First day of the Somme

by Andrew Macdonald

  Nevertheless, the concerted roar of these guns was deafening.18 Lieutenant-Colonel Neil Fraser-Tytler, Royal Field Artillery (RFA), said his dugout was ‘fairly rocking with the roar of the bombardment,’ and when he was on the telephone ‘I had to smother my head and phone under the bed-bag before I could hear a word.’19 Orders had to be written, it being ‘impossible to make anyone hear the spoken word.’20 In the gun pits, artillerymen blocked their ears with cotton wool, paper plugs, or grimy palms; in the trenches, infantrymen gradually acclimatised to the din. Lieutenant Derick Capper, 8th Royal Sussex, found ‘gunfire when not directed at one definitely stimulating and morale raising to the extent that one felt almost exhilarated by it.’21 Lieutenant Lushington said the ‘tumult of Hell’ grew in force and volume until the ‘whole world seemed to rock with sound.’22 Infantrymen in the trenches and billets found no respite from the noise. ‘Practically all the time, too, the air reverberates to the drum of our cannonade,’ wrote Major James Jack, 2nd Scottish Rifles, complaining that ‘we get scarcely any sleep.’23 Private George Ashurst, 1st Lancashire Fusiliers, likened the sound to ‘ghostlike express trains hurtling through the sky.’24 Gunners and infantrymen alike struggled to communicate in the noise, the aural assault quite likely storing up hearing issues for later life.

  By day many were fascinated by the sight of massive shells labouring up their parabolic arcs.25 ‘I would stand behind the guns and watch the shells in flight; sometimes I could see where they were bursting,’ wrote Private Leonard Price, 8th Royal Sussex.26 Fraser-Tytler observed one shell climbing at a ‘very steep angle, and when about half-way on its downward path it gradually becomes invisible.’27 Rumour had it, said Lieutenant Robin Rowell, 12th Squadron, Royal Flying Corps (RFC), that one pilot saw a ‘shell come up, look at him, and turn at the top of its parabolic path to go down again and blow up the Hun. I have often wondered why the idle gunners chalk ugly faces on the noses of their shell. Now I know.’28

  The sight of shellfire slamming into the German lines was equally captivating. Second-Lieutenant Liveing said the projectiles ‘crashed into strong points and gun emplacements and hurled them skywards.’29 Fraser-Tytler thought shell blasts a ‘wonderful sight’ with their ‘smoke of every colour, black, white, grey, yellow and brown, rising often hundreds of feet in the air.’30 Midway through the bombardment he said ‘the Hun trenches have become merely one vast shell-ploughed field.’31 Lushington likened the sprays of earth and smoke thrown up by big shells to waves crashing against boulders. ‘The white chalk line of a piece of trench would appear through the billowing smoke, then a giant breaker would strike it, flinging up a cloud of black spray.’32 Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Morland, commander of X Corps, said ‘we are pounding them properly.’33 Lieutenant-General Sir Walter Congreve, VC, commander of XIII Corps, simply ‘saw & heard a great many shells.’34 Ashurst said the larger howitzer shells ‘dug deep into his [the German] line before they exploded, shaking the very ground under our feet four or five hundred yards away, lifting tons of debris into the air and leaving a gaping hole in which a house could be placed.’35 To most observers it looked as though the German positions were being transformed into a desolate moonscape of shell craters and debris.

  By night the staccato symphony continued. Captain David Kelly, Leicestershire Regiment, watched the ‘endless line of gun flashes and bursting shells.’36 Ashurst saw the ‘sky illuminated with hundreds of large and small flashes like lightning dancing on the distant ridges.’37 Rifleman Aubrey Smith, 1/5th Londons (London Rifle Brigade), remembered that night firing at Gommecourt ‘afforded such a marvellous display of flickerings and flashes in the heavens,’ which he likened to a ‘terrific thunder-storm.’38 One evening, high above the German lines, Lieutenant Cecil Lewis, 3rd Squadron, RFC, peered back across no-man’s-land: ‘Below, the gloomy earth glittered under the continual scintillation of gunfire. Right round the salient down to the Somme, where the mists backed up the ghostly effect, was this sequined veil of greenish flashes, quivering. Thousands of guns were spitting high explosive, and the invisible projectiles were screaming past us on every side.’39 Near Maricourt, Lieutenant Robert Kelly, RFA, said the muzzle flashes of French guns ‘ran up and down the far slopes of the darkening valley, and the soft barks of their 75’s mingled like the tappings on giant kettle-drums. . . . We used to stand and watch the growing heaps of empty cartridge-cases dwarf the faint figures of the gunners until dusk veiled all things save the orange flashes of the guns.’40 The sheer scale of the surreal light show was novel to many, and at least temporarily held their attention.

