War Diary Entry: July 2nd 1916

Get orders in the middle of last night that we (87^th) were to take over the 36^th Divn trenches between the 29^th Divn right & the R Ancre by noon today. The 108^th Bde were holding these trenches and had been badly knocked yesterday. No one knew the trenches and everything was a little upside down, but we managed to complete the taking over by about 1pm. The KOSB (337 strong) took over the right down by the river, the SWB (200) the centre, the Borders (280) the right , the Inniskillings(200) reserve in Hamel. The Germans are giving Thiepval wood (just the S side of the river) a bad time, but on our side it has been fairly quiet. We carried out 2 bombardments on their trenches today, which brought a certain amount of reply. 

The 48^th Divn were ordered to attack the trenches in front of us at daybreak tomorrow. They are at present somewhere just behind Mailly. All their COs were round this morning reconnoitring the trenches. There is very little room for them to get their men in preparatory to an attack although the trenches are now almost clear of killed and wounded. About 11pm, just as they were all marching up the order was cancelled. Some of their battns had reached our trenches by that time and had to return to Mailly. Both sides have been heavily bombarding the Thiepval Wood area all day. The 49^th Divn have relived the 36^th in this area are still in possession of some 300 yards of the German 1^st line system, the result is both sides are very frightened of being attacked there.

The Story of the 29th Division: Quote

'The Story of the 29th Division: A record of gallant deeds' 
Captain Stair Gillon

published by Thomas Nelson (First Edition published 1925)

p.81

'...the 87^th had no better permanent success. The RIF did succeed in penetrating the first line. Their steadiness in crossing NoMan’s Land was that of troops on parade. But though on the right the trenches were crossed by portable bridges, in the main the wire proved a complete obstacle. The same applies to the SWB. The effort of the first line of assault was in vain. The reserves meanwhile suffered from the enemy’s gunfire sans coup ferir, and it was a damaged mass of troops who at 7.35 clambered over the trenches of the KOSB and Borders. With the exception of a few of the leading sections of the latter, the second wave did not reach the first. The 87^th Brigade was practically knocked out…the 87^th Brigade had the heaviest loss – over 60% of its available strength…'

This is taken from one of CHTL's 2 copies of the First Edition of the Divisional History.

War Diary Entry: July 1st 1916

The bombardment began again early & became more intense. At 7.20am the mine under Hawthorn Redoubt went up. As this mine contained 20 tons of ammonal (4 times larger than any single mine we have put up during the war) everyone cleared out of our dugouts in that part of the line. It made quite a good show, masses of earth going up in the air. The crater was immediately rushed by a party of 86th brigade.



After the explosion our Brigade began to file out of the trenches and form up in no man's land. A certain amount of machine gun fire was at once opened on them. At 730am the barrage lifted and the whole line advanced on the german 1st line, while the reserve companies moved forward out of our trenches. Very heavy machine gun fire was immediately opened on them. It looked as though a number of our people (the SWB on the left & RIF on the right of the line in the front line) were pushing through their frontline. One party of RIF were seen to place their bridge over the German 1st line, look down into the trench and then pass on. About 10 minutes later the 2 reserve battns (Borders on the left and KOSBs on the right) moved out of our 2nd & 3rd lines and advanced across the open swept by machine gun fire. About 745am flares began to go up in the Station Road. As this was the signal that the leading troops had reached their objective, things looked quite satisfactory. It was then seen that a number of Germans were still in their front line showing themselves and shooting at the men lying out in no mans land. This looked as though we had passed over their 1st & 2nd line without leaving enough men to deal with the Bosch as he emerged from his deep dugout. After waiting some time to see if the leading battns would send back a number of men to mop these up, the Newfoundland & Essex Battns were ordered forward to clear the frontline and pass through the 87th Bde. During this period it was reported that parties of the 87th had been seen fighting down by Beaumont Hamel cemetery and the station buildings. The Newfoundland battn started across the opne and was mown down by MG fire. the Essex were somewhat later, and I believe only 2 companies advanced and they met the same fate. By now no mans land was a mass of killed and wounded, and the Germans were firing at them with guns, rifles and machine guns. They also shelled our frontline very heavily with 5.9" HE shells. This trench was already packed with killed and wounded. Orders were then received that a fresh bombarment would be carried out after which the Worcesters (88th Bde) would assault the trenches about 1245pm. The bombardment started, but at the time laid down for the attack nothing happened.The Worcesters had been quite unable to get up the communication trenches into the frontline all of which were blocked with killed and wounded. The 88th bde were then told to report when the Worcesters were ready in position to attack. Fortunately shortly after the attack was cancelled, as it was bound to have met the same fate as the previous one. The afternoon was spent trying to clear the trenches of casualties and reorganise the battns (their remnants) of the 87th & 88th Brigades. It was subsequently sicovered that hardly a single man had reached the German frontline and that te best part of 6 battns were lying out casualties in no mans land. all the afternoon the Germans bombarded our front line. the 88th bde took over the front line and the 87th Bde collected their remnants in St Johns Road. this account only refers to what happened on the 87th Bde front (about 1000 yds).

