delivered, on August 18, September 3,
and September 9, with what results we
shall see.
The last days of July and the early
part of August were a period of hot,
stifling weather, when the dust and
stench of the battle grounds made
existence there almost insupportable.
The stubborn endurance of the men
was unshaken, however, and no epi-
demic developed. The latter part of
the second week of August brought
some relief, when the drought broke.
On the whole, there was more rainfall
and haze during both mid-summer
months than is usual, a condition which
favored the enemy by producing poor
visibility for observers. In July the
casualties of the Allied forces in their
offensive had been considerably heavier
than those of the Germans. But, dur-
ing the second month, the situation was
HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
reversed. The British, it is true, lost
4,711 officers and 123,234 men; but it
has been estimated that the Germans
suffered far greater loss.
f^OURCELETTE AND MARTINPUICH NOW
\^ IN SIGHT.
By August 6, the Australians had
driven their way beyond Pozieres to
the top of the watershed at the site of
the long-fought-for Windmill. From
that point, the British could now look
down upon the German lines on the
northern slope and upon the towns of
Courcelette and Martinpuich, both of
which were under bombardment. At
the extreme right, on the eleventh and
twelfth of the month, the French,
after working through the remainder
of the German second position around
Hardecourt, opened a brilliantly or-
ganized assault upon a front about
four miles long, extending from east of
Hardecourt to the Somme. They
pushed through the trenches and re-
doubts of the German third line to a
depth of three-quarters of a mile or
more, and captured in one day at least
1000 prisoners. A few days later, they
had extended their own line north of
Maurepas, making gains there and a
mile and a quarter south of the village.
By this time, they controlled the whole
of the German third line south of the
Somme.
During the second week of August,
the Armies on the Somme were heart-
ened by a visit from King George. At
the British Headquarters he was met
by President Poincare, who com-
mended his Allies for the good work
of their offensive.
At the end of the first six weeks of
fighting in the sector around the
Somme it had become evident that
the Germans had not been able to
stand the persistent push upon their
front without throwing in some of their
best reserves. They had already used
there as many divisions as had been
in action at Verdun during four months
of struggle. Their lines were not
broken through, but were bending
under a strain far more severe than had
been anticipated. The vaunted strength
of their elaborate fortifications was
proving vulnerable at last.
ISOLATED POSITIONS ARE NEXT SEPA-
RATELY ASSAILED.
The combined general attack of
August 1 8 and 19, differed in several
respects from previous assaults. It
consisted of a number of separate,
independent attacks, by different corps
at different times, starting at various
hours in the day. It was a "cleaning
out of a nameless maze of trenches" all
along the front then existing. Where
the Australians had broken up defenses
of almost every conceivable kind, they
had taken altogether by the end of this
day a mile's length of German second
line upon the ridge. Beyond Pozieres,
too, a new push was made in the direc-
tion of Martinpuich. Farther to the
left, where Leipzig Redoubt formed the
"very nose of the Thiepval salient," a
lodgment had been made on the first
day of the battle, July I ; but the gar-
rison of the supposedly impregnable
stronghold, secure in their subterranean
fortress with their generous supply of
machine guns, had been left for weeks
to a life of ease and relaxation. This
was suddenly and rudely broken up, on
Friday, August 18, when the redoubt
was rushed by two British battalions
and the occupants perhaps 2000
caught as in a trap. "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
170 men surrendered in a body."
The garrison had been composed of
Prussians of the 2Qth Regiment.
The newly constructed "switch"
line was cut through in one place.
