Forgotten Voices of the Somme (15 page)

The explosion of the mine at Hawthorn Redoubt on the morning of July 1.

July 1, 1916

I heard the Germans calling from their trenches, 'Come on Tommy! We are waiting for you!'

On the first morning of the Battle of the Somme, British troops prepared to attack along a fourteen-mile stretch of line. Almost half a million soldiers of Sir Henry Rawlinson's Fourth Army were ready to carry out the main attacks, whilst men of
Sir Edmund Allenby
's
Third Army
prepared to carry out diversionary attacks, and
Sir Hubert Gough
's
Reserve Army
stood ready to capitalise on a breakthrough.

At 0700 hours, the British artillery bombardment reached a staggering crescendo. Over the next hour, almost a quarter of a million shells were fired across the entire fourteen-mile front, whilst seventeen massive mines were detonated under German positions. The largest mine, near La Boisselle, shot earth four thousand feet into the air, leaving a crater – which became known as the
Lochnagar Crater
– almost a hundred feet deep, and 450 feet across. At half-past seven –
zero hour
– British troops went
over the top
along the entire front.

Lieutenant Ulick Burke

2nd Battalion, Devonshire Regiment

Immediately the daylight came, the men had their rum ration. The quartermaster was always good on those occasions. And then I gave the men my last orders. They had ladders – two bits of wood nailed together with three or four cross-pieces – to help them to climb out of the trench. And five minutes

before the time of going over . . . this was the worst time for the troops. That's when their feelings might break.

Private Albert Day

1/4th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment

They gave us rum; I suppose that made it a little bit better. The fact that the others were there kept you going – but I had a terrible feeling; I thought I was going to have an accident in my pants.

Private Basil Farrer

3rd Battalion, Green Howards

We had got the ladders ready, and next to me was a sergeant, who had the Distinguished Conduct Medal, and he was rubbing a piece of earth, a piece of clay, between his feet.

Lieutenant Ulick Burke

2nd Battalion, Devonshire Regiment

I shouted down the left and right of my sector, 'Five minutes to go!' Then four minutes, then three minutes, two minutes, half a minute, then, 'Ten seconds . . . get ready . . . Over!'

Private Reg Coldridge

2nd Battalion, Devonshire Regiment

When I went over, I didn't really think of anything. I just had to go. That was all.

Stephen K. Westmann

German Army Medical Corps

For seven days and seven nights our German soldiers had had nothing to eat, nothing to drink, but constant fire, shell after shell bursting upon us. And then the British Army went over the top. Our gunners crawled out of their bunkers, redded eyes, sunken eyes, dirty, full of blood. And they opened terrific fire . . .

A German machine gun perched on a parapet.

A patrol crawling towards German trenches on the morning of July 1.

GOMMECOURT TO BEAUMONT HAMEL

In the most northerly sector of the front, two divisions of the British Third Army attacked the
Gommecourt salient
. This was a diversionary assault, intended to distract German artillery and infantry from the main thrust of the attack further south, where the Fourth Army was attacking the German lines between the villages of
Serre
and
Montebaun
.

The
18th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry
, the 16th Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment (The Bradford Pals) and the 15th Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment (The Leeds Pals) suffered heavy losses whilst attacking Serre village. The 12th Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment (the Sheffield Pals) and the 11th Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment (the Accrington Pals) were also ripped to shreds in the attack. A few men of the Accrington Pals managed to enter the village, but were forced to retreat. The 14th Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment attempted unsuccessfully to reinforce the attack. Further south, the 1/8th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment entered the
Heidenkopf Crater
and the German supporting trenches, but these were abandoned the following day. Overall, in this sector, no ground was taken.

Private James Snaylham

11th Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment

I went over the top at 0730 and my next-door pal was killed straight away. I kept going and going, being the youngest, and daftest I suppose. I got as far as the Jerry wire, before a shell exploded and a lump went through my leg. I laid there until seven o'clock in the evening. I crawled back into every shell-hole I came to, and there were lads wounded, shouting, 'Send somebody! There are wounded here!' and eventually I got back to our trench.

Private Herbert Hall

12th Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment

I went over carrying a full kit, blanket in the pack, a rifle, helmet, a full-size navvy's pick across my shoulders, the pack on my back, two hundred rounds of ammunition and twenty Mills bombs. I could have been a mule, you know, not a human being! We had to jump out of the trenches with that, and not

only did I carry my own twenty bombs, but I collected two bags of twenty each from one fellow that was wounded, and another that had come down with shell shock. So I went in with sixty bombs. I was a moving arsenal! A bit of shrapnel would have shot me into the clouds!

