Attack on the Gommecourt Salient

Attack on the Gommecourt Salient
Part of the Battle of the Somme
Battle of the Somme 1 July – 18 November 1916
Date 1 July 1916 Location Gommecourt, France 50°08′27″N 02°38′46″E Result German victory
Belligerents
Britain	Germany
Commanders and leaders
Sir Douglas Haig	Erich von Falkenhayn
Strength
2 divisions	5 regiments
Casualties and losses
6,769	1,241
Gommecourt class=notpageimage| Gommecourt, a commune of the Pas-de-Calais department, Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France

The Attack on the Gommecourt Salient was a British attack that took place on 1 July 1916 on the Western Front in France, during the First World War. The attack was conducted by the British Third Army (Lieutenant-General Edmund Allenby) as a diversion, to protect the northern flank of the main attack by the British Fourth Army on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, from Serre southwards to the boundary with the French Sixth Army at Maricourt.

To extend the attack front of the Fourth Army, the VII Corps (Lieutenant-General Thomas Snow) was to capture the Gommecourt Salient, the most westerly point of the Western Front. In the first week of May, the 56th (1/1st London) Division (Major-General Charles P.A. Hull) and the 46th (North Midland) Division (Major-General Edward James Montagu-Stuart-Wortley) moved into the area for the attack. By 10 May, both divisions had taken over the front on the right flank of the 37th Division (Major-General A. Edward W. Count Gleichen) and begun training for the operation.

In 1918, during the Kaiserschlacht (Spring Offensive 1 March – 18 July), the British dug an improvised defensive position, the Purple Line south, east and north of the village but the 62nd (2nd West Riding) Division (Major-General Walter Braithwaite) dug in around Bucquoy to the east and was able to stop the German advance. On 28 March, the 41st Division occupied the purple line and a battalion of the 124th Brigade attacked Rossignol Wood. As night fell, the 4th Brigade of the 4th Australian Division to the south of Bucquoy and the 2/8th Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment of the 185th Brigade of the 62nd (West Riding) Division, attacked the German positions south-east of Gommecourt. The attack on the wood failed but a gap between the Australians and the 186th Brigade was closed and the threat to Gommecourt ended.

Background

Gommecourt

Gommecourt is a village south-east of Foncquevillers (Funky Villas to the British) and north-east of Hébuterne on the D 6 road to Puisieux. The village is 9.3 miles (15 km) from Albert. From late 1914 to early 1917, the Western Front turned north-east towards Arras and thence northwards to La Bassée and the bend in the line became known as the Gommecourt Salient. The village is atop four low, flat-topped ridges in the shape of a flattened X, the ends pointing towards Essarts, Rossignol Wood, the west side of Hébuterne and the eastern fringe of Foncquevillers. On the north-west side of the salient, the German front line was below the crest of the west side of Essarts Ridge facing a shallow valley, with the British front line on the other side, which was overlooked for about 2,000 yd (1,800 m) over the level ground to the rear of the British line, except where the ruins and trees of Fonquevillers blocked the view.

1914–1915

On 4 October 1914, German attacks by the II Cavalry Corps (General Georg von der Marwitz) and the XIV Reserve Corps drove the group of the 81st, 82nd, 84th and 88th Territorial divisions (General Brugère) back from Hébuterne, Gommecourt and Monchy au Bois to the north. The village was captured by the 1st Guard Division on the night of 5/6 October and held against French counter-attacks, which were stopped 50 yards (46 m) short of Gommecourt, where the front settled until March 1917. The French XI Corps attacked at Beaumont Hamel on 19 November but failed to capture the village, after being held up by uncut wire. A diversion was conducted by XI Corps on 7–13 June 1915 at Toutvent Farm, 2 miles (3.2 km) to the south, during the Second Battle of Artois. On a 2,000-yard (1,800 m) stretch of the German front line, an area 1,000 yards (910 m) deep was captured and held against German counter-attacks, at a cost of 10,351 casualties. The area around Gommecourt was taken over by the British in July 1915.

Strategic developments

The Western Front 1915–1916

Allied war strategy for 1916 was decided at the Chantilly Conference from 6–8 December 1915. Simultaneous offensives on the Eastern Front by the Russian army, on the Italian Front by the Italian army and on the Western Front by the Franco-British armies, would deny time for the Central Powers to move troops between fronts. In December 1915, General Sir Douglas Haig replaced General Sir John French as Commander-in-Chief of the BEF. Haig favoured a British offensive in Flanders close to BEF supply routes, to drive the Germans from the Belgian coast and end the U-boat and destroyer threat to cross-Channel traffic from Belgian waters. Haig was not formally subordinate to General Joseph Joffre but the British played a lesser role on the Western Front and complied with French strategy.

In January 1916, Joffre wanted the BEF to deplete German reserves by a large attack north of the Somme, on a 20,000 yd (18,000 m) front around 20 April and make another attack elsewhere in May. Haig objected, since partial offensives would appear to be defeats, would not sufficiently reduce German reserves and give the Germans too much time to recover. On 14 February, Joffre dropped the preparatory offensives in favour of a combined offensive, where the French and British armies met astride the Somme in Picardy around 1 July. A smaller attack from La Bassée to Ypres would take place a week or two earlier and the Tenth Army would be relieved in early June as more British divisions arrived in France. A week later, the Germans began the Battle of Verdun and the costly French defence of the Meuse Heights, reduced the French contribution to the Somme offensive to 13 divisions with 20 British divisions.