Fighting around Delville Wood re-
sulted in gain there. But Guillemont,
tke one important part of the German
second line untaken up to this time,
resisted still, although the quarry on
the outskirts of the ruin that had once
been a village was captured. Thence
the British thrust southward to a point
of junction with the French. In a
sector east of High Wood some Suffolk
troops who had taken possession of a
trench vacated by the enemy found
themselves isolated and forced to with-
draw. They accomplished their retreat
so imperceptibly by "leaking" out
531
through shell holes and a sap while one
man guarded each end of the trench,
using discarded German bombs to keep
back the assaulting parties, that when
these two men finally followed their
fellows, the Germans from either side
kept on bombing each other across the
traverse. This incident was connected
with the one "failure" of the day.
offered by the Brandenburgers. The
honor fell to Irish troops from Munster,
Leinster, and Connaught. "Of the
village nothing fit to be called a village
remained. One wrecked and battered
building, apparently a barn, was all
that stood among the waste of masonry
pounded into the tortured earth. How
even a fragment of the walls of that
MOPPING UP GERMAN TRENCHES IN THE COURSE OF AN ADVANCE
Having learned by experience that the enemy were likely to hide in their dugouts and come out after a chargin^
troop had passed, to attack from the rear with rifles and machine guns, the British detailed part of each advancing
force to clear the trenches and dugouts and make sure that not a living foe was left therein. Experience taught
them, too, to let a bomb precede them in entering.
For the rest of the month there was
no cessation of activities. Violent
German bombardments and counter-
attacks accomplished no permanent
advantage for the enemy. On the
other hand, the weather gave oppor-
tunity again for air attacks by the
Allied aviators.
In that same week, the French
carried Maurepas; they and the British
came together south of Guillemont;
and a charge by a Rifle Brigade bat-
talion practically finished the long
sanguinary conflict in Delville Wood.
HOW THE IRISH OVERWHELMED THE
BRANDENBURGERS AT GUILLEMONT.
On September 3, Guillemont was
taken in spite of the desperate defense
532
one building stood was a mystery, but
some queer chance had kept it totter-
ing on its feet when everything else had
not only fallen long before but had
been pounded to nothing after it fell.
The ruins, however, were full of enemy
lurking holes, and all round the edges
there were strong positions with ma-
chine-guns and (especially on the
southwestern and southern sides) deep
dugouts. Besides the main, formid-
ably fortified trench line running along
and before these faces of the village,
the ground everywhere was dotted
with smaller works and with shell-
holes converted into outlying strong-
holds."
With their pipers playing, the Irish-
HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
men swept rapidly through and beyond
this position to the sunken road farther
east where they could establish them-
selves more strongly, w r hile the Light
Infantry fighting on their right finished
the task in Guillemont, dealing with
troublesome machine-gun shelters and
clearing the dugouts. In the roads and
woods east and south of Guillemont,
the fight' was pressed forward for
several days following.
MOUQUET FARM YIELDS AFTER TWO
YEARS.
At the other end of the attacking
line, on the afternoon of September 3,
the English, Scots, and Australians
were engaged in one of the fiercest of
conflicts with a Reserve Regiment of
the 1st Prussian Guards, among the
positions of the Mouquet Farm. "Of
the farm itself, nothing remained but
a waste of pounded rubbish and a few
shattered fragments of trees. The
enemy, however, had covered the
w r hole area in and around the farm with
trenches, isolated posts and deep dug-
outs, until it was practically all one
fortress." There in the dimness before
dawn the Germans w r ere attacked and
dislodged from their fastness after two
years' occupation.
Nearer the Somme, the French First
Corps, men from the northern districts
whose homes were in the hands of the
Germans, carried two villages and
pushed on to the edges of Combles
itself. Two days afterward, General
Micheler's Tenth Army, south of the
Somme, came into action for the first
time since the battle started. They
immediately seized a part of the Ger-
man first position on a front of almost
three miles, taking about 3,000 pris-
oners. And on the next day the French
Armies both north and south of the
river made considerable progress.
(~* INCHY IS TAKEN BY THE SAME IRISH-
\J MEN.
In the attack of September 9, the
only success of importance was the
capture of Ginchy by the same Irish
troops who had had their part in taking
Guillemont. At other points, the ad-
vance was quickly checked. Extracts
from an officer's account of the attack
upon Ginchy give a striking impression
of the impetuous fervor of the assault-
ing troops: "Between the outer fringe
of Ginchy and the front line of our own
trenches is No Man's Land, a wilder-
ness of pits so close together that you
could ride astraddle the partitions be-
tween any two of them. As you look
half right, obliquely down along No
Man's Land, you behold a great host
of yellow-coated men rise out of the
earth and surge forward and upward
in a torrent not in extended order, as
you might expect, but in one mass.
