by Robin Prior
19. Michael Stedman, Salford Pals (London: Leo Cooper, 1993), pp. 88–9. The 15 Lancashire Fusiliers were popularly known as the Salford Pals.
20. ‘Report on Operations 21 June to 4th July, and from 8th to 15th July’, 32 Division War Diary July 1916, WO 95/2368.
21. The expression is Stedman's. See Salford Pals, p. 99.
22. War Diary of 16 Lancashire Fusiliers 1/7/16, WO 95/2397.
23. 32 Division ‘Report on Operations’.
24. Ibid.
25. 1 Dorset War Diary 1/7/16, WO 95/2392; 19 Lancashire Fusiliers War Diary 1/7/16, WO 95/2394.
26. 1 Dorset War Diary 1/7/16.
27. 2 Manchesters War Diary 1/7/16, WO 95/2392.
9 ‘Wave after Wave Were Mown Down’
1. For an excellent description of the area see Michael Stedman, La Boisselle (London: Leo Cooper, 1997), Chapters 1 and 2.
2. See note 50, Chapter 6.
3. Diary of Captain Reginald Leetham, uncatalogued collection, IWM.
4. 8 Division Preliminary Operation Order No. 107, 12/6/16, 8 Division War Diary June 1916, WO 95/1675.
5. 34 Division Operation Order No. 16, 15/6/16, 34 Division War Diary June 1916, WO 95/2432.
6. Edmonds, 1916 V1, pp. 374–5.
7. Major H. M. Hanc[?] OC 179 Tunnelling Company to Edmonds, June 1930, CAB 45/134.
8. III Corps: Summary of Operations 1 to 7 July, 1916, III Corps War Diary June 1916, WO 95/673; 34 Division, ‘Use of Smoke’, in 34 Division Operation Order 15/6/16 quoted above.
9. III Corps Summary of Operations.
10. ‘Brief Narrative of course of the action compiled from reports and various other reliable sources’, 70 Brigade War Diary July 1916, WO 95/2185.
11. 8 Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry War Diary 1/7/16, WO 95/2187; ‘Statement of Operations by the 8th York and Lancaster Regiment on 1st July, 1916’ in their War Diary for 1/7/16, WO 95/2188.
12. 70 Brigade, ‘Brief Narrative’.
13. Ibid.
14. ‘Account of the part taken by 11th (Service) Battalion The Sherwood Foresters in the operation of 1st July 1916’, in 11 Sherwood Foresters War Diary 1/7/16, WO 95/2187.
15. Ibid.
16. 70 Brigade, ‘Brief Narrative’.
17. Ibid.
18. The figures for the survivors can only be regarded as approximate. They have been compiled from battalion accounts and from Edmonds, 1916 V1, pp. 389, n.1.
19. ‘Report on Action of July 1st 1916 [by 2 Lincolnshire Battalion]’, in 25 Brigade War Diary July 1916, WO 95/1726.
20. 25 Brigade, ‘Report on Operations about Ovillers July 1st 1916’, ibid.
21. See for example, ‘Report of Operations of July 1st’ [of 1 Royal Irish Rifles, a support battalion in 25 Brigade], ibid.
22. The table has been compiled from the 25 Brigade account already quoted and ‘Report of the part taken by the 2nd Battalion Devonshire Regiment During the Attack on Pozieres [sic] on 1st July 1916’, in 2 Devonshire War Diary July 1916,WO 95/1712; 2 Middlesex War Diary 1/7/16, WO 95/1713; 2 West Yorkshire War Diary 1/7/16, WO 95/1714.
23. 25 Brigade, ‘Report of Operations about Ovillers’.
24. Ibid. Hooroosh or hurroosh was a word much used by commanders in the First World War. It was a favourite expression of Rawlinson's, who on many occasions used it in the same sense as Tuson, that is to describe an all-out attack in which distant objectives would be reached rapidly. According to the Oxford English Dictionary the word originated in medieval times as ‘hurish’, a cry used to drive cattle. Melville employed it in Moby Dick (1851) and Kipling in his Plain Tales from the Hills (1888) – ‘There was a wild huroosh at the Club’, presumably meaning an outcry. Its last use was by the News Chronicle in 1959 when they reported ‘Sex hormones went off with a great hooroosh’.