The Chief of the Oberste Heeresleitung (OHL, the German General Staff), Erich von Falkenhayn, intended to end the war in 1916, by splitting the Anglo-French Entente, before its material superiority became unbeatable. Falkenhayn planned to defeat the large amount of reserves which the Entente could move into the path of a breakthrough, by threatening a sensitive point close to the existing front line, to provoke the French into costly counter-attacks against German positions. Falkenhayn chose to attack towards Verdun, to take the Meuse Heights and make the city untenable. The French would have to conduct a counter-offensive on ground dominated by the German army and ringed with masses of heavy artillery, leading to huge losses, bringing the French army close to collapse. The British would mount a hasty and equally-costly relief offensive. Falkenhayn expected the relief offensive to fall south of Arras and be destroyed by the 6th Army, which held the Western Front from Hannescamps, 18 kilometres (11 mi) south-west of Arras, northwards to St. Eloi, south of Ypres.

Despite the certainty by mid-June of an Anglo-French attack on the Somme against the 2nd Army, Falkenhayn sent only four divisions as reinforcements, keeping eight in the western strategic reserve. No divisions were moved from the 6th Army, despite it holding a shorter line with 17+1⁄2 divisions and having three divisions of the OHL reserve in the 6th Army area. The maintenance of the strength of the 6th Army at the expense of the 2nd Army on the Somme, indicated that Falkenhayn intended the counter-offensive against the British to be made north of the Somme front, once the British offensive had been shattered. If such Franco-British defeats were not enough, the Westheer would attack the remnants of both armies and end the Entente for good. The unexpected length of the Verdun offensive and the need to replace many exhausted units in the 5th Army, depleted the German strategic reserve behind the 6th Army and reduced the German counter-offensive strategy north of the Somme to one of passive and unyielding defence.

Tactical developments

Men of the 10th (Service) Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment, part of the 91st Brigade of the 31st Division marching to the front line, 28 June 1916

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The original British Expeditionary Force (BEF) of six divisions and the Cavalry Division, had lost most of the army's pre-war regular soldiers in the battles of 1914 and 1915. The bulk of the British casualties were replaced by volunteers of the Territorial Force and Lord Kitchener's New Army, which had begun forming in August 1914. Rapid expansion created many vacancies for senior commands and specialist appointments, which led to many retired officers (dug-outs) and inexperienced newcomers. In 1914, Haig had been a lieutenant-general in command of I Corps and was promoted to command the First Army in early 1915, then the BEF in December, which eventually comprised five field armies with sixty divisions. The swift increase in the size of the British Army reduced the average level of experience within it and created an acute equipment shortage. Many officers resorted to directive command to avoid delegating to novice subordinates, although divisional commanders were given great latitude in training and planning for the attack of 1 July, since the heterogeneous nature of the army of 1916, made it impossible for corps and army commanders to know the capacity of each division.

Despite considerable debate among German staff officers, Falkenhayn continued his policy of unyielding defence. On the Somme front Falkenhayn's construction plan of January 1915 had been completed. Barbed wire obstacles had been enlarged from one belt 5–10 yards (4.6–9.1 m) wide to two belts, 30 yards (27 m) wide and about 15 yards (14 m) apart. Double and triple thickness wire was used and laid 3–5 feet (0.91–1.52 m) high. The front line had been increased from one trench line to a position with three trenches, 150–200 yards (140–180 m) apart, the first trench occupied by sentry groups, the second ([Wohngraben] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)) for the bulk of the front-trench garrison and the third trench for local reserves. Trenches were traversed and had sentry-posts in concrete recesses built into the parapet. Dugouts had been deepened from 6–9 feet (1.8–2.7 m) to 20–30 feet (6.1–9.1 m), 50 yards (46 m) apart and large enough for 25 men. An intermediate line of strongpoints (the [Stützpunktlinie] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)) about 1,000 yards (910 m) behind the front line was also built. Communication trenches ran back to the reserve line, renamed the second position, which was as well-built and wired as the first position. The second position was beyond the range of Allied field artillery, to force an attacker to stop and move field artillery forward before assaulting the line.

Prelude

British offensive preparations

Modern map of Gommecourt and vicinity (commune FR insee code 62375)

To extend the attack front of the Fourth Army, a subsidiary attack was planned at Gommecourt, forgoing a counter-attack at Vimy Ridge to recapture the ground lost in Operation Schleswig-Holstein, a local German attack on 21 May, lacking the troops to conduct both attacks. In the first week of May, the 56th Division (Major-General C. P. Amyatt Hull) and the 46th (North Midland) Division (Major-General Edward James Montagu-Stuart-Wortley) moved into the VII Corps (Lieutenant-General Thomas Snow) area for the attack. By 10 May, both divisions had taken over the front on the right flank of the 37th Division (Major-General A. Edward W. Count Gleichen). The 46th Division had to dig many long and deep communications trenches to counter the German observation over the area but in the 56th Division area opposite the south-western face of the salient as far as Nameless Farm the trenches of both sides were level, with a dip in between, with a hedge along the bottom. Further on, both lines were on the west side of a wide valley between Rossignol Wood and Hébuterne, the British line on a forward and the German line on a reverse slope, with German artillery observation posts on the east side of the valley. The rear area of the 56th Division was invisible to ground observers up to Hébuterne but German balloon observers kept watch. The main British posts were along the eastern fringe of Hébuterne and the ridge running south; the valley slope drained water from the area but on the 46th Division front the flat ground was boggy.