During the night about 300 unwounded men of the brigade were collected, most of whom had crawled back from no mans land, including about 6 officers of about 80 who had gone over the parapet. A large number of the wounded were got in including a number of officers. Raikes (SWB) came in about 10.30pm, he had previously been reported killed. Welch (KOSBs) had fortunately not taken his hd qrs forward so was all right, all other COs and adjutants were killed or wounded.Every battn had left behind in billets 10% of their men & all officers over and above 22 per battn. With these and the survivors by morning (2nd) we had collected some 700 men. The 36th Divn on our right made no headway this side of the Ancre but S of it they went straight through the the German 3rd line. In the afternoon they were counter-attaked and driven back to the Germans 1st system of which they still hold a part. The 86th Bde got into the German line in places, I believe, but by the evening they were all in their own lines.

War Diary Entry: 30th June 1916

Bombardment does not appear to be more intense than usual, probably because the 2 extra days bombardment has reduced the daily expenditure of ammunition for the big guns. They have done very little shelling into Englebelmer the last 2 days. The bde hd qrs moved up into the deep dugout in Fethand St (the battle hd qrs) about 8pm. There was certainly very little German shelling going on at that time. After dark the 88^th Bde arrived and the crowd of officers and orderlys in our dugouts was quite impossible. We had to send some back to make room. After dark I went along to see Pierce at the Inniskillings hd qrs, they had begun a bombardment of our trenches in that part of the line, and the air was rather thick for a bit. The KOSBs and Borders marched up from Acheux Wood at dusk, and took up their places in the trenches in good time. After that the 2 battns of the 88^th Bde moved in to the 3^rd line trenches (St Johns Rd) getting in between 1 & 2 am; by that time all the trenches were packed with men and no movement was possible. The trenches were still in quite a good state of repair taking all things into consideration. We had had 3 or 4 days rain, we had been bombarding the Germans for a week, with 2 or 3 intense bombardments, to which they had replied to some extent thus preventing us doing much work to repair the trenches, very few of the bridges we had put up have been blown in.

Letter to Mother: 30th June 1916

My dear Mother

There is as usual little news. We are living like rabbits in a warren, all sitting round the entrance to our burrow. The burrow is 24 feet below ground and looks like a pine log hut from the inside. It is rather damp. There is a certain amount of noise going on all round, but it does not worry one much down below.

The weather has been beastly again lately, an awful lot of rain. Our main amusement is walking over in the fine intervals and watching the big guns firing.

Best of love to you all 

Yr loving son

Cuthbert

War Dairy Entry: 29th June 1916

Last night it was quieter, as far as we could hear in our dugout. The Dublins carried out a raid and struck the only place where the wire was not cut and so they did not get it in. The Corps are making us carry out these raids at a moment’s notice, & therefore without adequate preparation they are not a success. Both the R.I.F and SWB sent out small parties last night & they successfully removed  more of the enemy’s wire. Raikes came in from the firing line just after breakfast. He says the men are all standing up looking over the parapet watching our big shells bursting, and the Bosch never fire at them as they are all down below ground. Opposite the SWB there seem to be no Germans in their frontline, no one takes any notice of them when they remove the wire. De Lisle and Fuller were also both in this morning. The rain still keeps off.