  German positions were pounded, pummelled, pulverised. ‘Artillery fire continues to a depth of ten kilometres [6.2 miles] behind the trenches; everything is blown to bits,’ said one German soldier.41 Unteroffizier Felix Kircher, Reserve Field Artillery Regiment 26 (RFAR26), assessed the trenches as ‘drumfire flattened,’42 as did an officer in Reserve Field Artillery Regiment 20 (RFAR20) who wrote of an ‘incalculable field of craters.’43 Kanonier Hermann Heinrich, Field Artillery Regiment 21 (FAR21), thought the shellfire a ‘travelling Hell, this whining, crashing and bursting of exploding shells.’44 Oberstleutnant Alfred Vischer, commander of Infantry Regiment 180 (IR180), said he and his men saw ‘smoke and masses of earth flying up like a shroud into the air above them and the incessant flashes of the shrapnel shells was like being in the mouth of Hell.’45 Leutnant-der-Reserve Matthaus Gerster, Reserve Infantry Regiment 119 (RIR119), described the scene:

  All around there was howling, snarling and hissing. With a sharp ringing sound, the death-dealing shells burst, spewing their leaden fragments against our line. The [shrapnel] balls fell like hail on the roofs of the half-destroyed villages, whistled through the branches of the still-green trees and beat down hard on the parched ground, whipping up small clouds of smoke and dust from the earth. Large calibre shells droned through the air like giant bumblebees, crashing, smashing and boring down into the earth. Occasionally small calibre high explosive shells broke the pattern.46

  Numerous villages, whether part of the forward defences or further back, were reduced to chaotic piles of wood and masonry. Some civilians were killed, the tearful living evacuated. Feldwebel Eiser said the resultant ‘red cloud of disintegrating brickwork hindered visibility.’47 Fahrer Otto Maute, IR180, saw Miraumont ‘burning brightly.’48 An ammunition train was blown up at Combles, while Ginchy, Guillemont, Longueval and a host of other villages were set ablaze and soon reduced to rubble.49 Scarcely a wall stood in Beaumont Hamel,50 Fricourt and surrounds were ploughed up,51 Pozières was veiled in ‘smoke and fumes.’52 At Longueval, Vizefeldwebel Weickel, Reserve Infantry Regiment 109 (RIR109), described the shellfire as a ‘most dreadful’ overture:53 ‘One of the very first shells demonstrated their destructiveness, tearing down completely, as it did, the side wall of a tall house. Staircase, rooms, furniture, stoves; all were exposed to view. Two days later it was all one great heap of ruins.’54 Once-orderly trenches became wastelands of loose earth, postcard villages collapsed into brickheaps and paddocks and roads were heavily dimpled. A pall of smoke and dust lingered over all. Gerster later wrote of the greyish veil:

  Was it chance or did the power of the endless shocks cause the dust in the air to coalesce? The clear sky soon clouded over and a light rain damped down the clouds of smoke from the exploding shells, thus making observation easier. At the same time the bombarded trenches, which were full of powdered, loose soil, were turned into muddy puddles, thus adding to the misery of the trench garrisons.55

  Clouds of lethal chlorine gas were released from cylinders in the British lines from time to time, the idea being for the wind to carry its vapours across the long, rank, yellow grass of no-man’s-land. These releases usually lasted an hour, but they were frequently stopped by erratic wind and technical problems.56 Private William Senescall, 11th Suffolks, saw one gas cloud as it floated across no-man’s-land. ‘Low down on the ground you could see tree stumps, wire stakes etc sticking thr
ough it.’57 Lieutenant-General Sir Aylmer Hunter-Weston, VIII Corps, described gas as ‘nasty, tricky stuff’ and hoped it would kill numerous Germans.58 On 27 June, III Corps said ‘gas from 1600 cylinders was liberated with smoke,’59 while gas-mask-wearing enemy soldiers watched as the ‘chlorine and phosgene plume clouds rolled in.’60 German soldiers were generally well equipped with gas masks, meaning casualties were few,61 and the gas clouds often dissipated before reaching the German gun lines.62 A German officer at Fricourt said ‘the pressure in the [British] gas cylinders is too low and the wind too weak for the men occupying the trenches to be much affected.’63 Reserve Field Artillery Regiment 28 (RFAR28) said humidity and long grass worked as natural filters on the gas clouds.64 Gas shells fired by the French 75-millimetre field guns produced negligible results.65 A German Second Army report said because of ‘technical mistakes, the enemy has so far achieved little through the use [of gas].’66 Environmental and technical factors rendered Fourth Army’s gas releases essentially useless.67