Apart from some 18-pounder field guns used for wire-cutting, the corps artillery was centralised under the command of the corps Brigadier-General RA (BGRA) until zero hour, when the divisional HQs took back command. The corps had the 19th, 35th, 39th and 48th Heavy Artillery Groups (HAGs), the 19th and 35th firing on trenches and villages, the rest being reserved for counter-battery fire. The British artillery was unable to suppress the German heavy artillery, which was beyond the range of 60-pounders and 6-inch howitzers, leaving only the small number of super-heavy guns being capable of counter-battery fire. Both British divisions were vulnerable to enfilade fire beyond the flanks of the corps, the 56th Division from guns near Puisieux 3 mi (4.8 km) south-east of Gommecourt and the 46th Division from German batteries opposite the 37th Division around Adinfer Wood, some German 5.9-inch howitzers being protected by concrete casemates. The commander of the 46th Division directed that the German front trench was not to be bombarded so it could be used by the division and the bombardment was concentrated on the German reserve and support lines.

Half of the guns of the HAGs firing on trenches were to lift two minutes before zero hour and the rest at zero hour, to the east half of the insider flanks of the first objective at Ems Trench south of the village and Oxus Trench north of Gommecourt. The guns would then switch to the second objective for 15 minutes and then move forward while the line was being consolidated. The artillery bombarding Gommecourt Park was to keep firing for three hours after zero. The 18-pounder field guns of both divisions were to fire in short lifts, those of the 56th Division to lift at zero hour from the front trench to the reserve trench for four minutes and then for six minutes just beyond. The German communication trenches were to be swept for 12 minutes and then the bombardment was to move inwards to the second objective for eight minutes. The 46th Division field guns were to lift from the front to the support trench at zero and after three minutes to the reserve trench, five minutes after that to fall beyond the reserve trench until zero plus 20 minutes. At zero plus 25, the guns were to lift to the second objective until zero plus 30 minutes.

British plan of attack

Somme weather
(23 June – 1 July 1916)

Date	Rain (mm)	Temp (°F)	Outlook
23	2.0	79°–55°	windy
24	1.0	72°–52°	overcast
25	1.0	71°–54°	windy
26	6.0	72°–52°	cloudy
27	8.0	68°–54°	cloudy
28	2.0	68°–50°	overcast
29	0.1	66°–52°	cloudy windy
30	0.0	72°–48°	overcast high winds
1	0.0	79°–52°	clear

The VII Corps of the Third Army was to carry out the diversion, north of a 2 mi (3.2 km) gap held by two battalions, to the northern flank of the VIII Corps, which was to attack Serre and Beaumont-Hamel. Snow was not informed of the attack to be made at the end of May, until 28 April, although the attack was postponed to 1 July. The objective was to

... assist in the operations of the Fourth Army by diverting against itself the fire of artillery and infantry which might otherwise be directed against the left flank of the main attack near Serre.

— GHQ

and nothing of the main attack depended on success at Gommecourt, victory would only shorten the line by cutting off the salient. No force was provided to attack southwards to roll up the German lines to the south or capture the ridge running south-east behind the village. Snow and Allenby were ready to attack Gommecourt but suggested to GHQ that an operation closer to Arras would work better and be less costly but Haig rejected the alternative because it would have no influence on the German artillery close to Gommecourt, which was in range of the VIII Corps attack.

The 56th Division attack was to be made by the 168th Brigade and the 169th Brigade on a 900 yd (820 m) front from the south edge of Gommecourt Park to the south-east. The 167th Brigade was in reserve, with two battalions detached to follow up the attacking brigades and occupy the German front line once the leading troops had moved on or provide working and carrying parties. The 168th Brigade was to capture the German third trench from Fame to Felon and set up strong points on the flanks and in the centre near Nameless Farm and dig a trench across no man's land to provide flank protection in the right. (VII Corps named German trenches systematically, on the right names were given with the spelling Fa, then groups of Fe, Fi and Fo. Communication trenches were named after rivers beginning with A then E, I and O; Fe-lon Trench was in front of E-lbe communication trench) The 169th Brigade was to reach the third trench from Fame to Fellow and Feud, to Gommecourt cemetery on the left of the 168th Brigade and make three strong points on the left flank near the cemetery, the south-west corner of The Maze and the south of Gommecourt Park. The brigade was then to move forward on the left to the Quadrilateral, a strong point behind the 1st Switch Line east of The Maze. Later on it was to advance and rendezvous with the right of the 46th Division, where Indus Trench cut through the 1st Switch Line at Fillet and Fill.

The 46th Division attack was to be conducted by the 137th Brigade with the 1/6th South Staffordshire (South Staffs) and the 1/6th North Staffordshire (North Staffs), with the 1/5th South Staffs and 1/6th North Staffs in support. The 1/5th Lincolnshire was attached from the 138th Brigade in reserve for carrying parties. In the 139th Brigade, the 1/5th and 1/7th Sherwood Foresters (Sherwoods) were to attack with the 1/6th Sherwoods in support and the 1/8th Sherwoods in reserve, with one battalion to hold the line between the attacking divisions; one battalion was to dig a communication trench parallel to the Foncquevillers–Gommecourt road, from the sugar mill after the attack (a start was made but German artillery fire made it impossible to continue). The 138th Brigade was in reserve less two battalions and each brigade had a Field Company RE and the divisional pioneer battalion, 1/1st Monmouthshire Regiment (Monmouths), was to dig communication trenches.