There seems to be no end to them. Just
when you think the flood is subsiding,
another wave comes surging up the
bend towards Ginchy. We joined in on
the left. Our shouts and yells must
have struck terror into the Huns, who
were firing their machine-guns down
the slope. But there was no wavering
in the Irish host. We couldn't run.
We advanced at a steady walking pace,
stumbling here and there, but going
ever onward and upward.
"How long we were in crossing No
Man's Land I don't know. It could not
have been more than five minutes, yet
it seemed much longer. We were now
well up to the Boche. We had to
clamber over all manner of obstacles
fallen trees, beams, great mounds of
brick and rubble in fact, over the
ruins of Ginchy. It seems like a night-
mare now. I remember seeing com-
rades falling round me. ... I be-
lieve our prisoners were all Bavar-
ians, who are better mannered from all
accounts than the Prussians."
A FEW USEFUL MILES ARE GAINED AT A
PRICE.
By steady, persistent uphill pushing,
the British had gained the high posi-
tion on the ridge between Thiepval
and Combles. Step by step, the artil-
lery and infantry had worked together,
becoming more and more skilful in
co-ordinating their movements. As a
result, the lines had been pushed back
a little way and the Germans on that
part of the front driven into new and
improvised positions. A young officer
who had been wounded in the battle
exclaimed, "We've gained such a few
miles, they say. Pretty useful miles,
though, to the top of the ridge."
533
\ j/\ \ '**=*,
\/ ^M*K f L*?5+m \rl\'\ CrantlpAC^ XJn^JLrfV^Uw"
Of' JC S ^jf"* ? *^ 1 /l I\^^S^"T\ riiV"x^"7'I\\ /".T^&oiy"
^ IXirjJMf^ 1 118 '" VU^fe5>*C V1\V
^T^uevnter^rt^yWff^
V*^W^^wr \ n ^^ VT ~X IVS-
Wptff/******
W/ (//sXXU-A \
\ ^*n^(Gonimecourt -*jffi
H_jSSfeiWw-A^a/ C-*M[/* \ y\^K?^ 1 /\
W^*jr^eMitoy -" 7 Js
\^#*^ J^rSs?*'**^*^
= ^T\te N ^V I /^^^AchietJ^,^^^ i e4/ !
-XV" Y x ^ X X. Vs >/ XwS^LJ-J' ; 7\AlSv ^e natre
|te^^<
^rx i l*r J^sA^^^WMx
ffjrs^^fcj
A\ x /
i M) \^fc**jWi *
A 1 i \\ Ai' -^* J ^T-*^i5 a ^>) / A^eiivds- ll/ J!t^
U^S^k^w-y'we:
\ ^5T >l
/\ ^^*%. X*S^^/ Jsa^ ^ ^Tr*<i%w. / > \ /^ ^^^xv^*'"
^jS^sT/ f\
/ x ^^^/4 3 ^^^^r/ *?lm IS N^ ;^T-^r>^
jffu>\> j /!*) \ /
^ ^*. / T ^-^ x#v / r\ **
^s. 11 -f
Sf VlRAUMON^a^p' f\ / \f ^7\/ \\
\^4Kgigm
x^r?5
i i^Tg^jyfe^ f^<Lj6" % 7\
^^^^^^^^J^^T'^
aSpSfvh^ \ f\ t M >JW ril ""M/t Si _
u, P**^^" w / xvr-jsrr i ~~~i
v*t^LeIr
t^vi K i M / *}vy i y^
it W%'i
\ - f 'A \ 7 V K. \I^ X^ ^^n-nLL r* J^
\*'" l HrvvVJ
\ ff \ f ^*V ^^vw Jy ^^ ir^ ' " " -^C^g S -rf^ 555 ^