25. 34 Division Operation Order No. 16, 15/6/16.
26. Ibid.; 15 Royal Scots War Diary 1/7/16, WO 95/2457. The Royal Scots were one of the units affected by the delay.
27. Graham Stewart and John Sheen, Tyneside Scottish (Barnsley: Leo Cooper, 1999), p. 96.
28. Ibid., p. 98.
29. 20 Northumberland Fusiliers War Diary 1/7/16, WO 95/2462; 23 Northumberland Fusiliers War Diary 1/7/16, WO 95/2463.
30. 21 Northumberland Fusiliers War Diary 1/7/16, WO 95/2462.
31. 11 Suffolk War Diary 1/7/16, WO 95/2458.
32. ? to Edmonds 21/3/30, CAB 45/133.
33. 15 & 16 Royal Scots War Diaries 1/7/16, WO 95/2547 and WO 95/2548 respectively.
34. Report on Operations – 103 Brigade War Diary 1/7/16, WO 95/2432.
35. 25 Northumberland Fusiliers War Diary 1/7/16, WO 95/2467.
36. See eyewitness accounts in John Sheen, Tyneside Irish (Barnsley: Leo Cooper, 1998), pp. 95, 96, and 98. The last of these calls the action ‘splendid’.
37. 27 Northumberland Fusiliers War Diary 1/7/16, WO 95/2467.
38. Report on Operations – 103 Brigade.
39. Sheen, Tyneside Irish, p. 111.
10 ‘Cowering Men in Field Grey’
1. XV Corps Scheme of Attack April 1916, XV Corps War Diary April–June 1916, WO 95/921; 7 Division: Artillery Instruction for Forthcoming Operations and Explanatory Notes in Edmonds 1916 V1, Appendix Volume, Appendix 25; Operation attack orders (9 KOYLI) in their War Diary June 1916,WO 95/2162.
2. See Les Armes françaises dans la grande guerre (Hereafter French Official History) Tome IV, vol. 2 annexes, VI Armée order 29/6/16, p. 707 and Map 15 which shows the positioning of VI Army heavy artillery batteries on the eve of the battle.
3. See note in Edmonds, 1916 VI, p. 344. Der Weltkrieg, V10 also admits to the loss of many guns in this area (p. 350).
4. XV Corps Operation Order No. 3, 16/6/16, XV Corps War Diary April–July 1916, WO 95/921.
5. 64 Brigade account 1/7/16, 64 Brigade War Diary July 1916, WO 95/2159; 9 KOYLI War Diary 1/7/16.
6. 64 Brigade Account 1/7/16, emphasis added.
7. Edmonds, 1916 VI, p. 358
8. 10 York and Lancaster Battalion: ‘Operations July 1st 1916–July 4th 1916’, WO 95/2158; 8 Lincolns: ‘Operations 1/7/16, WO 95/2158.
9. This brigade was from XV Corps reserve. It had been attached to 21 Division for the main attack.
10. The account in 50 Brigade War Diary, WO 95/1998 is very sketchy.
11. For the epic story of an officer and 20 men who survived, consult the index (under Philip Howe) of Martin Middlebrook's The First Day on the Somme (London: Allen Lane, 1971).
12. 17 Division War Diary 1/7/16, WO 95/1981.
13. ‘Notes on Attacks Carried Out By 7th Division in July, 1916’, 7 Division War Diary July–Dec. 1916, WO 95/1631.
14. ‘Report on part taken by the 2nd Border Regiment in the engagement by Mametz on the 1st July 1916’, 2 Borders War Diary July 1916, WO 95/1655.
15. Account by the Adjutant 9 Devons in their War Diary, 1/7/16, WO 95/1656.
16. 2 Gordon Highlanders War Diary 1/7/16, WO 95/1656.
17. 7 Division, ‘Narrative of Operations from 1st to 5th July, 1916’, in 7 Division War Diary, WO 95/1655.
18. XV Corps War Diary 1/7/16, WO 95/921.
19. 50 Brigade War Diary 1/7/16. The Battalion was the 7 Green Howards.
