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    CWGC Battlefield Companion Somme 1916
    CWGC Battlefield Companion Somme 1916
    CWGC Battlefield Companion Somme 1916
    Ebook178 pages1 hour

    CWGC Battlefield Companion Somme 1916

    By Bloomsbury Publishing

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    About this ebook

    Published in partnership with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), this is a thematic guide to about 30 locations on the Somme.

    The Battle of the Somme was the most devastating engagement in which British troops fought during the First World War. The 141 days of conflict saw 400,000 British and Commonwealth casualties, with 60,000 on the first day alone. Since the end of the war, the battlefield has become hallowed ground as visitors fall silent at the sight of the rows of white gravestones marking the resting place of tens of thousands of soldiers.

    Released as part of the commemorations of the anniversary of the battle, this a high quality, weather resistant battlefield companion, spiral bound and containing a map and battlefield trails. It suggests sites to visit, and reveals some of the lesser-known stories behind CWGC sites and the men and women they commemorate, providing a snapshot of the day's fighting and its casualties.

    This is an invaluable resource for anyone travelling to the Somme.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateOct 20, 2016
    ISBN9781472823083
    CWGC Battlefield Companion Somme 1916

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      Book preview

      CWGC Battlefield Companion Somme 1916 - Bloomsbury Publishing

      CONTENTS

      ABOUT THIS BOOK

      THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME

      The British Army on the Somme

      EXPLORING THE BATTLEFIELDS

      BATTLEFIELD TRAILS

      The North

      Serre Road Cemetery No. 2

      Serre Road Cemetery No. 1

      Redan Ridge Cemetery No. 3

      Beaumont-Hamel British Cemetery

      Newfoundland Memorial Park

      Ancre British Cemetery

      The Southern Advance

      Bapaume Post Military Cemetery

      Fricourt New Military Cemetery

      Devonshire Cemetery

      Dantzig Alley British Cemetery

      Carnoy Military Cemetery

      Peronne Road Cemetery

      Quarry Cemetery, Montauban

      Caterpillar Valley Cemetery

      Thiepval Ridge

      Connaught Cemetery and Mill Road Cemetery

      Lonsdale Cemetery

      Ovillers Military Cemetery

      Pozieres British Cemetery

      Thiepval Memorial

      Attrition

      Delville Wood Cemetery

      Bernafay Wood British Cemetery

      Guillemont Road Cemetery

      Guards’ Cemetery, Lesbœufs

      Bulls Road Cemetery

      London Cemetery and Extension

      Courcelette British Cemetery

      Adanac Military Cemetery

      Warlencourt British Cemetery

      THE COMMONWEALTH WAR GRAVES COMMISSION

      ABOUT THIS BOOK

      In July 1916, the British and French armies launched an offensive near the River Somme, in Picardy, northern France. The Battle of the Somme would become one of the bloodiest and most important campaigns of the First World War.

      Men from every part of Britain and across the British Empire took part in the offensive, which lasted nearly five months. Both sides committed huge quantities of manpower and munitions to the struggle. When the offensive was halted in November, more than one million British Empire, French and German servicemen had been wounded, captured, or killed.

      The cemeteries and memorials built and cared for by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) are permanent reminders of the fighting that took place here. Some are vast and dramatic, others small and intimate. Standing sentinel over the battlefields, the Thiepval Memorial is the largest CWGC memorial in the world. Every grave, every name, is an opportunity to reflect on the battle and its cost.

      This companion will help you understand the battle and explore the battlefields. Four trails tell the story of the British Army’s campaign and those who fought it. Each will guide you through a different part of the battle, highlighting some of the key locations and leading you to cemeteries and memorials that reflect the fighting. Together they form a moving journey through this landscape of memory.

      The Thiepval Memorial and Anglo-French Cemetery. © CWGC

      THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME

      In December 1915, representatives from Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Serbia and Belgium met at Chantilly, north of Paris, for a conference chaired by General Joseph Joffre, Commander-in-Chief of the French forces. They agreed a co-ordinated strategy for 1916, involving combined attacks on all fronts. The aim was to wear down the Central Powers and erode their reserves, preventing the German and Austro-Hungarian armies from sustaining their military efforts. In early February, the new commander of the British Army, General Sir Douglas Haig, agreed to a joint offensive with the French astride the River Somme in Picardy, where the British and French lines met.

