by Robin Prior
36. Ibid.
37. War Committee Minutes 22/6/16 CAB 42/15/11.
38. Ibid.
5 ‘Grasping at the Shadow’
1. Haig to Joffre 1/2/16, WO 158/14.
2. See Rawlinson's Diary for 12 and 21 February 1916, Rawlinson Papers, Churchill College, Cambridge.
3. Ibid., 21/6/16.
4. Ibid., 25/2/16.
5. Fourth Army Intelligence report 17/1/16, Montgomery-Massingberd Papers, Liddell Hart Centre, King's College, London.
6. The detail of the German defensive system is drawn from G. C. Wynne, If Germany Attacks: The Battle in Depth in the West (London, Faber and Faber, 1940), pp. 100–1.
7. W. S. Churchill, The World Crisis 1916–1918, Part 1 (London, Thornton Butterworth, 1927), p. 172.
8. Rawlinson to Kitchener 9/3/16, Rawlinson Letters, National Army Museum, London, 5201/33/18 [hereafter NAM].
9. Rawlinson Diary 2/3/16.
10. Rawlinson Short Note Diary 17/3/16, NAM. Rawlinson wrote two diaries. The more extensive one with long daily entries is in Churchill College, Cambridge. The diary in the National Army Museum consists mainly of short notes about meetings attended, people met, etc.
11. George Cassar, Kitchener: Architect of Victory (London: Kimber, 1977), pp. 466–7.
12. Rawlinson Diary 30/3/16.
13. Ibid.
14. Fourth Army Conference 30/3/16, Fourth Army Papers V1, Imperial War Museum [hereafter IWM].
15. Rawlinson Diary 31/3/16.
16. ‘Plan for Offensive by Fourth Army 3/4/16’, in IV Army Summary of Operations, WO 158/233.
17. Ibid. All further references to the 3 April plan come from this document.
18. Haig to Rawlinson 13/4/16 (OAD 710/1) in ‘Battle of the Somme: Preparations by the Fourth Army’, Fourth Army Papers V1, IWM [hereafter, Fourth Army Somme Preparations].
19. Haig Diary 5/4/16, Haig Papers, National Library of Scotland. See this entry for his detailed comments on the plan and the entry of 8/4/16 for his talk with Rawlinson. Haig's marginalia on Rawlinson's plan can be found in the copy in the Public Record Office, WO 158/233. All other mentions of the plan are taken from the copy in the IWM.
20. This and subsequent quotations from Haig to Rawlinson are taken from 13/4/16 in Fourth Army Somme Preparations.
21. Haig to Joffre 10/4/16, ibid.
22. Ibid.
23. Haig's marginalia on Rawlinson's plan of 3/4/16 in WO 158/233.
24. Haig to Rawlinson 13/4/16.
25. Ibid.
26. Haig's marginalia on Rawlinson's plan of 3/4/16.
27. Rawlinson to GHQ 19/4/16, WO 158/233.
28. Ibid.
29. Ibid.
30. Ibid.
31. Haig's marginalia on Rawlinson's memorandum of 19/4/16.
32. Rawlinson to GHQ 19/4/16.
33. Haig's marginalia on the above document.
34. Haig to Rawlinson 16/5/16 in Sir James Edmonds, Military Operations: France and Belgium, 1916, Appendix Volume 1 (London, Macmillan, 1932) Appendix 11, p 33 [hereafter Somme Appendix V1].
35. Sir James Edmonds, Military Operations: France and Belgium 1916 V1 (London, Macmillan, 1932), p. 257 [hereafter Edmonds, 1916 V1 ].
36. Rawlinson to Haig 10/5/16 in Fourth Army Papers V5, IWM and GHQ to Rawlinson 17/5/16, ibid.
37. See Table 3.1 in Elizabeth Greenhalgh, ‘A Study in Alliance Warfare: The Battle of the Somme, 1916’ (MA thesis, University of New South Wales, 1996).