V/e,^ \4 r\W COT jC ^^; /\ T^^^ueudecourt
^THIEPV/U^LCource^^^y?^,^ ( / \ W^\
=^4/ JZ-*? %F^-*^*7W\* fT* 1 '!! t'Jr* a \. / \ j 1 ^W
MESNlOg\ IwCW
SieTXr -i28\ l\i. ( / J
^<5SPZ?^^** - ^ - ->4w /T7
I^^^^)L^
A\ ^A/ l>& ^^-^t^ / 1"^-^*X\ A
BsSuS fi>l?.D\J*JjMJ> I
'LupvgtttaouM.. ^&5., m .,. n , /&7 ^^l \ ^\S^-~// if / ^*=*>^\\-/
Tp2K: ^IJ^L^,., /Yp5
N$p Jtl3fjfu*x/si
^m^m^i T%
vlfli
f /^\ y ./^ ^^ j~^ 8 V/^ ^rey QUO"""") j v j ^r \L
"^^ -=^g= J*AveIu5y*^
^d^^^r^t^^ssj
\ N if 7 / ^
\\K/x
J ] V fH^^y^~^9n\g u ^ v te S/V*/ 1 ^WT^ >A^ J*^"^'^^&^ttr
\v v"JzT^ J ss^
yA<%{iM'^j^^ wyfK
'**&s%aM&f^ t 10*
ji,Be'couh~ \- ftt c jfa^__^&^m-^\ ( LkJ., <S^M(
// ^l /^t>=^ ^^trrrs
^p^^&g&wfat] ^ Syr/ 1 HR-~ \J ;/\ /y^&f$f
rs^K^/r i F >fKrrJr-^V
^i^^^SV / / ffic Jrwfi'f""'
l-f\ <\g_ \ ^^
as^^* 1 \ * i< ' : 5?L iX / / ims-.ftnue jie* X \ / \Jy&/ -^jw
1^4 i^^v-^rS!
iL X)? \ ^^r^-*. S
^^r^i-ff e |,A^^^r\ ( ^ o y / \ ^ ~^?^sv>y Ift-tfrJS
V ArtK^-A71^^^";\
JjyWK*^
v/\) v^^^^s>%rVW
^5^W \ X.
W" V A'T^ M >K'U^^
s / V \ \
x>/< Jr~ \ w ^31 / J \& a<"\?v BrT^T CgrK >L
^ / I \ ^
s A - ^^ Jn^Wk // T ^^r^^^ ^
y j \
X\ 1 /I i // Jr*TO^ 3^
- ^ \.
f \ fl I / V* 1 I/ "M \ /1 M ) W\V= ff ==^STnT = T^ ====
English Miles V
1 v\ // ,ir ^M
W A 1 2 H
floods ^
1 > <A /X \ Sulanni^f Tv\\ \V^S^^^g=^I
ei^r L^S^s^
(anals '
HeiJMS * >ttr<>
\ xxiL
WHERE MEN FROM EVERY PART OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE FOUGHT IN 1916
In the opening action of the Allied offensive, July 1, the British front of attack was about twenty miles long, from
Gommecourt to Montauban. The actual advance made in the 1st Stage of the battle, over a mile in depth on
about a 6-mile front, included the villages of Montauban, Mametz, Frtcourt and la Boisselle, with the formidable
woodlands between. A foothold was gained in Tr6nes Wood. The 2nd Stage, beginning July 14, was concentrated
on a 3-mile front, from Longueval to Bazentin-le-Petit Wood. Trones Wood, the two Bazentins, Ovillers, Lon-
gueval, and Pozitres yielded after terrific warfare. Then the fearful struggle for the Ridge went on through mid-
summer heat in Delville Wood, High Wood, and around Guillemont and Ginchy. The 3rd Stage, opening Sep-
tember 15, took part of the Germans last original defenses: Flers, High Wood, Martinpaich, Courcelette, Morval,
Les Boeufs, Combles (gained with the aid of the French), Gueudecourt, Thiepval, etc. At Mouquet Farm, Leipzig
Redoubt and Schwaben Redoubt famous deeds were done. The 4th Stage, launched November 11, swung across
the Ancre from St. Pierre Divion to Beaumont Hamel and Bsaucourt.
