. (Author’s collection)
Tin hats, puttees, gas masks and Lee Enfields — soldiers from a York and Lancasters’ battalion scrubbed up well for a behind-the-lines studio photograph to be sent home to their families in England. (Peter Smith Collection)
‘You will certainly be a bit miffed as I didn’t send you any news, but I totally forgot,’ wrote Ersatz-Reservist August Stegmaier, Infantry Regiment 180, from the trenches at Serre. Stegmaier, pictured at top left, was killed on 28 September 1916. (Author’s collection)
Dig, dig, dig! Württemberg soldiers from Pioneer Battalion 13 take a breather from excavating what appears to be either a deep dugout to withstand British shellfire or a mine chamber under no-man’s-land. (Author’s collection)
Gas-mask-wearing British soldiers rehearse the job of clearing a mock German trench under the watchful eye of trainers in England. Fist-sized beanbags were used as substitutes for hand grenades during training. (Peter Smith Collection)
‘I was terribly worried,’ wrote Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Collins, 17th (Northern) Division headquarters, of the 10th West Yorkshires’ role on the first day of the Somme. The battalion suffered galling casualties advancing from trenches like these near Fricourt. (IWM)
‘The air reverberates to the drum of our cannonade,’ wrote Major James Jack, 2nd Scottish Rifles, of British shellfire on enemy positions. Pictured is a 9.2-inch gun immediately after belting out its high-explosive payload sometime on 1 July 1916. (IWM)
‘What would it be like to receive a direct hit from a ship’s 30-centimetre gun?’ pondered Fahrer Otto Maute, Infantry Regiment 180. The road shown here being struck by a high-explosive shell, near Miraumont in June 1916, was on Maute’s wagon route. (Author’s collection)
‘Down there we sit and read and write by the light of a candle,’ said Unteroffizier Wilhelm Munz, Reserve Infantry Regiment 119. These Württemberg artillerymen are holed up in a shell-proof dugout, and using a salvaged house door as a table. (Author’s collection)
This well-camouflaged Bavarian field gun at Montauban may have gone unseen by the probing eyes of Royal Flying Corps observers, but its flimsy shelter did nothing to protect it from searching British counter-battery fire. (Author’s collection)
‘The earth rose in the air to the height of hundreds of feet,’ wrote Lieutenant Geoffrey Malins, who filmed the massive Hawthorn Ridge mine blast. Its detonation at 7.20 a.m., 10 minutes before VIII Corps’ advance was due to begin, alerted German soldiers that they were about to be attacked. (IWM)
‘The field was white, as if it had snowed,’ wrote Leutnant-der-Reserve Matthaus Gerster, Reserve Infantry Regiment 119, of the Hawthorn Ridge mine explosion. It was no different at La Boisselle, as evidenced by the chalkstone jaws and spoil of the huge Y-Sap crater. (IWM)
‘How feeble and tiny they looked in that ghastly reek,’ thought Second-Lieutenant William Tullock, 53rd Machine-Gun Company, of British infantry advancing on the German front line near Montauban behind great spurts of liquid fire from Livens flame projectors. (IWM)
‘My heart seemed to stop; now comes the end,’ wrote Leutnant-der-Reserve Friedrich Kassel, Reserve Infantry Regiment 99, of a British shell that landed above his dugout. Pictured are Bavarian gunners in their dugout at Montauban early in the British preparatory bombardment. (Author’s collection)
‘Anyway, it was time to go over,’ wrote Lance-Corporal Archibald Turner, 10th Lincolns. Equipment-laden infantrymen of 34th Division trudge slowly towards the tornado of German machine-gun and artillery fire near La Boisselle. (IWM)
Mash Valley’s killing zone was designed by Hauptmann Otto Wagener, RIR110. (IWM; courtesy of Reserve Infantry Regiment 110)
‘I wanted to find out what they were looking for,’ noted a perplexed Private Lew Shaugnessy, 27th Northumberland Fusiliers, of soldiers he saw going to ground on the La Boisselle no-man’s-land. Many of them were dead or wounded, or seeking respite from the German fusillade. (IWM)