The division was to form a pocket in the German defences north of Gommecourt from the front trench along the Fonquevillers–Gommecourt road to the north-east of Gommecourt and from there 500 yd (460 m) along Oxus Trench to angle back along Fortress, Foreign and Ouse trenches to the British front line, with ten strong points built into the new line. The second objective was to meet the 56th Division in the 1st Switch Line by advancing southwards from Oxus Trench along Fill Trench. At zero plus three hours (10:30 a.m.) when the bombardment ended, the attack on Gommecourt village was to begin. The first six waves of infantry were to start from the advanced trench dug in no man's land but it was in such poor condition that the 1/6th South Staffs decided to start from the front line and creep forward to the jumping-off position. Assembly trenches dug 150 yd (140 m) behind the British front line had also been ruined y the heavy rains and tapes were laid during the night before the attack to held the second and later waves to align. Four minutes before zero the second wave was to advance from the front line and take post 80 yd (73 m) behind the first wave; the rest of the waves were to follow in the open.

The 37th Division on the northern (left) flank of VII Corps, held a front 4.5 mi (7.2 km) from north of Gommecourt to Ransart and was to induce the Germans to expect an attack by simulating preparations. No man's land was too wide for an attack, being 1,000–500 yd (910–460 m) deep from right to left and an advanced trench was dug, similar to the one dug by the 56th Division. Periodic smoke and gas discharges were to be made and wire cutting bombardments fired. Moving the gas cylinders was so difficult that batmen, grooms and other non-combatant troops were pressed into service. For five days before Z Day, trench mortars and machine-guns were to fire on either side of the Monchy Salient. The bombardments were gradually to increase and the divisional artillery was to bombard German positions, roads and the vicinity of Essarts. Smoke was to be released five minutes before zero hour and infantry were to be held ready to support the 46th Division. VII Corps made no attempt at concealment and in the middle of June, the 2nd Guard Reserve Division and its six heavy artillery batteries moved up between the 52nd and 111th divisions. Four days before zero hour, Snow told Haig that "They know we are coming all right".

German defensive preparations

Official Photographs taken on the Front in France, a German front line trench before Gommecourt (15560801016)

The south side of the salient was held by Baden Infantry Regiment 170 of the 52nd Division (Generalleutnant Karl von Borries) and the centre and north by Reserve Infantry regiments 55 and 91 of the 2nd Guard Reserve Division (General Freiherr von Süsskind), with the 111th Division on the northern flank. The 52nd and 111th divisions were triangular divisions with three regiments, two in the line and one in reserve and the 2nd Guard Reserve Division was a square division with four regiments. Reserve Guard Infantry Regiment 77 was north of the salient and Reserve Guard Regiment 15 was in reserve.

On 24 June, the Germans captured a wounded soldier from a 1/5th North Staffs wiring party, who had been left behind and struggled towards the wrong front line. The private was interrogated while semi-conscious through loss of blood and gave details of the aims of the British attack and that it would begin in the next few days. On the north side of the village, the barbed wire in front of RIR 91 had been badly cut and the trenches flattened but most of the dugouts remained intact.

Battle

1 July

56th Division

At 7:20 a.m. a smoke screen was begun from the left flank and after five minutes had covered the attack front. At 7:25 a.m. the leading troops went over the top, through a German barrage which had begun to fall on the front, second and communication trenches. The troops moved forward to tapes in no man's land and lay down. At 7:30 a.m. the troops rose and began the attack, finding most of the German wire well cut, Bangalore torpedoes having been used the night previous to cut the worst tangles. The German infantry had met the wire cutting vigorously, putting out concertina wire and fresh tangles in the gaps. Some troops had to bunch up to get through the gaps and some strayed in the smoke but the two leading 168th Brigade battalions were through quickly, only the two battalions following in support and reserve being delayed. The British got into the German front trench with seconds to spare and the remnants of the front position except for Nameless Farm captured. The Germans in the third trench had been able to emerge from shelter and were overrun by rifle fire and rushes by parties, troops moving up communication trenches eventually overcoming the defenders but Nameless Farm was never captured. The farm cellars had been fortified and with shell-hole positions and part of a trench behind, the garrison held out, tired the attackers and reduced their supply of grenades.

The attackers put out signals to the RFC crews observing the attack, sent runners to battalion headquarters and at 9:30 a.m. boards were hoisted in the three front trenches to show that they had been captured and consolidation began. About 300 unwounded prisoners were escorted back but unfortunately about eighty were killed in no man's land by German artillery-fire and the rest were sent back to their dug-outs. The German bombardment increased to the point that the party digging the trench to protect the right flank could not begin and many of the bombers ready to advance at 9:30 a.m. were also caught in no man's land, became casualties and could not participate in the next stage of the attack against the Quadrilateral. Some parties attacked from the third trench but only one party, moving via the cemetery reached it and was destroyed. The attacking battalions and the reinforcements that had got across to the German side were cut off by the German standing barrages on no man's land and the captured trenches. Carrying parties tried to cross with ammunition and bombs but were killed and from the front and flanks, German troops began to move towards the 168th and 169th brigade troops, who could not man a continuous line.

46th Division

The 137th Brigade attack went wrong from the start; the smoke screen was so dense at first that men got lost and the advance was neither uniform or simultaneous and then after thirty minutes it blew back and dispersed. The Germans were ready and mud around the British front line and in no man's land slowed the advance and the Germans emerged from shelter when the British were only half-way across. The troops who got across found that the German wire was smashed about, uncut or had been repaired. The Germans were deployed nearly as soon as the British guns lifted and German barrage fire began on the British lines. The German shelling was so bad that the third wave was ordered up communication trenches instead of advancing in the open. Before the wave managed to leave the advanced trench, the German barrage began to fall on no man's land and increase in intensity. German machine-gun fire from The Z, a spur beyond the left flank of the attack was most effective, few of the rear British waves got across and parts of the first three waves either stayed in the British front line or sought cover in no man's land. The leading troops of the 1/6th South and the 1/6th North Staffs were caught by flanking fire from the south but got to the German wire and were shot down or killed with hand grenades. A few men broke into the front trench but unsupported, were forced out or destroyed.