20. Edmonds, 1916 VI, p. 364.
21. Ibid., p. 363.
22. Gerald Gliddon, The Battle of the Somme: A Topographical History (Stroud: Sutton, 1996), p. 324.
23. Graham Maddocks, Montauban, (Barnsley: Leo Cooper, 1999), p. 47.
24. ‘Report on Operations, 30th Division, July 1st 'till 10 am July 5th’, 30 Division War Diary July 1916, WO 95/2310.
25. Edmonds, 1916 V1, p. 344.
26. Ibid.
27. Ibid.; ‘Report on Operations, 30th Division’.
28. XIII Corps Plan of Operations quoted in Edmonds, 1916 V1, Somme Appendices, Appendix 21, pp. 157–8.
29. Anstey, ‘History of the Royal Artillery’, p. 117.
30. Weekly Mine Report, 183rd Tunnelling Co. Regiment i
n 18 Division War Diary July 1916, WO 95/2015.
31. Maxse, ‘The Battle of the Somme’, Maxse Papers 69/53/6, IWM.
32. Account of S.T. Fuller, Fuller Papers 86/32/1, IWM.
33. 53 Brigade ‘Abbreviated Report on Operations from 23rd June and 20th July, 1916’, AWM 26/6/48/23.
34. The 7 Queens from this brigade suffered almost 500 casualties. See Edmonds, 1916, V1, p. 340, n.1. See also ‘Short Report on the Action of July 1st 1916' by 7 Queen's in their War Diary, WO 95/2051 and 8 East Surrey War Diary 1/7/16, WO 95/2050.
35. ‘The Account of the Operations of the 54th Infantry Brigade during the Battle of the Somme between the 23rd June and 20th July 1916’, Maxse Papers 63/53/7; 53 Brigade: ‘Abbreviated Report on Operations’.
36. Captain Bull to 7 Bedfords War Diarist, in 7 Bedfords War Diary 1/7/16, WO 95/2043.
37. Untitled account of action on 1 July, in 7 Bedfords War Diary.
38. See untitled Bedfords account; ‘Report on Attack, July 1st, 1916’, by 11 Royal Fusiliers, WO 95/2045. The brigade account is in the Maxse Papers 63/53/7.
39. ‘Report by Captain A.G. Kirchington “B” Company [7/Buffs] on Operations of 1st July 1916’, WO 95/2049. It was the task of this company to attack the crater area.
40. See 7 Queen's ‘Short Report’.
41. Maxse, ‘The Battle of the Somme’.
42. ‘Report on Operations, 30th Division.’
43. Ibid.
44. See their entry in Ernest W. Bell, Soldiers Killed on the First Day of the Somme.
45. Maddocks, Montauban,p. 93.
46. Ibid.
47. ‘Report on Operations, 30 Division.’
48. ‘Account of the Battle of 1st July 1916 for Glatz Redoubt and Montauban by Lieut. Colonel E.H. Trotter D.S.O. Commanding 18th Ser[vice] Battalion “The Kings' Liverpool Regiment”’, 18 King's War Diary July 1916, WO 95/2330.
49. Maddocks, Montauban, p. 83.
50. Trotter, ‘Account of the Battle of 1st July’.
51. ‘Report on Operations, 30 Division.’
52. Ibid; War Diary of 2 Royal Scots Fusiliers 1/7/16, WO 95/2340.
53. Maddocks, Montauban, p. 104.
54. Gliddon, Battle of the Somme, p. 274.
55. Unnamed, uncatalogued account, IWM.
56. Ibid.; ‘Report on Operations of 17 Manchester Regiment on 1st and 2nd July 1916’, WO 95/2339.
57. ‘Report on Operations, 30 Division.’
11 Reflections on 1 July
1. John Buchan, The Battle of the Somme (London: Nelson, 1917), p. 31.
2. B.H. Liddell Hart, A History of the World War 1914–1918 (London: Faber, 1930), p. 315.
3. Ibid. p. 314.
4. Edmonds, 1916 V1, p. 487.
5. C.M.F. Cruttwell, A History of the Great War 1914–1918 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1934), p. 266.