534
A Tank Advancing Into Action
CHAPTER XXXIII
The Battle of the Somme II
THE FINAL STAGES OF THE GREATEST BATTLE THAT
HISTORY RECORDS
CEVERAL scenes in the patches of
woodland that were spread over the
rolling chalk country north of the
Somme, will help to a realization of
what happened among those wooded
slopes during the various stages of
the battle that brought them out
of obscurity into world-notice. The
woods as they appeared while yet un-
touched by warfare may be pictured
from this description, by Masefield,
of a strip on the edge of the battle
region: "It is a romantic and very
lovely wood, pleasant with the noise
of water and not badly damaged by the
fighting. The trees are alive and leafy,
the shrubs are bushing, and the spring
flowers, wood anemones, violets, and
the oxlip (which in this country takes
the place of the primrose and the
cowslip) flower beautifully."
A GERMAN ARTILLERY CAMP DEEP IN
THE WOODS.
When the offensive was under way,
a correspondent of the New York
Times found in some of those woods
the setting of an odd encampment,
where Germans were resting after two
weeks of service in the first trenches.
"I walked down a narrow, winding
pathway," he wrote, "through a jungle
of underbrush full of infantry re-
serves. It was the strangest gypsy
colony I had seen on any front. The
men were living in galvanized sheds,
semi-cylinders about ten feet in diam-
eter, easily transportable, quickly set
up, absolutely rain-proof, and re-
sembling miniature models of the
Zeppelin hangars. Eight men could
sleep beneath each zinc dome." Al-
ready the German gunners were show-
ing effects of the strain. Their faces
"told their own story. The good
nature of these skilled Teuton me-
chanics had given place to a grim set
expression as if biting their jaws
together and nerving themselves to
fight off the physical fatigue of long
weeks of continued cannonading. In
their shirt sleeves and perspiring, with
facial muscles drawn and strained,
they reminded me of over-trained
athletes toward the end of a hard-
fought long-distance race who realized
that they must not 'crack' before
breasting the tape. They continued
working their battery automatically,
with the disciplined perfection and
finished form of veterans."
SOME WOODS OBLITERATED BY THE
FIERCE BOMBARDMENT.
In a few weeks, shells and mines and
shattering fire worked their will. The
conformations of the land itself were
shifted and changed. At the outbreak
of a bombardment, an officer's letter
says, "Immediately the German lines
became a mass of earth, bits of trees
being tossed about in the air like the
535
foam on giant waves in fact, it
looked for all the world like a heavy
sea, only the waves were of earth."
After the flood of destruction had
passed over the devoted crest of the
wooded ridge, Masefield, looking north-
ward from Mametz, described the
mutilated remnants that he beheld:
"Just visible as a few sticks upon the
sky-line, are two other woods, High
Wood, like a ghost in the distance, and
the famous and terrible Wood of
Delville." A French writer declares of
High Wood (Bois des Foureaux) that
he can think of no more melancholy
walk than a visit to the spot. A dark
stain upon the height, it can be seen
from all around, and broad bare
stretches of the plateau have to be
crossed in order to reach it from any
direction. "An immense silence," he
says, "reigns over all these solitudes."
As for the forests themselves, he calls
them ruins of woods, where only tree-
trunks are left standing wraiths of
trees and where the bordering copses
are all hacked or obliterated.
*"pHE GERMANS DRIVEN FROM THEIR
1 COMFORTABLE DUGOUTS.
We have noted how the British lines
had gained the top of the ridge along
almost its whole extent and were even
in some places reaching over the top
and down on the other side. Many of the
Germans were no longer living in their
safe and comfortable dugouts, which a
cockney private eulogized as "prime,"
a place where you could "generally
always find a bit er suthin tasty, an'
if yer strike a orficer's dugout it's
a Lord Mayor's banquit fer certin."
Instead, they were in very tentative
quarters, for the most part, on the
wrong slope of the ridge. An officer's
letter gives a mournful picture of their
condition beyond Pozieres. "The
wind-mill is over the hill. The hun-
dreds of dead bodies make the air
terrible, and there are flies in thousands
. . . We have no dugouts. We dig
a hole in the side of a shell-hole, and
lie and get rheumatism. We get
nothing to eat or drink. . . . The
ceaseless roar of the guns is driving us
mad. Many of the men are knocked
up." An indication of the weakening
536
morale of the defenders was observed
in the increasing numbers of un-
wounded prisoners taken.