The first three waves of the 139th Brigade got into the German front line, despite many casualties and parties moved forward to the second trench, some troops straying to the left and being reported in The Z and Little Z by RFC observation crews, which stopped the British artillery from firing on 'The Z to suppress the German machine-guns. The following waves were also met by massed fire and the fourth wave never got forward as a formation and hardly any of the fifth and sixth waves got beyond the advanced trench. Contact with those that had got forward was lost despite the multiplicity of means used. Telephones, flags, lamps, discs, shutters, pigeons, flares and rockets all failed due to casualties and no runner got through. All that was seen were two flares at 11:00 a.m. by an observation crew. The Sherwood Foresters who had got into the German front position were caught from behind, by Germans coming up from their shelters, which should have been patrolled by the rear waves now trapped in no man's land. The Germans prevented more troops from crossing into the German front position and were seen bombing the British troops who had taken cover in shell-holes near the German wire.

By 9:00 a.m. the 137th Brigade commander was sure that the attack was a failure and that this would add to the problems of the 139th Brigade and the 56th Division. He decided on a new attack with the 1/5th South, 1/5th North Staffs and the rear waves of the 1/5th Leicester, that was still held up in the British front line and no man's land. Preparations began to bring back the creeping barrage but the men had to be rearranged in trenches which were crowded and full of mud, which took much time. Many of the units had lost casualties and the 1/5th North Staffs was down to 200 men. Just after the orders were issued, the two Staffordshire battalion commanders were wounded, which caused another delay until Lieutenant-Colonel C. H. Jones (1/5th Leicester) could be found and two officers from the brigade HQ sent to assist form four waves. The man had trained for weeks for particular tasks and took time to realise that all that had been overtaken by events. The rear lines and the carrying parties were blocking the trenches and with the mud and German shelling could only be cleared slowly.

The 139th Brigade had got into the German front line but sending over supplies and reinforcements could not be done without another smoke screen, since there were not even shell-holes for cover except for a 100 yd (91 m) patch in front of the British front line and a similar one 50–70 yd (46–64 m) deep along the German front line; the 300–400 yd (270–370 m) of no man's land in between being bare. Brigadier-General Shipley decided to delay until enough smoke bombs had been obtained. Before long it was realised that brigade operations were impossible and Montagu-Stuart-Wortley decided to co-ordinate a divisional attack at 12:15 p.m. with divisional and corps artillery in support but with no fresh troops. The 137th Brigade was to attack under cover of smoke and the 139th Brigade was to send troops for carrying parties. The attack was postponed until 1:15 p.m. but then the 139th Brigade reported that there were still no smoke bombs, neither brigade attacked and after more delays, zero was set for 3:30 p.m. Ten minutes before zero, Stokes mortars began the smoke bombardment and a thin continuous screen was achieved on the front of the 137th Brigade but only twenty bombs had been found for the 139th Brigade mortars and the smoke was wholly insufficient and Shipley ordered the advance to be stopped.

One battalion commander unilaterally cancelled the attack before the order arrived and of twenty men who crossed the parapet on the left, 18 were shot down by machine-gun fire or shrapnel in 30 yd (27 m). On the right, the acting commander of the 1/5th South Staffs was wounded just before zero and giving no signal, no-one moved, all waiting for someone else to give the order. The commander of the 1/5th North Staffs, seeing no movement checked and was told to wait. Snow, the corps commander, had heard that the 56th Division had been repulsed, ordered the 137th Brigade attack to be cancelled, which arrived just in time, since the British re-bombardment from 3:00–3:00 p.m. and the new smoke barrage had alerted the Germans who placed another standing barrage in no man's land. With smoke obscuration, a 150 yd (140 m) rush might have succeeded but the 350 yd (320 m) distance was impossible. None of the 1/5th and 1/7th Sherwood Foresters who got into the German defences came back but a few trickled back from shell-holes after dark, the battalions losing about 80 percent casualties, including both commanders killed.

2nd Guard Reserve Division

The German front defences were demolished and the barbed wire destroyed but few infantry casualties were suffered in the deep-mined shelters under the German defences. Infantry Regiment 170 (IR 170) held the defences opposite the 56th Division with four companies and the left flank company of Reserve Infantry Regiment 55 (RIR 55). The Germans were blinded by the British smoke discharge and damage to some of the dug-out entrances, slowed the departure of the garrisons and they were overrun. A company made a quick counter-attack from the Kern Redoubt (the Maze), which had not been attacked and contained a garrision of 2+1⁄2 infantry companies, the RIR 55 pioneer company and an engineer section). The British still managed to capture all three trench lines but at 8:45 a.m. the commander of IR 170 attacked the right and right centre of the British lodgement with seven companies and two more from Reserve Infantry Regiment 15 (RIR 15). Four companies of of RIR 55 counter-attacked on the left and left centre. The attacks had little effect until the afternoon, because the British had been able to consolidate before they began but later in the day, simultaneous attacks slowly pushed back the British and took 72 prisoners. Against the 46th Division, the right flank units of RIR 55 and Reserve Infantry Regiment 91 (RIR 91) were able to get out of their deep dug-outs quickly enough to engage the British as they were crossing no man's land. The British infantry managed to get through the wire into the front trench and kept going but a counter-attack from the third trench stopped the advance. The British party was annihilated, except for thirty men taken prisoner. Artillery from the 52nd Division, 2nd Guard Reserve Division and the 111th Division fired in the defence of Gommecourt, a number of the the 52nd Division guns being knocked out. After the battle, German records showed about 1,400 British dead around the positions of RIR 55 and RIR 91 were buried and 267 men had been taken prisoner, IR 170 claiming 156 prisoners.