38. Edmonds, 1916 V1, p. 47.
39. Ibid., p. 193.
40. Gough to Kiggell 1/5/16, WO 158/245.
41. Haig's marginalia on this document.
42. Ibid.
43. Fourth Army Operation Order 5/6/16, Fourth Army Papers V7, IWM.
44. Fourth Army Operation Order No. 2 14/6/16, ibid.
45. Ibid.
46. Fourth Army to Second Indian Cavalry Division 14/6/16, ibid.
47. Haig to Rawlinson 16/6/16 (OAD 12) in Somme Appendix V1, Appendix 13, pp. 86–7.
48. Haig to Rawlinson and Gough 21/6/16, WO 158/245.
49. Haig to Robertson 1/6/16, WO 158/21.The authors are grateful to Elizabeth Greenhalgh for drawing this letter to their attention and to Gunther Rothenburg for explaining to them the dynamics of Jena.
50. ‘Report of the Army Commanders' Remarks at the Conference held at Fourth Army Headquarters, 22nd June 1916’, in Fourth Army Papers, V6, IWM.
51. ‘Remarks Based on Recent IV Corps Artillery Operations With An Appendix & Estimate of Ammunition Required’, 6/10/15, Rawlinson Papers, 5201/33/67, NAM.
52. Conference at Army HQ 17/5/16, Fourth Army Somme Preparations.
53. Ibid.
54. Rawlinson to GHQ 10/5/16. Fourth Army Papers V5, IWM.
55. Plan for Offensive by Fourth Army 3/4/16.
56. Kiggell to Rawlinson 20/6/16 (OAD 15), Fourth Army Papers V5.
57. Ibid.
58. Rawlinson to GHQ 21/6/16, ibid.
59. Ibid.
60. Ibid.
61. Plan for Offensive by Fourth Army 3/4/16.
62. Der Weltkrieg V10 [the German official history] (Berlin, Mittler, 1936), p.345.
63. VIII Corps Heavy Artillery Programme, in 29 Division War Diary June 1916, WO 95/2230.
64. Rawlinson to GHQ 10/5/16.
65. Brigadier E. C. Anstey, ‘The History of the Royal Artillery 1914–1918’ (unpublished draft history), in the Royal Artillery Institution Library, Woolwich, pp. 117–18.
66. X Corps, undated, untitled document in X Corps Heavy Artillery War Diary June 1916, WO 95/863.
6 ‘Favourable Results Are Not Anticipated’
1. This point and much else in this section relies on the excellent account of training the New Armies by Peter Simkins, Kitchener's Army: The Raising of the New Armies, 1914–16 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1988), Chapter 12.
2. Ibid., p. 297.
3. Reginald Cockburn (KRRC) quoted ibid., p. 303.
4. Simkins, Kitchener's Army, p. 293
5. It is reproduced in full in Somme Appendix V1, Appendix 17, pp. 125–30.
6. Ibid., p. 128.
7. See ‘Fourth Army Tactical Notes’, Somme Appendix V1, Appendix 18 and especially pp. 141–4.
8. Rawlinson, Address to Commanding Officers, n.d., Rawlinson Papers 1/6, Churchill College, Cambridge.
9. See the valuable discussion of information dissemination and training in Paddy Griffith, Battle Tactics on the Western Front: The British Army's Art of Attack 1916–18 (New Haven/London, Yale University Press, 1994), Chapter 10.
10. Edmonds, 1916 V1, p. 272.
11. 32 Division: ‘Report on Operations 21st June to 4th July, and from 8th to 15th July’, 32 Division War Diary July 1916, WO 95/2368.
12. Maxse to Montgomery 31/7/16, Maxse Papers 69/53/8, IWM.
13. XIII Corps: ‘Narrative of Events: Operations of the XIII Corps during the period 1st July to 15 August, 1916’, XIII Corps War Diary July 1916, WO 95/895.
14. General Maxse, ‘The Battle of the Somme’, Maxse Papers, 69/56/6.
15. Ibid.
16. ‘Notes of a Conference held at Army Headquarters on the 16 April 1916’, Fourth Army Papers V1, IWM.
17. ‘Fourth Army Tactical Notes’, p. 144.