      Only a few days later, on 21 February 1916, the German Army launched its own offensive at Verdun. Fought until the end of the year, the struggle for control of this French stronghold would become one of the fiercest battles of the war. More than 700,000 French and German soldiers became casualties, including some 300,000 killed. Although the German attack had stalled by the summer, far fewer French divisions were now available to fight on the Somme, and the forces of the British Empire would take the leading role.

      Newly hollowed out shelters for British reserves at Mametz in July 1916. John Warwick Brooke © Imperial War Museums (Q 3968)

      British troops had begun to take over responsibility for the line north of the River Somme in the summer of 1915. Preparations for the forthcoming offensive transformed the region. Soldiers and horses marched through quiet villages, while Amiens and Albert were alive with military activity. New roads and railways were constructed to supply the front, along with a vast infrastructure: from medical facilities to munitions dumps, administrative headquarters and accommodation billets, wells and pumping stations, and hundreds of miles of cable and wire.

      The offensive was planned for the end of June, and would be by far the largest yet undertaken by the Allies on the Western Front. The British Fourth Army would storm the German defences along a front of more than 14 miles (22 kilometres), from Serre in the north to Montauban in the south, while the French Sixth Army would attack on both sides of the River Somme. Already benefiting from the advantage of the high ground, the German positions were protected by thick barbed wire, and arranged in three connected lines of trenches. Fortresses known as ‘redoubts’ protected key points, troops could shelter in deep concrete dugouts, and machine-gun positions covered every approach. French villages had been fortified, the houses and cellars lined with concrete to create formidable strongholds.

      Artillery of prodigious proportions would be required in order to destroy this defensive system. On 24 June, Allied guns began an awesome and terrifying bombardment. Seven days later, more than 1.5 million shells had been fired. For the Germans, relieving exhausted men in the shelters, rescuing the wounded or even bringing up supplies became almost impossible. However, the length of the front and the wide area behind the front line across which the shelling was spread, along with manufacturing defects in British shells, meant that the well-constructed German defences remained intact in many places.

      During the last days of June, the bombardment continued as heavy rain and thunderstorms impeded artillery observation and delayed the infantry assault. British troops studied their instructions and wrote letters home as they waited for their orders. As the weather improved, the reserve areas and assembly trenches began to fill with men. Over the night of 30 June, advance parties sneaked into no man’s land while others moved into the foremost trenches and prepared to attack.

      On the morning of 1 July, the sky was clear and the sun shone. The bombardment reached its greatest intensity in preparation for ‘zero-hour’, and was accompanied by the detonation of explosives placed in mines dug under German positions, where fighting began before the dust had chance to land, let alone settle. At 7.30am, whistles were blown along the line, and some 55,000 soldiers rose from their advanced positions or climbed from their trenches to attack.

      Over the following months, 141 days in total, British and French forces methodically pushed back the German defenders on the Somme. Men from every part of Britain and across the Empire took part. Both sides committed huge quantities of manpower and munitions to the struggle and the rolling Picardy farmland was transformed into a wasteland of tree stumps and shell holes. The offensive continued until November when waterlogged ground made any further attacks impossible.

      Battle of Albert (1–13 July)

      1 July saw catastrophic losses in the north of the British line, with attacks near Serre, Beaumont-Hamel, Thiepval and La Boisselle all ending in failure. In the south, however, British and French forces made better progress. Over the following days, British efforts were focused on exploiting this success. Pushing north, the British drove back the Germans, capturing the villages of La Boisselle and Contalmaison, while much of the strongly defended Mametz Wood fell to the 38th (Welsh) Division and Trônes Wood to the 18th (Eastern) Division.

      Battle of Bazentin Ridge (14–17 July)

      After two weeks of piecemeal attacks, British forces were in position to launch their second major assault of the offensive, this time against part of the German second line of defences, located on the Bazentin Ridge. Moving into position overnight, British divisions attacked at dawn following a five-minute ‘hurricane’ bombardment and captured most of the German positions between Bazentin-le-Petit Wood and the village of Longueval. On the afternoon of 14

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