56th Division (afternoon)

The German success against the 46th Division attack left the 56th Division dependent on the second attack being prepared by the 46th Division. On the 56th Division front, German reinforcements of the 2nd Guard Reserve Division had begun to move from the north, east and south, soon after zero hour at 7:30 a.m. About thirteen German infantry companied began to counter-attack the 56th Division lodgement with short bursts if intense artillery-fire followed by infantry bombing attacks. One or two guns about 3,000 yd (2,700 m) south-east of the top of Puisieux valley firing in enfilade were particularly deadly. A standing barrage along no man's land made the passage of supplies and reinforcements extremely difficult from the start but around 9:00 a.m. two platoons and a machine-gun crew managed to cross and were the last parties to succeed, an attempt at 2:00 p.m. being destroyed by machine-gun fire from Gommecourt Park and the guns at Puisieux. Attempts by troops to bring in wounded to the British front line were tolerated by the Germans, a German medical officer under a white flag, saying that troops on the British side of the wire could be rescued as long as there was a cease-fire but the truce was broken by a British field gun bombarding the German front trench.

The British parties in the German trenches held off the German counter-attacks while their bomb supply and German grenades found in dug outs lasted but by noon the British began to signal SOS bombs to the British front line. The Germans fired three barrages through the British positions followed by a counter-attack from the park which prised the British out of the German third line. The infantry received little artillery support because VII Corps HQ had no knowledge of the German attack and the guns continued to barrage the communication and switch trenches, along which German reinforcements were seen moving all day. Reconnaissance reports from British aircrew were deemed too vague to attempt artillery support. The four 18-pounder and the howitzer battery which came under the command of the 169th Brigade after zero hour were also bombarding German reinforcements. At 2:00 p.m. the 168th and 169th brigade troops still held the second and first trenches and the south end of Gommecourt Park. Groups of wounded men had been filtering back across no man's land since 1:00 p.m. but nothing could be seen of the 46th Division and news arrived that the VIII Corps attack at Serre to the south had failed.

The parties in the German trenches were trapped and by 4:00 p.m. the Germans had recovered the second trench and established footings in the first trench. The 169th Brigade collected the odds and sods (orderlies, clerks and servants) to make a last attempt to get across to the British remnants still holding out. VIII Corps had sent a mesage to Snow that another attack would be made after dark and with two fresh 56th Division battalions and 3+1⁄2 46th Division battalions remaining, Snow ordered both divisions to be ready to support the VIII Corps attack. The remaining 75 British troops in the German trenches had been compressed into part of Ferret Trench 200 yd (180 m) from the park. The wounded were evacuated and the last Lewis guns set up on the parapet and parados of the trench. German counter-attacks drove them into shell-holes near the German wire, where they held on until about 9:30 p.m. and then retreated after using the last of their ammunition, losing many men in no man's land.

1/2 July

After night fell, the 138th Brigade took over the 46th Division front with a battalion of the 139th Brigade attached and Brigadier-General G. C. Kemp sent the 1/5th Lincolns forward with the 1/5th Leicesters as a right flank guard just after midnight, to reach the men thought still to be holding out in the German front line. The Lincolns reached the German wire, found it uncut and the trenches full of alert German troops, who sent up flares and opened fire as soon as they detected the British movement. The British were ordered to lie down and wait, eventually being ordered back, the 1/5th Lincolns suffering many losses but managing to bring back their wounded. Collecting wounded was most difficult until after midnight, when as dawn appeared, the 2nd Guard Reserve Division again gave assistance, hoisting a Red Cross flag was hoisted the 46th Division. Both sides sent out parties to rescue the wounded and nearly all of the British survivors were taken in.

Air operations

Replica B.E.2c similar to those flown by 8 Squadron RFC at Shoreham Airshow, 2013 (9697770161)

The operations at Gommecourt were observed by 8 Squadron Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and when the weather improved on 30 June, the squadron obtained a good set of photographs of the German defences and sent prints to VII Corps headquarters before dawn. From 6:45–3:25 p.m., a standing patrol of one B.E.2c contact patrol aircraft over each division was maintained, then reduced to one aircraft only. The British infantry carried red flares to indicate their positions to the contact aeroplanes but none were ignited and the crews had to descend low enough to see the colour of troops' uniforms. The aircraft had to fly through air disturbed by the barrage and were tossed around, then riddled with bullets when the infantry turned out to be German, three aircraft being made non-operational by small-arms fire but none shot down. An aircraft flying back from the front line to drop a message, flew into the cable of the balloon of 5 Section near St. Amand, spun down it and crashed but the crew escaped injury.

Over the 46th Division, the observers watched the first waves of the Sherwood Foresters overrun the German front line and slowly reach the north end of Gommecourt Wood. German infantry were seen to emerge from dug-outs and re-occupy the front line and the following waves of British infantry were unable to cross no man's land, because of the German artillery and machine-gun fire. The Sherwood Foresters fought on all day but no reinforcements got through and the survivors eventually surrendered. Observers watching the 56th Division area saw the infantry advance under a smoke screen and fight their way through the German first, second and third lines. The German artillery bombardment of no man's land increased in intensity and German infantry were watched as they rallied and began to counter-attack. In desperate fighting, the British fliers watched Germans regain the third line after noon and gradually force back the British out of the German front line by late evening.