  German soldiers sat out the gas clouds and shellfire tornado in their deep dugouts. Leutnant-der-Reserve Emil Geiger, Reserve Infantry Regiment 121 (RIR121), described this period as ‘terrible days of gruelling barrage.’68 Leutnant-der-Reserve Rudolf Greisinger, IR180, remembered ‘shaken and agitated men sitting in their dark shelters trembling and wondering if their [dugout] shelter will collapse.’69 At Beaumont Hamel, Leutnant Stefan Westmann, RIR119, said the ‘ground shook under the constant impact of light and heavy shells.’70 Feldwebel Eiser felt the ‘tremendous jolt and tremor of the “moling” shells with which they were showering the village. Heavy shells howled and wobbled high overhead.’71 At Thiepval, Gefreiter Peter Kuster, RIR99, said heavy-calibre shells known as ‘marmalade buckets’ sounded ‘like an InterCity train’ and the earth trembled when they blew.72 Kassel recalled a dud shell buckled his dugout’s joists: ‘My heart seemed to stop, now comes the end. . . . But the catastrophe did not come.’ Grenadier Walter Peeck, RIR119, agreed: ‘Our dugouts were 8–10 metres [9–11 yards] deep and had been strengthened with heavy wooden beams and railroad ties. Lucky for us this provided quite adequate shelter.’73 As Leutnant-der-Reserve Gerster explained: ‘Half collapsed holes indicated where the dugouts which still remained were located. The staircases were buried beneath piles of earth, which had fallen down from above. As a result the troops had to scramble up a smooth steep slope, which offered almost no footholds, in order to climb up to daylight.’74 Whatever the appearance of the German trenches between Montauban and Gommecourt, their garrisons, as we shall soon see, were mostly safely holed up yards below.

  Some were not so lucky. Westmann repeatedly dug others ‘out of masses of blackened earth and splintered wooden beams. Often we found bodies crushed to pulp, or bunks full of suffocated soldiers.’75 He was writing of shallower dugouts, ones not designed to withstand direct hits.76 Others told of how dreaded 38-centimetre shells slammed down, mansized monsters that burrowed deep into the soft earth before detonating.77 Leutnant-der-Reserve Wilhelm Geiger, Reserve Infantry Regiment 111 (RIR111), wrote of one such strike near Fricourt: ‘All the lights went out. There were shouts in the dark and a choking cloud of explosive gases.’78 Gerster was at Beaumont Hamel:

  Their mighty explosions blew a crater three metres [3.3 yards] deep and 4–5 metres [4.4–5.5 yards] in diameter. Weaker dugouts were crushed by the force of these evil monsters. Soldiers sat in their dugouts and listened to the devilish whistling as these shells rushed down, all their senses alert and every nerve stretched to breaking point, and then the shell hit with a dull thud and exploded with a gruesome roar. . . . Weak tallow candles and acetylene flames were extinguished by the blast. The walls rocked like a boat. Black and toxic smoke crept down the stairs. Soil and rock flew high in the air, and for a long time after the explosion the pelting down of stones and clods could be heard.79

  Survivors were often left stunned, disoriented and shell-shocked.

  Fourteenth Reserve Corps suffered an estimated 2500 casualties in the period 24–30 June,80 and almost certainly no more than 3000. This from the corps’ ration strength of about 95,000 men, which suggested a casualty rate of about 2.6–3.2%. This was a small loss given the thousands of British shells raining down. The oversized RIR99 at Thiepval was worst affected, with at least 472 men killed, wounded or missing. Infantry Regiment 62 (IR62) around Montauban suffered a total of 350 casualties, while Reserve Infantry Regiment 55 (RIR55) at Gommecourt booked losses totalling just 50. RIR121 at Redan Ridge and Heidenkopf, RIR119 around Beaumont Hamel and RIR111 around Fricourt lost 147, 103 and 87 officers and men respectively. Available data suggests the other infantry regiments comprising the corps suffered losses within this broad range, but precise figures for its numerous machine-gun, pioneering, artillery, transport and ancillary units are unavailable. Although XIV Reserve Corps had lost the equivalent of one infantry regiment, the overall low casualty rate proves that the vast majority of its men were safely housed in underground dugouts.