I didn't get across; I got about forty yards over the top. There was nobody with me. All the others had dropped down or were wounded, so I dropped into a shell-hole. About mid-afternoon, I saw one or two people crawling in, so I went with them. I couldn't fight the German army alone, could I? They didn't intend me to, did they? Some made it to the German wire, and they made all sorts of cries of pain and suffering.

Private Donald Cameron

12th Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment

The first wave went over at 0720. They lay down about a hundred yards in front of our own barbed wire. Then the second wave went over, and lay down about thirty yards behind them. During this time, there was high explosives, shrapnel, everything you can imagine, coming over. Terrific hurtling death. It was soul destroying, but I wasn't frightened: I was impatient, I wanted to get moving.

The night before, they'd laid tapes, showing us the way to the cuts in the German wire. But when we went over, these tapes were missing, so we headed off in what we thought was the right direction. We'd been told that we had to walk at arm's length from each other, and that's how we started. But not for long. When we saw people dropping like ninepins on either side, we bent double, and in the end we started crawling. After a while, three of us, and
Sergeant Gallimore
, got down into a shell-hole. It must have been about eight o'clock. The firing went on, and we kept peeping up, looking over the top to check, and the bloody Germans were sniping our wounded. They were even firing at the dead. They couldn't see us in our shell-hole. I must have prayed a dozen times. I used to go to church when I was a lad, but I prayed more in that shell-hole than I ever prayed in church.

Corporal A. Wood

16th Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment

The Pals were the finest soldiers that you've ever seen. And we were all friends. About ten minutes before we climbed out of the trench, we were

issued with a very strong dixie of rum, out of a stone bottle. We were told that the wire had been cut in front of our front line, that there'd be no difficulty at all for us to get through and that there wouldn't be a German within miles. We went up the ladder, on top of the parapet, and immediately anyone appeared, the blast of the machine guns knocked them back into the trench. There were Germans sat on the parapet of their trench with machine guns, mowing us down. In fact, I don't think half a dozen of our people got beyond our front line, never mind to the German front line.

Private Frank Raine

18th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry

Oh, my God! The ground in front – it was just like heavy rain; that was machine-gun bullets. Up above, there were these great big 5.9-inch shrapnel shells going off. Broomhead and I went over the top together. We walked along a bit. A terrific bang and a great black cloud of smoke above us. I felt a knock on my hip which I didn't take much notice of. I turned round, and Broomhead had gone. I walked on and I could not see a soul of any description – either in front of or behind me. I presume they got themselves tucked into shell-holes. I thought, 'Well, I'm not going on there by myself,' and I turned round and came back.

Private Reginald Glenn

12th Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment

We didn't know about the attack until the day before. We went into the line that night, and we relieved the regiment that was in. By now, everybody knew we were going in to attack, and we all had our big overcoats, and our haversacks with rations in. I had my rifle, and a telephone, and a mile of wire as well. Other people were carrying wire cutters and digging equipment. Actually, I wasn't meant to go over, but one man, a university student, got
shell shock
, and he dropped out on the way into the line. So I was detailed to take his place. I was supposed to reach the German lines, and go through there into Serre village.

The signal to attack was a whistle. The officers were the first to jump up – and they only had revolvers. We had a creeping barrage that was supposed to be creeping forward as we moved forward. The first line went, and then they all lay down. I thought they must have had different orders to us – we'd been

told to walk. But the reason they lay down was because they'd been shot. They were mown down like corn. Then we went forward – and the same thing happened. I didn't know what was happening around me. There were gaps in our wire, where it had been cut, that were marked by white tape on the ground. We were told to walk and to carry the rifle at high port, but I was just trying to find my way through the shell-holes. I didn't get as far as the British wire. There was so much pandemonium. I lay down, but soon we all got orders to get back to our trenches.

Private Frank Lindlay

14th Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment

At the start, we were lined up ready to go over, at the whistle, at half seven. A huge mine went off to the right. It went off too soon, and it gave the Germans a chance to come up out of their deep dugouts and concentrate on us. I think they were very surprised to see us walking. In our orders, we had to walk across. We had been led to believe by 'higher-ups' that the big bombardment, over the days and nights, had obliterated the enemy. But we knew it hadn't because their positions were so strong. Their dugouts were way down under the parapets of the trenches, and they couldn't be reached by artillery fire. All they did was to wait down there until our barrage lifted, and then they came up to have some target practice at us. We were held up by huge coils of barbed wire, and in the odd gap that we made for, we were greeted by their heavy
machine guns.
There was no question that we could get through to them. Whole lines of our lads were mown down one after the other, and we were shifting from shell-hole to shell-hole, trying to pick one or two Germans off their front line.