Aftermath

Analysis

In 1965, Charles Carrington wrote in Soldier from the Wars Returning, that RIR 55 gave the best exhibition of minor tactics that he had seen in two world wars, then let the 56th Division recover wounded, helping some to get back to the British lines. In 2005, Prior and Wilson wrote that the diversion succeeded to the extent that an extra German division was moved into the front line but the defence of the salient was based on artillery rather than infantry. No guns were moved to counter the British threat and Prior and Wilson wrote that a feint would have been sufficient. In 2013, Whitehead wrote that the British attack diverted German units but two of the five regiments that defended Gommecourt had negligible losses and were available for re-deployment. For a loss of about 1,257 casualties, the German defenders had inflicted 6,769 losses on the British.

I Battalion, RIR 77 took part in the defence of Pozières from 7–21 July, II Battalion, RIR 77 was stationed at Bazentin and Martinpuich from 8–23 July and the III Battalion held ground around Pozières, Martinpuich and Bazentin from 14–23 July. RIR 15 fought at Feste Schwaben, Thiepval, Ovillers and Pozières from 8–22 July. RIR 91 was ordered to the Somme on 10 July and two companies took part in an abortive counter-attack from Bazentin Wood on 12 July, suffering many casualties. In August, I Battalion, RIR 15 fought at Martinpuich, the II Battalion at Thiepval-süd and the rest of the 2nd Guard Reserve Division spent periods on the Somme until the end of the battle. RIR 15 returned to Gommecourt and occupied the defences from 1 September 1916 to 23 February 1917.

Casualties

Writing in 1932, the British official historian, J. E. Edmonds, recorded that the 46th Division had 2,445 casualties and the 56th Division lost 4,314 men. In 2006, Macdonald used the figures of the 56th divisional adjutant of 4,243 casualties, 71 fewer than that given in the official history, writing that this was unusual since some of the men reported missing turned up later and were removed from the list. Macdonald suggested that by scrutiny of war diaries, regimental histories, the records of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and other records, the casualties on 1 July were c. 4,300 of whom over 1,300 men killed or died later of wounds. Removing wounded was difficult until the early hours of 2 July, when the 2nd Guard Reserve Division displayed a Red Cross flag opposite the 46th Division and nearly all the British casualties were rescued by parties from both sides. Two days later, a German aircraft dropped a list of prisoners and a British aircraft did the same thing. Reserve Infantry regiments 55 and 91 and Infantry Regiment 170 had 1,241 losses. In 2013, Whitehead wrote that the Germans took 267 prisoners and lost 199 men missing and taken prisoner. IR 170 reported 650 casualties, RIR 55 lost 455 men and RIR 91 had about 150 losses (1,255 men). RIR 15 and RIR 77 had 22 casualties, no more than could be expected from normal wastage. The 2nd Guard Reserve Division lost three light field howitzers damaged and a 77 mm field gun and a 90 mm gun were knocked out by shell hits.

Occupation of Gommecourt, February 1917

See also: Operations on the Ancre, January–March 1917; Operation Alberich; and Hindenburg Line

Bassin de la Somme showing the Ancre River

In January and February 1917, British attacks in the Ancre Valley had taken place against exhausted German troops holding the poor defensive positions left over from the fighting in 1916; some of the German troops in the Ancre Valley had low morale and showed an unusual willingness to surrender. The army group commander Generalfeldmarschall Crown Prince Rupprecht, advocated a withdrawal to the [Siegfriedstellung] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) on 28 January, which was authorised by Ludendorff on 4 February, the first [Alberich] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) day being set for 9 February. The retirement was conducted in a slow and deliberate manner, through a series of defensive lines over 25 miles (40 km) at the deepest point, behind rear-guards, local counter-attacks and the demolitions of the [Alberich] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) plan.

On 27 February, a two-man patrol of the 18th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry, 93rd Brigade, 31st Division went through Gommecourt Park and found the village deserted. The 1/4th Leicesters relieved the 1/5th Leicesters of the 138th Brigade, 46th Division at 12:15 p.m. and at 9:55 p.m., C and D companies advanced towards Gommecourt by platoons, without artillery preparation. The Leicesters occupied about 350 yd (320 m) of the German front line at Gommecourt and then advanced another 200 yd (180 m) with no casualties. As the Germans retreated, about 400 men occupied the village. At 1:30 a.m. A and B companies of the 1/4th Lincolns at Fonquevillers, received the news and B Company began to dig a communication trench across no man's land; A Company formed carrying parties to bring up supplies.

1918

Modern map of Gommecourt and vicinity (commune FR insee code 62181

During the German Spring Offensive (1 March – 18 July), the purple line, an improvised defensive position, was dug to the south, east and north of Gommecourt. The 62nd (2nd West Riding) Division (Major-General Walter Braithwaite) was dug in around the eastern fringe of Bucquoy, having retreated from Achiet-le-Petit on 26 March. At 11:00 a.m. on 28 March, the 41st Division was ordered to man the purple line and a battalion of its 124th Brigade was ordered to recapture Rossignol Wood. The battalion mistakenly attacked eastwards instead of skirting the wood and attacking from the north and was bogged down among German outposts near Nameless Farm. As night fell, the 4th Australian Brigade of the 4th Australian Division to the south of Bucquoy and the 2/8th Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment (West Yorks) of the 185th Brigade, ordered up from reserve and attached to the 187th Brigade, were to capture the German-occupied trenches south-east of Gommecourt during the night. The Australians bombed down 500 yd (460 m) of the trenches but the 2/8th West Yorks took until 2:30 a.m. to get ready and only managed to reach the north end of Rossignol Wood. Despite the failure to re-capture the wood a gap between the Australians and the 186th Brigade had been closed and the threat to Gommecourt ended.