6. John Terraine, Douglas Haig: The Educated Soldier (London: Hutchinson, 1963), p. 204.
7. Martin Middlebrook, The First Day on the Somme (London: Allen Lane, 1971), p. 276; Corelli Barnett, The Great War (London: Hutchinson, 1979), p. 76; Paul Kennedy ‘Britain’, in A.H. Millett and Williamson Murray (eds), Military Effectiveness V1: The First World War (London: Allen & Unwin, 1988), p. 84; BBC TV The Great War, 1999.
8. A.H. Farrar-Hockley, The Somme, (London: Pan, 1970), pp. 113–32.
9. A. H Farrar-Hockley, ‘The Somme and Passchendaele; Ordeal by Fire 1916–17’, in P. Young and J. P. Lawford, History of the British Army (London: Barker, 1970), pp. 223–4.
10. Omar Bartov, ‘Man and the Mass: Reality and the Heroic Image in War’, in Murder in our Midst: The Holocaust, Industrial Killing and Representation (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), p. 15.
12 ‘Ill-Considered Attacks on a Small Front’
1. Haig Diary 1/7/16, National Library of Scotland.
2. Ibid. 2/7/16.
3. Rawlinson Diary 1/7/16, Churchill College, Cambridge.
4. Ibid. 2/7/16.
5. Ibid. 1/7/16.
6. Fourth Army operation order No. 3, 1/7/16, Fourth Army Papers V7, IWM; ‘Note of an interview at Fourth Army Headquarters, Querrieu at mid-day, 2 July, 1916’, AWM 252/A116.
7. Haig Diary 3/7/16; Lieutenant-General Sir Sidney Clive Diary 3/7/16, CAB 45/201/2. General Clive was a British liaison officer with the French X Army.
8. Clive Diary 4/7/16.
9. Fourth Army Operations Orders 3/7/16, Fourth Army Papers V1, IWM.
10. Ibid.
11. III Corps Summary of Operations 1st to 7th July, 1916, III Corps War Diary July 1916, WO 95/673.
12. X Corps Report on Operations for Week Ending 6 p.m. July 7th, X Corps War Diary July 1916, WO 95/851.
13. 19 Division War Diary July 1916, WO 95/2053.
14. 8 North Stafford War Diary 3/7/16, WO 95/2085.
15. 9 Royal Welsh Fusiliers War Diary 3/7/16, WO 95/2092.
16. One of the six battalions involved, the 8 North Staffords, suffered 284 casualties. The whole episode provides a good example of the hazards of using a single war diary as a source. The diary of 19 Division, while giving the correct position for its men at the end of the battle, conveys the clear impression that the whole operation was a success. See their account in the entry for 3/7/16 in WO 95/2053.
17. X Corps Report on Operations for Week Ending 6 p.m. July 7th.
18. ‘Account of Operations July 1st to July 9th in which the 12th Division took part’, 12 Division War Diary July 1916, WO 95/1823.
19. See the War Diary of the leading unit, the 6 Royal West Kent in WO 95/1861 and the supporting battalion, 6/Buffs in WO 95/1860.
20. 12 Division ‘Account of Operations’.
21. Ibid.
22. Major-General Sir Arthur B. Scott and P. Middleton Brumwell, History of the 12th (Eastern) Division in the Great War, 1914–1918 (London: Nisbit & Co., 1923), p. 54.
23. Fourth Army Operations Orders 3/7/16.
24. Haig to Rawlinson and Gough 4/7/16 (OAD 42) in IV Army Summary of Operations, WO 158/234.
25. Haig to Rawlinson and Gough 6/7/16 (OAD 49) Fourth Army Papers V1.
26. ‘Narrative of the operations 23rd Division July 1–10 Capture of Horse Shoe Trench, Bailiff Wood and Contalmaison,’ 23 Division War Diary June 1916, WO 95/2167.
27. 17 Division War Diary June 1916, WO 95/1891.
28. The two sources cited above yield these facts.
29. 23 Division Narrative of Operations; Miles, 1916 V2, p. 58 gives the 17 Division casualties between 1 and 11 July as 4,771 but it is likely that at least 1,000 of these were suffered on the first day.
30. 19 Division War Diary July 1916, WO 95/2053; 34 Division War Diary July 1916, WO 95/2432.