‘Never in the war have I experienced a more devastating effect of our fire,’ stated Vizefeldwebel Theodor Laasch, Reserve Infantry Regiment 110 (RIR110). He was writing about Mash Valley, where British dead lay thickly (top). Mash Valley’s killing zone was designed by Hauptmann Otto Wagener, RIR110 (above). (IWM; courtesy of Reserve Infantry Regiment 110)
A Bavarian machine-gun team set up for business on a shellfire-hammered trench parapet, having raced up from their dugout beneath. Even heavily damaged positions were defensible, as this photo taken later in the summer of 1916 illustrates. (Author’s collection)
Barbed-wire pickets and fields of fire — a German view of no-man’s-land through a metal observer’s shield, said to have been taken near La Boisselle. British infantry relied on their artillery sweeping away the wire and at least suppressing enemy resistance. (Author’s collection)
‘By thunder Herr Feldwebel, I am firing!’ yelled a Baden soldier to Vizefeldwebel Theodor Laasch, Reserve Infantry Regiment 110. Here soldiers of Laasch’s regiment draw bead on British infantry stranded in no-man’s-land near La Boisselle on 1 July 1916. (Courtesy of Reserve Infantry Regiment 110)
‘If the British had made a fresh attack we could not have held our position,’ wrote Unteroffizier Paul Scheytt, Reserve Infantry Regiment 109. Soldiers of 7th Queen’s and 7th Buffs pause on the Mametz–Montauban road on 1 July 1916, before their final attack on Montauban Alley. (IWM)
‘God only knows how any of us got there, but we did,’ recalled Private Clifford Barden, 7th Royal West Kents, of reaching his battalion’s objective, Montauban Alley. Soldiers of 55th Brigade (above) began consolidating that trench for defence soon after its capture. (IWM)
‘I considered further sacrifice to be pointless,’ said Oberst Jakob Leibrock, commander of Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment 16, whose headquarters’ dugout was hidden among the ruins of La Briqueterie (above), a brickworks east of Montauban. He and his staff soon surrendered. (IWM)
‘It was pure bloody murder,’ remembered Private Peter Smith, 1st Borders. This unidentified British soldier, found dead in the trenches near Montauban, is slumped on his rifle and wearing a haversack of hand grenades. (IWM)
‘Hands up, you fool!’ A dishevelled and wounded British prisoner, said to have been nabbed during the brutal close-quarter Heidenkopf fighting, manages a weary smile as his triumphant captor from Württemberg looks on. (Author’s collection)
‘I cannot now see the features in a person’s face,’ wrote Private Sidney Smith, 1/5th Sherwood Foresters, of being wounded on 1 July 1916. Here, a badly injured British soldier, with his eyes crudely bandaged, lies in the German trenches at Gommecourt. (Author’s collection)
‘We will have lunch in the German trenches,’ said Lieutenant Billy Goodwin, 8th York and Lancasters, to
one of his soldiers just before battle. The Corpus Christi College graduate was highly regarded by his platoon. He died snared in German wire in Nab Valley on 1 July 1916. The 23-year-old, who liked golf, tennis and motorcycles, is buried at Blighty Valley Cemetery. (Liddle Collection, University of Leeds)
‘It’s a shame the holiday came to an end so quickly,’ wrote Reservist Friedrich Bauer, Infantry Regiment 180, after returning to the Somme trenches from leave. The 25-year-old, from Rudersberg in Württemberg, had been an orchard worker and liked to sing on his way to and from work. He was killed on 3 July 1916 at Ovillers and has no known grave. (Author’s collection)
About the Author
ANDREW MACDONALD is a New Zealand-born author and military historian living in London. He holds a PhD (University of London) in military history, which he completed while working as a Reuters correspondent; his thesis was on the assessment of military effectiveness in World War I. He now works full time as a writer, and has been published twice by HarperCollins: On My Way to the Somme: New Zealanders and the Bloody Offensive of 1916 and Passchendaele: The Anatomy of a Tragedy were both released to critical acclaim.