18. Ibid., p. 134.
19. Ibid., pp.134–6.
20. Rawlinson Diary 24–26 June, in Rawlinson Papers, Churchill College, Cambridge.
21. Ibid., 27/6/16.
22. Ibid., 28/6/16.
23. X Corps Heavy Artillery Progress Report 25th–26th June, X Corps Heavy Artillery War Diary June 1916, WO 95/866.
24. Ibid., 26–27 June.
25. See reports ibid. for 27–28, 28–29, 29–30 June.
26. 32 Division: ‘Report on Preparations and Action of 32nd Divisional Artillery during Operations of July 1916’, 32 Division War Diary June 1916, WO 95/2368.
27. See for example Lt-Col. E. Thesiger (XV Corps) to Edmonds 3/5/30 and Major-Gen T. A. Tancr
ed (VIII Corps) to Edmonds 28/10/29 complaining about these matters, in Somme Correspondence CAB 45/191.
28. Thesiger to Edmonds 3/5/30.
29. See Edmonds, 1916 V1, pp. 122–3. Also Anstey, ‘History of the Royal Artillery’, p. 112.
30. Note by Brigadier-General Whitfield in his unclassified papers in the IWM.
31. Cassel Papers, unclassified, IWM.
32. See X Corps Heavy Artillery Progress Reports for the period of the preliminary bombardment in X Corps Heavy Artillery War Diary June 1916, WO 95/866.
33. Ibid. See also 21 Division, Daily Summary of Information for the period of the preliminary bombardment in 21 Division War Diary June 1916, WO 95/2130.
34. 21 Division Daily Summary of Information 24–30 June in 21 Division War Diary June 1916, WO 95/2130.
35. Report on a visit to III Corps by Brigadier-General R. P. Benson, Commanding Heavy Artillery V Corps, AWM 26/6/45/2.
36. Ibid.
37. These reports come from a wide variety of sources. The Fourth Army noted the effect of wire-cutting in its Daily Summary of Operations, Fourth Army Papers, V1, IWM. For VIII Corps see ‘Special Wire-Cutting Reports’ in VIII Corps War Diary June 1916, WO 95/820; ‘Extracts from War Diary 1st Heavy Artillery Group VIII Corps’, AWM 26/6/49/52; 29 Division, ‘Reports on Raids’, 29 Division War Diary June 1916, WO 95/2280; 29 Division ‘Daily Summary’ 24–30 June ibid.; 4 Division Raid Reports in 4 Division War Diary June 1916, WO 95/1444. For X Corps see X Corps Artillery Progress Reports 23–30 June, X Corps Heavy Artillery War Diary June 1916, WO 95/866; 32 Division ‘Report on Operations 21st June to 4th July and from 8th to 15th July’ in 32 Division War Diary July 1916, WO 95/2368; 32 Division Daily Intelligence Summaries 24–30 June 1916, in 32 Division War Diary June 1916, WO 95/2367. For III Corps see ‘III Corps Weekly Reports on Operations’, III Corps War Diary June 1916, WO 95/672; 34 Division ‘Summary of Information 24–30 June’, 34 Division War Diary June 1916, WO 95/2432; 34 Division Report on Raids ibid.; 34 Division ‘Special Wire Reports’, ibid.; 34 Division Patrol Reports, ibid. For XV Corps see 21 Division ‘Daily Summary of Information 23–29 June’, 21 Division War Diary June 1916, WO 95/2130. For XIII Corps see 30 Division ‘Weekly Intelligence Summaries’, 30 Division War Diary June 1916, WO 95/2310; 30 Division Patrol Reports 26–30 June, ibid.; 30 Division War Diary 24–30 June, ibid.; 18 Division War Diary 24–30 June, WO 95/2015.
38. Haig Diary 28/6/16, National Library of Scotland.
39. Rawlinson Diary 30/6/16.
40. The weight and number of shells used in the preliminary bombardment can be calculated from a document, ‘Artillery Shells fired on 1 July 1916’, Rawlinson Papers 1/6.
41. For patrol reports in general see the sources quoted in note 37.
42. ‘Report by O C 1st Royal Dublin Fusiliers 29/6/16’, 29 Division War Diary June 1916, WO 95/2280.
43. ‘Report by O C 1st Essex 29/6/16’, ibid.