References

Books

• Bean, C. E. W. (1982) [1933]. The Australian Imperial Force in France, 1917. The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918. Vol. IV (11th ed.). Canberra: Australian War Memorial. ISBN 0-702-21710-7.
• Doughty, R. A. (2005). Pyrrhic Victory: French Strategy and Operations in the Great War. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press. ISBN 0-67401-880-X.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Dudley Ward, C. H. (2001) [1921]. The Fifty Sixth Division 1914–1918 (1st London Territorial Division) (Naval & Military Press ed.). London: Murray. ISBN 1-84342-111-9.
• Duffy, C. (2007) [2006]. Through German Eyes: The British and the Somme 1916 (Phoenix ed.). London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson. ISBN 978-0-7538-2202-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Edmonds, J. E. (1925). Military Operations, France and Belgium: Mons, the Retreat to the Seine, the Marne and the Aisne, August – October 1914. History of the Great War Based on Official Documents by Direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence (2nd ed.). London: Macmillan. OCLC 604621263.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Edmonds, J. E. (1993) [1932]. Military Operations France and Belgium, 1916: Sir Douglas Haig's Command to the 1st July: Battle of the Somme. History of the Great War Based on Official Documents by Direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence. Vol. I (Imperial War Museum & Battery Press ed.). London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-89839-185-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Falls, C. (1992) [1940]. Military Operations France and Belgium 1917: The German Retreat to the Hindenburg Line and the Battles of Arras. History of the Great War Based on Official Documents by Direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence. Vol. I (Imperial War Museum and Battery Press ed.). London: HMSO. ISBN 0-89839-180-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Foley, R. T. (2007) [2005]. German Strategy and the Path to Verdun: Erich von Falkenhayn and the Development of Attrition, 1870–1916 (pbk. ed.). Cambridge: CUP. ISBN 978-0-521-04436-3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Gliddon, G. (1987). When the Barrage Lifts: A Topographical History and Commentary on the Battle of the Somme 1916. Norwich: Gliddon Books. ISBN 0-947893-02-4.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Jones, H. A. (2002) [1928]. The War in the Air, Being the Story of the Part Played in the Great War by the Royal Air Force. Vol. II (Naval & Military Press ed.). London: Clarendon Press. ISBN 1-84342-413-4.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• MacDonald (pseud.), Alan (2006). Pro Patria Mori: The 56th (1st London) Division at Gommecourt, 1st July 1916. Liskeard: Exposure Publishing for Diggory Press. ISBN 978-1-84685-182-7.
• Philpott, W. (2009). Bloody Victory: The Sacrifice on the Somme and the making of the Twentieth Century (1st ed.). London: Little, Brown. ISBN 978-1-4087-0108-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Prior, R.; Wilson, T. (2005). The Somme. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-10694-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Sheldon, J. (2006) [2005]. The German Army on the Somme 1914–1916 (Pen & Sword Military ed.). London: Leo Cooper. ISBN 1-84415-269-3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Whitehead, R. J. (2013) [2010]. The Other Side of the Wire: The Battle of the Somme. With the German XIV Reserve Corps: September 1914 – June 1916. Vol. I (pbk. rpr. ed.). Solihull: Helion. ISBN 978-1-908916-89-1.
• Whitehead, R. J. (2013). The Other Side of the Wire: The Battle of the Somme. With the German XIV Reserve Corps, 1 July 1916. Vol. II. Solihull: Helion. ISBN 978-1-907677-12-0.
• Wynne, G. C. (1976) [1939]. If Germany Attacks: The Battle in Depth in the West (Greenwood Press, NY ed.). London: Faber & Faber. ISBN 0-8371-5029-9.
• Wyrall, E. (2003) [1924]. The Story of the 62nd (West Riding) Division, 1914–1919. Vol. I. London: The Bodley Head. ISBN 978-1-84342-467-3. Retrieved 28 May 2016.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

Theses

• Beach, J. (2004). British Intelligence and the German Army 1914–1918 (PhD). London: London University. OCLC 500051492. Retrieved 29 May 2015.
• Brown, I. M. (1996). The Evolution of the British Army's Logistical and Administrative Infrastructure and its Influence on GHQ's Operational and Strategic Decision-Making on the Western Front, 1914–1918 (PhD). London: London University. OCLC 53609664. Retrieved 29 May 2015.
• Peaple, S. P. (2003). The 46th (North Midland) Division T. F. on the Western Front, 1915–1918. Thesis (PhD). Birmingham: Birmingham University. OCLC 500351989. Retrieved 18 May 2016.{{cite thesis}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Simpson, A. (2001). The Operational Role of British Corps Command on the Western Front 1914–18 (PhD). London: London University. ISBN 1-86227-292-1.{{cite thesis}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

Further reading

• Carrington, C. (1965). Soldier from the Wars Returning. London: Hutchinson. OCLC 753114598.
• Gough, H. de la P. (1968) [1931]. The Fifth Army (repr. Cedric Chivers ed.). London: Hodder & Stoughton. OCLC 59766599.
• Middlebrook, M. (1971). The First Day on the Somme. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-139071-9.

External links

• Website on the Engagement at Gommecourt
• Hartman, 169th Brigade during the Battle of the Somme
• WWI Battlefields: Gommecourt
• Serre–Hébuterne photo essay