  General-der-Infanterie Fritz von Below, commander of Second Army on the Somme, grew increasingly alarmed by the British preparations for what he expected to be an offensive of attrition. After five days’ intensive shellfire he concluded that it would continue for some time:81 ‘Because of the procedure which he has adopted, the enemy is in a position to flatten our positions and smash our dugouts, through the application of days of fire with 280 and 300 millimetre guns. This means that our infantry is suffering heavy losses day after day, whilst the enemy is able to preserve his manpower.’82 Below knew the shellfire would be followed by an infantry attack, and rightly determined that there was only so much shellfire his positions could withstand and so many casualties his units could suffer.

  BRITISH SOLDIERS GENERALLY believed the bombardment effective. Private Alfred Askew, 7th Yorkshires, said he ‘didn’t think there would be any of them [German soldiers] left alive.’83 Rifleman Frederick Conyers, 1st Rifle Brigade, was ‘quite happily singing away, thinking, I did, that it would be a walkover.’84 Private Howard Wide, 9th Devons, believed ‘there would be little opposition to reaching our objective.’85 Private Arthur Ward, 1/5th Lincolns, had ‘visions of the enemy being devastated’ and hoped this would ‘achieve a miracle, perhaps collapse of the enemy.’86 Lieutenant Philip Heath, 55th Trench Mortar Battery, said his men were ‘so confident that many of them had taken to sitting on the parapet of their trenches to watch what was going on.’87 Lieutenant Billy Goodwin, 8th York & Lancasters, was ‘most excessively cheerful’ and thought ‘Mr Fritz won’t know or dare to look for us until we’re on top of him. Everybody is feeling gloriously confident.’88 Rifleman Herbert Williams, London Rifle Brigade, said a ‘break-through was confidently expected.’89 Private Arthur England, 8th Norfolks, wrote: ‘We were told that the Great Push would be a walkover, and we believed it, for surely no one could have survived such punishment.’90 Captain John Collis-Browne, 2nd Lancashire Fusiliers, said, ‘this must be the start of the end of the war!!!’91 Most believed the infantry attack would be nothing less than an outstanding success, the epitaph to a bombardment whose scale and fury they had not seen before.92

  A much smaller number of soldiers were sceptical. Second-Lieutenant Archibald Laporte, RFA, bade a fellow officer at La Boisselle good luck: ‘You know as well as I do we shall never get across.’93 Major Alfred Gibbs, RFA, later said Thiepval was ‘inadequately bombarded by Heavy Artillery before the battle, and I expect most of those concerned thought the same. I remember having very grave misgivings as to the chances of our attack succeeding.’94 Brigadier-General Henry Croft, 68th Brigade, said during training the ‘usual joke went round that we were being “fed up for slaughter.”’95 Others were convinced that the relative quiescence of the German guns was by design rather than because they had been destroyed.96 Lieutenant Aubrey Moore, 1/5th Leicesters, doubted the ‘trenches would be full of dead Boche — a few, perhaps.’97 Ashurst noted that ‘Fritz kept strangely quiet. . . . He knew that la
ter on he would need every bit of ammunition and patiently reserved his fire.’98 Lieutenant Jocelyn Buxton, 2nd Rifle Brigade, imagined that ‘the German generals opposite are having to think furiously.’99 Rifleman Henry Barber, London Rifle Brigade, held a similar view when he said the bombardment unsurprisingly led to the ‘Germans scenting that something was brewing.’100 Fraser-Tytler wondered if ‘the Hun has any surprise devilry in store; he has been suspiciously quiet on the whole, but, of course, as the whole line is strafing he may think that it is only a bluff on this sector.’101 Major Jack was cynical about optimistic senior staff officers.102 He pondered, ‘how much of this admirable spirit will survive the German fusillade?’103 Lieutenant Capper thought the surge in artillery activity ‘must have given the Germans warning of an impending attack.’104 These soldiers all expected the attacking infantry to encounter at least some organised resistance after the impressive bombardment lifted.