To open the way for the next step
in advance, the British found it
necessary to devote especial attention
to an elaborate stronghold situated on
a spur of land south of Thiepval, so
sturdy a stronghold that it was known
as the Wunderwerk. No power of en-
gineering art had been spared in de-
veloping it. Before the valleys on
either side could be entered or a move
be made upon Courcelette and Martin-
puich, this fortification must be de-
molished. On September 14, after
two weeks of vigorous bombardment
which had laid low all above-ground
portions of the works and wrought
havoc in some of the dugouts, the
position was won by a part of Sir
Hubert Cough's Army. Those of the
garrison who remained were either
killed in a fierce hand-to-hand en-
counter or driven by the onrush of the
attacking party into the barrage that
had been dropped beyond them when
the charge began. Now that the
Wunderwerk and the adjoining trenches
had been secured, their wrecked forti-
fications were quickly turned into a
strong position adjusted to protect
the left centre of General Cough's
forces in their progress during the com-
ing offensive.
T1RITISH AND FRENCH PREPARE TO ACT
-D SIMULTANEOUSLY.
The special feature of this new attack
compared with those preceding was
that it should be a simultaneous move-
ment of all the forces, British and
French, between Thiepval and Ver-
mandovillers; whereas, previously, the
British divisions and the two bodies of
French troops had acted independently
and toward separate objectives. The
plans about to be undertaken called
for entire co-operation. From Le
Sars to Morval, the last of the original
German systems of defense was to
receive the entire attention of Sir
Henry Rawlinson's Army. In case the
right wing were successful in reaching
Morval, the attacking line on the left
would be extended to include Courcel-
ette and Martinpuich. In the section
HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
from the French positions south and
east of Combles to the Somme, General
Fayolle's Army was to continue ad-
vancing, concentrating its efforts chiefly
upon Rancourt and Fregicourt with
the object of closing in farther upon
Combles. South of the Somme, General
Micheler's Army was to advance on a
front of seven or eight miles extending
south from Barleux to beyond Ver-
mandovillers an area including a line
of strong German defenses.
The most difficult positions of those
to be won were situated on the flanks.
Combles, itself, was too well-garrisoned
and too carefully protected to make a
direct assault upon it practicable. It
covered vast underground caverns and
was shielded by strongly fortified
points in the vicinity. The French
were still aiming toward Sailly-Saillisel,
but Morval furnished a stiff obstacle,
and the approach to Morval from the
British side was a most difficult one.
Moreover, the southern road of ap-
proach to Sailly-Saillisel lay between
the menacing strongholds in the Wood
of St. Pierre Vaast and the Combles
Valley. The two Allied bodies must
work in complete harmony around
Combles. At the western extremity
of the line, Thiepval still remained a
forbidding goal, which would be con-
siderably nearer attainment if Cour-
celette and Martinpuich could be
gained.
npHE REMNANT OF THE OLD GERMAN
1 DEFENSES ATTACKED.
The old third line of the Germans,
which had now become their front line,
had been but slightly developed when
the battle began, in July. By the time
of the September operations, it was not
only completed but elaborated, while
a fourth position had been established
behind it. Courcelette, Martinpuich,
Flers, Lesboeufs, and Morval were the
strongest links in the chain forming the
old third position. The British units,
most of which were composed of
fresh troops, had been assigned definite
objectives for attack. Courcelette was
confronted by a Canadian division
which had, "under conditions of ex-
treme difficulty," relieved the Aus-
tralians there; Martinpuich was to be
surrounded by a Scottish division of
the New Army, when they had com-
pleted the capture of the switch line;
Northumbrian and London Territorial
divisions were given responsibility for
clearing High Wood; the New Zea-
landers, who were having their in-
troduction into action on the Western
front, were to advance upon Flers; two
divisions of the New Army had for
their task the rounding out of the