31. G. Grogan to Edmonds 10/4/30, CAB 45/134.
32. Ibid.
33. James Dundas to Edmonds 1/7/30, CAB 45/133.
34. Colin Hughes, Mametz: Lloyd George's ‘Welsh Army’ at the Battle of the Somme, 2nd edn (Gerrards Cross: Orion Press, 1982), p. 67. The account that follows relies heavily on this excellent narrative of events in Mametz Wood from 5 to 14 July.
35. 38 Division War Diary July 1916, WO 95/2539.
36. ‘Notes on Attack Carried Out by 7th Division in July 1916,’ 7 Division War Diary July 1916, WO 95/1631.
37. See the War Diaries of the 17 and 38 Divisions for this matter and note that the times of the main attacks always differed even on the rare occasions when an attempt at co-ordination was made.
38. See Hughes, Mametz, which spells out these lamentable happenings in great detail; also 38 Division War Diary.
39. Miles, 1916 V2, p. 54.
40. For casualty figures see ibid., pp. 47–58.
41. Figures have been arrived at from an analysis of the attacks detailed in Chris McCarthy, The Somme: The Day by Day Account (London: Arms & Armour, 1993) and from Miles, 1916 V2.
42. Hughes, Mametz, p. 70.
43. Der Weltkrieg V10, p. 355.
13 ‘Cavalry Sharpening Their Swords’, 14 July
/> 1. Haig to Rawlinson 2/7/16, Fourth Army Papers V1, IWM.
2. Ibid.
3. Fourth Army Operation Order No. 4, 8/7/16, Fourth Army War Diary July 1916, WO 95/431.
4. Haig Diary 5/7/16, National Library of Scotland.
5. Rawlinson Diary 10/7/16, Churchill College, Cambridge.
6. Ibid.
7. Haig Diary 10/7/16.
8. ‘Note of discussion as to attack of Longueval Plateau and the Commander-in-Chief's decision thereon’ (OAD 60) 11/7/16, Fourth Army Papers, V1.
9. Congreve Diary 11/7/16, Congreve Papers, private hands.
10. Horne Diary 11/7/16, Horne Papers, 62/54/9, IWM.
11. For these discussions see ‘Note of discussion as to attack of Longueval Plateau’.
12. Rawlinson Diary 11/7/16.
13. Haig Diary 12/7/16.
14. Congreve Diary 11/7/16; Haig Diary 12/7/16.
15. Artillery statistics have been taken from, ‘Battle of the Somme: Artillery Notes and Statistics’. There are no detailed figures for the 14 July bombardment. The number of howitzer shells fired and their weight have been obtained by assuming that the proportion of heavy howitzer shells to shells fired by the field artillery was the same as that for 1 July. As the proportion of howitzers to total number of guns in the Fourth Army was slightly higher on 14 July than it had been on 1 July (31% as against 29%), this seems a safe assumption.
16. Fourth Army Operation Order No. 4, 8/7/16.
17. Fourth Army – Cavalry Commanders Conference 11/7/16, Fourth Army Papers V1.
18. Fourth Army Intelligence Report 9/7/16, Fourth Army Papers V12, IWM.
19. Fourth Army – Cavalry Commanders Conference 11/7/16.
20. Fourth Army – GHQ Conference 12/7/16, Fourth Army Papers V1.
21. Kiggell to Montgomery 11/7/16, ibid.
22. Ibid.
23. ‘Instructions for the Action of Cavalry on Z Day’, quoted in Miles, 1916 V2, Appendix Volume, Appendix 4.
24. Haig Diary 13/7/16.
25. ‘General idea of future plans in the event of the attack of the enemys 2nd line between Longueval and Bazentin-le-Petit being successful’, 13/7/16, Fourth Army Papers V7, IWM.
26. Haig to Robertson 8/7/16, AWM 252/A99.
27. Rawlinson Diary 11/7/16.
28. 3 Division, ‘Attack on the Longue-val-Bazentin Position’, 3 Division War Diary July 1916, WO 95/1377.
29. 9 Division, ‘Narrative of Events 11–20 July’, 9 Division War Diary July 1916, WO 95/1735.