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    The Battle Of The Somme - The First Phase. [Illustrated Edition]
    The Battle Of The Somme - The First Phase. [Illustrated Edition]
    The Battle Of The Somme - The First Phase. [Illustrated Edition]
    Ebook120 pages1 hour

    The Battle Of The Somme - The First Phase. [Illustrated Edition]

    By Colonel John Buchan

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    More than any other battle of the First World War, the battle of the Somme remains as the abiding memory of the appalling conditions, suffering and death of British manhood in the public consciousness. As the guns stopped their bombardment on the 1st of July, the waves of Allied troops walked toward the often still intact German lines. More than a million men in total would be killed, wounded or captured on both sides before the fighting subsided in November.

    Colonel Buchan wrote his volume study of the battle from an enviable position as a high ranking intelligence officer, having access to much of the detail from the allied side of the offensive. One of the finest British authors of the age, he also wrote copious numbers of books on the First World War, of particular note the 24 volume ‘Nelson’s” history.

    Author — Colonel Buchan, John, (Later Lord Tweedsmuir) 1875-1940.

    Text taken, whole and complete, from the edition published in London, T. Nelson and sons, ltd. 1916.

    Original Page Count – 108 pages.

    Illustrations — numerous illustrations and plates
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLucknow Books
    Release dateApr 12, 2012
    ISBN9781782890676
    The Battle Of The Somme - The First Phase. [Illustrated Edition]
    Author

    Colonel John Buchan

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      Book preview

      The Battle Of The Somme - The First Phase. [Illustrated Edition] - Colonel John Buchan

       This edition is published by PICKLE PARTNERS PUBLISHING—www.picklepartnerspublishing.com

      To join our mailing list for new titles or for issues with our books – contact@picklepartnerspublishing.com

      Text originally published in 1916 under the same title.

      © Pickle Partners Publishing 2013, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

      Publisher’s Note

      Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

      We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

      THE BATTLE

      OF THE SOMME

      FIRST PHASE

      BY

      JOHN BUCHAN

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Contents

      TABLE OF CONTENTS 2

      CHAPTER I.—PRELIMINARIES. 4

      THE GERMAN POSITION. 5

      THE BRITISH ARMIES. 11

      THE GREAT BOMBARDMENT. 14

      CHAPTER II.—THE FIRST STAGE. 24

      GOMMECOURT TO THIEPVAL. 26

      THE SOUTHERN SECTION. 28

      THE FOLLOWING DAYS. 34

      LA BOISSELLE, OVILLERS AND CONTALMAISON. 35

      THE STRUGGLE FOR THE WOODS 39

      CHAPTER III.—THE SECOND STAGE. 45

      THE CAPTURE OF THE GERMAN SECOND POSITION 46

      POZIÈRES AND GUILLEMONT. 52

      ATTACK ON JULY 15TH. 58

      THE FRENCH CARRY THE GERMAN THIRD LINE. 59

      THE STRUGGLE ON THE PLANKS. 60

      THE FALL OF GUILLEMONT AND GINCHY. 61

      CHAPTER IV. — CONCLUSION. 63

      THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME.

      CHAPTER I.—PRELIMINARIES.

      FROM Arras southward the Western battlefront leaves the coalpits and sour fields of the Artois and enters the pleasant region of Picardy. The great crook of the upper Somme and the tributary vale of the Ancre intersect a rolling tableland, dotted with little towns and furrowed by a hundred shallow chalk streams. Nowhere does the land rise higher than 500 feet, but a trivial swell—such is the nature of the landscape—may carry the eye for thirty miles. There are few detached farms, for it is a country of peasant cultivators who cluster in villages. Not a hedge breaks the long roll of cornlands, and till the higher ground is reached the lines of tall poplars flanking the great Roman highroads are the chief landmarks. At the lift of country between Somme and Ancre copses patch the slopes, and sometimes a church spire is seen above the trees from some woodland hamlet. The Somme winds in a broad valley between chalk bluffs, faithfully dogged by a canal—a curious river which strains, like the Oxus, through matted rushy isles, and is sometimes a lake and sometimes an expanse of swamp. The Ancre is such a stream as may be found in Wiltshire, with good trout in its pools. On a hot midsummer day the slopes are ablaze with yellow mustard, red poppies and blue cornflowers; and to one coming from the lush flats of Flanders, or the black country of the Pas de Calais, or the dreary levels of Champagne, or the strange melancholy Verdun hills, this land wears a habitable and cheerful air, as if remote from the oppression of war.

      The district is known as the Santerre. Some derive the name from sana terra—the healthy land; others from sarta terra—the cleared land. Some say it is sancta terra, for Peter the Hermit was a Picard, and the piety of the Crusaders enriched the place with a thousand relics and a hundred noble churches. But there are those—and they have much to say for themselves—who read the name sang terre—the bloody land, for the Picard was the Gascon of the north, and the countryside is an old cockpit of war. It was the seat of the government of Clovis and Charlemagne. It was ravaged by the Normans, and time and again by the English. There Louis NI. and Charles the Bold fought their battles; it suffered terribly in the Hundred Years' War; German and Spaniard, the pandours of Eugene and the Cossacks of Alexander marched across its fields; from the walls of Peronne the last shot was fired in the war of 1814. And in the greatest war of all it was destined to be the theatre of a struggle compared with which its ancient conflicts were like the brawls of a village fair.

      Till Midsummer in 1916 the Picardy front had shown little activity. Since that feverish September when de Castelnau had extended on the Allies' left, and Maud'huy beyond de Castelnau, in the great race for the North Sea, there had been no serious action. Just before the Battle of Verdun began the Germans made a feint south of the Somme and gained some ground at Frise and Dompierre. There had been local raids and local bombardments, but the trenches on both sides were good, and a partial advance offered few attractions to either. Amiens was miles behind one front, vital points like St. Quentin and Courtrai and La Fère were far behind the other. In that region only a very great and continuous offensive would offer any strategic results. In September, 1915, the British took over most of the line from Arras to the Somme, and on the whole they had a quiet winter in their new trenches. This long stagnation led to one result: it enabled the industrious Germans to excavate the chalk hills on which they lay into a fortress which they believed to be impregnable. Their position was naturally strong, and they strengthened it by every device which science could provide. Their High Command might look uneasily at the Aubcrs ridge and Lens and Vimy, but they had no doubts about the Albert heights.

      THE GERMAN POSITION.

      The German plan in the West, after the first offensive had been checked at the Marne and Ypres, was to hold their front with abundant guns but the bare minimum of men, and use their surplus forces to win a decision in the East. This scheme was foiled by the heroic steadfastness of Russia's retreat, which surrendered territory freely but kept her armies in being. During the winter of 1915-16 the German High Command were growing anxious. They saw that their march to the Dvina and their adventure in the

      Balkans had wholly failed to shake the resolution of their opponents. They were aware that the Allies had learned with some exactness the lesson of eighteen months of war, and that even

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