World War I - 9 Book Collection: Nelson's History of the War, The Battle of Jutland & The Battle of the Somme. Buchan John
Ginchy and Guillemont.
On Friday afternoon, August 18th, came the next combined attack. There was a steady pressure everywhere from Thiepval to the Somme. The advance began at 5 o’clock in the afternoon, in fantastic weather, with bursts of hot sunshine followed by thunderstorms and flights of rainbows. South of Thiepval, in the old German first line, was a strong work, the Leipzig Redoubt, into which we had already bitten. It was such a stronghold as we had seen at Beaumont Hamel, a nest of deep dug-outs and subterranean galleries, well stocked with machine-guns. As our front moved east to Pozieres and Contalmaison we had neglected this corner, which had gradually become the apex of a sharp salient. It was garrisoned by Prussians of the 29th Regiment, who were confident in the impregnability of their refuge. They led an easy life, while their confederates on the crest were crowding in improvised trenches under our shelling. Those not on duty slept peacefully in their bunks at night, and played cards in the deep shelters.
On Friday afternoon, after a sharp and sudden artillery preparation, two British battalions rushed the redoubt. We had learned by this time how to deal with the German machine-guns. Many of the garrison fought stubbornly to the end; others we smoked out and rounded up like the occupants of a gambling-house surprised by the police. Six officers and a hundred and seventy men surrendered in a body. In all, some two thousand Germans were caught in this trap by numbers less than their own. There was no chance of a counter-stroke, for we got our machine-guns in position at once and our artillery caught every enemy attempt in the open.
Elsewhere on the front there was hard fighting. In the centre we pushed close to Martinpuich, and from High Wood southward we advanced our lines on a frontage of more than two miles for a distance varying from 200 to 600 yards. We took the stone quarry on the edge of Guillemont after a hand-to-hand struggle of several hours. Meantime the French carried the greater part of Maurepas village, and the place called Calvary Hill to the south-east. This last was a great feat of arms, for they had against them a fresh division of the Prussian Guards, which had seen no serious action for many months.
We were now fighting on the watershed. At Thiepval we held the ridge that overlooked it from the south-east. We held all the high ground north of Pozieres, which gave us a clear view of the country towards Bapaume, and our lines lay 300 yards beyond the Windmill. We had all the west side of High Wood and the ground between it and the Albert-Bapaume road. We were half-way between Longueval and Ginchy, and our pincers encircled Guillemont. At last we were in position over against, and in direct view of, the German third line.
THE STRUGGLE ON THE FLANKS.
The next week was occupied in repelling German attempts to recover lost ground and in efforts to sharpen still further the Thiepval salient and to capture Guillemont. Thiepval, it should be remembered, was a point in the old German first line on the left flank of the great breach, and Guillemont was the one big position still untaken in the German second line. On Sunday, the 20th, the Germans shelled our front heavily and at about noon attacked our new lines on the western side of High Wood. They reached a portion of our trenches, but were immediately driven out by our infantry. Next day, at High Wood and at Mouquet Farm, there were frequent bombing attacks which came to nothing. On Tuesday, August 21st, we advanced steadily on our left, pushing our line to the very edge of what was once Mouquet Farm as well as to the north-east of it, and closing in to within 1,000 yards of Thiepval.
The weather had become clearer, and our counter-battery work silenced some of the enemy’s guns, while our aircraft fought many battles. We lost no single machine, but four enemy airplanes were destroyed and many others driven to the ground in a damaged condition. A sentence in a captured letter paid a tribute to the efficiency of the British airmen: “The airmen circle over us and try to do damage, but only enemy ones, for a German airman will not try to come near. Behind the front there is a great crowd of them, but here not one makes his appearance.”
Throughout the whole battle there was no question which side possessed the ascendancy in the air. Here is the record of the doings of one flight-lieutenant, who encountered a detachment of twelve German machines. “He dived in among them, firing one drum. The formation was broken up. Lieutenant - then got under the nearest machine and fired one drum at 15 yards under the pilot’s seat, causing the machine to plunge to earth south-east of Bapaume. Shortly afterwards some more hostile aeroplanes came up in formation. Lieutenant -attacked one, which went down and landed in a gap between the woods. Several other machines were engaged with indecisive results, and, having expended all his ammunition, Lieutenant - returned.” This was on September 1st. Lieutenant - took the day’s work as calmly as if he had been shooting partridges.
On Wednesday night and Thursday morning a very severe counter-attack on our position at Guillemont, pressed with great determination, failed to win any ground. That afternoon, August 24th, we advanced nearer Thiepval, coming, at one point, within 500 yards of the place. In the evening, at five o’clock, the French carried Maurepas and pushed their right on to the Combles railway. Next day the French success enabled us to join up with our Allies south-east of Guillemont, where our pincers were now beginning to grip hard.
The following week was one of slow and steady progress. We cleared the ground immediately north of Delville Wood by a dashing charge of the Rifle Brigade. The most satisfactory feature of these days was the frequency of the German counter-attacks and their utter failure. On August 26th, for example, troops of the Prussian Guard, after a heavy bombardment, attacked south of Thiepval village and were completely repulsed by the Wiltshire and Worcestershire battalions holding that front. One incident of the day deserves record. A despatch runner was sent back with a message to the rear, which he reached safely. He started back, came unscathed through the German barrage, but in the general ruin of the trench lines failed to find the place he had left. He wandered on and on till he reached something that looked like his old trench, and was just about to enter it when he found it packed with Germans. He immediately jumped to the conclusion that a counter-attack was about to be launched, and, slipping back, managed to reach our own lines, where he told the news. In a minute or two our artillery got on to the spot, and the counter-attack of the Prussian Guard was annihilated before it began. On Thursday evening, August 31st, five violent and futile assaults were made on our front between High Wood and Ginchy. It looked as if the enemy was trying in vain to anticipate the next great stage of our offensive which was now imminent.
THE FALL OF GUILLEMONT AND GINCHY.
On Sunday, September 3rd, the whole Allied front pressed forward. In the early morning the Australians attacked on the extreme left—near Mouquet Farm and towards Thiepval. There they encountered some of the Guard reserves, and took several hundred prisoners. They carried various strong positions, won ground east of Mouquet Farm, and still further narrowed the Thiepval salient. The British right, attacking in the afternoon, swept through Guillemont to the sunken road—500 yards to the east. They captured Ginchy also, but were forced later in the day to relinquish the eastern part of that village. Further south they fought their way to the east of Falfemont Farm, where they joined hands with the triumphant French. For the French on that day had marched steadily from victory to victory. Shortly after noon, on a 3¾ miles front between Maurepas and the Somme, they had attacked after an intense artillery preparation. They carried the villages of Le Forest and Clèry, and north of the former place won the German lines to the outskirts of Combles.
As the bloody angle south of Beaumont Hamel will be for ever associated with the Ulster Division, so Guillemont was a triumph for the troops of southern and western Ireland. The men of Munster, Leinster, and Connaught broke through the intricate defences of the enemy as a torrent sweeps down nibble. The place was one of the strongest of all the many fortified villages in the German line, and its capture was the most important achievement of the British since the taking of Pozières. It was the last uncaptured point in the old German second position between Mouquet Farm and the junction with the French. It was most resolutely defended, since, being close to the point of junction, it compelled a hiatus in the advance of the Allied front. With its fall the work of two years was swept away, and in the whole section the enemy were now in new and improvised positions.
But the advance was only beginning. On Monday,