Copyright
HarperCollinsPublishers
First published in 2016
by HarperCollinsPublishers (New Zealand) Limited
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harpercollins.co.nz
Copyright © Gallipoli Ltd 2016
Andrew Macdonald asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. This work is copyright. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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National Library of New Zealand cataloguing-in-publication data:
Macdonald, Andrew, 1973-
First day of the Somme : the complete account of Britain’s worst
-ever military disaster / Andrew Macdonald.
1. Somme, 1st Battle of the, France, 1916. 2. World War, 1914–1918
—Campaigns—France—Somme. 3. World War, 1914–1918—
Battlefields—France. I. Title.
940.4272—dc 23
Front cover image: A wounded British soldier with his German captor
(author’s collection)
Cover design by HarperCollins Design Studio
* 1/2nd Battalion Monmouthshire Regiment (Territorial Force). Battalion war diary states 106 casualties — 11 k (killed), 85 w (wounded) and 10 m (missing) — 1–3 July. SDGW notes 28 deaths.
† 1st Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers. Official History states 483 casualties (164 k, 308 w and 11 m). SDGW notes 148 deaths.
* 2nd Battalion Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment). Official History states 561 casualties (164 k, 349 w and 48 m). SDGW notes 167 deaths.
† 16th (Service) Battalion (Public Schools) Duke of Cambridge’s Own (Middlesex Regiment). Also known as Public Schools Battalion. Official History states 539 casualties (187 k, 309 w, 14 m and 29 p). SDGW notes 163 deaths.
‡ 1st Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers. Official History states 305 casualties (76 k and 229 w). SDGW notes 56 deaths.
§ 2nd Battalion South Wales Borderers. Official History states 372 casualties (150 k, 218 w and 4 m). SDGW notes 127 deaths.
¶ 1st Battalion Border Regiment. Official History states 575 casualties (183 k, 368 w, 22 m and 2 p). SDGW notes 201 deaths.
** 1st Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. Official History states 568 casualties (245 k, 319 w, 3 m and 1 p). SDGW notes 229 deaths.
†† 1st Battalion King’s Own Scottish Borderers. Official History states 552 casualties (156 k and 396 w). SDGW notes 129 deaths.
* 1st Battalion East Lancashire Regiment. 4th Division states 502 casualties (68 k, 257 w and 177 m). SDGW notes 171 deaths.
† 1st Battalion Hampshire Regiment. 4th Division states 585 casualties (123 k, 265 w and 197 m). SDGW notes 218 fatalities.
‡ 1st Battalion Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort’s Own). 4th Division states 474 casualties (59 k, 246 w and 169 m). SDGW notes 158 deaths.
§ 1/8th Battalion (Territorial Force) Royal Warwickshire Regiment. 4th Division states 588 casualties (58 k, 254 w and 276 m). SDGW notes 228 deaths.
¶ 1st Battalion Prince Albert’s (Somerset Light Infantry). 4th Division states 476 casualties (51 k, 180 w and 245 m). SDGW notes 156 fatalities.
** 1/6th Battalion (Territorial Force) Royal Warwickshire Regiment. 4th Division states 472 casualties (48 k, 184 w and 240 m). SDGW notes 157 deaths.
* 1st Battalion King’s Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment). 4th Division states 445 casualties (43 k, 222 w and 180 m). SDGW notes 115 deaths.
† 12th (Service) Battalion (Miners) (Pioneers) King’s Own (Yorkshire Light Infantry). Battalion war diary states 189 casualties of all ranks. SDGW notes 38 deaths.
* 15th (Service) Battalion (1st Leeds) Prince of Wales’s Own (West Yorkshire Regiment). Also known as 1st Leeds Pals. 93rd Brigade recorded 528 casualties (67 k, 279 w and 182 m). SDGW notes 222 deaths.
† 16th (Service) Battalion (1st Bradford) Prince of Wales’s Own (West Yorkshire Regiment). Also known as 1st Bradford Pals. 93rd Brigade noted 527 casualties (67 k, 311 w and 149 m). SDGW notes 149 deaths.
‡ 18th (Service) Battalion (1st County) Durham Light Infantry. 93rd Brigade states 252 casualties (29 k, 189 w and 34 m). SDGW notes 67 deaths.
