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Across the battlefields of France on 1st July 1916 dawn broke early, bringing with it a little drizzly rain. However, this was soon to pass, and the battle of this tragic, harrowing day was destined to be fought under a blue, cloudless sky, and a hot pitiless sun. At the beginning of' 1916 the Great War had reached a stalemate. The movement of the war's early weeks was replaced by static lines of trenches, and the lives of the soldiers who occupied them were totally governed by the terrible ascendancy of machine guns and artillery. When war had broken out in August 1914 the British Army was a small force of well-trained and, professional, regular soldiers, supplemented by Territorial regiments. Towards the end of 1914, Lord Kitchener - the Minister of War, realized that he would have to build a "New Army" composed of civilian volunteers raised from all areas of the British Isles. While it was being trained the Regulars and Territorials would hold the enemy in France. Thus it came about that the New Army of "Kitchener's Men" was created. By the end of the year nearly 1,200,000 men had enlisted and one of the new divisions so made was the 36th (Ulster) Division - known to many English Soldiers as ''Carson's Army''. |
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The Ulster Division in Belfast prior to leaving for France |
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The Hawthorn Mine |
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Soldiers in "No Mans Land" at the Somme |
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But, many French troops had been drafted from the Somme to give aid to their comrades at Verdun and the role of those left had necessarily to be very much reduced. In the end the French 6th Army did attack with their allies and it made some of the greatest gains on that fateful day. However, the battle, when it was fought, was a mainly British affair. Haig and Rawlinson especially had considerable doubts about the professional skills of the soldiers of the New Army, and, as a result they felt that the attack had to be made "easy" for them by preparing the way with a huge artillery bombardment so that when the soldiers went "over the top" they would only have to stroll across no-man's-land and occupy the enemy positions. The attack was set for 29th June and, for about three weeks before this, every available British gun was brought to the Front so that finally there was one gun for every seventeen yards of enemy front line. |
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On 24th June the bombardment opened, and to those at the Front it seemed that nothing could survive this onslaught. However, there were not enough heavy guns to destroy the very deep German dug-outs; at least one third of all the shells failed to explode; and, most seriously of all, the eighteen-pounders which were supposed to destroy German barbed wire were having only a limited and haphazard success. For the assault itself new tactics were to be used. Rawlinson decided that, because of the rawness of his soldiers, they were to advance in orderly and regular lines, because it was believed that the German positions would be completely destroyed by the artillery. At Thiepval Wood, where the Ulster Division attacked, the distance to the first line of German trenches was about 500 yards with a further 400 to the notorious Schwaben Redoubt. On 26th and 27th June there was a series of heavy showers which continued into the 28th. Afterwards, although the sun came out, the land was still very wet and some trenches waterlogged. Consequently, the infantry attack was postponed until 7.30 a.m. on July 1st. Many awkward rearrangements had to be made and men already keyed up became more edgy and nervous. At 7.20 a.m. on the day of the Battle a huge mine was detonated under part of the German lines; eight minutes later nine others were exploded. At 7.30 the bombardment stopped and an eerie silence fell across the Front. A few seconds later bugles and whistles sounded and the first of the 120,000 soldiers rose from their trenches and went over the top. For their attack the Ulster Division was composed of ten battalions with about 730 men per battalion.The soldiers had assembled in Thiepval Wood and a large number were thus hidden, at first, from the enemy. Also, just beyond their Front Line, and at the edge of no-man's-land, was a sunken road where others could lie concealed and prepare for the advance. Prayers were said, hymns were sung and the Ulster Division was ready for battle. |
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At first all went well for the Ulstermen. The German wire had been cut in many places, and in their eagerness, they rushed up the hill to the first line of enemy trenches which was taken after a short, fierce struggle. They then rushed on towards the formidable Schwaben Redoubt - a heavily fortified area on top of the hill criss-crossed with wire, trenches, and underground dug-outs. The leading battalions fought furiously to capture the Redoubt. But now things started to go wrong. The 32nd Division to the right had been unable to capture Thiepval Village and the machine guns which they should have silenced started to fire from the side and into the attacking Ulstermen. At the same time the German artillery started to fire onto the following-up ranks of the four Belfast battalions. |
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No-man's-land became a death trap. Some men started to waver, but, according to legend, roared on by cries of "No Surrender!" they gained new strength and reached the Redoubt and joined their comrades. There were now men from eight battalions engaged there. The fighting was at close quarters and vicious, but by mid-morning it was over and the Redoubt was in British hands. Patrols were sent out towards Thiepval and could perhaps have captured it from the rear, but this manoeuvre had not been rehearsed and the men had to return. Two small parties went on towards the second German line and the Stuff Redoubt. But,as nowhere else in the whole battlefield, they were ahead of schedule and shells from the British artillery started to fall on them and, although there were few Germans about, the Ulstermen had to retreat back to the Schwaben.
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The Ulster Division of the New Army had no regular battalions attached to it to act as " stiffeners" yet it had advanced further than any other Division. For four miles on either side of them there was no advance to distract the German machine guns and artillery, and the enemy was able to gather its reserves and prepare its counter-attacks. The glorious advance was over. Located just inside the German lines stood the hamlet of La Boisselle. Although small, it held an important tactical position on the road between the towns of Albert and Bapaume. It was hoped that here the cavalry would charge through. The Tyneside Irish Brigade had been allocated the task of capturing the village and the heavily fortified defences near to it. Exactly on time the 3,000 men of the Brigade rose and advanced the 3,000 yards to the enemy trenches. They were cut down like autumn wheat and finally, when they reached their objective, they had been reduced to only fifty effective men. |
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As the day wore on no-man's-land became a place of refuge for the injured and graves for the dead. Injured men who lay in the open had lay completely still or risk being shot again by German rifles and machine guns which continued their deadly work all day. Because of the savagery of the German defence, further British attacks faltered and died away. At a rough estimate, by midday 50,000 British soldiers had been killed or wounded. At no time while they had fought did the soldiers from the old Province of Ulster receive help from the Divisions of either flank. Over 2,000 of them died at Thiepval and over 2,700 were wounded. As an indication of the fierceness of the combat only 165 were taken prisoner. To the Generals some miles behind the Front it was thought, at first, that the day had been more of a set-back rather than the greatest disaster ever to befall the British Army. But with the delivery of the dreaded War Office telegrams and the return of the wounded, the public learned the truth. |
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Whole towns such as Belfast went into mourning. Few families in the land were not touched by the injury and death suffered by the men of the Somme. On 12th July all business and traffic halted in Belfast and the whole City fell silent for five minutes. The Battle ground on for several more months and finally ended 140 days later on 14th November. Exact and accurate figures are hard to find, but it is certain that for an advance, finally, of six miles at most, the British had suffered 400,000 casualties. Total casualties of the three countries involved - British, French, and German - came to over 1,300,000 which were almost equally divided between the Germans and the Allies. What had been planned as the "Big Push" which might end the War had turned into a horrifying battle of attrition. Even while the Battle was being fought the Germans had started to build a new defensive position - the Hindenburg Line - same ten miles behind their Front. In February 1917 they made a move which the French and British Generals could never have countenanced and withdrew to this new Line giving up about 1,000 square miles of territory - ten times greater than the Allies had captured in 1916. |