44. For XV and XIII Corps reports see the sources quoted for these corps in note 37.
45. For the interrogation reports see the Fourth Army Intelligence Reports 24–30 June 1916 in WO 157/171 and also the Fourth Army War Diary for the same date in Fourth Army Papers V1.
46. ‘Notes from Examination of Prisoners of 111 Infantry Regiment’ in Fourth Army Daily Intelligence Reports, WO 157/171.
47. Ibid.
48. Interrogation of a prisoner who surrendered to XV Corps 29/6/16, ibid.
49. Interrogation of prisoners captured north of Thiepval 26–27/6/16, ibid.
50. Interrogation of Prisoner Hornung 27/6/16, ibid.
51. Fourth Army Daily Intelligence Summary 30/7/16, ibid.
52. For a discussion of factors affecting artillery accuracy see Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson, Command on the Western Front: The Military career of Sir Henry Rawlinson 1914–1918 (Oxford/Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 1992), Chapter 4.
53. Anstey, ‘ History of the Royal Artillery’, p. 118.
54. Ibid.
55. H. A. Jones, The War in the Air, vol. 2 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969) pp. 175–6; Peter Mead, The Eye in the Air: History of Air Observation and Reconnaissance for the Army 1785–1945 (London, HMSO, 1983) p. 78.
56. See Rawlinson's Diary 24–30 June 1916.
57. For these reports see note 37.
58. Ibid.
7 ‘A Short Life’
1. Edmonds, 1916 V1, p. 460.
2. Ibid., p. 474.
3. Captain Wilfrid Miles, Military Operations: France and Belgium 1916 V2 (London: Macmillan, 1938), p. 425 [hereafter, Miles, 1916 V2].
4. Jack Horsfall and Nigel Cave, Serre (London: Leo Cooper, 1996) pp. 39–40.
5. Miles, 1916 V2, p. 425.
6. Ibid., p. 429.
7. Major-General R. N. Harvey [Inspector of Mines GHQ] to Edmonds 28/10/29, CAB 45/189.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. Major-General Lord Ruthven [Staff Officer VIII Corps] to Edmonds 30/10/29, CAB 45/189.
11. ‘Action of the VIII Corps Artillery on July 1st 1916’, in VIII Corps Heavy Artillery War Diary July 1916, WO 95/825.
12. ‘Narrative of the Operations of the VIII Corps on 1st July 1916’, in VIII Corps War Diary July 1916, WO 95/820.
13. ‘Operations of 94th Infantry Brigade, on July 1st, 1916’, in 31 Division War Diary July 1916, WO 95/2341.
14. See 1 East Lancashire War Diary for 1/7/16 in WO 95/1498.
15. See War Diary of 1 King's Own Regiment for 1/7/16 in WO 95/1506.
16. ‘Report of the Operations of the 29th Division from the 30th June to the Night of the 1/2 July’, in 29 Division War Diary July 1916, WO 95/2280.
17. For example, see L. Milner, A History of the 15th (Service) Battalion (1st Leeds) The Prince of Wales Own (West Yorkshire) Regiment 1914–1918 (London: Leo Cooper, 1991).
18. Special Order of the Day by Brigadier-General H. C. Rees in 31 Division War Diary July 1916, WO 95/2341.
19. See VIII Corps Narrative and 94 Brigade Narrative.
20. John Bickersteth (ed.), The Bickersteth Diaries 1914–1918 (London, Leo Cooper, 1996), p. 100.
21. Horsfall and Cave, Serre, pp. 67–8. The numbers killed come from Ernest W. Bell, Soldiers Killed on the First Day of the Somme (Bolton, Lancs: Bell, 1977).
22. Special Order of the Day by Brigadier-General H. C. Rees in 31 Division War Diary July 1916.
23. See VIII Corps Narrative, 94 Brigade Narrative.
24. R. A. Sparling, History of the 12th (Service) Battalion York and Lancaster Regiment (Sheffield: The Regiment, 1920), p. 63.
25. 16 West Yorkshire War Diary 1/7/16, WO 95/2341.