War Diary Entry: 28th June 1916

Last night’s wire cutting and raiding parties were not a great success anywhere. The Germans seem to have expected it as all the parties were fired upon, and so came back. At 3am this morning they put about 20 shells round our headquarters, one fell in the middle of the road and knocked out some gunners, we had no casualties in the brigade. Pouring with rain this morning, the trenches will be in a filthy state; it cleared up during the afternoon. Shelling went on as usual all day, it doesn’t sound very much from here as we only hear the big guns going over, but it is pretty noisy in the firing line. 

We have cleared away nearly all their wire in the front system of trenches. They do not reply very much.  The 15” guns and 190lb trench mortars have layed Beaumont Hamel and Beaucourt level with the ground, and the trenches round Thiepval are blotted out, but the trenches in front of us are not so badly damaged yet. Went onto a conference at the divn at midday, a car came and took Williams and myself in . Afterwards I went & saw the KOSBs & Borders in Acheux Wood & got back here about 2.30pm. Got a message from the divn at about 3pm to say that operations were postponed 48 hours (I believe because of the weather) so the attack does not start tomorrow. 

Went for a walk with Cookson after tea,  we went and watched one of the 15” guns firing, you can see the shell in flight for quite a long way; then we went on to have a drink with Gillon at his prisoners camp, between here and Foxeville. Just as we were getting back the Bosch put a few 5.9” shells into Englebelmer so we hung about outside til it was over.

Editor's Note: 50 posts

Dear Blog Readers

I have so far blogged over 5000 of CHTL's words about the build-up to the Battle of the Somme. Nothing has been edited out from his letters and diary entries. The diary entries will now get longer over the crucial next few days, and look out for an 'out-of-sequence' letter to his mother on 30th June (he normally wrote on a Sunday).

I have resisted the temptation to 'editorialise' so far, thinking that it is important for readers to engage with CHTL's words and insights. 

As the next few days are so significant, I will also include other primary sources which talk about the events about to engulf CHTL and the men of the 87th Brigade.

Steve

War Diary Entry: June 27th 1916

Drizzled most of the day. Bombardment continuing. De Lisle looked in at about 10am. Last night the 36^th Divn in their raid brought back 1 officer 1 NCO and 11men prisoners. The Newfoundland Bn (88^th Brigade) carried out a raid from our trenches but failed to get through the wire. The 86^th Bde had wire-cutting patrols out, an NCO of one of these parties looked into the German frontline trench and found it fully occupied. None of these parties had any casualties. Went into Acheux in a divn car at about 12 midday to make arrangements for tonight as the 86^th Bde have 3 raids on, the Newfoundlanders one, and the Borders one; besides these there are a lot of wire cutting parties out. They are all going out between 12 and 1am, during which hour our guns will not fire on the german frontline trenches.

War Diary Entry: 26th June 1916

Borrowed a car from the ASC and Brand went in to Amiens for an outing. A few shells were fired into Englebelmer at 7am but as no one was about no damage was done. I did not know it was going on at the bottom  of our dugouts. We are rather like rabbits in a warren sitting round the entrance to our burrow. 

We discharged our gas at 1015 am. It did not excite the Bosch as there was very little shelling. I watched the shelling most of the day, it is warming up a bit , and there are big shells going over our heads from behind at much shorter intervals all day. The 36^th Divn let off their gas between 2.30 and 3.30pm. This appeared to excite the Bosch as he was shelling their line very heavily about 4pm. I hear our 190lb trench mortars are knocking Beaumont Hamel flat, but we can’t see the village from here. 

All the german wire has been pretty well knocked about. All 3 german observation balloons in front of this army were brought down in flames yesterday by our aeroplanes.They knocked in the divn northern observation post about lunchtime, killing the telephone operator, both the officers had gone underground to lunch a few seconds before. We let off a lot of smoke along the line both morning and afternoon which brought on a little extra shelling.