§ 18th (Service) Battalion (2nd Bradford) Prince of Wales’s Own (West Yorkshire Regiment). Also known as 2nd Bradford Pals. 93rd Brigade tallied 441 casualties (53 k, 288 w and 100 m). SDGW notes 100 deaths.
¶ 11th (Service) Battalion (Accrington) East Lancashire Regiment. Also known as Accrington Pals. 94th Brigade noted 621 casualties (77 k, 463 w and 81 m). SDGW notes 118 deaths.
** 12th (Service) Battalion (Sheffield) York & Lancaster Regiment. Also known as Sheffield Pals or Sheffield City Battalion. 94th Brigade recorded 511 casualties (48 k, 147 w and 316 m). SDGW notes 248 deaths.
* 13th (Service) Battalion (1st Barnsley) York & Lancaster Regiment. Also known as 1st Barnsley Pals. 94th Brigade totted up 275 casualties (46 k, 169 w and 60 m). SDGW notes 81 deaths.
† 14th (Service) Battalion (2nd Barnsley) York & Lancaster Regiment. Also known as 2nd Barnsley Pals. 94th Brigade noted 270 casualties (27 k, 141 w and 102 m). SDGW notes 92 deaths.
* 2nd Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers. 4th Division states 328 casualties (54 k, 234 w and 40 m). SDGW notes 61 deaths.
† 2nd Battalion Seaforth Highlanders (Ross-Shire Buffs, The Duke of Albany’s). 4th Division states 398 casualties (68 k, 228 w and 102 m). SDGW notes 119 deaths.
‡ 2nd Battalion Essex Regiment. 4th Division states 437 casualties (48 k, 180 w and 209 m). SDGW notes 139 deaths.
§ 2nd Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers. 4th Division states 382 casualties (26 k, 253 w and 103 m). SDGW notes 67 deaths.
¶ 2nd Battalion Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding Regiment). 4th Division states 394 casualties (24 k, 309 w and 61 m). SDGW notes 52 deaths.
* 1st Battalion Newfoundland Regiment. Official History states 710 casualties (233 k, 386 w and 91 m). SDGW notes 272 deaths.
† 1st Battalion Essex Regiment. Official History states 229 casualties (60 k, 167 w and 2 m). SDGW notes 33 deaths.
* 4th Battalion Worcester Regiment. 29th Division states 53 casualties. SDGW notes 6 deaths.
† 2nd Battalion Hampshire R
egiment. 29th Division notes 25 casualties. SDGW notes 3 deaths.
‡ 1st Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment. 4th Division states 77 casualties (15 k, 59 w and 3 m). SDGW notes 12 deaths.
§ 1st Battalion Princess Victoria’s (Royal Irish Fusiliers). 4th Division states 141 casualties (14 k, 116 w and 11 m). SDGW notes 10 deaths.
* 17th (Service) Battalion (3rd Glasgow) Highland Light Infantry. Also known as Glasgow Commercials or Glasgow Chamber of Commerce Battalion. 97th Brigade states 469 casualties (87 k, 254 w and 128 m). SDGW notes 182 deaths.
† 2nd Battalion Manchester Regiment. 14th Brigade states 464 casualties for July (29 k, 411 w and 24 m). SDGW notes 11 deaths.
* 15th (Service) Battalion (1st Salford) Lancashire Fusiliers. Also known as 1st Salford Pals. Battalion war diary states 470 casualties (19 k, 148 w and 303 m). SDGW notes 268 deaths.
† 16th (Service) Battalion (Newcastle) Northumberland Fusiliers. Also known as Newcastle Commercials. SDGW notes 124 deaths.
‡ 16th (Service) Battalion (2nd Glasgow) Highland Light Infantry. Also known as Glasgow Boys’ Brigade. 97th Brigade states 537 casualties (90 k, 276 w and 171 m). SDGW notes 252 deaths.
§ 2nd Battalion King’s Own (Yorkshire Light Infantry). 97th Brigade states 322 casualties (46 k, 216 w and 60 m). SDGW notes 74 deaths.
¶ 11th (Service) Battalion (Lonsdale) Border Regiment. Also known as Lonsdale Pals or Lonsdales. 97th Brigade states 544 casualties (93 k, 341 w and 110 m). SDGW notes 181 deaths.
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