26. See VIII Corps Narrative and 94 Brigade Narrative.
27. J. C. D. Inglis to Edmonds 13/11/29, CAB 45/135.
28. Casualties calculated from divisional narratives, Miles, 1916 V2 and Horsfall and Cave, Serre.
29. See VIII Corps Narrative and Report on Operations of the 29 Division.
30. ‘Account of Action, 1st July 1916, Attack of 1st Lancashire Fusiliers on Beaumont Hamel’, 1 Lancashire Fusiliers War Diary July 1916, WO 95/2300.
31. J. Ashurst, My Bit: A Lancashire Fusilier at War 1914–1918, ed. Richard Holmes (Marlborough, Crowood, 1987), p. 99.
32. Report on Operations of the 29 Division.
33. Ibid.
34. 1 Battalion Newfoundland Regiment War Diary 1/7/16, WO 95/2308.
35. Ibid.; Nigel Cave, Beaumont Hamel (London: Leo Cooper, 1994), pp. 57–64; Dr D. W. Parsons, ‘The Newfoundland Regiment: An Analysis of Those Wounded on 1 July 1916’, Stand-To, no. 22, Spring 1988, pp. 16–17.
36. J. W. Burrows, The Essex Regiment (Southend-on-Sea: Burrows & Son, 1931), p. 211.
37. Report on Operations of the 29 Division.
38. See VIII Corps Narrative.
39. ‘8th Battalion: The Royal Warwickshire Regiment’ by Col. N. R. Ludlow. This is a pamphlet dated 1/7/18 in the 1/8 Warwicks’ War Diary July 1916, WO 95/2756.
40. ‘Operations on 1
st July, 1916’, in 4 Division War Diary July 1916, WO 95/1445.
41. See account in 1 East Lancashire War Diary July 1916, WO 95/1498.
42. 4 Division, ‘Operations’.
43. This section has been reconstructed from the 4 Division's ‘Messages Received on the Telephone 1st July 1916’, in 4 Division War Diary.
8 ‘The Enemy's Fire Was So Intense’
1. For much of this detail we have drawn on the excellent book by Michael Stedman, Thiepval (London: Leo Cooper, 1995), Chapter 2.
2. For X Corps Artillery see the daily progress reports in their Heavy Artillery War Diary for June 1916, WO 95/844.
3. War Diary of 14 Royal Irish Rifles 1/7/16, WO 95/2511.
4. The Boyne anniversary can only be made to coincide with 1 July if the Julian calendar is used. Since 1751 Britain had used the Gregorian calendar, which subtracted 11 days from the year. Since that time the Boyne was deemed to have fallen on 12 July. Cyril Falls, in his history of the division claims that celebrations of the Boyne within the division took place on both dates. By the latter date it is a wonder that celebrations of any kind could have occurred. The story that some of the officers wore the orange sashes of their order as they went over the top is a myth. The authors are grateful to Professor Keith Jeffrey for this last point.
5. ‘Short Account of the Attack by the 12th (S) Bn Royal Irish Rifles on 1st July 1916’, 12 Royal Irish Rifles War Diary 1/7/16, WO 95/2506. For other battalions involved in the attack to the north of the Ancre see 9 Royal Irish Fusiliers War Diary 1/7/16 in WO 95/2505 (they suffered 535 casualties out of 600) and 13 Royal Irish Rifles War Diary 1/7/16 in WO 95/2506.
6. Account of 36 Division Operations 1/7/16, 36 Division War Diary July 1916, WO 95/2491.
7. Ibid.
8. Schlachten des Weltkrieg: Somme-Nord V1 (Oldenburg: Stallung, 1927), pp. 36–7. This is an official monograph issued by the Reichsarchiv [hereafter Somme-Nord].
9. Ibid.
10. Account of the 36 Division.
11. See War Diary of 8 Royal Irish Rifles and 10 Royal Irish Rifles for 1/7/16 in WO 95/2503.
12. War Diary of 8 Royal Irish Rifles.
13. Stedman, Thiepval, pp. 79–80.
14. Account of the 36 Division.
15. Ibid.
16. Stedman, Thiepval, p. 81.
17. Edmonds, 1916 V1, p. 402.
18. War Diary of the 16 Northumberland Fusiliers 1/7/16, WO 95/2398.